Are you ready for the next generation of Pokémon, with a new total of 493 creatures to try to obtain every single one of? It doesn't seem all that different from the previous versions and it's about what most people would expect it to be, with only a handful of really significant differences.
By Doug31
For anyone that's never played a Pokémon game before, it's a rather slow-paced and highly time-consuming RPG where you try to catch many Pokémon and use them to battle and earn all 8 gym badges, then use them to enter to Pokémon League where you battle against the Elite Four and then a champion. You always start out with your choice of one of three starters - a grass-type, a fire-type, or a water-type. The battles seem to go very similarly to how they always have in the past: The same old choose one of up to 4 attacks or change Pokémon, just like how all of this stuff has always been. There was the usual small, yet still noticeable, graphical and sound improvement, as well. Plus there is another team, similar to Team Rocket, that will try to do evil things which you get to thwart. What a surprise ...
One of the major aspects of the game revolves around the Sinnoh Dex. It only includes about 150 Pokémon, and these Pokémon will be basically all you will ever see when battling other trainers or in the wild before you have completed your Sinnoh Dex. Many of the Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex are new but also include many of the Pokémon that have been very common in previous games like Zubat, Geodude, Magikarp, Machop, etc. You cannot go to the areas of the game that have the Pokémon that aren't in the Sinnoh Dex, transfer Pokémon from previous generations or even do certain events before you have seen all the Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex. It's not particularly hard and just by battling all the trainers there should only be a few left by the time you beat the Elite Four, since many trainers will have Pokémon you won't find very easily elsewhere and you only have to see them all, not catch them all.
Once you have completed the Sinnoh Dex, most of the remaining aspects of the game are unlocked. Probably the biggest thing that happens is you are able to transfer Pokémon from older versions of the series, but it's a permanent 1-way transfer and you will still have to catch the Pokémon you transferred in the Pal Park; but don't worry, there isn't really any risk of losing them in this process. A highly annoying thing about this, however, is that you can only transfer six Pokémon from each game pack per day. This means if you have 150 Pokémon in an Emerald version, and want to transfer them all before you start the game over, so you don't lose them, it's going to take you 25 days to transfer them all, assuming you don't miss a single day, and it should take about 5 minutes each time, assuming you don't have to delete any moves. It's also really annoying that you have to delete any HM moves before you can transfer any Pokémon that had any of those moves, even including Flash, which isn't even an HM move in Diamond/Pearl.
The best new feature in Pokémon Diamond is its online capabilities. You can battle people over WiFi, without even having to get in the same room as them or trade with them similarly, as well. You must have someone's friend code to do this and there is no "battle random opponent" option. This makes it so much easier to find people to battle and so much easier to obtain Pokémon and items that you want. Note that some people will trade cheated Pokémon, so beware.
There are other improvements, such as using the stylus to choose what to do in battles and go through certain menus outside of battle with the stylus, as well. This makes things easier and makes menu surfing a breeze. There were some slight modifications to battles, such as attacks being separated into physical and special attacks rather than just having each type be solely physical or special. Some new moves and some new Pokémon were added but the additions are not really that significant of an improvement. Very few of these moves or Pokémon are very original as most are copies of moves that already existed, except for the fact they are a different type or strangely resemble some of the already existing Pokémon. Some of the battles gain a few inches of variety since there are now many places where there will be weather in effect such as hail or rain that will affect the battles done in that area.
There is also a PokéEtch, which can do a few neat things such as allow you to see where wandering Pokémon are, draw whatever you want, count, see how many steps you've walked, etc. Most don't seem very useful much of the time, but it can be helpful for certain puzzles. Additionally, there is a PokéRadar, which allows you to find many Pokémon that wouldn't normally be found in the same area and also can make it easier to obtain shiny Pokémon than ever before, but the search still requires quite a bit of effort and luck.
There isn't really much else to say. If I didn't mention something, it probably means it was so similar to how it was before that I didn't even take note of it and it's most likely just how you'd expect it to be. There are many small differences in the battles and the overall flow of the game seem seven slower than before, but most changes or additions are not very significant. Diamond was nothing spectacular compared to the previous games, but it still provides an overall improvement from the previous generations.
GemuBaka Review Score: 4 out of 5
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