digibutter.nerr

[Aggrieved]

Pokemon Diamond is the 4th installment of the popular Pokemon franchise, where you go on a quest to capture and battle creatures called Pokemon. The main goal is to capture every type of Pokemon. Many veterans of the series know that this is near impossible. But, let's begin, shall we?

Gameplay:
The gameplay is identical to the earlier games in the series. You start off with a character who you get to name, you get to choose one of three pokemon that each have a type advantage to each other. You also have a rival who, no matter which starter that you pick, will always choose the one that has the advantage. Always.

Anyways, you'll spend most of the time on the map, where you walk, run, or ride around the landscape, battling other trainers and catching wild pokemon. The process to catch a pokemon is fairly simple. You walk around in wild grass until a random encounter occurs, and then you meet a pokemon that is usually unique to its area. You weaken it using attacks, and when it's weak enough, you throw what's called a Poke Ball to catch it. If you weakened it enough, it stays caught, and you get to add it to your collection.

You can also battle for experience, where you walk around in grass and, instead of catching it, you get its health to zero. Then, you earn experience points which, when you meet a certain number, allows you to level up. You can also battle other pokemon trainers who have their own party of pokemon. Most of them will be levels above the pokemon native to that part of the region, but still fairly easy if you've trained enough.

To continue on certain points of the game, you need a special moves called HM's, which, when used outside of battle, do things such as break rocks, cut down trees, or even allow you to travel over water. However, in order to use these attacks, you need to earn a special badge, which you obtain by defeating the appropriate gym leader in a pokemon battle.

Now, among your adventure, you find out that some criminal group is wreaking havoc, but that is mainly spoilers, so I won't go into great detail. Basically, someone's doing something bad, and you have to stop them with a pokemon battle. Simple enough.

Now it's like that with all of the games in this series. The same rehashed system made into a new map and an assload of new creatures to catch, plus the same creatures from the previous generations. Tedious? Yes. Impossible? No. It is very possible to catch every species of pokemon, and that's made easier over a new system called the GTS, which allows you to trade with practically anyone who has Internet. However, this is really abused, because you have people offering a common low-level pokemon in exchange for something rare and high-leveled. Most of what you see in the GTS will consist of this. However, even with this new addition, catching every single species has to be one of, if not the, hardest things that you can attempt in any video game.

I'm probably droning on right now, so I'll stop and go to a new part of the review.
GAMEPLAY FINAL SCORE: 6/10

Graphics:
Compared to the previous games, the graphics of the game are almost in every way superior. Instead of everything being sprited, the world is now modeled. Somewhat. You still view the world in a top-view kind of thing, which is still reused from the last games. Bu, the lighting has significantly improved. When it's noon, I looks like noon. When it's afternoon, the game has a nice red tinge to it. When it's night, it looks like the sun is down. Simple enough. I would've liked to see some improved battle screens though, as they still look the same as the other games.
GRAPHICS FINAL SCORE: 5/10

Sound:
The sounds in this game are nothing more then meh. The pokemon cries are still the same as they were in the past games, even though the DS's sound engine could easily be able to have more unique sounds than different tuned roars and beeps. The quality of the music also fails to meet DS standards, although the music itself is nothing more than okay.
SOUND FINAL SCORE: 5/10

So, all in all, I would never call Diamond or Pearl the best games of the series, as they are pretty much more of the same. More unique features, as well as perhaps more use of the touch screen other than menu selections, would've given this game a higher score.
DIAMOND AND PEARL FINAL SCORE: 5/10

Typed in Word, sent to GameFAQs, and copypasted here. Yay.

[lovegod703]

Ok, his is just horrible. I honestly think you did what the official reviewers do. They don't like the game, so they make up shit to back them up, when it's not true.

The new Pokémon cries are actually orchestrated. The music is some of the highest quality sounds out of all of he DS games I have. (And I have a lot)

So what if it's still a top view? It's not like their ever going to make a good Pokémon game with a 3d world like in OoT or TP.

And based on the gameplay review, it seems like you're just being biased. Other than the spammers on GTS (which is not the game's fault) I don't see any negative thing there. I see about 2 good things and a lot of neutral things. I mean, it's not the best DS game, but it's a lot better than a lot of the other DS games out there.

[Almaz]

...uhhhh...Poke...do you mind if I call you Poke? Yeah, a majority of the things in the review were neutral; not good, not bad, just "meh". He praised some things, got a few negatives, and generally did a really nice job with this review. It's like how I bashed Kid Icarus: first praising its good points, then just calling the rest of the game "meh", "frustratingly hard", and "Metroid's drunk cousin". He gave credit where credit was due, but didn't just say, "it's Pokemon so it's a good game". He said "It's Pokemon with more Pokemon, but I'm really just tired of it, and here's why..."

And...frankly, Diamond and Pearl DID have awful music. I don't care if its orchestrated or not; if I can't whistle a single song from the game to myself, I really don't care. And some, like Team Galactic Battle, are so horrible, it lasts in my head forever.

Also, it seems that you, Pokemonenstien, feel attacked by this review, and are defending it by calling him rather negative things and making false accusations. Please, make helpful suggestions instead of "MY OPINION'S DIFFERENT, THIS REVIEW SUCKS BECAUSE OF THAT!". Because that's what you're coming out as, intentional or no...

As for the review itself, it's pretty nicely done. I'd have gone into a bit more details with the graphics category; the way you're describing it sounds like it should get about a 7. I found the models ugly and the battles uninspired, personally. But otherwise, you back up your ideas and give a solid review and opinion of the game. I'd suggest you suggest a game in the series that was better than D&P, for a comparison, but otherwise, good job.

[Popple]

[lovegod703]

[Popple]

[lovegod703]

[Tyler]

Pokemon sucks now. :(

[Flar3 Luigi]

[Tyler]

Pokemoneinstein isn't biased towards Pokemon or anything.

Nope. It's not like his name points to anything...

[lovegod703]

[Aggrieved]

My grading scale, however, goes like this:

1----5----10

1 - Horrible

5 - Average

10 - Perfect

You're probably thinking that I use the school grading scale and that I'm giving it an F.

Therefore, I was calling most of the game "average".

Also, by what you say, you think that I hate it. Well, I don't. I spent a good amount of time and effort on it, and frankly, I thought pretty much the entire time that the game was nothing more than "average".

[lovegod703]