‘Pokemon Diamond’ And ‘Pearl’ Seventh Generation Remakes Confirmed?
Recent evidence has come to light that strongly indicates the second half of Pokemon’s seventh generation will bring remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, the games initially released in North America during 2007.
Giancarloparimango11, a Youtube content creator who specializes in Pokemon-themed videos, was the first to bring the evidence to the public on a major scale, although whisperings of the theory had been present on Pokemon-related social media forums for a while.
The evidence revolves around a screenshot shown in the May 10 trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon. The screenshot depicts one of the islands of Alola, the chain-of-islands region on which Pokemon Sun and Moon is set to take place and that is to be based on Hawaii. Pokemon fans agree that, because of the shape of the island shown in the trailer and the layout of the terrain, it is meant to represent the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Perhaps the two largest giveaways that the island in the Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer is an Oahu tribute is the appearance of two major Oahu landmarks: the very large crater/volcano known as Diamond Head, and the large boat dock/shipping yard called Pearl Harbor.
You may have already noticed that the first words of those two landmark names are Diamond and Pearl, suggesting remakes of the two games are coming up. It would make sense, given that the games from Pokemon video game generations one through three have already been remade with 2004’s Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, 2009’s Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver, and 2014’s Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. It may seem a bit soon for another round of remakes (past remake releases have been separated by five years), but Pokemon has been known to be unpredictable with its video game release dates, especially since generation five.
Happy #EarthDay by the way. Happy Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Day! pic.twitter.com/dW5lCfyL7H
— Alex Irish ??? (@AlexIresq) April 22, 2016
One might think the representation of Diamond and Pearl in the Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer is just a coincidence, and it is an unreasonable stretch of the imagination to believe Pokemon was trying to send a message of any kind with such a subtle hint. Looking at Pokemon’s history with hints about upcoming games being included in trailers, though, it can be found that they love to throw in extremely subtle heads-ups.
For example, Giancarloparimango11 points out that the Pokemon centers in the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games sported a floor logo of a gold and silver pokeball. This turned out to be a hint at the next two games released in the main series, Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver.
Of course, there is no official statement from The Pokemon Company or anything of the like officially confirming the crater and harbor shown on the map are references to Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor, but, as the picture below shows, the similarity between images of the real-life landmarks and their Pokemon counterparts is almost too great to be purely a coincidence.
Assuming the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remake rumor is accurate, fans will be elated. The fourth generation Pokemon games are often said to be the most beloved ones the series has produced, and social media is already beyond hyped at the prospect of seeing the nearly decade-old gems (no pun intended) reproduced in the glorious 3D graphics that have now become the standard for Pokemon video games.
Are you excited to see Arceus, the Distortion World, Stark Mountain, and, of course, Bidoof remade in 3D? And can you spot any other landmarks in the Pokemon Sun and Moon region screenshot that correspond to actual places on Oahu?
[Image via JayWARPED/Youtube]
