Pokémon Shining Pearl

lol Game Freak didn't even make this, ICLA did. Game Freak instead made Pokemon Legends Arceus as their new Sinnoh game. GameFreak is done with straight remakes, they didn't even want to make ORAS but caved to fan demands. This exists for the same reasons as ORAS, younger generations getting older and demanding remakes, but never should've existed. Sinnoh did not need a remake, Platinum was always going to be the definitive experience.

Game Freak still has faults and their release schedule is far too rapid to give their games the AAA polish a lot of people want (hard to point at who's to blame for that), but between PLA and SV they're on the upswing for sure. The new devs directing the series now are taking things in a promising direction.

you would think Game Freak would, uh, have the funding to polish their games, but perhaps the Pokémon Company is too busy swallowing most of their profits for them to prioritize quality. it's like the games sell like hotcakes anyway, so why bother to make them good?

SV and PLA were good, they're just greatly hindered by a 3 year cycle that has been going since the 90's, in an era where new games typically take at least 4+ years to make from start to finish. I seriously doubt it's a funding thing, they have a lot of employees, but you cannot just throw money at time and buy more time.

Fair points honestly @fowlawneeshafow, still disappointing as someone who grew up on gen 4, including a remake as god-tier as hgss, but having a reskinned modern version of the game for younger fans makes sense in some way now that the dual screens are dead rip