Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions

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

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Pokémon Diamond Version ポケットモンスター ダイヤモンド
File:DiamondUS.jpg Pokémon Diamond Version's boxart, featuring Dialga.
Pokémon Pearl Version ポケットモンスター パール
File:PearlUS.jpg 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 main series
Ratings
CERO:	A
ESRB:	E
ACB:	N/A
OFLC:	PG
PEGI:	3+
GRAC:	ALL
GSRR:	N/A
Release dates
Japan:	September 28, 2006
North America:	April 22, 2007
Australia:	June 21, 2007
Europe:	July 27, 2007
South Korea:	February 14, 2008
Hong Kong:	N/A
Taiwan:	N/A
Websites
Japanese:	Official Site
English:	Official Site
Japanese boxart File:Diamond boxart.png Boxart of Pocket Monsters Diamond. File:Pearl boxart.png Boxart of Pocket Monsters 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 the first main series Pokémon RPGs released on the Nintendo DS, beginning Generation IV. The games were released in Japan on September 28, 2006 and in North America on April 22, 2007. They take place in the region of Sinnoh and the player's starting area is Twinleaf Town.

Plot

At the start, the player sees a newscast about a sighting of a red Gyarados. The player then heads to his or her best friend's house and goes to Lake Verity with him to see if there are any similar Pokémon living in it. Once there, two wild Starly attack. Nearby is a briefcase containing three Pokémon that the two choose from to fight off the Template:Type2s. As is always the case, the player's best friend, who becomes the rival, takes the Pokémon that has a type advantage over the player's choice. The professor's assistant, who is the alternate-gender player character of the player, takes the remaining starter. After the Starly is defeated, the two return to Twinleaf Town with Professor Rowan's briefcase. Back in Twinleaf Town the player's mother gives him or her a pair of Running Shoes, and then the player leaves for Sandgem Town to return the briefcase. After meeting Professor Rowan, he gives the player the Pokémon chosen at the lake to keep and a Pokédex. This sets one of the primary aims of the game, completing the 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 or Palkia (depending on the version), summoned by Cyrus, begins to overwhelm Sinnoh, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf appear and negate the power flow, and the player must catch or defeat the legendary.

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 PokéRadar, exploration of previously unaccessible places such as the Fight, Survival, and Resort Areas and the perfection of battle skills in the Battle Tower.

Blurb

Game box 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!

Game manual blurb

"Your adventure begins" In this world live creatures called Pokémon. Humans and Pokémon have lived, worked, and played together in harmony for ages. Nevertheless, there are still numerous mysteries surrounding them. In order to find out more about these creatures, many scientists-such as Professor Rowan of Sandgem Town-have dedicated their lives to Pokémon research.

One day, in search of a rare Pokémon, you and your friend take a hike around the lake close to your town. While looking around the lakeside, you see two strangers talking about Pokémon. After they leave, you realize that they left a briefcase behind. You and your talk about what to do with the briefcase.

In Pokémon Diamond/Pearl, you can choose from either a boy or girl. No matter which one you choose, there is no difference in the story. However, it is recommended that you choose a character with the same gender as you. Pokémon Diamond/Pearl uses the clock feature of the DS system. Please do not change the DS system you are using or change the time setting of your DS system. This will affect your adventure such as how Berries grow in the game.

Connectivity

File:Pokémon Pearl.jpg

North American Pokémon Pearl DS card

• Diamond and Pearl are compatible with the Game Boy Advance Pokémon RPGs after seeing the first 150 Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex. The GBA cartridge is inserted into the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS, while Diamond or Pearl is in its DS card slot to upload Pokémon. There is also a feature where if there is a certain Pokémon cartridge in the GBA slot, a certain Pokémon will appear in a certain area. An example is when Pokémon FireRed is in the GBA slot, wild Arbok will appear in the Great Marsh area in Pastoria City.
• Pokémon uploads are restricted to six per 24-hour period per GBA cartridge, and the player will have to re-capture such transferred Pokémon in Pal Park located at the end of Route 221 before transferring from another GBA game.
  • However there is a way to bypass this restriction.
• Pokémon knowing any of the Generation III HM moves (Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, Flash, Rock Smash, Waterfall, and Dive) cannot be transferred; therefore, it is necessary to go to the Move Deleter in Fuchsia City or Lilycove City to remove them before transfer.
• The player cannot transfer any of the Pokémon back to the GBA cartridge once they are transferred to their Diamond/Pearl copy; the transfer is permanent.
• While a GBA game is in the DS, dual-slot mode activates and it becomes possible to capture Pokémon in the wild in Sinnoh that do not natively appear, though this may only happen after the National Pokédex is obtained.
• The DS's native support for Wi-Fi is employed, allowing players to trade, battle and communicate using "voice chat" online.
• Diamond and Pearl feature wireless connectivity to Pokémon Battle Revolution, much as their predecessors connected to the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube and their respective battle arena games.
• Diamond and Pearl feature a global trading system, which allows 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 Global Trade Station.
• Diamond and Pearl feature connectivity to Pokémon Ranger. By completing a special mission in Ranger, an Egg can be sent from Ranger to Diamond or Pearl, where it can be hatched into the legendary Pokémon, Manaphy.
• Diamond and Pearl also feature connectivity to Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. By completing three special missions in the game, a Manaphy egg, a Riolu with Aura Sphere and a Darkrai with Dark Void can be sent from the game to Diamond or Pearl.
• Diamond and Pearl also feature connection to the WiiWare title My Pokémon Ranch, in which Pokémon can be raised and stored in a farm-like environment, much like Generation III's Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire.

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 his or her 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 turns into 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.

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 Super Contests.

Instead of making Pokéblocks with berries, berry-flavored muffins called Poffin are made. This is done in Hearthome City, though not within the contest hall, instead it is done at the Poffin House, which is near the Pokémon Center in Hearthome. Using the DS's touchscreen, players must stir the Poffin as directed by arrows that appear.

The first round of the contests themselves is similar to the first round in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, but instead of relying solely on contest 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 a dancing round, 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 main 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 so, obviously, so 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 judges and only four appeals, rather than one judge and five appeals. 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."

New 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.

Version exclusives

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

Compatibility

Trading exists between Diamond and Pearl Versions through the Nintendo DS's internal wireless connection. It connects to Pokémon Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver in the same manner. Eggs received from Pokémon Ranger and its sequels are also sent through wireless. Diamond and Pearl also have the ability to connect to the internet with the Nintendo Wi-Fi system, and also the Wii. Due to improvements in international linking, some Pokémon can have foreign Pokédex entries.

Diamond and Pearl also maintain backward compatibility with the Generation III games, however standard trading is not allowed. A player's Pokémon may be permanently transferred via Pal Park, and some Pokémon that could previously not be caught can be found using the dual-slot mode.

Also, by connecting to the Wii with a Nintendo DS, players can copy their party Pokémon to their copy of Pokémon Battle Revolution, as well as My Pokémon Ranch. However, only Diamond and Pearl are compatible with My Pokémon Ranch, while Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver are all compatible with Pokémon Battle Revolution.

Reception

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were critically well received, with Nintendo Power calling them "the ultimate Pokémon experience." The inclusion of Wi-Fi features and the voice chat feature were also praised. However, the games were criticized for their somewhat basic graphics, with IGN commenting "if you're looking for impressive visuals you're not going to get them." Despite this, Diamond and Pearl received a "Great" score of 8.5/10 on the site.

According to Famitsu, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl sold 1,586,360 units in the four days after its release. On December 27, 2006, it was announced that the two games combined became the first Nintendo DS games to hit five million units shipped.

Sales of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in Japan exceeded the five million mark in the 29th week of sales (April 9 - 15, 2007). In the United States, over 533,000 pre-orders were taken before release, and one million copies were sold within five days. By the end of April 2007, the US release of Pokémon Diamond had sold approximately 1.045 million copies, and Pokémon Pearl had sold approximately 712 thousand copies.

Japanese sales

Source: Enterbrain via ファミ通　ゲームソフト本数ランキング TOP30

	Week ending	Units sold	Total units sold
1	October 1, 2006	1,575,266	1,575,266
2	October 8, 2006	466,273	2,041,539
3	October 15, 2006	275,494	2,317,033
4	October 22, 2006	231,979	2,549,012
5	October 29, 2006	203,214	2,752,226
6	November 5, 2006	183,048	2,935,294
7	November 12, 2006	124,738	3,060,032
8	November 19, 2006	101,133	3,161,145
9	November 26, 2006	110,946	3,272,091
10	December 3, 2006	100,215	3,372,306
11	December 10, 2006	151,036	3,523,342
12	December 17, 2006	225,228	3,748,570
13	N/A
14	December 31, 2006	554,245	4,302,815
15	January 7, 2007	214,274	4,517,089
16	January 14, 2007	58,725	4,575,814
17	January 21, 2007	49,050	4,624,864
18	January 28, 2007	48,783	4,673,647
19	February 4, 2007	45,467	4,719,114
20	February 11, 2007	43,947	4,763,061
21	February 18, 2007	39,553	4,802,614
22	February 25, 2007	33,444	4,836,058
23	March 4, 2007	33,470	4,869,528
24	March 11, 2007	28,774	4,898,302
25	March 18, 2007	24,119	4,922,421
26	March 25, 2007	27,440	4,949,861
27	April 1, 2007	24,641	4,974,502
28	April 8, 2007	22,012	4,996,514
29	April 15, 2007	18,874	5,015,388
30	April 22, 2007	20,342	5,035,730
31	N/A
32	May 6, 2007	61,040	5,096,770

Trivia

• Diamond and Pearl are the first games where:
  • The rival's starter Pokémon is not at level 5 during the first rival battle.
  • The storage media is not colored.
  • The lab of the region's Pokémon Professor is not in the player's hometown.
  • All three starter Pokémon gain a second type through evolution and are utilized in the storyline.
• Pokémon Diamond and Pearl contain many references to Internet memes and chatspeak. This is possibly because the lead translator, Nob Ogasawara, is a member of the Something Awful Forums.
• The leaders and Elite Four of Sinnoh do not always use Pokémon of their specialized type. This problem was fixed in Platinum with an expansion added to the Pokédex.
• Diamond and Pearl are the first main series Pokémon games that require their saved data to be deleted before saving a new game. However, the first in the series to have such requirement were Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team.
• Korean characters do not appear in non-Korean games and vice-versa; they appear as empty spaces.
• Diamond and Pearl are also the first two games in which baby Pokémon previously available only through breeding can be found in the wild, if one doesn't count catching Wynaut on Mirage Island in the Hoenn-based games.
  • Also, certain Pokémon that normally evolve via trading may be caught in the wild as well.
• The international versions of Diamond and Pearl are the first main Pokémon games to capitalize the names of proper nouns normally (e.g. Ultra Ball as opposed to ULTRA BALL). However, Pokémon names are still written in all capital letters due to backward compatibility with previous games.
• On the back cover of the Australian release of Pokémon Diamond, it states "...as you search for the Pokémon that rules space in Pokémon Diamond Version." This is an error, as it should say "...as you search for the Pokémon that rules time in Pokémon Diamond Version." This error is not present on the boxart of other regions.
• Diamond and Pearl, along with the Japanese version of Platinum, are the most compatible Pokémon games, as they can connect with seventeen other games: all main series games of Generation III, IV, and V; the Pokémon Ranger games; Pokémon Battle Revolution; and Pokémon Ranch.

In other languages

Language Title Japanese ポケットモンスター ダイヤモンド・パール European French Pokémon Version Diamant et Version Perle German Pokémon Diamant-Edition und Perl-Edition Italian Pokémon Versione Diamante e Versione Perla Korean 포켓몬스터DP 디아루가·펄기아 European Spanish Pokémon Edición Diamante y Edición Perla

References

Template:Main series

This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.