Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Diamond and Pearl was the first pair of games in the 4th Generation of Pokemon released for the Nintendo DS on September 28th 2006. For the first time in my life I imported a game from Japan using money saved up from mowing lawns to pre-order Pearl and though I couldn't understand a single word of Japanese at that point in time, being unable to even read basic hiragana and katakana, I enjoyed the game immensely and pre-ordered the English release of Diamond as well and enjoyed my second time through just as much, if not more, than the first time around.
The hype for Diamond and Pearl was basically unmatched too, with the games being teased for quite a few years before they were released---I believe it was like 2004 when we first learned that "Diamond and Pearl" would eventually hit the DS and until then Pokemon fans got to enjoy a decent amount of interesting spin-offs such as Pokemon Trozei, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and Pokemon Ranger, the latter being able to actually connect to Diamond and Pearl in order to obtain the Mythical Manaphy, which CoroCoro I recall referred to as "The Road to Diamond and Pearl". Many 4th Generation Pokemon had appeared in various media prior to the release of the games such as Munchlax, Bonsly, who was even "playable" in Pokemon XD, and of course the incredibly popular Lucario, who has now officially been part of the franchise longer than he hasn't. Wow. I actually discovered NeoGAF through Diamond and Pearl hype, as a leaked CoroCoro scan revealing Drapion, Cherrim, and Pachirisu was posted here---this was before the "no scan" rule I imagine.
Diamond and Pearl is by no means a perfect Pokemon experience, but it did contribute a few important elements to the Pokemon franchise that still persist to this day---the most important being the first Pokemon title to feature global Wi-Fi (the Japanese version of Crystal had online features accessed through a special cell phone application) which made trading and battling with other players easier than ever before. Although the system wasn't perfect, it made completing the PokeDex a far easier task and allowed players to obtain Pokemon they might never have a chance of receiving otherwise. In particular when the game was first released I remember the Starters, Munchlax, Female Combee, and Spiritomb, who could only be obtained through utilizing local wireless features, were basically considered gold on the Global Trading System and could score you almost any non-Legendary Pokemon you desired. Unfortunately the WiFi features have been disabled since 2014.
Gameplay wise Diamond and Pearl felt like the point in the franchise where Game Freak started to really pay attention to the interest in the competitive aspect and it seemed like elements that were previously only hinted at before were made more clear, or so for me at the very least I recall really understanding how the systems that before I only barely got worked. A big change to the foundation of the game was the change in Physical and Special moves, previously each Type fell into one category or the other but now moves were categorized based on logic---Shadow Ball, formerly a Physical, was now Special while Bite, formerly Special, became Physical. Though this did render some classic strategies obsolete, such as Alakazam now being unable to utilize the Physical Elemental Punches, on the other hand it led to more diverse movesets possible, such as Hitmonchan now being able to actually use the Elemental Punches like you'd expect, and most people seem to view it as a positive change. From a lore standpoint it also makes a lot more sense dividing moves up this way and for the most part it's pretty intuitive outside of a few special cases, usually just reading the description of the move you can tell its Physical or Special where before you had to remember which category each Type fell into. I never knew that difference existed till Diamond and Pearl changed it, honestly.
The Sinnoh Region is also an amazing place to explore, my favorite Region ever honestly, with a lot of interesting and diverse locales as well as a bit of loose-endedness especially compared to later games which moved towards linearity---from what I've heard Game Freak has said that they actually simplified things due to Japanese kids getting confused as to where to go during the Galactic climax. Though there isn't a ton of water like in Hoenn HMs are still a sore point here, introducing even more otherwise pointless moves such as Rock Climb and Defog (though that's now a good competitive move for removing entry hazards) and some annoying areas to traverse, but otherwise you'll probably enjoy your adventure through the Region. For better or worse the story really ramped up here with multiple Legendaries who tie together into Pokemon's most ambitious mythology, and Team Galactic are a more serious threat than Team Aqua and Team Magma which a cool dynamic where the grunts are basically blind cult members whereas the leader, Cyrus, basically wants to remake the entire universe to fit his own antisocial personality.
Other features include the Underground, a local wireless minigame that sort of acts like Hoenn's Secret Bases mixed with an addicting treasure hunting game, Ball Seals, a feature where the player could customize the animation that happens when their Pokemon are unleashed in battle and desperately needs to return, Tag Trainers, various unique NPCs you'd team up with throughout the adventure mainly for sidequests, the Poketch, a watch-like LCD gear with a variety of gimmicky and useful features to play around with, and PalPark, a way to import your Pokemon from Generation III that was controversial due to having a six-Pokemon-a-day-limit (that could be easily gotten around though) and requiring you to then re-catch them in a pointless exercise. If you had a Generation III game in the GBA slot while playing Diamond and Pearl certain classic Pokemon would then appear on the overworld.
While Ruby and Sapphire was seen as a "reboot" at first with tons of classic Pokemon unavailable till future games were released, Diamond and Pearl through various methods allowed players to obtain every classic non-Starter/non-Legendary Pokemon in-game except for Tropius and Tangela, for whatever reason, right from Day 1. Of course you'd need both versions, a ton of time, and the GBA games for the Pokemon unlocked exclusively through the GBA slot method to do this but it was better than Ruby and Sapphire where the only way to get almost half the Pokemon required the use of an Action Replay. On the other hand despite having such a large roster of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl made the weird decision to limit the main game to only 150 Pokemon, a mix of new and old, with the other 300+ tossed into the post-game. This included many of Diamond and Pearl's new evolutions being limited to the post-game as well without trading which was quite an odd decision, one that was thankfully fixed in Platinum which is the best way to experience these games by far and, in my opinion, perhaps is the strongest Pokemon title.
Diamond and Pearl's 107 New Pokemon are a mixed bag---many of the wholly brand new Pokemon families are either really neat and still popular to this day, such as Lucario and Garchomp, or some of the trashiest Pokemon ever produced that no one really cares for such as Kricketune, Mothim, and Purugly. In particular the early game Pokemon, excluding an awesome Early Bird in the Starly line and a solid Electric-line in Shinx, are really weak and do nothing to escape the usual problems garden variety Pokemon suffer from but near the end some pretty cool Pokemon pop up that are pretty good, and this was the first Generation where I think people began to notice a power creep with the newer Pokemon overall having better tools and smarter stat distribution to utilize. Of particular controversy when released was how many of the Pokemon were evolutions of classic Gen I-III Pokemon, most of them locked till the post-game, but in recent years fans have warmed up to many of them especially as they represent a simpler time before the far more controversial Mega Evolutions. Sadly, outside of Sylveon, we haven't had a true Cross-Generation Evolution since Diamond and Pearl. Diamond and Pearl also brought back Baby Pokemon, but I felt the ones added in Gen IV were far more appealing and sensible than the ones added in Gen II. Pokemon like Snorlax, Sudowoodo, Mr. Mime, and Mantine receiving Baby Pokemon makes sense to me and I enjoy their designs as standalone Pokemon quite a bit. Chimecho getting a Baby, well, not so much...
Finally in terms of New Pokemon many were critical of the large amount of Legendaries introduced, though in Game Freak's defense they did a decent job of making most of them feel notable---Dialga, Palkia, the Lake Trio, Giratina, and Arceus are all connected together and Regigigas was a neat way to cap off the Regi Hunt from Generation III. On the other hand many agree that Manaphy, basically an ad for Pokemon Ranger, Cresselia, Shaymin, and especially Heatran, the latter who barely qualifies as a Legendary, were perhaps too much with Darkrai being the only non-Sinnoh Creation Myth Legendary that people legitimately seem to love due to an awesome design and lore. Generation V saw a similar glut of Legendaries but Generation VI saw a huge scaleback perhaps in response to these criticisms and Generation VII may follow suit. Overall I think like Gen II and Gen VI Generation IV has a weaker batch of Pokemon, but I do enjoy quite a lot of them. You can see my thoughts on the Pokemon of course in my retrospective: here, though note the Cross-Generation Pokemon are placed alongside their original families. I really need to add links to this thread when I'm done.
Overall Diamond and Pearl were far from perfect, but I have a soft spot for Generation IV and put a ton of hours into all of its games so, yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIAMOND AND PEARL!
The hype for Diamond and Pearl was basically unmatched too, with the games being teased for quite a few years before they were released---I believe it was like 2004 when we first learned that "Diamond and Pearl" would eventually hit the DS and until then Pokemon fans got to enjoy a decent amount of interesting spin-offs such as Pokemon Trozei, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and Pokemon Ranger, the latter being able to actually connect to Diamond and Pearl in order to obtain the Mythical Manaphy, which CoroCoro I recall referred to as "The Road to Diamond and Pearl". Many 4th Generation Pokemon had appeared in various media prior to the release of the games such as Munchlax, Bonsly, who was even "playable" in Pokemon XD, and of course the incredibly popular Lucario, who has now officially been part of the franchise longer than he hasn't. Wow. I actually discovered NeoGAF through Diamond and Pearl hype, as a leaked CoroCoro scan revealing Drapion, Cherrim, and Pachirisu was posted here---this was before the "no scan" rule I imagine.
Diamond and Pearl is by no means a perfect Pokemon experience, but it did contribute a few important elements to the Pokemon franchise that still persist to this day---the most important being the first Pokemon title to feature global Wi-Fi (the Japanese version of Crystal had online features accessed through a special cell phone application) which made trading and battling with other players easier than ever before. Although the system wasn't perfect, it made completing the PokeDex a far easier task and allowed players to obtain Pokemon they might never have a chance of receiving otherwise. In particular when the game was first released I remember the Starters, Munchlax, Female Combee, and Spiritomb, who could only be obtained through utilizing local wireless features, were basically considered gold on the Global Trading System and could score you almost any non-Legendary Pokemon you desired. Unfortunately the WiFi features have been disabled since 2014.
Gameplay wise Diamond and Pearl felt like the point in the franchise where Game Freak started to really pay attention to the interest in the competitive aspect and it seemed like elements that were previously only hinted at before were made more clear, or so for me at the very least I recall really understanding how the systems that before I only barely got worked. A big change to the foundation of the game was the change in Physical and Special moves, previously each Type fell into one category or the other but now moves were categorized based on logic---Shadow Ball, formerly a Physical, was now Special while Bite, formerly Special, became Physical. Though this did render some classic strategies obsolete, such as Alakazam now being unable to utilize the Physical Elemental Punches, on the other hand it led to more diverse movesets possible, such as Hitmonchan now being able to actually use the Elemental Punches like you'd expect, and most people seem to view it as a positive change. From a lore standpoint it also makes a lot more sense dividing moves up this way and for the most part it's pretty intuitive outside of a few special cases, usually just reading the description of the move you can tell its Physical or Special where before you had to remember which category each Type fell into. I never knew that difference existed till Diamond and Pearl changed it, honestly.
The Sinnoh Region is also an amazing place to explore, my favorite Region ever honestly, with a lot of interesting and diverse locales as well as a bit of loose-endedness especially compared to later games which moved towards linearity---from what I've heard Game Freak has said that they actually simplified things due to Japanese kids getting confused as to where to go during the Galactic climax. Though there isn't a ton of water like in Hoenn HMs are still a sore point here, introducing even more otherwise pointless moves such as Rock Climb and Defog (though that's now a good competitive move for removing entry hazards) and some annoying areas to traverse, but otherwise you'll probably enjoy your adventure through the Region. For better or worse the story really ramped up here with multiple Legendaries who tie together into Pokemon's most ambitious mythology, and Team Galactic are a more serious threat than Team Aqua and Team Magma which a cool dynamic where the grunts are basically blind cult members whereas the leader, Cyrus, basically wants to remake the entire universe to fit his own antisocial personality.
Other features include the Underground, a local wireless minigame that sort of acts like Hoenn's Secret Bases mixed with an addicting treasure hunting game, Ball Seals, a feature where the player could customize the animation that happens when their Pokemon are unleashed in battle and desperately needs to return, Tag Trainers, various unique NPCs you'd team up with throughout the adventure mainly for sidequests, the Poketch, a watch-like LCD gear with a variety of gimmicky and useful features to play around with, and PalPark, a way to import your Pokemon from Generation III that was controversial due to having a six-Pokemon-a-day-limit (that could be easily gotten around though) and requiring you to then re-catch them in a pointless exercise. If you had a Generation III game in the GBA slot while playing Diamond and Pearl certain classic Pokemon would then appear on the overworld.
While Ruby and Sapphire was seen as a "reboot" at first with tons of classic Pokemon unavailable till future games were released, Diamond and Pearl through various methods allowed players to obtain every classic non-Starter/non-Legendary Pokemon in-game except for Tropius and Tangela, for whatever reason, right from Day 1. Of course you'd need both versions, a ton of time, and the GBA games for the Pokemon unlocked exclusively through the GBA slot method to do this but it was better than Ruby and Sapphire where the only way to get almost half the Pokemon required the use of an Action Replay. On the other hand despite having such a large roster of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl made the weird decision to limit the main game to only 150 Pokemon, a mix of new and old, with the other 300+ tossed into the post-game. This included many of Diamond and Pearl's new evolutions being limited to the post-game as well without trading which was quite an odd decision, one that was thankfully fixed in Platinum which is the best way to experience these games by far and, in my opinion, perhaps is the strongest Pokemon title.
Diamond and Pearl's 107 New Pokemon are a mixed bag---many of the wholly brand new Pokemon families are either really neat and still popular to this day, such as Lucario and Garchomp, or some of the trashiest Pokemon ever produced that no one really cares for such as Kricketune, Mothim, and Purugly. In particular the early game Pokemon, excluding an awesome Early Bird in the Starly line and a solid Electric-line in Shinx, are really weak and do nothing to escape the usual problems garden variety Pokemon suffer from but near the end some pretty cool Pokemon pop up that are pretty good, and this was the first Generation where I think people began to notice a power creep with the newer Pokemon overall having better tools and smarter stat distribution to utilize. Of particular controversy when released was how many of the Pokemon were evolutions of classic Gen I-III Pokemon, most of them locked till the post-game, but in recent years fans have warmed up to many of them especially as they represent a simpler time before the far more controversial Mega Evolutions. Sadly, outside of Sylveon, we haven't had a true Cross-Generation Evolution since Diamond and Pearl. Diamond and Pearl also brought back Baby Pokemon, but I felt the ones added in Gen IV were far more appealing and sensible than the ones added in Gen II. Pokemon like Snorlax, Sudowoodo, Mr. Mime, and Mantine receiving Baby Pokemon makes sense to me and I enjoy their designs as standalone Pokemon quite a bit. Chimecho getting a Baby, well, not so much...
Finally in terms of New Pokemon many were critical of the large amount of Legendaries introduced, though in Game Freak's defense they did a decent job of making most of them feel notable---Dialga, Palkia, the Lake Trio, Giratina, and Arceus are all connected together and Regigigas was a neat way to cap off the Regi Hunt from Generation III. On the other hand many agree that Manaphy, basically an ad for Pokemon Ranger, Cresselia, Shaymin, and especially Heatran, the latter who barely qualifies as a Legendary, were perhaps too much with Darkrai being the only non-Sinnoh Creation Myth Legendary that people legitimately seem to love due to an awesome design and lore. Generation V saw a similar glut of Legendaries but Generation VI saw a huge scaleback perhaps in response to these criticisms and Generation VII may follow suit. Overall I think like Gen II and Gen VI Generation IV has a weaker batch of Pokemon, but I do enjoy quite a lot of them. You can see my thoughts on the Pokemon of course in my retrospective: here, though note the Cross-Generation Pokemon are placed alongside their original families. I really need to add links to this thread when I'm done.
Overall Diamond and Pearl were far from perfect, but I have a soft spot for Generation IV and put a ton of hours into all of its games so, yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIAMOND AND PEARL!
