[OFFICIAL] Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

This set of Pokemon games right here is where I make my stand. I've been playing Pokemon since the card game came out and now it's just ridiculous. This franchise doesn't need better graphics or better animations or more Pokemon to waste my time pursuing 'cuz I'm a completist.IT NEEDS A PLOT! A STORYLINE! Hey, it could use a few characters!Look at the show! Every day Ash Ketchum has some new adventure, and even if it's not the height of entertainment, at least they try to make me give a crap about the persons and monsters involved! Ash collects friends, Monstrous and otherwise, and bonds with them in a semi-meaningful way!But the games have a story that can be summed up Thus: Wake up in tiny hometown. Procure a Pokemon. Battle Rival. Walk. Battle random meaningless passerby. Procure another couple of practically interchangeable and faceless Pokemon. Go into gym and challenge equally interchangeable and faceless Gym leader. Heal team when needed and repeat till you caught 'em all.Barely a paragraph.I love monster-catching\raising games. Digimon World and Monster Rancher are among my favorite games of all time because they have the one thing Pokemon lacks, the one thing that I think keeps it from DESERVING it's seat atop the throne of Pocket Monsteresque games. A soul. I cared about my little digital companions as I stomped around File Island in Digimon World, there was a time when I was young and I would cry just a bit when my Tigers or Golems or whatever died back on the original Monster Rancher. But you can't even come close to that in a Pokemon game. Your Pokemon are interchangeable, if you put your charmander in Bills PC for the entire game he won't care and neither will you. If he gets traded for another, stronger pokemon, there isn't any sentiment or emotion involved. You just go catch another or go trade for another or whatever.Heck, let's leave the Pokemon alone. Maybe it's best that they're so redundant, at least tiny chilluns ain't gotta worry about feeding them or anything. Maybe having a main character with more of a story would help. So he\she wants to be "the best". Why? Is their father "the best", and they want to surpass him? Is the current "best" an abusive tyrant, using his god-awfully strong Pokemon to subjugate and torment the helpless masses? Take your pick, cuz it's BYOS (Bring Your Own Storyline) day whenever you play these games. Normally, when games don't give you a particularly impressive backstory, it's because you're kinda creating it as you go. The unimpressive hero or heroine you start out with learns and grows and laughs and loves and has zany misadventures and stuff. Not so here. Hi, I'm Red\Blue\Ash\Gary\Whatever and I wanna beat the elite four or a similar organization and be the best. That's all the story you get. It's depressing, as with 500 or so lovable if somewhat stupid Pokemon you could really get something out of this game if only there was something to set my adventures apart from everyone elses. But there isn't. I know that every time I catch a Pokemon, someone out there has the same exact creature, same stats, same name, probably caught it in the same patch of Tall Grass.It wouldn't be hard to remedy these issues, really. I'm sure the boys and girls down at The Pokemon Company could write SOMETHING decent, in the way of a story at least. But they probably won't. And so I hereby swear off mainstream Pokemon titles until they at least make an attempt at giving the monsters in my pocket a personality beyond one word randomly decided at the point of capture (ooh my Charmander is CALM! Is your Charmander CALM??!?), or making the inevitably spikey-haired protagonist at least mildly interesting. In the meantime, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (and any sequels to it, hopefully) will have to do. Hope you enjoy Pokemon Red & Blue V4 people.Good night, and fine gaming to you.

I want pokemon diamond and pearl to come out in Australia already, does anybody know when its coming out, i really want to know.

i find the pokemon in diamond and pearl kind of wierd looking -.- im thinking they will end soon or people will stop liking it because they run out of creativity and cannot make anymore ok looking pokemons.

i want to try this game >< but i don't have enough DP to download it T_T

Has someone found out when it comes out in the EU cos i reaaaaally want to know

pokemon is getting old...same gameplay over and over

I CAN'T WAIT TILL IT COMES OUT. ONLY ABOUT A WEEK LEFT! i'm getting pearl and i cant wait. I havel oved the other games and this installment is sure to be great!

dude i cant wait for that game to come out i still needa save up for the game which is 34 and a ds which is 130 D: meaning i need 170 T______T

Shame that darkai hack was taken out. Maybe an event at Nintendo World will have him ;D

Pokemon diamond and pearl is going to be so kool with the Wi-Fi connection. it is going to be alot easyer to make friends that have the same game as you.

god...theres so many pokemon now..i cant even imagine how hard its gonna be to try and remember them all....

OH man oh man oh man, it's coming out next week! Oh man oh man! I've got my pre-order ready even though I have an R4, BUY IT it's worth it to buy pokemon!

i dont carea about the grphiccs i havent played a pokemon game since silver so im really hyped up about this so happy :0)

i cant wait!!, im getting pokemon diamond

Pokemon diamond and pearl is going to be so kool with the Wi-Fi connection. it is going to be alot easyer to make friends that have the same game as you.

This is true, I can see it having a significant impact on people buying the game. It was always difficult to find people locally to play the game with.

god...theres so many pokemon now..i cant even imagine how hard its gonna be to try and remember them all....

LOL I can already name all 493 by their shadows

Im yet to own a DS but when this game come outs I will be buying it along with a DS Lite ;D. When does Diamond/Pearl come out in AUS/USA? and anywhere I could get a good price on a DS lite?. Cheers

This is game is ubber cool!I can't wait for the US release T___T;

cant wait until the site has the US rom, i will save my dp's and download it!

I've gotten my pre-order in just yesterday, and will eagerly await the arrival of Diamond. Pearl may come later when I have the money.Problem is, all but one of my third-generation games are in storage right now.

I preordered pearl two weeks ago. Needless to say I'm foaming at the mouth. The stylus that came with the preorder looks like rubish.

Can somebody tell me what this Pokemon Battle Revolution thing is? Is it some thing which you need to play Wi-Fi for Diamond or Pearl?

May be too late, or ...One of the answer should be get from http://en.wikipedia....ttle_RevolutionIt's exiting toy here.

I pre-ordered Diamond two days ago (didn't get a stylus, though) and I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER! On Sunday, all I'm going to do is play Diamond.

I think pokemon Diamond and Perl are the best versions!Their graphics are super cool and the gameplay too!But i don't like very much the pokemon who have.What do you think?I sell my Nintendo DS and now all the good games have been released!It doesn't matter.I am gonna take a new one!

this game is by far the best pokemon game out there right now.its better then any other game.everything about it is better,(besides some of the pokemon.)

I am eagerly awaiting this game. I've dropped out of Pokemon quite alot so there's probably another 200 or so Pokemon I haven't seen.