Ronin's Diamond and Pearl review!

Welcome all readers! :P Today I am here to give you my review of the latest hand held pokemon duo, Diamond and pearl. I purchased this game on the day it was released, and let me tell you, it sucked hours upon hours of my life for the first few months. Well, lets move on to the first topic, gameplay.

Gameplay:

Now if you have ever played a pokemon RPG on a hand held, then you will know how this game controls. You basically run around, raise some pokemon, battle trainers, and become the greatest trainer in the Sinnoh region. Sounds simple, right? Wrong, there is so much more to this game.

The first thing is building your party. You can have virtually any pokemon in your party that you would like (unless you count the event pokemon, which can only be obtained by going to a nintendo event, or hacking) and there are many different types of pokemon. In these two new games, a little over 100 new pokemon were added, making a total of a whopping 493 pokemon! Now, I could go on for pages and pages of how you can make up different parties, but I have to move on. Between EV training and egg moves, you can virtually get any pokemon you want.

Now in these versions, they implemented a new device called the poketch, short for pokemon watch. This little bugger has 25 different little devices! These range from a stopwatch to a calculator, and even one that shows you how your pokemon in the day care center are. I believe that this added alot of fun to the game, and makes keeping up with your pokemon alot easier. My personal favorite device was the type chart. You literally put in the types you want, and it will tell you whether it is effective or not. This comes in handy with all the new type combinations this game has. Very nice addition to the game.

Even the pokedex in this game is different. In past games you had to actually catch EVERY pokemon to complete it. In these games, however, you just have to SEE them. Now, this is one gripe that I have with this game. If you want a pokemon, you can just trade with a friend, and trade right back. Go to the GTS(which I will talk about later) and search for it there and get it. This took alot of challenge away from this game for me. In the past you had to search and search for the pokemon that you wanted, even spending hours in a cave looking for it. Nothing major, just took alot away for me personally.

Now the last thing I will mention in this category is migrating pokemon from previous GBA titles, and the GTS(global trade center). In this game, once you have obtained the nation pokedex, you can migrate pokemon from your GBA games like sapphire or Firered. The catch is they cannot know HM moves. This is easily fixed by going into the GBA game and going to the move deleter. The fun part is you have to actually go in the park and catch them yourself. Again, only one major issue regarding challenge. In the park, the balls are like masterballs, and they do not fail. I would have like to see them like the safari zone, except you actually have to battle them with your own pokemon and catch them that way. Now onto the GTS. In the game, if you have wifi, you can go online, and put up pokemon for trade, and browse pokemon that someone else has put on. This is a very good use of online, and is actually pretty fun to see what deals you can get. Only problem is that everyone on there is asking for a level 100 Dialga for a level 25 pikachu......some people aren't very logical.

So, the gameplay is excellent, amazing. The only issues I had were with challenge. I give the gameplay a 4/5

Graphics:

This is one of the areas I had a hard time with. The graphics when outside of a battle are pretty nice. The buildings are 3-d, and it adds some extra elements that the previous games couldn't. But I feel the graphics overall are.....lacking. They could have done more, especially with the in battle graphics. In battle, they use the sprites like previous titles. What is interesting is some of the pokemon have gender differences. For example, a female pikachu has a heart shaped tail. Some pokemon are even different colors. My major deal with the graphics is they could have pulled off 3-d battles, it would have added more to the game. I love the look, and the feel, but there could have been a little more done with the look.
3.5/5

Sound:

Again, the sound in these games is very GBA.......which is a good thing for me. I have always liked the music in these games, and I love the music in these games. The only real problem I had with sound this time around was with the pokemon themselves.......why don't they say their names like on the show? The DS is certainly capable of handling that, and it would have added something neat to the game. Nothing major, but would have been nice. Overall, I love the sound, and I still heard it while trying to sleep at night.
4/5

Overall:

This is a great game for any pokemon fan, and for any RPG fan really. It has very deep gameplay mechanics, and is very, VERY different from the show. Many people believe it is for kids, but this game can get so advanced it even confuses the most hardcore RPG players. The game has great gameplay, adequate graphics, awesome sound, and the multiplayer is great. I would say this game is a must-have for any fans of the series.

Overall: 4/5 Great game!

Thanks for reading guys, I would love to hear some feedback!

_________________

very nice review! precise and to the point!

Thanks. It took me forever to write, but it was worth it. I love writing reviews Smile

_________________

that was an amazing review i totally agree with everything u said Black Eyed Orc

_________________

Thanks, I'm glad you like it lol. I'll be putting up a magical starsign review shortly.

_________________

great review man!!!

_________________

cool!

Great review, honestly. You certainly put some effort into it, and basically every fact is covered here. Also, I mostly agree with the criticisms in there. I voted 4/5 on this game too.

Thanks alot! I really work hard on these, just want to get my point across Smile

_________________