Diamond and Pearl... The critic's view

[Mr. Mud]

Is diamond and pearl REALLY as good as people say? what do u guys think worth the $30?

[EvilElitest]

Why did you make this thread three times?
from,
EE

[Mr. Mud]

I did? oh i so sorry my computer is dumb that way sorry

[Rapida]

I'm enjoying the game myself. Then again I've always had fun with pokemon. It really is the same old game, but with new features such as wifi trading and you can battle friends thru the internet. I don't regret buying it at all..

[Mr. Mud]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm enjoying the game myself. Then again I've always had fun with pokemon. It really is the same old game, but with new features such as wifi trading and you can battle friends thru the internet. I don't regret buying it at all..

Allow me to be the first English Pokemon fan to say "You git, we've got to wait months before we get it."

[Alex Kidd]

Then allow me to be the first PAL user who laughs at you for living somewhere where you can't import and pay only a few dollars more than the Americans. $40 US to get it next week.

Or laugh at you for not importing if it's a choice thing.

[Aotrs Commander]

Then allow me to be the first PAL user who laughs at you for living somewhere where you can't import and pay only a few dollars more than the Americans. $40 US to get it next week.

Or laugh at you for not importing if it's a choice thing.

As I understand it - unless it's changed recently - you need an imported console to play imported games (and the track record of conversion attempts in general leaves something to be desired). My budget will only just stretch as far as a PAL DS when the time comes. Plus, I have no idea about what the compatibility between a non-PAL DS and a PAL Wii is; as I intend to eventually get a Wii to play the console Pokemon RPG.

[Indon]

Actually, you might want to research to see if the DS has Pal/NTSC compatibility issues or instead language-based compatibility issues; why would a console system use different screen interlacing methods when the screen is included in the system?

[tgva8889]

I'm getting today, but from what I've seen, it's definately worth a look if you've played the Pokemon series before and liked it.

My suggestion would be for you to visit your local Blockbuster and reserve a copy for rent, play it for a few days, and see if you want to buy it.

[Da Beast]

I'm having fun with diamond and would recomend it for a fan of the series.

[Alex Kidd]

As I understand it - unless it's changed recently - you need an imported console to play imported games (and the track record of conversion attempts in general leaves something to be desired). My budget will only just stretch as far as a PAL DS when the time comes. Plus, I have no idea about what the compatibility between a non-PAL DS and a PAL Wii is; as I intend to eventually get a Wii to play the console Pokemon RPG.

Actually the DS is completely region free (I'm Australian and I import American games all the time, I've got only 2 ones I bought locally cause they were second hand and cheap. Seriously it's cheaper to import as well as quicker, they're selling Diamond for $70 AU over here in June I'm getting it next week for $50 AU. Long live the collapse of the American dollar). The only problem might be Wii connectivity, the NTSC DS cart working with a PAL Wii game could cause problems .

But you really should go NTSC for the Wii anyway. Cause Nintendo's PAL division doesn't deserve the support and they'll never improve if people keep taking their abuse.

[Aotrs Commander]

Actually the DS is completely region free (I'm Australian and I import American games all the time, I've got only 2 ones I bought locally cause they were second hand and cheap. Seriously it's cheaper to import as well as quicker, they're selling Diamond for $70 AU over here in June I'm getting it next week for $50 AU. Long live the collapse of the American dollar). The only problem might be Wii connectivity, the NTSC DS cart working with a PAL Wii game could cause problems .

But you really should go NTSC for the Wii anyway. Cause Nintendo's PAL division doesn't deserve the support and they'll never improve if people keep taking their abuse.

Huh. Didn't know that! Well, I'll certainly bear that in mind!

Not quite ready to buy a DS yet anyway (i.e. can't justify the expense at this precise moment), but now I've got a touch more incentive!

[tgva8889]

I'd but a DS anyways. There are a number of fun games on it, in my opinion. Though I did buy mine early because I knew there would be the Pokemon games on it.

I think it's amusing that I predicted Pokemon White and Black would be coming. Look, it's Diamond and Pearl! And look at how black the Diamond box is and how white the Pearl box is!

[Krade]

I don't believe they would ever do White and Black versions, and if they ever did, they wouldn't call them that in America because everyone would take it racially (and everyone knows the only way to get rid of racial tension is by ignoring it:smallwink:). Because we Americans are dumn like that.

[Aotrs Commander]

I'd but a DS anyways. There are a number of fun games on it, in my opinion. Though I did buy mine early because I knew there would be the Pokemon games on it.

I have emailed Nintendo to see if you can link cross-region software; I'll let you know if I hear anything from them! I'm not in a huge rush, though, since I've still got about 50 to go (well, 46, since I'm not going to get the four legendaries you can only get at events) and I've still got Emerald and FireRed to complete.


I don't believe they would ever do White and Black versions, and if they ever did, they wouldn't call them that in America because everyone would take it racially (and everyone knows the only way to get rid of racial tension is by ignoring it:smallwink:). Because we Americans are dumn like that.

Well, I wasn't going to say anything...

[Dr._Weird]

I don't believe they would ever do White and Black versions, and if they ever did, they wouldn't call them that in America because everyone would take it racially (and everyone knows the only way to get rid of racial tension is by ignoring it:smallwink:). Because we Americans are dumn like that.

It's true, we are pretty dumb.

[Advance Strat..]

i got Diamond for myself, and pearl for my sister last monday. I've gotten about 28 hours in the game so far, and from what I've seen it's pretty darn good.

It is the same kind of gameplay as every other generation of the game, but there's enough new things and improvements to other things that it's certainly worth getting. Plus the wifi thing is quite awesome. :D

[lumberofdabeast]

Wait...

You can get Diamond or Pearl for $30? I haven't seen it anywhere for less than $35.

[Krade]

Wait...

You can get Diamond or Pearl for $30? I haven't seen it anywhere for less than $35.
That's because it is $35, the OP is, in a word, wrong.

[ZebulonCrispi]

Allow me to be the voice of dissent on this one for a second. I bought this the day it came out with some friends, played it for a couple weeks, and now I'm looking to sell it to someone. Since I don't have an entire childhood of Pokemon-playing memories to sustain my interest in it, all that's left is a Tedious, rehashed RPG. The game came out so recently and it already feels ten years old.

The Pokemon team needs to actually DO something with their games, rather than take the same exact game and keep adding tiny enhancements and more pokemon to it. Let's have a new battle system, a new graphical style, more animated combat, characters with actual motivations, SOMETHING. Hell, let's learn some lessons that other games learned YEARS ago. Give us faster-scrolling text if we want it. Improve our interface for using items so that it doesn't feel like I'm playing a NES RPG. We have two screens, why are battle still trying to cram all the information up on the top screen while leaving the bottom screen BLANK? Hell, get rid of that little box with text describing every event in battle. It's the DS generation, we don't NEED that anymore. All this technology and it fritters it away on random gimmicks rather than trying to use it constructively. We should be able to tell what's going on just by looking. Give us the ability to walk in eight directions. Give us an actual storyline. Make the protagonist have a motivation beyond being told to go out and gather data on pokemon by a professor. Make the starter something other than three generic fire/water/grass types. Change SOMETHING.

Not that any of this is going to happen, of course. The games need to all be backwards compatible with one another, and they don't NEED to do any of this because making another generic rehashed pokemon game will earn them millions of dollars every time.

[Thexare Blademoon]

Give us faster-scrolling text if we want it.Take a look at the options menu - there's a Text Speed option in there. :smallannoyed:

[ZebulonCrispi]

Take a look at the options menu - there's a Text Speed option in there. :smallannoyed:

Yes, but the fastest text speed option is still frustratingly slow during battles.

[Advance Strat..]

some of that i agree with, some of it not so much.

I do agree that they probably could have done a better job figuring out what to do with the two screens. It works quite nicely for what they did put in, but at times it does seem like they should have been able to do more with it.

The interface for the items I think it quite nice just as it is. Not sure what your really complaining about there actually. If you compare it to how some of the older pokemon games handled items, this kind of menu is quite nice. The original ones were quite clunky stuffing everything together, your only real description was the item name, and you could only hold 20 or 30 things at a time, which would run out in a heartbeat nowadays, and didn't exactly last then either. Even if you don't compare it to the older games the item interface, whether in battle or outside of it, works very well, and I rarely ever have a hard time finding what I need.

The starter pokemon always being the same types I don't really mind in the least, but that one is mostly personal preference.


I'd say, if your really looking for jaw dropping battle scenes, check out the many iterations of Pokemon Colloseum (think there's one coming out for the Wii sometime this year also)

If your looking for a mind blowing storyline, pokemon probably isn't it. I'll admit pokemon has never had the strongest story ever, but it works fine enough for what the creators wanted you to be able to do with it. Pokemon was meant to be played with as many people as possible, battling and trading with friends, competing in contests, or that underground thing they have going now. Wi-fi was one of the best things that could have happened for the series, because it lets people who may not know anyone nearby with pokemon still be able to play with other people, or friends that have moved away/met online.

The main formula is most likely not gonna change anytime soon, not just cuz they can keep it the same and still make money (although that's still true), but because the formula works so well as it is.

[ZebulonCrispi]

The interface is nice? Let's take a look at the parts of it that don't make sense.
Every time you use a potion, it heals the pokemon then sends you back to the item screen, without considering the very real possibility that you might want to use another potion on someone.
They have three different options for moving pokemon from box to party and vice versa. Why they have anything besides Move Pokemon is anyone's guess. It's clunky and its unnecessary.
Trading pokemon is a fairly focal part of the experience, so why make it so awkward? You can't trade from your box, and every pokemon trade involves a minute+ ridiculous cinematic.
There are two different screens for forgetting a move, depending on whether it happens from leveling after a battle or from a TM/HM. They handle completely differently, and one of them doesn't give you convenient access to an attack's attributes.
The game asks me if this is my first pokemon game or not. Even if I say it isn't, it still drags me by the hand through tutorial after tutorial, sometimes for things I've already done before I get to them. There is no option to skip these, just as there is no option to skip any of the bland cutscenes.

I'm not looking for jaw-dropping battle scenes, I'm looking for engaging ones. You could make every attack have a three-minute cinematic filled with amazing flashy animation and special effects, I wouldn't care. I want pokemon that ACTUALLY PHSICALLY COME INTO CONTACT. Not even Coliseum does that. It's send an attack, then the enemy gets hit by it, while you hide either on opposite corners of the screen, or not even visible at the same time. As a side note, I don't think there's a worse way they could be handling weather effects, either. Want to express that the battle is taking place in the rain? MAKE IT RAINING DURING THE BATTLE. Don't drag things out with a five-second rain loop and a message saying "The rain continues to fall!" at the end of EVERY TURN. Same goes for things like Poison. I don't need reminding messages every turn, I can see for myself that he's taking poison damage. Stop spelling everything out for me.

I don't necessarily need a mind-blowing storyline, either. I just want a DIFFERENT one. Every pokemon game has exactly the same story, to the point of being almost surreal. Silent boy/girl gets a pokemon from a wandering professor, who tells him to go explore the world and gather data on pokemon. He has periodic battles against his rival, who picked one of the other starters. He runs repeatedly into Team Whatever, who has some obtuse plot involving capturing pokemon and using them for evil, and he single-handedly thwarts whatever their plan is. He rises through the ranks, he fights the Elite Four, then he battles his rival one last time. Nothing changes. EVER.

The formula does not work so well as it is. It is dated, broken, tedious, condescending, and a heaping pile of bad game design. People play it because they remember how fun it was years ago and have been playing it ever since.

[tgva8889]

I thought the story for the Orre games was actually rather intense.

The item system gained an improvement. The "last item used" option is fantastic. The different item lists is amazingly special. And they were able to maintain everything they used to do.

The appeal of pokemon, to me, is not the story or really even the gameplay (though the simple gameplay is a favorite of mine), but the true customization that the game allows. There are, as of right now, 493 total different pokemon. Each of those pokemon gets 4 moves, which can be selected out of typically about 100 or so moves. That's a lot of different possibilities, which is what I love about the pokemon genre.

The battle system was majorly overhauled. Half the old moves were majorly changed by the fact that they rearranged how stats affect your move damage. It's a big change that changes the value of tons of the pokemon in the game.

As for the changes:
Pokemon fans don't want them. We're used to the Fire-Water-Grass triangle. We love it.
Pokemon is a child's game, to be fair. They're playing to an audience of kids 7-10. That's why the box is still there, etc. Not that it's a bad game, but it's aimed at younger kids. That's where they get their money.That being said, they should have done some of the things you did say.

The box could be an option. Though really, it's nice to have the box there, so that you don't go like "Why the **** didn't that just work?"

I'm annoyed by the touch screen. If anything, it's less convinient to use the touch screen than the buttons. They should have done something more: maybe make it important in the game or whatnot.

Wow, how useful would it have been to have been able to walk in 8 directions. Or, how about Touch Screen based movement? That would have been so cool.

A storyline, while nice, isn't really necessary for the game.

If you want fast battles, turn off the battle animations. Though really, I've become so accustomed to the pokemon battle sequences that I can simply tap A for about a second and then get back to my turn.

Edit: I agree, weather effects are tedious and annoying. Poison/burn isn't as bad, though.

The reason they send you back to the screen is that, typically, you aren't using potions to fully heal your team. Pokemon Centers exist for a reason. And typically, you want to use a potion that fully heals your pokemon, rather than only healing it a bit.

They have the options in the box for nostalgia reasons. I never use them, so they just simply are there.

They make it realistic. You can't trade from your box because pokemon in your box aren't with you. They're at the professor's lab, or they're digital information, in flavor terms. It would be kinda hard to trade like that, don't you think?

Again, catering to a 7-10 audience. They made the trade sequence like that because the kids like it. Also, it gives you time to go get a sandwich.

Spelling everything out, again, because it's aimed at younger children. They might need to understand that he's taking the poison damage every turn, etc. Instead of, like, "Why is my pokemon's HP randomly going down? This game's stupid." I can easily imagine younger kids doing that.

If you want engaging battle scenes (like everyone else), then get Pokemon Battle Revolution. The pokemon's moves finally hit each other. If my pokemon uses Mega Punch, he's going to slug yours in the face.

As I said, the storyline sucks. But that's not the reason I get the game anyways, so I ignore it. I also ignored the Final Fantasy 3 storyline while I played the game. I just wanted it for the RPG.

Do you even understand the pokemon formula? Because I could go quote a website detailing pokemon formulas, and then maybe you might have some respect for it. Or did you mean the formula of the game's design? In that case, perhaps.

[Roderick_BR]

Then allow me to be the first PAL user who laughs at you for living somewhere where you can't import and pay only a few dollars more than the Americans. $40 US to get it next week.

Or laugh at you for not importing if it's a choice thing.
*cries* 200+ reais a cart here :( 200 reais would be roughly around 100-200 dollars, depending on the ex-change rates. If I were to expend all my monthly pay on games, I would be able to buy 3 games, and a box of cookies.

On topic, I'm taking the word of some friends on it. I can't wait to finally be able to play Pokemon for real, and be able to play with people all around the world.

[Indon]

Pokemon is a child's game, to be fair. They're playing to an audience of kids 7-10. That's why the box is still there, etc. Not that it's a bad game, but it's aimed at younger kids. That's where they get their money.[/LIST]That being said, they should have done some of the things you did say.


To be honest, I'm not so sure about that; the money, that is. It might be aimed at smaller kids but I get the suspicion that adults are a large portion of the player demographic.

[tgva8889]

Actually, Teens and "tweens" are a much larger part of the gaming demographic. But yes, you are right, my bad.

Besides, they're Nintendo. They make enough money selling hard-to-get systems like the Wii.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, I heard back from Nintento Uk:

"At this time the DS can not link with anything other than another DS."

Real helpful, guys.

And considiering that Battle Revolution is supposed to be able to recieve Pokemon from Diamond/Pearl and play matches on same, not entirely accurate, either.

So, guess I'll be waiting then.

[Foeofthelance]

Granted the DS can only link to another DS, but that's what the bottom port is for, is so that you can plug an Advance game into your DS. You can even move pokemon from one cartridge to another that way. You end up having to recatch them though.

EDIT: Plotwise, all I can say is I don't remember Giovanni almost wiping out existance.

[RyanM]

I really need some more money so I can buy Pearl (as I already have FireRed, which has mostly the same version-exclusives as Diamond). But for now, I'm saving up to get another GBA, so that I can transfer Pokemon in between FR and Emerald, to make use of the cloning glitch (mostly just so that I can have all my favorite ones on each cartridge). The lack of backwards compatibility between the DS and GBA really stinks.

Edit: What the heck? I meant for this to end up in the newer thread. Must have gotten confused. Oh, well.

[Jade_Tarem]

I think this pretty much sums it up perfectly. (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=235)