As we all know, BDSP... was not a Platinum remake. At all.
A lot can be said about both the Distortion World and the Battle Frontier, but personally, besides the loss of the Battle Factory, I don't particularly care about either of those. But what if a compromise was reached?
Basically, Sigma Platinum is a hack that gets as close as Platinum as BDSP would get. Granted, Luminescent Platinum might be a lot more accurate when it comes to events and all that, but it's also a difficulty hack based on a Drayano hack.
I wanted to see what BDSP could've really been as a remake that is a double-version remake like all the others before it but with more Platinum content mixed in.
I do NOT have any information about trainers, movesets, and most importantly, EVs. We all know BDSP Cynthia could legit beat Amie-empowered teams, and I did disable both the Exp. All and Affection bonuses. This could get ugly.
Without further ado, onwards to part 1 of this run.
The intro mirroring Platinum's gives me chills.
One of the few misses of Platinum's story was taking out the search for the Red Gyarados intro. It was a nice callback to Johto, but granted, it wasn't important at all.
Watching contests, huh... Nice foreshadowing.
I suspect that's one of the changes in Sigma. Nice nod to Platinum's Cyrus encounter at Lake Verity, and I'd actually prefer to leave it like that. It foreshadows that he's already plotting on the Lake Trio without having it so on the nose like in Platinum.
But anyway, you know the drill. Rowan forgets his briefcase and...
Can't have shit in Sinnoh
It's time to get started for real! Normally, I'd pick Piplup, but I'd rather have my Water slot free to showcase some other mons. I'm not sure what team I'll actually go with in this run, so I might have a rotating party. Either way, there aren't a lot of Fire-type options, and to make things worse, Magby is exclusive to Pearl. I'm running with the Diamond version.
The trainer close-in does more than showcase the modded drip I got over the default outfit, it also shows the Starly I have no choice but to kill has good IVs. Oh well, at least it's not shiny. I wish they gave us Pokeballs for this, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense from a story perspective.
This game looks good... I really like they're not afraid to play around with the camera too. It could use some work, but since the battle areas in this game are big, unlike SwSh's, it kind of works. I'd rather get further in the game before really talking about it though, because then some bigger mons will show up and I'll be able to get a better idea of how nice the camera really is.
Can't have shit in Sinnoh
The beginning of these games are always a slog, very few Pokemon games don't mess it up. Unfortunately, the Sinnoh games aren't an exception. DP Rowan is kind of ridiculous, and Sinnoh in general doesn't have a lot of great characters tbh.
Nice Red impression, old man... I do appreciate the overworld camera shifts though, especially since unlike Gen 5, they don't make the game look like mashed pixels and barfed skittles.
The chibi artstyle doesn't bother me either tbh. It doesn't look bad, and more importantly, it allows Sinnoh to keep its map design. There's inevitably a tradeoff when 2D games are fully remade in 3D, and it's usually related to the map and level design. They could've used non-chibi models and kept the top-down view, but I guess they opted against it for the sake of visual clarity.
We're almost at the end of the tutorial, so after a trip back to Twinleaf...
Gotta rock that Platinum outfit in a run like this. Sigma Platinum allows you to switch outfits at the point the player would get the hat, but only between the DP and Plat outfits. Good change.
8k money is a LOT at the beginning of the game, especially since you get 20 free Pokeballs and 10 Potions early-on too.
The badge case confirms Fantina is NOT the 3rd Gym, which is probably the worst thing that could've happened with DP being the base, but it is what it is.
The pause screen giving tips to where to go next is pretty nice, but it's best used as a reminder of the player's progress through the story. For new players, that's a legit good reminder though.
I get a Bidoof because it's fucking Sinnoh, even if I don't need it, it still gotta be on the books.
Going to roll with Starly and Chimchar early on, but just for the sake of nostalgia and to have some bodies to throw around, I'm also getting a Shinx, and whatever mon I feel like capturing at the time just to get them on a screenshot.
Made it to Jubilife, no Looker, so getting that Quick Claw was quick. This game looks pretty sick.
Budew has always been pretty horrible, but this takes the cake. You see that moveset? These are all the moves it learns. Period. Even in DP, "Just get a Roselia" has always been the better option, here it's just laughable. However, it does have its uses.
Stun Spore is great for capturing mons and dealing with potential problems, and Worry Seed actually shows the mon's ability, which is very useful. Absorb is just too weak though, even with Growth helping it. The worst part is that it's a happiness evolution though. It's pretty unfeasible to evolve it before Eterna, and it loses Mega Drain, Leech Seed and Magical Leaf by Level 15.
Just get a Roselia from the Grand Underground. Preferably one with Extrasensory.
I sincerely don't get why they decided to just blur the shit outta this game, but fortunately, that's another thing that's fixable with the power of modding. It's not just this game either, I remember the 3DS Fire Emblem games also being blurry for no reason. It just looks horrible.
The Pokétch is handled very well in this game. Sure, there's no back button for... reasons, but it's an elegant solution to the feature, but the best is yet to come.
You poor soul...
Pearl got folded like a chair. Really, there's not a lot to talk about, Chimchar beat his Starly, and then Starly beat his Piplup. Time to get back to school.
Charge Beam Abra at that point of the game is scary, especially if you're using Piplup and Starly.
TM10 being Work Up raises an important debate.
Dear Game Freak, stop having Rock as the first Gym.
First, OG DP had Hidden Power instead of it, which could be helpful against Roark, even if it was kind of a gamble.
Platinum changing it into Return was straight up a bad decision imo for multiple reasons. It's bad early-game because it takes a while until it starts to deal real damage, so players might legit delete it or think the move is bad in general. Second, because it doesn't help at all against Roark. If you pick Chimchar, it's very common to not have it evolve in time for Roark without grinding or favoritism.
Similarly, Work Up doesn't really do a lot against Roark in particular, but I can see it potentially having its uses, especially when it comes to Piplup.
It gets worse though, but we'll continue this later. At least you get 3 of them, so there's a margin for error and it is a solid move early on.
Oh hey, an Abra!
Fuck you, you fell off anyway, Gardevoir and Gallade are better, you're trash without GSC Punches, L, Ratio.
So basically, what I'm saying is that Jubilife should sell Quick Balls instead of those trash Heal Balls. Why does Teleport have an animation this extra is beyond me. It must be to spite players trying to catch Abra.
It had always been that simple.
Rock Smash as TMs should help a lot against Roark, but...
Geez, ok. That's as failproof as it gets.
Chimchar getting this just in time for Oreburgh Mine is a blessing, because in Gen 4 it really used to struggle in that part. Between it and switch grinding giving full Exp even with the Exp. All off, it should be a lot easier to get it going even on a team like Chimchar/Starly/Shinx.
It also makes Work Up pretty pointless for it because even if you're not boosting Ember, you're still doing damage while boosting Attack with PUP. Pairing it up with Mach Punch is really strong early-game too. Chimchar would probably be S-Tier in a BDSP IGTL, but nobody wants to play vanilla because affection is a stupid mechanic.
This post is getting pretty long, so the next parts will be a lot shorter... I'm also turning on the Exp. Share since Starly and Chimchar are getting overleveled, so I might as well squeeze some extra Exp for the rest of the team.
Ok, Sigma does have the scaling mod, good to know
The camera does wild out a bit when Onix is around, but mostly when its sent out. I capture it. It's good to have a wall like that if things go sour, especially since I don't know what Roark might be running in this game. I'm mostly keeping Jupiter in mind though. And it's also because I do want to use Steelix next time I run a Gen 4 Sinnoh game.
It's cool that you can get a Low Kick Machop here, because that's a fairly guaranteed counter against Roark too. I did complain about another Rock-type first gym, but you have a lot of options to handle Roark even when picking the Fire Starter.
Bidoof can have Simple Defense Curl + Rock Smash, Budew is fairly weak but Absorb destroys mons with double weaknesses like Onix and Geodude. Paralyzing Cranidos also does wonders. You can also get Psyduck iirc. And to round it off, Machop should have no problems whatsoever...
If it wasn't a Lv. 5 mon!
It doesn't make sense, it just doesn't make sense. Why is this route filled with mons below Lv. 8? Realistically, they should be around 9-11 to be able to not only immediately contribute, but also be viable for grinding. Just a baffling design choice.
Let's rock.
Boooooooo
The first trainer almost made me believe it. Rollout is crazy on Gym 1, Rollout WITH Defense Curl is the kind of thing I'd expect out of Roark himself, not some random mook.
Then I beat both trainers, went outside and touched grass to make sure both Chimchar and Starly evolved (They were both at Lv. 13), came back and Roark...
Using one Power-Up Punch and spamming Mach Punch just shuts down his entire team like an OSHA compliance. Onix gets to actually use moves, but it doesn't have the offensive power to threaten Monferno in the slightest. Cranidos got unceremoniously OHKO'd. A bit underwhelming, but Roark deserves it for introducing the franchise to the Stealth Rock TM.
Opinions so far...
This game is buttery smooth, especially running at 60FPS. It's pretty well optimized so I expect to have a hard time going back to gen 4, even if that's uncapped as well.
The early-game doesn't really give a lot of room to breathe, so the gameplay differences aren't that noticeable yet.
I'm heading straight into the Unpopular Opinions thread though, people saying this game doesn't look good are out of pocket. The models are nice, the textures too, there are some post-processing stuff in vanilla that makes everything blurry, but if you're playing BDSP, you really might as well just mod it already. Affection is too much of a dealbreaker. Just look at this
And that's not even a noticeably pretty place, it's just some random fountain in Jubilife.
The first impressions are really nice, but you really can't play BDSP right out of the box.
A lot can be said about both the Distortion World and the Battle Frontier, but personally, besides the loss of the Battle Factory, I don't particularly care about either of those. But what if a compromise was reached?
Basically, Sigma Platinum is a hack that gets as close as Platinum as BDSP would get. Granted, Luminescent Platinum might be a lot more accurate when it comes to events and all that, but it's also a difficulty hack based on a Drayano hack.
I wanted to see what BDSP could've really been as a remake that is a double-version remake like all the others before it but with more Platinum content mixed in.
I do NOT have any information about trainers, movesets, and most importantly, EVs. We all know BDSP Cynthia could legit beat Amie-empowered teams, and I did disable both the Exp. All and Affection bonuses. This could get ugly.
Without further ado, onwards to part 1 of this run.
The intro mirroring Platinum's gives me chills.
One of the few misses of Platinum's story was taking out the search for the Red Gyarados intro. It was a nice callback to Johto, but granted, it wasn't important at all.
Watching contests, huh... Nice foreshadowing.
I suspect that's one of the changes in Sigma. Nice nod to Platinum's Cyrus encounter at Lake Verity, and I'd actually prefer to leave it like that. It foreshadows that he's already plotting on the Lake Trio without having it so on the nose like in Platinum.
But anyway, you know the drill. Rowan forgets his briefcase and...
Can't have shit in Sinnoh
It's time to get started for real! Normally, I'd pick Piplup, but I'd rather have my Water slot free to showcase some other mons. I'm not sure what team I'll actually go with in this run, so I might have a rotating party. Either way, there aren't a lot of Fire-type options, and to make things worse, Magby is exclusive to Pearl. I'm running with the Diamond version.
The trainer close-in does more than showcase the modded drip I got over the default outfit, it also shows the Starly I have no choice but to kill has good IVs. Oh well, at least it's not shiny. I wish they gave us Pokeballs for this, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense from a story perspective.
This game looks good... I really like they're not afraid to play around with the camera too. It could use some work, but since the battle areas in this game are big, unlike SwSh's, it kind of works. I'd rather get further in the game before really talking about it though, because then some bigger mons will show up and I'll be able to get a better idea of how nice the camera really is.
Can't have shit in Sinnoh
The beginning of these games are always a slog, very few Pokemon games don't mess it up. Unfortunately, the Sinnoh games aren't an exception. DP Rowan is kind of ridiculous, and Sinnoh in general doesn't have a lot of great characters tbh.
Nice Red impression, old man... I do appreciate the overworld camera shifts though, especially since unlike Gen 5, they don't make the game look like mashed pixels and barfed skittles.
The chibi artstyle doesn't bother me either tbh. It doesn't look bad, and more importantly, it allows Sinnoh to keep its map design. There's inevitably a tradeoff when 2D games are fully remade in 3D, and it's usually related to the map and level design. They could've used non-chibi models and kept the top-down view, but I guess they opted against it for the sake of visual clarity.
We're almost at the end of the tutorial, so after a trip back to Twinleaf...
Gotta rock that Platinum outfit in a run like this. Sigma Platinum allows you to switch outfits at the point the player would get the hat, but only between the DP and Plat outfits. Good change.
8k money is a LOT at the beginning of the game, especially since you get 20 free Pokeballs and 10 Potions early-on too.
The badge case confirms Fantina is NOT the 3rd Gym, which is probably the worst thing that could've happened with DP being the base, but it is what it is.
The pause screen giving tips to where to go next is pretty nice, but it's best used as a reminder of the player's progress through the story. For new players, that's a legit good reminder though.
I get a Bidoof because it's fucking Sinnoh, even if I don't need it, it still gotta be on the books.
Going to roll with Starly and Chimchar early on, but just for the sake of nostalgia and to have some bodies to throw around, I'm also getting a Shinx, and whatever mon I feel like capturing at the time just to get them on a screenshot.
Made it to Jubilife, no Looker, so getting that Quick Claw was quick. This game looks pretty sick.
Budew has always been pretty horrible, but this takes the cake. You see that moveset? These are all the moves it learns. Period. Even in DP, "Just get a Roselia" has always been the better option, here it's just laughable. However, it does have its uses.
Stun Spore is great for capturing mons and dealing with potential problems, and Worry Seed actually shows the mon's ability, which is very useful. Absorb is just too weak though, even with Growth helping it. The worst part is that it's a happiness evolution though. It's pretty unfeasible to evolve it before Eterna, and it loses Mega Drain, Leech Seed and Magical Leaf by Level 15.
Just get a Roselia from the Grand Underground. Preferably one with Extrasensory.
I sincerely don't get why they decided to just blur the shit outta this game, but fortunately, that's another thing that's fixable with the power of modding. It's not just this game either, I remember the 3DS Fire Emblem games also being blurry for no reason. It just looks horrible.
The Pokétch is handled very well in this game. Sure, there's no back button for... reasons, but it's an elegant solution to the feature, but the best is yet to come.
You poor soul...
Pearl got folded like a chair. Really, there's not a lot to talk about, Chimchar beat his Starly, and then Starly beat his Piplup. Time to get back to school.
Charge Beam Abra at that point of the game is scary, especially if you're using Piplup and Starly.
TM10 being Work Up raises an important debate.
Dear Game Freak, stop having Rock as the first Gym.
First, OG DP had Hidden Power instead of it, which could be helpful against Roark, even if it was kind of a gamble.
Platinum changing it into Return was straight up a bad decision imo for multiple reasons. It's bad early-game because it takes a while until it starts to deal real damage, so players might legit delete it or think the move is bad in general. Second, because it doesn't help at all against Roark. If you pick Chimchar, it's very common to not have it evolve in time for Roark without grinding or favoritism.
Similarly, Work Up doesn't really do a lot against Roark in particular, but I can see it potentially having its uses, especially when it comes to Piplup.
It gets worse though, but we'll continue this later. At least you get 3 of them, so there's a margin for error and it is a solid move early on.
Oh hey, an Abra!
Fuck you, you fell off anyway, Gardevoir and Gallade are better, you're trash without GSC Punches, L, Ratio.
So basically, what I'm saying is that Jubilife should sell Quick Balls instead of those trash Heal Balls. Why does Teleport have an animation this extra is beyond me. It must be to spite players trying to catch Abra.
It had always been that simple.
Rock Smash as TMs should help a lot against Roark, but...
Geez, ok. That's as failproof as it gets.
Chimchar getting this just in time for Oreburgh Mine is a blessing, because in Gen 4 it really used to struggle in that part. Between it and switch grinding giving full Exp even with the Exp. All off, it should be a lot easier to get it going even on a team like Chimchar/Starly/Shinx.
It also makes Work Up pretty pointless for it because even if you're not boosting Ember, you're still doing damage while boosting Attack with PUP. Pairing it up with Mach Punch is really strong early-game too. Chimchar would probably be S-Tier in a BDSP IGTL, but nobody wants to play vanilla because affection is a stupid mechanic.
This post is getting pretty long, so the next parts will be a lot shorter... I'm also turning on the Exp. Share since Starly and Chimchar are getting overleveled, so I might as well squeeze some extra Exp for the rest of the team.
Ok, Sigma does have the scaling mod, good to know
The camera does wild out a bit when Onix is around, but mostly when its sent out. I capture it. It's good to have a wall like that if things go sour, especially since I don't know what Roark might be running in this game. I'm mostly keeping Jupiter in mind though. And it's also because I do want to use Steelix next time I run a Gen 4 Sinnoh game.
It's cool that you can get a Low Kick Machop here, because that's a fairly guaranteed counter against Roark too. I did complain about another Rock-type first gym, but you have a lot of options to handle Roark even when picking the Fire Starter.
Bidoof can have Simple Defense Curl + Rock Smash, Budew is fairly weak but Absorb destroys mons with double weaknesses like Onix and Geodude. Paralyzing Cranidos also does wonders. You can also get Psyduck iirc. And to round it off, Machop should have no problems whatsoever...
If it wasn't a Lv. 5 mon!
It doesn't make sense, it just doesn't make sense. Why is this route filled with mons below Lv. 8? Realistically, they should be around 9-11 to be able to not only immediately contribute, but also be viable for grinding. Just a baffling design choice.
Let's rock.
Boooooooo
The first trainer almost made me believe it. Rollout is crazy on Gym 1, Rollout WITH Defense Curl is the kind of thing I'd expect out of Roark himself, not some random mook.
Then I beat both trainers, went outside and touched grass to make sure both Chimchar and Starly evolved (They were both at Lv. 13), came back and Roark...
Using one Power-Up Punch and spamming Mach Punch just shuts down his entire team like an OSHA compliance. Onix gets to actually use moves, but it doesn't have the offensive power to threaten Monferno in the slightest. Cranidos got unceremoniously OHKO'd. A bit underwhelming, but Roark deserves it for introducing the franchise to the Stealth Rock TM.
Opinions so far...
This game is buttery smooth, especially running at 60FPS. It's pretty well optimized so I expect to have a hard time going back to gen 4, even if that's uncapped as well.
The early-game doesn't really give a lot of room to breathe, so the gameplay differences aren't that noticeable yet.
I'm heading straight into the Unpopular Opinions thread though, people saying this game doesn't look good are out of pocket. The models are nice, the textures too, there are some post-processing stuff in vanilla that makes everything blurry, but if you're playing BDSP, you really might as well just mod it already. Affection is too much of a dealbreaker. Just look at this
And that's not even a noticeably pretty place, it's just some random fountain in Jubilife.
The first impressions are really nice, but you really can't play BDSP right out of the box.
)
