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This article is about the Generation IV games. For other uses, see 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 DialgaD or PalkiaP, 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

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.

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 086 Seel Water 087 Dewgong Water Ice 123 Scyther Bug Flying 198 Murkrow Dark Flying 212 Scizor Bug Steel 246 Larvitar Rock Ground 247 Pupitar Rock Ground 248 Tyranitar Rock Dark 261 Poochyena Dark 262 Mightyena Dark 304 Aron Steel Rock 305 Lairon Steel Rock 306 Aggron Steel Rock 352 Kecleon Normal 408 Cranidos Rock 409 Rampardos Rock 430 Honchkrow Dark Flying 434 Stunky Poison Dark 435 Skuntank Poison Dark 483 Dialga Steel Dragon Pearl 079 Slowpoke Water Psychic 080 Slowbro Water Psychic 127 Pinsir Bug 199 Slowking Water Psychic 200 Misdreavus Ghost 228 Houndour Dark Fire 229 Houndoom Dark Fire 234 Stantler Normal 363 Spheal Ice Water 364 Sealeo Ice Water 365 Walrein Ice Water 371 Bagon Dragon 372 Shelgon Dragon 373 Salamence Dragon Flying 410 Shieldon Rock Steel 411 Bastiodon Rock Steel 429 Mismagius Ghost 431 Glameow Normal 432 Purugly Normal 484 Palkia Water Dragon

Connectivity

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 using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and can also connect to Wii consoles. 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.

Generation IV is the first generation with regular Korean releases; every single main series game since Diamond and Pearl have been released in Korean. However, non-Korean versions of Generation IV games did not include a way to view Korean characters, and therefore Korean versions of any Generation IV game can't normally trade with any non-Korean game. If a Pokémon with a Korean name or Korean Trainer name was somehow traded to a non-Korean game, the data for their name would be converted to something else. In Diamond and Pearl, empty spaces were used in lieu of Korean characters. This was changed to dashes in Platinum—and subsequently HeartGold and SoulSilver—likely to prevent any issues that may come from a completely blank name.

The following features of these games which require access to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service are no longer supported, as of May 20, 2014.

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 a global trading system, the Global Trade Station, that 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.

Reception

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were critically well received, with Nintendo Power calling them "the ultimate Pokémon experience."[6] 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.[7] Gaming magazine Famitsu gave them a score of 35 out of 40.[8] Pokémon Diamond and Pearl hold a rating of 85.07%[9] and 85.12%,[10] respectively, on GameRankings.

Sales

On December 27, 2006, it was announced that the two games combined became the first Nintendo DS games to hit five million units shipped.[11] In the United States, over 533,000 pre-orders were taken before release,[12] 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.[13]

In the fiscal year of their release, they sold 5.21 million units.[14] As of March 31, 2020, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have sold 17.67 million copies worldwide.[15]

Japanese sales

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl sold 1,588,734 units on their first week on the Japanese market, being 820,047 from Pokémon Diamond and 768,687 from Pokémon Pearl, with a sell-through of 97.12% and 96.16% respectively. By December 29, 2013, the end of their 379th week, they had sold 5,825,505 copies, being 3,189,446 from Pokémon Diamond and 2,636,059 from Pokémon Pearl.

Pokémon Diamond Version Week Week ending Ranking Units sold Total units sold 1 October 1, 2006 1st 820,047 820,047 2 October 8, 2006 2nd 254,080 1,074,127 3 October 15, 2006 1st 159,443 1,233,570 4 October 22, 2006 1st 137,629 1,371,199 5 October 29, 2006 2nd 127,011 1,498,210 6 November 5, 2006 3rd 105,943 1,604,152 7 November 12, 2006 2nd 78,744 1,682,896 8 November 19, 2006 3rd 68,147 1,751,043 9 November 26, 2006 5th 76,183 1,827,226 10 December 3, 2006 7th 70,190 1,897,417 11 December 10, 2006 3rd 98,859 1,996,275 12 December 17, 2006 1st 123,573 2,119,848 13 December 24, 2006 1st 209,379 2,329,227 14 December 31, 2006 7th 56,222 2,385,449 15 January 7, 2007 8th 94,370 2,479,819 16 January 14, 2007 9th 22,982 2,502,801 17 January 21, 2007 17th - - 18 January 28, 2007 17th - - 19 February 4, 2007 17th - - 20 February 11, 2007 16th - - 66 December 30, 2007 - - 2,939,405 118 December 28, 2008 - - 3,132,266 171 January 3, 2010 - - 3,168,935 223 January 2, 2011 - - 3,179,823 275 January 1, 2012 - - 3,185,215 379 December 29, 2013 - - 3,189,446

Pokémon Pearl Version Week Week ending Ranking Units sold Total units sold 1 October 1, 2006 2nd 768,687 768,687 2 October 8, 2006 3rd 212,193 980,881 3 October 15, 2006 3rd 116,051 1,096,932 4 October 22, 2006 2nd 94,350 1,191,282 5 October 29, 2006 4th 85,530 1,276,812 6 November 5, 2006 5th 81,604 1,358,416 7 November 12, 2006 4th 65,574 1,423,990 8 November 19, 2006 4th 57,627 1,481,617 9 November 26, 2006 6th 58,158 1,539,775 10 December 3, 2006 11th - - 11 December 10, 2006 5th 75,206 1,669,367 12 December 17, 2006 2nd 97,409 1,766,776 13 December 24, 2006 3rd 164,670 1,931,445 14 December 31, 2006 12th - 1,976,046 15 January 7, 2007 10th 78,398 2,054,443 16 January 14, 2007 13th - - 17 January 21, 2007 21st - - 18 January 28, 2007 22nd - - 19 February 4, 2007 21st - - 20 February 11, 2007 19th - - 66 December 30, 2007 - - 2,433,003 118 December 28, 2008 - - 2,592,405 171 January 3, 2010 - - 2,620,829 223 January 2, 2011 - - 2,629,036 379 December 29, 2013 - - 2,636,059

Staff

Main article: Staff of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Music

Version history

This section is incomplete.

Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Reason: Version history for other regions

Look up all legitimate and official revisions to list them in a version history.

Japan

Version Changelog 1.0 Initial release 1.1+ (???) The ability to open the menu in a Mystery Zone was disabled.

Development cycle

Main article: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl beta

Gallery

Logos

English Diamond logo

English Pearl logo

Japanese Diamond logo

Japanese Pearl logo

Title screens

English Diamond title screen

English Pearl title screen

Japanese Diamond title screen

Japanese Pearl title screen

Trivia

Typographical errors

If a FireRed or LeafGreen cart is present in Slot 2 of the Nintendo DS, the migration option in the main menu is incorrectly stated as "Migrate from Fire Red" or "Migrate from Leaf Green", with a space in the middle of the version names. This typo was fixed in Pokémon Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver by removing the space.

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 English boxart of other regions.

in Pokémon Diamond Version." This is an error, as it should say "...as you search for the Pokémon that rules in Pokémon Diamond Version." This error is not present on the English boxart of other regions. On page 5 the North American manual for Pearl, it is mentioned that "In order to catch all the Pokémon in the Sinnoh region, thus completing your Pokédex, you must trade with the Pokémon Pearl Version" when it should say "with the Pokémon Diamond Version". This error is not present in the Diamond manual, which correctly identifies the correct opposite game.

In other languages

Language Title Japanese ポケットモンスターダイヤモンド・パール Chinese Cantonese 精靈寶可夢 鑽石／珍珠 Mandarin 精靈寶可夢 鑽石／珍珠

精灵宝可梦 钻石／珍珠 French Canada Pokémon Diamond and Perl * Europe Pokémon Version Diamant et Version Perle German Pokémon Diamant-Edition und Perl-Edition Italian Pokémon Versione Diamante e Versione Perla Korean 포켓몬스터DP 디아루가・펄기아 *

포켓몬스터 다이아몬드・펄 * Portuguese Pokémon Versão Diamante e Versão Pérola Spanish Pokémon Edición Diamante y Edición Perla

See also

Official PDF-file manual for Pokémon Diamond Version (English)

Official PDF-file manual for Pokémon Pearl Version (English)

References









