This post is part of a giant Pokémon retrospective blogging collaboration – Creator’s Catch, in which several content creators are discussing different games in the expansive Pokémon universe. Check out the rest of the posts here.
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were released nearly 15 years ago on the Nintendo DS. Flash forward to today, and the games remain fan favorites with remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl coming to the Nintendo Switch in late 2021. Diamond and Pearl didn’t shake up the Pokémon formula, but they did add a few features that revolutionized the Pokémon scene, most notably, a Wi-Fi connection, allowing trainers to battle and trade pokémon with others players around the whole world.
The games were the first Pokémon entries in the DS/3DS family of systems, and made use of new features, particularly the dual screen, including the lower screen adding touch controls that I’ve just mentioned. Diamond and Pearl do an excellent job incorporating the touch screen, with fun features that enhance the game without taking center stage. The Pokétch, a Pokémon smart watch, takes up the lower screen with apps performing a variety of functions, such as letting you know where there are berries ready for picking, or testing type matchups. During battle, you could tap the touch screen to choose your pokémon’s actions, or use the traditional button controls. The DS also included a GBA cartridge slot, allowing for a dual slot mode. Using one DS let you transfer pokémon from any of the GBA games. And depending on whether you had Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, or LeafGreen inserted, different pokémon would appear throughout the region.
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl take place in Sinnoh, a mountainous island region that is home to a variety of climates, and a new type of weather never before seen in the Pokémon series: snow. Interestingly enough this generation doesn’t do much to add to the list of ice type pokémon. Snover’s line and glaceon are brand new, but the others are new additions to old ice type pokémon evolutionary lines. However, the same could be said of the entire Sinnoh lineup. Mt. Coronet splits the region in two – a rockier, more fertile and rural west, and a more busy, urban east, full of gym leaders and attractions like Pokémon Super Contests. This regional split feels intentional and thematic, to go along with the DS’s new dual screens, as well another brand new feature in this generation.
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl introduced one of the most impactful changes to battling mechanics – the physical/special split – Prior to Diamond and Pearl, Pokémon types were split into physical and special categories, with types like normal, fighting, and rock classified as physical, and types like water, grass, and fire classified as special. Unfortunately, that made for situations in which you could have, for example, a fire type pokémon with poor special attack stats, but high (physical) attack stats, a much less viable option. With Diamond and Pearl, fire type attacks are no longer all special-typed. A fire move like fire punch that makes physical contact is now a physical move, and a move like flamethrower that does not make physical contact is a special move. So if your fire type pokémon has better attack stats than special attack, you can have it use fire punch instead of flamethrower. Battling was now more strategic than ever, which was especially important because of another new feature.
Before Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, if I wanted to play Pokémon with friends, I had to be sitting right next to them. It’s probably one of the reasons why the previous games, Ruby and Sapphire, felt so nostalgic to me – I remember taking my Gameboy Advance SP outside to play with my neighbors. But with the Nintendo DS came a whole new set of features, including the Wi-Fi connectivity, which would revolutionize the Pokémon games. You could now battle or trade with people anywhere in the world, as well as obtain some mystery gifts without having to go to a store (why they still have mystery gifts that require you to go somewhere is beyond me). The competitive community would gain true traction, and completing your pokédex was more obtainable, as you no longer needed a second game and a link cable.
Speaking of wireless features, the Underground, an area that spans the region of Sinnoh, is a huge new feature that allows you to play with friends, and go check out each others’ secret bases. I loved this feature and thought it was rather unfortunate that it didn’t have Wi-Fi connectivity – it’s something on my wishlist for the remakes, along with Wi-Fi connectivity for Pokémon Super Contests. While Pokémon Contests were introduced in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, they make a return with additional contest rounds and the Master Rank features famous trainers like Hearthome’s gym leader as well as your mom. Poffins replace Pokéblocks along with a new mini-game required to make them which makes use of the DS touch screen. It’s more fun and interactive than Ruby and Sapphire‘s system, as well as easier to create better quality poffins.
Another area in which Diamond and Pearl went in the same direction as their predecessors was in creating a new villainous organization, Team Galactic, who are focused on using the games’ legendary pokémon, dialga and palkia, to destroy and recreate the universe. The stakes seem to be getting higher and higher with each Pokémon game. Team Rocket wants to exploit pokémon, Team Aqua and Magma want to destroy half the world, and Galactic wants to destroy the entire universe. While making your way through Galactic’s headquarters, you also discover they’ve been carrying out horrifying experiments on pokémon. Despite the blue-green bowl cuts the grunts sport, Team Galactic feels much more threatening than anything we’ve had before.
Despite the near universal praise Generation 4 gets, the games do receive a couple common criticisms. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are notoriously slow, particularly with battling and surfing. Sure the battle animations are more advanced, but there’s often a noticeable pause in between actions. In my most recent playthrough, I found it rather easy to fit in a little snack or drink while waiting for my pokémon and the other pokémon to attack – the classic six magikarp battle took forever! It was honestly something I don’t remember noticing in my original playthrough when the game first came out, but right now, while I’m also making my way through the earlier games, it feels much slower. HM usage reached its peak in these games, with six HMs required to complete the game, and that doesn’t even include fly. For many, that means having a dedicated HM pokémon on your team, or that most of your pokémon need to learn an HM or two, giving you less leeway with your moves. Many of these pacing issues are fixed in Pokémon Platinum, and I certainly hope they’re addressed in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
In many ways, I think Diamond and Pearl are to Ruby/Sapphire what Gold/Silver are to Red/Blue. They keep all the elements of what made the previous games amazing, and built on them without changing up the formula. But they also broke new ground on the DS with its new features, particularly the wireless ones. And the brought the Pokémon series forward to a whole new generation. If you skipped over these games when they first came out, I highly recommend checking them out when the remakes release.
Want to check out more Pokémon retrospective content? Check out the main Creator’s Catch article, which links to lots more.
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