• Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Snowpoint City Gym Softlock Glitch Discovered

    by on November 22, 2021 at 11:48 AM, EST

    Pokemon Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl softlock

    Players have discovered there is a risk of being softlocked in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, along with other glitches.

    Editor’s Note: While many clips of glitches online appear genuine, it should be noted the games had leaked ahead of launch. Some reports of glitches may come from emulated software. 

     

    Fans [1, 2] noticed the issue with Snowpoint City Gym- the seventh Gym in the game out of eight. The Gym puzzle involves sliding around on icy tiles, coming to a stop when on firmer ground, building up enough speed to get out of slopes, and ploughing through giant snowballs. You can find the solution to the puzzle here.

    However, the games combine both free movement (with the analog stick) and tile-based movement (with the d-pad). If a player uses the d-pad after using the analog stick, the character will snap into place in the nearest tile they could walk on.

    Depending on how players move around the Gym and where they execute certain inputs, it is possible to not gain the proper momentum as you slide down into the middle of the gym. As such, players fail to break snowballs in the middle, or ride up the slope the other side.

    Players are “trapped,” if they save their game there and then. Items like the Escape Rope, and moves like Dig and Teleport, do not help the player leave the Gym. While it seems odd to save in such a perilous situation, players who have turned off auto save may have to go back quite some time, or players assuming there must be a way out and literally saving the issue for later.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYFppn6L3gs
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhbGycYY5Gs

    Editor’s Note: While Distant Kingdom is a modder of Pokemon games, the above issue has been noted in official versions of the game.

     

    The free and fixed movement system has led to some other situations. For example, players can skip the Gym’s puzzle entirely, and ride up the slope to face Gym Leader Candice straight away.

    https://twitter.com/B_106840923/status/1461926809050640385

     

     

    Players have also discovered they can clip out of bounds, and access an event to encounter the Mythical Pokemon Shaymin. While this event is programmed into the game, players cannot currently access it. Players can also used hatched eggs to ignore NPCs who prevent them from progressing until certain events have concluded.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvR5idHAyiM

     

    This has allowed for some sequence breaking. For example, players would only be able to access the Elite Four and Champion with most Hidden Moves, unlocked via beating Gym Leaders. As such, the game does not check if the player actually has all eight gym badges.

    We have also seen unconfirmed reports that via abusing glitches, the game can be beaten with as little as two Gym Badges; or at least reaching the city of the eighth Gym.

    https://twitter.com/Lewchube/status/1461970130221649923

     

    Another issue is how following Pokemon can sometimes not be walked through, though they do vanish after pushing into them for a few seconds. In spite of the latter, this has led to claims of players being stuck in narrow areas. Nonetheless, it has led to some humorous glitches.

     

    This very writer, currently reviewing Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, has yet to encounter any of these glitches.

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    About

    Ryan was a former Niche Gamer contributor.


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