Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s camera is out of control

The most amazing thing about Pokémon Brilliant Diamond Shining pearlThis is how their cameras operate.

These remakes of 2006’s Pokémon Diamond And PearlOriginally released on Nintendo DS, the games bring back many of the stories and content from the original game while reviving the series with a unique, 3D look. These games will be available for Nintendo Switch on Friday. One of the original features that made the remake is the camera angle — but there are some changes. Although the default mode is the same, the blurring effects created by the zooming and moving camera can create confusion when exploring the world.

Original DS games had a more oblique and top-down design. Just like in older games, the camera defaults to above the player. But the developers made it even more. When you meet important characters such as Cynthia (the leader of the Elite Four), the camera can zoom in to show them in full chibi glory.

These effects can also be seen in battles where the camera moves very fast. The effect was almost identical in Pokémon Sword ShieldBut in Brilliant Diamond And Shining pearl, the battle camera constantly cuts between characters and Pokémon, rotating and zooming, in and out, on the two Pokémon and the opposing team.

The camera in battle makes for a visually interesting time — and it’s so fast that it keeps your attention. Sometimes it can feel strange. Overworld: The camera only zooms on characters faces to display their expressions. (This despite me being perfectly happy to view the conversation using the normal camera view. In the worst cases, there were points when the camera didn’t work in a cramped space — one time in a cave, it obstructed the view of the characters.

Gaussian Smoothing, which blurs certain parts of an environment, is also used in the game. Again, it’s interesting stylistically — the effect creates an experience as if you’re looking down at miniatures. Sometimes, however, I found it difficult to walk in a building without blurring my vision. This, along with jumping around during conversations and battles, caused me to get dizzy. Sometimes I had to leave my Switch on the floor.

The camera felt a bit scattered at the end. And while it wasn’t catastrophic, it did make me wish I could just turn it off periodically during long stretches of play.