Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions: Difference between revisions
m (→Trivia: Grammar again and templates... (I think this is irrelevant however)) |
m (→Trivia) |
||
| Line 279: | Line 279: | ||
*The Sinnoh region's starters are the first [[starter Pokémon]] which all gain a second type through evolution. Previously, two of Hoenn's starters had two types in their final forms, as did two of Kanto's, though one of Kanto's three had two types to begin with. | *The Sinnoh region's starters are the first [[starter Pokémon]] which all gain a second type through evolution. Previously, two of Hoenn's starters had two types in their final forms, as did two of Kanto's, though one of Kanto's three had two types to begin with. | ||
*Diamond and Pearl are the first games where it is safe to trade between English and Japanese versions. An example is this is shown by the fact that Japanese Pokémon from the GTS do not harm foreign language versions, and in fact, several actually add their own foreign Pokédex entry when traded. | *Diamond and Pearl are the first games where it is safe to trade between English and Japanese versions. An example is this is shown by the fact that Japanese Pokémon from the GTS do not harm foreign language versions, and in fact, several actually add their own foreign Pokédex entry when traded. | ||
*The leaders and Elite Four of Sinnoh don't always use Pokémon of their specialized type, mainly focusing on the use of moves that are of that type. | *The leaders and Elite Four of Sinnoh don't always use Pokémon of their specialized type, mainly because there isn't many pokemon within the game where there enough pokemon with the specific type,so they focusing on the use of moves that are of that type. | ||
* Diamond and Pearl are the second Pokémon games that require their saved data to be deleted before saving a new game, with the first being [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]. | * Diamond and Pearl are the second Pokémon games that require their saved data to be deleted before saving a new game, with the first being [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]. | ||
* In-game data indicate that the games will be able to interact with games based in the [[Johto]] region, fueling speculation of [[Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes|remakes of the Generation II games]]. | * In-game data indicate that the games will be able to interact with games based in the [[Johto]] region, fueling speculation of [[Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes|remakes of the Generation II games]]. | ||
Revision as of 22:14, 15 November 2008
This article is about the Generation IV games. For other uses, see Diamond and Pearl.
| Pokémon Diamond and Pearl | |
|---|---|
| [[File:File:DiamondUS.jpgFile:PearlUS.jpg|250px]] Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions' boxart, featuring Dialga and Palkia. | |
Basic info
| |
| Platform: | Nintendo DS |
| Category: | RPG |
| Players: | 1-4 players simultaneous |
| Connectivity: | None |
| Developer: | Game Freak |
| Publisher: | Nintendo/The Pokémon Company |
| Part of: | {{{gen_series}}} |
Ratings
| |
| CERO: | N/A |
| ESRB: | Everyone |
| ACB: | N/A |
| OFLC: | N/A |
| PEGI: | N/A |
| GRAC: | N/A |
| GSRR: | N/A |
Release dates
| |
| Japan: | September 28, 2006 |
| North America: | April 22, 2007 |
| Australia: | June 21, 2007 |
| Europe: | July 27, 2007[1] |
| South Korea: | February 14, 2008 |
| Hong Kong: | N/A |
| Taiwan: | N/A |
Websites
| |
| Japanese: | ポケットモンスター ダイヤモンド・パール |
| English: | US Pokémon DP Site |
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are the first true Pokémon RPG games for the Nintendo DS. 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. They then head to their rival's house and go to Lake Verity with him to see if there are any similar Pokémon living in it. Once there, two Starly attack. Nearby is a briefcase containing three Pokémon that the two choose from to fight off the Template:Type2. As is always the case, the rival takes the Pokémon that weakens the player's choice. The professor's assistant, who is the alternate-gender player character from 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 running shoes and then the player leaves for Sandgem Town to return the briefcase. After meeting Professor Rowan, he gives the player the Pokémon they chose to keep and a Pokédex.
During the course of the game, there are many conflicts with the evil Team Galactic and their 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.
Connectivity
- Diamond and Pearl are compatible with the Game Boy Advance Pokémon RPGs after seeing the first 150 Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex. 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.
- 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. 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 Dex 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 Wi-Fi connectivity to Pokémon Battle Revolution, much as their predecessors connected to the Nintendo 64 and GameCube.
- 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.
Features
The day-night system first appearing in Pokémon Gold and Silver 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 has been highly controversial with fans of the series, as it is considered to be "wasting" some strong Pokémon from previous generations, such as Blaziken and Sceptile, while other fans of the series hail this change as "more realistic".
Though it was reported that the games would feature Dark/Psychic/Fighting starters, this has been debunked. 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, 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 ABXY buttons will 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. 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 recieve 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 Pokémon 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 mixed types.
New Pokémon
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
| Game | Exclusives |
|---|---|
| Diamond | Seel, Dewgong, Scyther, Murkrow, Scizor, Larvitar, Pupitar, Tyranitar, Poochyena, Mightyena, Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Kecleon, Cranidos, Rampardos, Honchkrow, Stunky, Skuntank, Dialga |
| Pearl | Slowpoke, Slowbro, Pinsir, Slowking, Misdreavus, Houndour, Houndoom, Stantler, Spheal, Sealeo, Walrein, Bagon, Shelgon, Salamence, Shieldon, Bastiodon, Mismagius, Glameow, Purugly, Palkia |
Nintendo Event exclusives
The following Pokémon are available only after obtaining certain items at a Nintendo sponsored event. As of this time, the only events to have been announced are for Darkrai: one in Japan, which coincided with the theatrical release of Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai on July 14, 2007; and another in America, in Toys "R" Us stores on May 31 and June 1, 2008.
| Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus |
Reception
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.[2] Additionally, in the fortnight ending December 31, 2006, the number of units sold passed four million, according to Famitsu, the first Nintendo DS game to do so.[3]
Sales of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in Japan exceeded the five million mark in the 29th week of sales (April 9 - 15, 2007).[4] In the United States, over 533,000 pre-orders were taken before release[5], 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.[6]
Japanese sales
- Source: Enterbrain via ファミ通 ゲームソフト販売本数ランキング 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
- Pokémon Diamond and Pearl contain many references to Internet memes and chatspeak. One of the main translators, Douglas Dinsdale, is a member of the Something Awful Forums, hence all the net lingo. There are also multiple references to the Something Awful website and community scattered throughout the game, such as one Pokémon trainer announcing "My Pokémon is Fight!". "Noob" is also used several times, "Owned" is said by a Galactic grunt and Buck, and ROFL is available as a speech option. Also, in the player's first encounter with Team Galactic, they tell Professor Rowan to "hand over his research so that they would refrain from causing massive damage to his assistant". Perhaps coincidentally, Twinleaf Town shares its Japanese name with that of the original *chan imageboard, 2chan.
- Diamond and Pearl (and also Platinum) are also the first main series Pokémon games not to have their storage media colored, and the first games in which the lab of the region's Pokémon professor is not in the player's hometown.
- The Sinnoh region's starters are the first starter Pokémon which all gain a second type through evolution. Previously, two of Hoenn's starters had two types in their final forms, as did two of Kanto's, though one of Kanto's three had two types to begin with.
- Diamond and Pearl are the first games where it is safe to trade between English and Japanese versions. An example is this is shown by the fact that Japanese Pokémon from the GTS do not harm foreign language versions, and in fact, several actually add their own foreign Pokédex entry when traded.
- The leaders and Elite Four of Sinnoh don't always use Pokémon of their specialized type, mainly because there isn't many pokemon within the game where there enough pokemon with the specific type,so they focusing on the use of moves that are of that type.
- Diamond and Pearl are the second Pokémon games that require their saved data to be deleted before saving a new game, with the first being Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
- In-game data indicate that the games will be able to interact with games based in the Johto region, fueling speculation of remakes of the Generation II games.
- Korean titles for the games are 포켓몬스터DP 디아루가 (Pocket Monsters DP Diaruga) for Diamond and 포켓몬스터DP 펄기아 (Pocket Monsters DP Peolgia) for Pearl.
- Korean characters do not appear in non-Korean games and vice-versa. They appear as empty spaces.
- Diamond and Pearl have the most Legendary Pokémon obtainable in-game, 9, and most overall, 14, of any Pokémon games.
- Diamond and Pearl are also the first two games in which baby Pokémon previously available only through breeding can be found in the wild.
See also
- Bulbanews: First Diamond, Pearl information revealed
External links
- ↑ http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/news/article.do?elementId=DK-gQHfSlatZXa1pJsBmTKyS35vdrsBS
- ↑ http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2006/12/27/103,1167202517,65081,0,0.html
- ↑ http://www.famitsu.com/game/rank/top30/2007/01/11/120,1168503732,65421,0,0.html
- ↑ Bulbanews: Diamond, Pearl sales cross 5 million mark in Japan
- ↑ http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=11981
- ↑ Bulbanews: NPD Group sales data for April 2007 revealed
