Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions: Difference between revisions

This article is about the Generation IV games. For other uses, see Diamond and Pearl.

Pokémon Diamond Version ポケットモンスター ダイヤモンド
Pokémon Diamond Version's boxart, featuring Dialga
Pokémon Pearl Version ポケットモンスター パール
Pokémon Pearl Version's boxart, featuring Palkia
Basic info
Platform:	Nintendo DS
Category:	RPG
Players:	1-4 players simultaneous
Connectivity:	DS Wireless, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, dual-slot mode
Developer:	Game Freak
Publisher:	Nintendo
Part of:	Generation IV core series
Ratings
CERO:	A
ESRB:	E
ACB:	PG
OFLC:	PG
PEGI:	3
GRAC:	ALL
GSRR:	N/A
Release dates
Japan:	September 28, 2006[1]
North America:	April 22, 2007[2]
Australia:	June 21, 2007[3]
Europe:	July 27, 2007[4]
South Korea:	February 14, 2008[5]
Hong Kong:	N/A
Taiwan:	September 28, 2006
Websites
Japanese:	Pokémon.co.jp Nintendo.co.jp
English:	Pokémon.com (US) Pokémon.com (UK) Nintendo.com (Diamond) Nintendo.com (Pearl) Nintendo-europe.com Nintendo.co.uk (Diamond) Nintendo.co.uk (Pearl)
Japanese boxart Boxart of Pocket Monsters Diamond Boxart of Pocket Monsters Pearl

Bulbanews has multiple articles related to this subject:

Articles relating to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions

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Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Pokémon Diamond Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスターダイヤモンド Pocket Monsters Diamond) and Pokémon Pearl Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスターパール Pocket Monsters Pearl) are Nintendo DS games that are the first core series Pokémon games of Generation IV. The games were released in Japan on September 28, 2006, in North America on April 22, 2007, in Australia on June 21, 2007, and in Europe on July 27, 2007. They take place in the Sinnoh region.

They were followed by Pokémon Platinum, an enhanced version of these games.

Plot

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

When the game begins, the player watches a newscast about a sighting of a red Gyarados in Johto's Lake of Rage. The player then heads to their best friend Barry's house and heads to Lake Verity with him to search for Legendary Pokémon. When they arrive, they notice Professor Rowan and his assistant (Lucas or Dawn, depending on the player's gender) discussing the professor's work and his search for something in the lake. The pair notice the player and hurry off, leaving behind a briefcase. As Barry approaches the briefcase, two wild Starly attack. The player and Barry open the briefcase, which contains three Pokémon they must choose from to fight off the attacking Pokémon. Barry, who later becomes the rival, takes the Pokémon that has a type advantage over the player's choice. After the battle, the professor's assistant will briefly appear and comment that the Pokémon have been used before exiting with the briefcase. The player and Barry return to Twinleaf Town. Back in Twinleaf Town the player's mother gives them a pair of Running Shoes before the player leaves for Sandgem Town. When the player meets Professor Rowan in Sandgem Town, the professor gives the player the Pokémon chosen at the lake and a Pokédex. The player then sets off to explore Sinnoh and defeat Gym Leaders in order to advance further in the plot, challenge the Elite Four, and become the Champion of Sinnoh.

During the course of the game, there are many conflicts with the evil Team Galactic and its leader, Cyrus. When the power of Dialga^D or Palkia^P, summoned by Cyrus, begins to overwhelm Sinnoh, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf appear and negate the power flow, and the player is then forced into a battle with the Legendary Pokémon.

After the player defeats the Elite Four, there are further activities to pursue. These mainly concern the capture of previously unavailable Pokémon, extra features such as the Poké Radar, exploration of previously inaccessible places such as the Fight, Survival, and Resort Areas and the perfection of battle skills in the Battle Tower.

Blurb

Welcome to the next generation of Pokémon!
As a rookie Pokémon Trainer, you will need to catch, train and battle Pokémon on your journey to become the Pokémon League Champion. You will face many challenges along the way, as you search for the Pokémon that rules time or space in Pokémon Diamond Version or Pokémon Pearl Version.

• Discover more than 100 new Pokémon in the Sinnoh region!
• Meet goals and earn the ability to import Pokémon from your GBA versions!
• Battle and trade with your friends around the world using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection!
• Watch as day turns to night with the return of the real-time clock feature!

Features

The day-night system first appearing in Generation II returns, with the same three time periods, but better transitioning between them. A new multifunction device called the Pokétch, short for Pokémon Watch, is also introduced. The regional Professor's name is Professor Rowan, after a tree like the others, and he allows the player and their rival to keep the starter Pokémon they used against attacking wild Pokémon at the beginning of the game.

A new battle system is used for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. In this new battle system, attacks are declared either physical or special by how the attack itself operates, i.e. whether the attack touches the enemy or not, instead of the attack type, as was previously the case. For example, ThunderPunch is now physical and Hyper Beam is now special. This was initially highly controversial with fans of the series, as it was considered to "waste" some of the Pokémon that were more powerful in Generation III, like Blaziken and Sceptile, though it now allows for a more versatile set of moves to be viable for these Pokémon.

Though it was reported initially that the games would feature Dark/Psychic/Fighting starters, this is not the case. The games retain the starters in the type trio of previous generations, Grass/Fire/Water, this time being Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup, respectively.

Wi-Fi

The DS's native support for Wi-Fi is employed, allowing players to trade, battle and communicate using "voice chat" online. This feature is no longer officially supported as of May 20, 2014. However, there are now fanmade custom servers which act as a replacement for the discontinued online features of these games. Kaeru WFC and Wiimmfi run the servers and DNS proxies necessary to access it, so by simply changing the Internet settings on your Nintendo DS, you can access online play again.

GTS

The Global Trade System or GTS is introduced, allowing Trainers to search for any Pokémon they want, or put up one of their own Pokémon for trade for any Pokémon. Players of other games can search for the Pokémon that others have put onto the GTS. This feature is no longer officially supported as of May 20, 2014. However, there are now fanmade custom servers which act as a replacement for the discontinued online features of these games, including the Poké Classic Network’s GTS. Kaeru WFC and Wiimmfi run the servers and DNS proxies necessary to access it, so by simply changing the Internet settings on your Nintendo DS, you can access online play again.

Contests

Main article: Pokémon Super Contest

In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, a significant amount of changes have been made to the Pokémon Contests introduced in Generation III, now known as Pokémon Super Contests.

Instead of making Pokéblocks with Berries, Berry-flavored muffins called Poffins are made. This is done in Hearthome City, though not within the Super Contest Hall, instead it is done at the Poffin House. Using the Nintendo DS's stylus pen, players must stir the Poffin mixture as directed by arrows that appear. Before the player enters their first Super Contest, Jordan gives the player a Mild Poffin that improves all five condition stats.

The first round, known as the Visual Competition, is similar to the first round in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, but instead of relying solely on condition stats, Pokémon must be dressed up using Accessories with the stylus within a time limit. Each particular Contest will require different Accessories, and higher ranks may require more to be put on the Pokémon.

The second round is the Dance Competition, using buttons on the touch screen to either perform a dance that the others will find hard to mimic (if the player's Pokémon is the lead dancer) or to copy the lead Pokémon's dance moves. Each Pokémon gets a turn at being the leader, and the leader must try to dance in time with the music, and do the background dancers. The A, B, X, and Y buttons also work.

The third round is very similar to the appeals round in Generation III, and the main difference is that there are three Contest Judges and only four turns to appeal, rather than one judge and five turns to appeal. A Pokémon will get more points if it is the only Pokémon to perform for a particular judge, less if another one appeals for that judge and so on. The crowd system is still in place, but this time, each judge has a different meter, making it both potentially risky and potentially rewarding to appeal to a judge that all of the other Pokémon are appealing to. In addition, Pokémon will receive bonus points for appeals regardless of the impression on the judge, and points are not added simply for raising a judge's "voltage."

Gyms

As is always the case, there are eight new Gyms in Sinnoh, each with their own type affiliation. The new Gym Leaders are Roark (Rock), Gardenia (Grass), Maylene (Fighting), Crasher Wake (Water), Fantina (Ghost), Byron (Steel), Candice (Ice) and Volkner (Electric).

Elite Four

The new Elite Four is located at the Pokémon League. The Elite Trainers are Aaron (Bug), Bertha (Ground), Flint (Fire) and Lucian (Psychic); the Champion is Cynthia, who has Pokémon of multiple types.

New Pokémon

See List of Pokémon by Sinnoh Pokédex number and List of Pokémon by National Pokédex number

As the first Generation IV games, Diamond and Pearl were the first sightings of 107 new Pokémon, bringing the total amount to 493.

The new Pokémon began being unveiled in 2004, with the release of Destiny Deoxys in Japan, where Munchlax was revealed.

Fourth-generation Pokémon continued being unveiled in 2005, with the Japanese release of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. The movie featured Lucario, Bonsly, Mime Jr. and Weavile.

2006 was crunch time for the fourth generation. The ninth movie, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, featured Manaphy, Mantyke, Buizel and Chatot, and Dialga and Palkia were soon confirmed to be on the two games' boxart. On September 27, all 107 of the new Pokémon's menu icons were revealed on Filb.de.

During the week that followed the games' Japanese release, Serebii.net featured a "Discovery Trench" that revealed the names and stats of many of the previously-unknown Pokémon to the general public.

Game-exclusive Pokémon

The following Pokémon are only obtainable in one game of this pair. In order to obtain Pokémon exclusive to the other game of this pair, they must be traded either from that game or from another compatible game of Generation IV which has that Pokémon available. Alternatively, all Pokémon released prior to these games may be migrated from a Generation III game.

Diamond 0086 Seel Water 0087 Dewgong Water Ice 0123 Scyther Bug Flying 0198 Murkrow Dark Flying 0212 Scizor Bug Steel 0246 Larvitar Rock Ground 0247 Pupitar Rock Ground 0248 Tyranitar Rock Dark 0261 Poochyena Dark 0262 Mightyena Dark 0304 Aron Steel Rock 0305 Lairon Steel Rock 0306 Aggron Steel Rock 0352 Kecleon Normal 0408 Cranidos Rock 0409 Rampardos Rock 0430 Honchkrow Dark Flying 0434 Stunky Poison Dark 0435 Skuntank Poison Dark 0483 Dialga Steel Dragon

Pearl 0079 Slowpoke Water Psychic 0080 Slowbro Water Psychic 0127 Pinsir Bug 0199 Slowking Water Psychic 0200 Misdreavus Ghost 0228 Houndour Dark Fire 0229 Houndoom Dark Fire 0234 Stantler Normal 0363 Spheal Ice Water 0364 Sealeo Ice Water 0365 Walrein Ice Water 0371 Bagon Dragon 0372 Shelgon Dragon 0373 Salamence Dragon Flying 0410 Shieldon Rock Steel 0411 Bastiodon Rock Steel 0429 Mismagius Ghost 0431 Glameow Normal 0432 Purugly Normal 0484 Palkia Water Dragon