Game Review: Pokémon Platinum

The fourth generation of Pokémon on the Nintendo DS was the source of many, many hours of entertainment for me when I was a child.  I first got my hooks into the world of Pokémon through the third generation with a Game Boy Advance and a copy of Pokémon Emerald I would play over and over religiously.  When the Nintendo DS was announced, it wasn’t long before Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced the first of their mainline games to feature on the console.  Released between 2006 and 2007, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were instant successes, redefining the series for a whole new generation with a range of features. With the strong start to their time on the newest portable console, The Pokémon Company would follow a similar approach to their prior games Ruby and Sapphire and release a 3rd variation to the Diamond and Pearl selection titled Pokémon Platinum. This 3rd entry like Emerald that came before, sought to tweak and refine many aspects of the game and put focus on a new mascot Pokémon.  It’s been well over 10 years since I picked up and played Pokémon Platinum so let’s find out if the game’s legacy still stands strong to this day, shall we? 

Pokémon Platinum was developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company in collaboration with Nintendo.  It was released on the Nintendo DS portable console in late 2008 in Japan and early 2009 for western territories.  It follows a lot of the same core formula found in all prior mainline games in the series.  Your player character navigates a vast region with different environmental biomes as they capture unique creatures called Pokémon and train them up to battle against other trainers and eventually take on the Pokémon League and face its champion.  Alongside this goal is an added narrative tied around the game’s respective mascot legendary Pokémon. As mentioned above, Platinum was designed to be a third variation of the mainline Diamond and Pearl series and with it came an array of new features and improvements.  As of today, Pokémon Platinum holds a fairly strong critical aggregate rating of 83 on MetaCritic with sales last being recorded at around 7.06 million in 2010. It’s worth outlining that Platinum often comes up in conversation when people are discussing their all-time favorite entries in the series, mine included.  There’s a true legacy associated to this title and it earns every single aspect of it in my opinion.

The plot of Pokémon Platinum takes place in the northern region of Sinnoh, a region divided by the immense Mount Coronet. A blistering cold has layered over the region during the events of the game and thus the region tackles with harsh snows that blow down from the northern territories.  Your player character is a new trainer who sets out on their journey with their headstrong friend and rival Barry as you both seek to build a team of Pokémon to battle and beat the Pokémon league. On your path to becoming the region’s champion, you’ll come across the nefarious Team Galactic, led by the scarily impassive Cyrus. It soon becomes apparent that Team Galactic is out on an evil objective to bring forth and capture the legendary Pokémon of time and space, Dialga and Palkia.  With the power of these legendary creatures, Cyrus and Team Galactic can enact their will to create a new world absent of spirit and rule over it. Unknown to the evil team however, there is one more legendary Pokémon tied to the will of both Dialga and Palkia, and its power and rage are equal in measure. By seeking to bring forth these Pokémon, the shadow of Giratina will come forth from the distortion world with dangerous ramifications.

It goes without saying that Pokémon Platinum is the best narrative of all the prior generations leading up to it. Obviously a lot of the definition was already established in Diamond and Pearl, but the inclusion of Giratina as a key character in the plot for Platinum, along with some additional improvements to the pacing of the narrative really go to showcase this game’s amazing plot.  Cyrus and Team Galactic are genuinely the most dangerous evil team we’ve faced in comparison to Team Rocket and Team Magma/Aqua respectively. Cyrus’s aspirations for a new world and his disregard for the current one is genuinely scary and the capabilities of his team and what they do to enact their dastardly plan cannot be overstated.  There are some legitimate terrorist-like actions they commit throughout the course of the game to progress their plans.  This helps give them a solid weight and credibility behind their threat to the region and its inhabitants and in turn motivates you to try and stop them.  The way their plan brings forth the plotline tied to the legendary Pokémon Giratina is also wonderfully done.  Giratina’s presence in the story is scarily enforced from the minute it appears on screen.  These are all wonderful variations made upon an already amazing story from the original games, but it’s well thought out and constructed to make your presence in this grand narrative feel integral and that’s fantastic.

The gameplay behind Pokémon Platinum reflects the strong foundation behind all of the generation IV improvements.  Like all prior games, the main objective is to catch any and all Pokémon you desire and build a robust and varied team to take on other trainers and their Pokémon.  You’ll start out catching low-level creatures but as the course of the game progresses and you train and level them up, they’ll become stronger and evolve into different forms.  With over 18 different types, the range of Pokémon to capture and train is still to this day the biggest selling point behind these games, and Platinum reinforces this by adjusting the capture pool to be the most encompassing, you honestly get spoiled for choice really quickly in this game. Accompanying the huge range of Pokémon is the battle system improvements which split physical and special attack and defense.  This gives you more cause to thing about the best way to train your Pokémon and what moves you should teach them, all around it’s a fantastic improvement to make battles way more strategic compared to prior generations,

Let’s discuss the other end of the gameplay though and that’s exploration.  As mentioned, the Sinnoh region is vast and varied in terms of natural biomes. One thing I really like about the design of the Sinnoh region is everything is tailored around Mount Coronet.  It’s a central pillar not just to the story but to the world in itself. Routes and cities are in close proximity to it and you will find yourself visiting different areas within it over the course of the game.  One thing that makes exploring these environments notably tedious however is again, the forced inclusion of hidden move obstacles.  I think I’ve gone on enough about this issue as it’s stemmed from all prior games, but it’s just worth outlining that there’s nothing more annoying that being unable to explore an area fully or progress further because you don’t have a particular Pokémon who knows this move.  What’s additionally annoying is you have to force your Pokémon to give up a key move slot which I think is anti-choice which goes against everything the remainder of the game is trying to encourage.  Despite this though, exploring the wider terrain of Sinnoh was a treat in itself just down to how varied and distinct it is, it’s one of the more memorable regions in the series in my opinion.

Despite being bound to what is now considered dated hardware, it has to be said that Pokémon Platinum still holds up from a visual end.  It’s clear Game Freak knew how to utilize the engine and technology to really reflect the beauty of Sinnoh and it’s Pokémon.  Each city and route is rendered with a lot of detail and color and there’s a sense of depth and scale with how your character inhabits each location.  The animation and designs behind trainers and Pokémon also have a nice added flair that makes this feel like a considerably more animated game compared to the prior entries. On the musical front, the soundtrack is incredibly underrated in my opinion. Hitomi Sato, Satoshi Nohara, Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose deliver a soundtrack which is equal parts tranquil and exhilarating. Some of my favorite tracks are Verity Lakefront, Galactic Leader Cyrus, Eterna City and League Champion Cynthia.

I’m glad I ended my time with the generation IV games with Pokémon Platinum.  I know many people tout HeartGold and SoulSilver as the very best of this generation but I’m inclined to disagree.  Pokémon Platinum, like Emerald before it, is a 3rd entry variation which chooses to improve on the very best aspects of the main line entries.  It’s a game which produces one of the very best Pokémon narratives to this date and its level of choice and challenge make the game a truly phenomenal experience.  It’s a robust package that more than earns the legacy that lays behind it and is easily one of my top Pokémon games to this very day and date.