Pokémon Diamond has often been cited to me by Pokémon fanatics as one of the best in the series. As such, I was looking forward to it being my first foray into a traditional Pokémon game. As you may have read in an earlier blog, I have played many of the spin-off games, including most recently Pokémon Legends Arceus, which by coincidence serves as a prequel to Pokémon Diamond, of sorts.
While I had not yet played a traditional Pokémon game for more than a few minutes, I was already aware that an hour with this game would not be enough to really get my head around it. In the end, I decided that playing up to the conclusion of the second gym would give me enough of the experience to reasonably pass judgement.
Pokémon Diamond is the first for the Nintendo DS, and uses a graphical style which utilises mostly sprites with only limited 3D models, a combination which works quite well on the meagre Nintendo DS hardware.
As a first traditional Pokémon game, this ended up being an interesting choice. While it allowed me to experience the charm of the pokemon world and appreciate the structure of these games, it also allowed me to see a lot of places where the series has clearly improved over the past 15 years.
I did not expect that it would take 10 hours to get the first two badges in this game. Unfortunately, this game makes a lot of choices that result in it being far slower than it needs to be. The game even got my hopes up at the very start, allowing me to skip the explanations of the world of Pokémon. But this ends up being, unfortunately, the only part of the starting game that can be sped up.
Pacing issues continue throughout. In battle, animations and text are slow, as are transitions. Each fight could easily be half as long. Combine this with an incredibly high battle rate, and battles become unfortunately frustrating, which is certainly not ideal given Pokémon as a series is all about the battles.
In Legends Arceus, even at the start, Pokémon caught had an interesting variety of moves, including elemental ones. However, in this game, almost all Pokémon caught start with only basic, non-elemental moves, making them feel almost interchangeable. My understanding is that other newer games also adopt this approach, which is absolutely preferable.
So, why is this game a lot of peoples favorite? Is it possible that people truly just liked this game because of Cynthia?
Yes, it is certainly possible.
And now, a review of my team of weird monsters:
Pip the Piplup and Prinplup
Pip the Piplup is the rock of my team (ironically that title does not belong to Rocky the Onyx). The first in my team to get an offensive elemental move, and goodness, those bubbles were deadly. I may have infact over-levelled her compared to the rest of my team, which made a later battle against a grass type quite difficult!
The design of Piplup has always been a solid one, and is my youngest son's favorite Pokemon. Like almost all intermediate designs, Prinplup is rather awkward. The peak being connected directly to the two crests over the head always seemed off.
Doof the Bidoof
Oh the majestic Bidoof!
Doof, while not the strongest, was reliable. He had several basic attacks from the beginning, and he could take a hit. Good lad, would recommend.
The design of the Bidoof is an absolute classic, and conveys the character so well.
Bluey the Shinx and Luxio
This gal. Refused to learn an actually useful electric move until nearly 9 hours in to my playthrough. But, a scrappy fighter nontheless. Bluey was my number 2 in most fights.
Luxio is the rare middle evolution that I think is better than the first. The star shapes in the ears of Shinx don't work for me, and make the ears seem completely flat. Still, they're a dog, which is a huge plus, and that little red nose definately requires booping.
Buggo the Kriketot and Kriketune


Yet another pokemon that starts off useless! One of her first two moves was a debuff, the other was an attack that takes THREE TURNS to charge. No basic attack at all. Eventually she got a relatively weak bug move, but Buggo was not exactly a pillar of the team.
The design for Kriketot is adorable, but Kriketune is hideous! And thinking too long about that evolution is horrifying. Her antennae shift down her face to become a handlebar moustache. Two giant horns grow from her head. Her chubby tiny arms elongate into long, slender points. And her carapace splits to form cape-like wings.
Sashimi the Magikarp
Sigh. I know enough about Pokemon to know that Magicarp is intentionally useless, but I was not expecting it to take so long for him to evolve into Gyarados. After levelling him from level 3 to 11 with still no sign of evolution, Sashimi left the team.
The actual design of Magikarp is an all time great, just like Bidoof. How can a pokemon seem so constantly vacant yet terrified?
Swoop the Starly and StaraviaMy angry bird boy was a later addition to my team but a crucial one. Swoop came in early with some good attacks and high speed. This was improved even further once he learned quick attack. In addition, Swoop had the skill "intimidate" which meant that any foe would drop their guard the minute they met his vicious stare.
Rocky the OnyxThe ringer. Uh, well, I had hoped, anyway. Unfortunately, when I brought him in he was a few levels behind, and the time it took to get him ready also strengthened my other pokemon. Still, there was the occasional pokemon that Rock based moves were useful against.
Overall, a decent team of weirdos, but I would have preferred at least one other pokemon type. Water could have been useful, but Sashimi refused to stop being useless.
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