Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Should Give More Attention to Ally NPCs

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will feature the return of ally NPCs who battle alongside players, and should give them more time.

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There are a lot of features that made the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl unique when they debuted on the Nintendo DS in 2006. They were the first Pokemon games to include fully fleshed-out online components such as the Global Trade Station, and the DS touch screen led to Diamond and Pearl’s Poketch and other quality-of-life mechanics like shining one’s Gym badges. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will lose some of these features by nature of releasing on the Nintendo Switch in 2021, but the ILCA-developed remakes are still aiming to be as true to the originals as possible.

The Sinnoh region in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will largely be the same beyond its graphical updates and toy-like overworld design, which means the non-playable characters (NPCs) that people encounter throughout should be the same as well. Every Pokemon game has a healthy roster of rivals, Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and more, but Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and their complete third version Platinum also had a set of five special ally trainers.

Dubbed the “Stat Trainers” by fans, according to Bulbapedia, these allies appear in five different parts of the game to help players explore the Pokemon equivalent of dungeons in most RPGs – areas like caves and forests. This name relates to their Pokemon each focusing on a different stat type, but beyond this the characters don’t get a lot of development. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have the opportunity to change that, and the games should take that chance.

Diamond and Pearl’s Limited-Time Allies

The first Stat Trainer players encounter in Diamond and Pearl is Cheryl, who is waiting at the entrance of Eterna Forest to the north of Floaroma Town. Her partner Pokemon is Chansey, meaning her statistical focus is HP – both due to Chansey’s large health pool and because it knows moves such as Soft-Boiled that can heal either ally. While double battles were first introduced in Generation 3 and showcased by Mossdeep Gym Leaders Tate and Liza, the Generation 4 Stat Trainers were among the first NPCs to join players in multi battles.

That being said, Cheryl is technically the only character in this group that players are required to travel alongside. Each of the remaining characters also provide similar benefits, from fighting with the player to fully healing their Pokemon after each battle, but they appear in areas that are optional to visit. For example, Mira is the most out-of-the-way Stat Trainer in Wayward Cave; an area obscured underneath the Cycling Road and best known for being the place Gible can be caught. She uses a Kadabra and specializes in Special Attack.

The remaining three are found in more important areas that generally confer some benefit. Marley, partnered with a Speed-focused Arcanine, is found in an off-shoot of Victory Road that players can visit after defeating Cynthia in order to find the Mythical Pokemon Shaymin with an event item. Buck, partnered with a defensive Claydol, is found in Stark Mountain where players can find Heatran and take on Team Galactic in Platinum’s postgame. Finally Riley, partnered with a physical Attack-based Lucario, is found training on Iron Island. By going through the island alongside him, players can receive a Riolu egg, letting them hatch and train a potential Lucario of their own.

Joining the player in multi battles is these five trainers’ main claim to fame, but they also have a little more to do outside of that. All of them can appear as ally NPCs for multi battles in the Battle Tower facility, both in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum as well as HeartGold and SoulSilver. In Pokemon Platinum, they can be challenged at the Battleground facility owned by Buck in Sinnoh’s Survival Area. This is also where players are able to partake in Gym Leader rematches once a day.

The Stat Trainers’ Legacies

Like most characters in mainline Pokemon games, these ally NPCs also appear in Pokemon’s manga and anime adaptations. Cheryl and Marley are also in DeNA’s mobile game Pokemon Masters EX with support skills focused on healing and Speed buffs, respectively. The other three have yet to appear in Masters as of this writing, though it could also be argued that Riley bears a striking similarity to Sir Aaron from the film Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

With all of these appearances in mind, it’s clear the Stat Trainers are considered a major part of the Sinnoh region cast. Yet, unlike certain Gym Leaders or trainers like Champion Cynthia, none of them have re-appeared enough to have a greater depth of characterization. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl could potentially fix this by spending more time with these characters outside of their initial encounters, or just giving them more unique dialogue.

It’s unlikely this will happen given these remakes’ apparent attempt to be more faithful to their source materials. By contrast, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the 3DS were almost re-imaginings of the original Hoenn adventures rather than remakes. The idea of parallel universes was baked into their plot via the postgame Delta Episode, and this freedom let developers introduce new characters like Coordinator Lisia and Lorekeeper Zinnia to serve as representatives of various features.

Cheryl, Mina, Marley, Buck, and Riley could conceivably serve a similar role in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl if the games experiment with them. Buck has the most character thanks to his involvement with the Battleground facility, but it would be just as easy to go one step further with characters like Cheryl. She only explores Eterna Forest in the video games, but can also be seen wandering the haunted Old Chateau in the miniseries Pokemon Generations. It’s ultimately up to ILCA and Game Freak to decide what they want to do, but either way it will be worth watching these five allies back in action on the Switch.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will release on November 19, 2021, for Nintendo Switch.

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