“Pokémon Shining Pearl” is a faithful remake of the old game “Pokémon Pearl.” Although, unlike the older one, this remake gives Pokémon fans a bit more flavor and variety. With breathtaking graphics and new and revamped features, this game is sure to either give players a nostalgic feeling or bring players to a whole new region like never before.

 Just like the older game, Team Galactic returns to stir some trouble for the player while on their journey. The story is pretty much the same as the old games, but with the new visuals, it is almost a different experience altogether. It does a good job at giving a new experience with an old region. 

Another thing that I think is great about the game is that the character customization is pretty good. The older games did not have this feature because at the time Pokémon did not have it in any of their games. Now almost every new upcoming Pokémon game has or will have character customization. This makes the game feel more personal and shows us that the developers are caring as a whole. It wanted to give older fans a nostalgic feeling and also give new players a new experience.

Though this game is great, it still has its flaws. The game does lack pacing. Any player can easily run through this game. Some players are even getting records speedrunning the game. The fastest speedrun for the game was from a Westerner, coming to 17 minutes and 17 seconds. This is a problem considering after beating the main story, there is only so much players can do. This is called the post-game. After beating the main story, Players are given things to do to keep playing. This game does a half-decent job at doing this by giving the basic Pokémon post-game gameplay, with also some new side quests and achievements.

With that being said, it is still a fantastic game that had a lot of love and care put into it. I give this game a 7 out of 10.