Summary
- Pokemon Platinum is 15 years old tomorrow, as it released on September 13, 2008. Despite its age, it is still regarded as the best example of a sequel version in the Pokemon franchise.
- The game's positive reception highlights what fans want in a Pokemon game: diverse Pokemon, quality battles, and abundant content.
- While sequels have transitioned to DLC format, the legacy of Pokemon Platinum can still influence future generations by serving as a blueprint for desired features.
Pokemon Platinum first hit shelves in Japan on September 13th, 2008. As the follow-up version to the fourth-generation main series games Pokemon Diamond and Pearl celebrates its 15th anniversary, it's important to note that time only shines more favorably upon the game as the best example of a sequel version doing everything a sequel version should do.
In the first half of the life cycle of Pokemon games, there was a familiar release structure that involved a generation launching with two main versions like Red and Blue or Ruby and Sapphire, and following those a year or two later would be a sequel version like Yellow or Emerald. These sequel versions would often be much more refined ways to experience the generation in question with added features, bug fixes, and even new story content. Some of the sequel versions handled these things better than others, though, and many fans hold Pokemon Platinum as the undisputed king of this format and one of the greatest main series Pokemon games to this day.
Pokemon Platinum: What a Sequel Version Needs
Pokemon Platinum includes a number of major improvements over Diamond and Pearl that largely upgrade what are already solid entries to the main series titles. An increased regional Pokedex, sped-up animations, the Battle Frontier, extra Legendary Pokemon available to catch around Sinnoh, and the inclusion of the famous Reverse World that remains one of the best dungeons in the Pokemon series to this day.
The overwhelmingly positive reception to Pokemon Platinum that remains tied to its legacy should serve as a beacon for newer Pokemon games to look toward. It showcases the primary things Pokemon fans wanted and still want to see to this day in their games to make them great: solid Pokemon diversity, quality battles, and a plethora of content both within the story and after it's finished. These are things that many criticize the modern main entry titles as lacking that can't be fixed by distracting additions like an open-world layout or flashy battle gimmicks like Dynamaxing/Terastillizing.
The Case For Sequels to Return in Pokemon
After the fourth generation, sequels took a different direction with games like the fifth generation's Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 alongside Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon being the final sequel games in the seventh generation. The transition from handheld main series Pokemon games to the Nintendo Switch has foregone that format in favor of DLC additions like Sword and Shield's Isle of Armor/Crown Tundra and the upcoming Teal Mask/Indigo Disk in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. These serve similar functions as the sequel versions in the past with added story content and new features. The question is whether these are satisfactory supplements for the sequel versions of the past, or if the old format should make a return sometime in the future.
There are pros and cons to both, but ultimately, it seems as though sequel versions have rightfully become a thing of the past in the Pokemon canon. Adding similar content via DLC cuts the cost since players only need to spend the $30-$35 for just the new content rather than the full price for an entirely new game. The content coming in a DLC also allows the player to jump right into what they haven't experienced before, whereas in Pokemon Platinum, if the player had already experienced Pokemon Diamond or Pearl, they would need to go back through the entire story again to reach most of the additional content.
The format that allowed the classic that is Pokemon Platinum to come into existence is likely effectively dead, but the idea behind what went into the making of that game still very much exists in the franchise to this day. These new content additions to the latest Pokemon generations can use Pokemon Platinum as a blueprint for what fans truly want to see added into a main series game, and its legacy can continue to influence new generations through that.