Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are coming to Nintendo Switch next month, and it seems that the remake will be making a big change from the DS original: HMs have been dropped from the game! The official Pokemon Twitter account has revealed that hidden moves like Cut and Rock Climb will now be used by wild Pokemon that are summoned through the Poketch. This means that players won’t have to teach any HMs to their Pokemon, wasting space that could be used for a more powerful attack. It’s a small quality of life improvement, but one that will be welcomed by most fans!
“You can also use your Pokétch to call on wild Pokémon to help you go places you could never reach on your own! They’ll use hidden moves like Cut to chop down trees that block your way, or Rock Climb to scale steep cliffs,” the Tweet reads.
HMs were introduced in the first generation of Pokemon games, allowing players to teach Pokemon to use moves that opened up areas of the map. While HMs like Surf could also be useful in battle, moves like Cut and Flash took up valuable move space. Each Pokemon can only know four moves, and HMs (initially) could not be deleted and replaced. Over the last few generations, Game Freak has mostly done away with HMs, replacing them instead with options that don’t take up move space. Previous Pokemon remakes like Pokemon: Let’s Go similarly dumped HMs, so fans should be happy to see that will also be the case for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
While Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will have a lot in common with its predecessor, it’s becoming increasingly evident that there will be quite a few changes, as well. It remains to be seen if those changes will make for a more enjoyable experience, but fans can find out for themselves on November 19th. In the meantime, readers can check out our previous coverage of the game right here.
Are you happy to see HMs ditched from Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl? How do you feel about the changes to the original DS games? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!