Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will be the first true Pokémon RPG games for the Nintendo DS. The games are due for release in Japan on September 28, 2006. They will take place in the region of Shin'ō, and the player's starting area will be Futaba Town.

The games will be backward-compatible with Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen using the Nintendo DS's Game Boy Advance slot. Players will be able to transfer Pokémon from these games to Diamond and Pearl once certain requirements in the latter games are met.

The day-night system first appearing in Pokémon Gold and Silver will return, now with five time periods: morning, day, evening, night, and late night. A new multifunction device called the Pokétchi, short for Pokémon Watch is also introduced. The professor's Japanese name is Dr. Nanakamado.

A new battle system will be used for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. In this new battle system, attacks will be declared Physical/Special by the attacks themselves, and not the attack type. For example, ThunderPunch will be Physical and Hyper Beam will be special. This has been highly controversial with fans of the series, as it is considered to be "wasting" some strong pokemon, such as Blaziken and Sceptile, while other fans of the series hail this change as "more realistic".

Also, in these games, the "starter triangle" changes from the traditional Fire/Grass/Water starters to new, Dark/Psychic/Fighting starters. This move is also highly controversial.

New Pokémon (known so far)

• Munchlax
• Mime Jr.
• Weavile
• Bonsly
• Perap
• Buoysel
• Tamanta
• Cherimu
• Dorapion
• Pachirisu
• Rozureido
• Diaruga
• Parukia
• Lucario
• Manaphy

Information

• First Diamond, Pearl information revealed - Bulbanews

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