There are plenty of reasons for Pokemon fans to look forward to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The Sinnoh region seems like it's going to be getting plenty of love in the coming months between the remakes of these DS games and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which is great for fans of Gen 4 and all it has to offer. One feature making its way to the remakes that wasn't featured in the original Nintendo DS games is the ability to change the player character's outfit. While customization in the mainline Pokemon entries has come a long way from where it started, it still has a long way to go to be as inclusive as possible.
It seems like in the most recent entries in the Pokemon series, character customization has become a big priority. Ever since Pokemon X and Y, players have been able to customize their outfits by purchasing new clothing items, and Sword and Shield featured the most options available by far. That said, from what Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl appear to be offering, there aren't going to be any new inclusivity milestones reached in the remakes.
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Breaking the Mold of the Gender Binary
Although it might seem like a pretty straightforward question to some, the classic "are you a boy or a girl" question that Pokemon professors ask at the start of most games gives some people pause. Gender isn't always as straightforward as being either a "boy" or "girl," and plenty of games with character creators have begun dropping the binary question in favor of a more inclusive "pick a body type that best fits" model. While recent entries like Sword and Shield have stopped asking flat out, the games still have players choose from a list of eight different models, four boys, four girls, differentiated by skin color, allowing for more races to feel included in the games.
While that sort of racial inclusivity is definitely good, if still a little lacking in terms of hair styles, Pokemon titles still fail to recognize anyone outside of the traditional gender binaries. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl don't seem to be breaking any new ground in terms of that. Based on the quick view of the different fashion elements in the trailers, there are separate styles available to players depending on which gender they choose at the start of their playthrough, meaning that certain cosmetic content will be gated off based on the player's chosen gender. Although that has been the norm for the Pokemon series and plenty of other video game franchises in the past, there's no reason the next Pokemon game shouldn't include more inclusive options to bring more players in.
Adding more inclusivity to the games could be as simple as providing a few different body types for players to choose from when starting the game and allowing them to change it at any time either through settings or a clothing/style shop. After all, people's bodies change, and it seems odd that a detail like that is locked by a choice made at the very start of a roughly 25-hour RPG.
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Styling a Pokemon Trainer's Hair
Hair is another important part of how someone might identify themselves. Generally speaking, there are more hair options for Pokemon trainers than ever before in Sword and Shield, but they're still lacking in a few different departments. The options for hair are pretty limited for those outside of an East Asian and Caucasian range. Sword and Shield featured one braided hairstyle for each gender, but it still feels lacking when compared to the rest of the customization options. Hopefully, future Pokemon games will include even more styles for non-white, non-East Asian players to choose.
When it comes to gendered hair, the Pokemon series is also dropping the ball. Hair length/style and gender have long been associated together both in and out of gaming, but as more people have started to recognize that the two aren't always correlated, so have some gaming franchises. Plenty of in-game character creators allow for players to choose both male and female hairstyles regardless of what their character's gender is. This is a great approach to break down the arbitrary walls separating what's considered masculine and feminine, and Pokemon would do well to allow for players to choose whatever hairstyle they want regardless of gender.
Allowing Players to Truly Choose Their Clothing
Similar to hair, Pokemon gates off clothing options based on what gender the player chooses at the start of the game. As many people have pointed out, clothes are simply what one chooses to wear, and don't have any inherent gender assigned to them outside of what cultures decide. Allowing players to be able to pick from all clothing options seems like an easy way to make Pokemon even more welcoming than ever by breaking down more arbitrary walls associated with gender.
Pokemon's Future of Inclusivity
As many fans of the Pokemon series can attest to, it has a hard time with change, and it often happens incrementally. Based on the trailers for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the games seem to be sticking with a lot of the traditional Pokemon elements both good and bad, but hopefully the future of inclusivity in the franchise will change with Pokemon Legends: Arceus and whatever comes next. Although these sorts of options might seem inconsequential to some, it means a lot more to many people, and if Pokemon truly wants to achieve the mass appeal it seems to be going for, the franchise will need to implement a few changes to make its character customization more inclusive.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl release on November 19 for the Nintendo Switch.
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