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In the fabric of time and space note ...comes a whole new adventure.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

"Welcome to the next generation of Pokémon! As a rookie Pokémon Trainer, you will need to catch, train and battle Pokémon on your journey to become the Pokémon League Champion. You will face many challenges along the way, as you search for the Pokémon that rules time or space..."
Blurb on the back of the boxes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions

The fourth generation of Pokémon games, Diamond and Pearl hit the Nintendo DS in Japan in 2006 and the rest of the world in 2007. Taking place in Sinnoh, the Pokémon world version of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the plot is familiar territory for the series: you, a child from the modest little village of Twinleaf Town, and your hyperactive best friend, have a fateful encounter with Professor Rowan, the local authority on Pokémon, and his well-meaning but inexperienced assistant. Said encounter leaves you both with your first Pokémon, so naturally you set out To Be a Master, collecting monsters and badges and challenging/defeating opposing Trainers along the way.

At some point, you also encounter Team Galactic, a group that claims to be researching new forms of energy, but isn't above unabashedly illegal acts in broad daylight... what exactly are their goals? As the Player Character, naturally your hero's on a crash course to find out...

Diamond and Pearl notably take advantage of the new hardware of the Nintendo DS to introduce online functionality to the series. The games could communicate over Wi-Fi for trading and battling, though these features are now inaccessible due to the DS servers being shut down in 2014. The games also reintroduce the In-Universe Game Clock from Pokémon Gold and Silver via the internal system clock, which is tied to several mechanics like Honey Trees.

A third version, titled Platinum, came out a couple years down the line. Platinum tweaked the storyline a bit, adding more characters, remodeling the graphics of a few locations, revamping some Gyms, and naturally including new challenges for players.

As part of the franchise's 25th anniversary, a pair of remakes for the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl, were released on November 19, 2021. Unlike previous remakes, this set is fairly faithful to the original release with no plot alterations, with the only major differences being a revamped Sinnoh Underground, overhauled Contests and replacing the Pal Park with Ramanas Park, a place to catch Legendary Pokemon. As a by-product of the strict adherence to the original pair of games, most of the changes and additions made by Platinum (such as the Distortion World) did not make it into the remakes. Notably, due to Game Freak being busy with the development of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were the first games in the mainline series to be developed by an outside studio, that being ILCA.

On Feburary 2, 2022, The Pokemon Company released the English version of the Pokémon DP Sound Library, which allowed you to stream the music pieces of the first two games for free, and make playlists. It was shut down on May 31, but those who already downloaded the soundtrack this way can use the music for their own works as long as it is not used for profit.

The games were adapted into seasons 10 through 13 of Pokémon: The Seriesnote , with Pokémon from this era showing up. For the bootleg under the name "Pokemon Diamond", see Telefang.


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    Tropes used in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum 
  • Always Check Behind the Chair: Wayward Cave has a second entrance under Cycling Road that's obscured by the camera angle. This entrance leads to a secret part of the cave that contains the rare Gible and the TM for Earthquake.
  • Ambiguous Situation: A post-game encounter in Platinum with an elderly man who laments that he knew his grandson was living in an emotionally unhealthy home (whether it was abusive or just that severely neglectful is left to speculation), but didn't do anything to help until it was already too late to save him. It's heavily implied that his grandson is Cyrus, the Big Bad of the game.
  • And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: In multiple instances in the game, such as the shopping mall or the casino, your reward for certain activities is decoration you can use to decorate your underground base.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • From these games and onward, your Bag of Holding now has a limit of 999 copies of each item instead of 99. There is a space for every item in the game, so there's no risk of your bag filling up unless you actually get at least a thousand of an item, causing the overflow to take over another item's slot. No longer will you have to put items in your PC.
    • If you knock out a Legendary, it will return to the place you encounter it after beating the Pokémon League again.
    • The Pokétch has a few quality-of-life apps that make gameplay less annoying:
      • The Marking Map shows the location of roaming Pokémon without having to find them for yourself first, making it much easier to find and catch them.
      • The Berry Searcher shows the areas where you planted berries, eliminating the need to memorize the exact locations for yourself.
      • The Day Care Checker keeps tabs on Pokémon left at the daycare center, showing both their levels and if they produced an egg. Again, this eliminates the need to periodically checking the daycare for either eggs or if your Pokémon leveled up.
    • In Diamond/Pearl, to help fill out the Sinnoh Dex on your own, talking to Cynthia's grandmother in Celestic Town will have her show you a book featuring an article about the non-native version mascot, which marks it as "Seen" in your Dex.
  • Apathetic Citizens: Downplayed. Most people said that Team Galactic was "up to no good". A lot of them probably didn't realize the scale of their mission, since the worst they did in public was steal a Pokémon from a kid. In Platinum, it does seem that the government is at least trying to do something by setting a detective/secret agent on their trails. Inverted in that most of Team Galactic's own members had no idea what they were actually doing and would have probably freaked out if they had known.
  • Artificial Brilliance:
    • Enemy Trainers tend to give their Pokémon moves that can cope with their weaknesses. And yes, they will use them on you.
    • In the double battle alongside your rival on Mount Coronet, he'll find ways to benefit your team. For example, if your Pokémon is immune to confusion or holding a berry to remove it, he'll hit it with Swagger for the attack boost.
  • Artistic License – Explosives: The bomb that Team Galactic uses to blow up Lake Valor. It's powerful enough that the impact can be felt in Canalave City on the other side of Sinnoh, and yet it just perfectly empties the huge lake of its water, leaves all the Magikarp alive (who flop around helplessly), and the nearby Hotel Grand Lake doesn't get as much as a scratch either. And they did all that only to get the legendary Pokémon Azelf, who they could have potentially killed with that bomb as well.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • With the Physical-Special Split, comes several versions of Hyper Beam: Giga Impactnote , Rock Wrecker note  and Roar of Time note . All 3 of these moves unleash a powerful attack, but just like Hyper Beam, they leave the user completely vulnerable for 1 turn.
    • Regigigas. Introduced in this generation, on paper, it looks like it has amazing stats. But its ability Slow Start halves its Attack and Speed for 5 turns, meaning it goes from tearing teams apart to barely tickling the weakest of fully-evolved Pokémon and being outsped by nearly everything. The time spent burning off the turns aren't permanent either, meaning if Regigigas is forced out, it must go through the process of burning through Slow Start again. Making matters worse is that tons of Pokémon can reach Regigigas's power by boosting their stats once or twice, and to top it all off, in Platinum, you have to raise Regigigas all the way from Level 1. All of the above means that Regigigas is a Pokémon you really shouldn't use if you're looking to win.
    • Any Rampardos using Head Smash. Head Smash is a powerful move, goes well with Rampardos's sky-high attack, and comes with STAB damage. However, half the damage done is dealt back to the user as recoil, and with Rampardos being a slow Glass Cannon, you probably won't be able to use it more than once.
  • Badass Family:
    • This generation's Gym Leader lineup introduces Byron and Roark, a father and son pair who represent Canalave City and Oreburgh City. Byron is also related to the Underground Man, making them, as the game puts it, "a team of dedicated diggers"!
    • There's also the rival, Barry, who is a plenty strong Trainer in his own right, and his absurdly-tough father Palmer, the Battle Tower Tycoon.
    • The protagonist's family applies as well, with their mother being a top-level Pokémon coordinator.
  • Bad Boss: In Platinum, Cyrus gives a Rousing Speech to Team Galactic about how they'll share power in the new world, then gloats to the player that he was lying and the new world is only for himself.
  • Balance Buff:
    • These were the games that fully implemented the Physical-Special split.note  In Generations I-III, moves were classified as either Physical or Special based what type the move in question was (for example, all offensive Ghost-type moves were classified as Physical moves, meaning they only ran off a Pokémon's Attack). The Physical-Special split made it so that each individual move were categorized as either Physical or Special regardless of typing. This made it so that certain Pokémon who excelled in one particular stat but had no reliable STAB moves could finally cut loose (like Gengar and Sneasel for example).
    • The Physical-Special split especially gave Waterfall a badly-needed shot in the arm. Prior to the split, Water-type moves were classified as Special, and Waterfall was stuck as a worse version of Surf, being weaker and only able to hit single targets in Double Battles. There were also tons of Water-types who were stuck using Water moves off their inferior special attack. Starting from these games, Waterfall was made a Physical move, which brings it out from Surf's shadow and gives Water-type physical attackers a solid move to work with. It also gained the ability to make targets flinch.
    • Several moves received power buffs in these games. Notable examples include Leaf Blade going from 70 to 90, Outrage being boosted from 90 to a massive 120, and Rock Smash being brought up from a wimpy 20 to a slightly less wimpy 40.
    • Hypnosis received a notable accuracy buff from 60% to 70%, which was promptly undone in Platinum onward.
    • Absorb, Mega Drain, and Giga Drain all got their PP increased by 5 (to 25, 15, and 10 respectively).
    • Sitrus Berries now heal 25% of a Pokémon's max HP instead of 30 HP, and berries will activate immediately after their HP reach a certain amount rather than at the end of the turn.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: Lost Tower on Route 209 is the typical "resting place"-type dungeon, but there is also the more traditionally haunted Old Chateau in the middle of Eterna Forest.
  • Big Fancy House:
    • The Pokémon Mansion, the property of Mr. Backlot on Route 212. Not only does it have plenty of rooms, many servants and wealthy guests, it also has the Trophy Garden, a lawn available for the public where Pokémon can be encountered that don't exist anywhere else in Sinnoh.
    • The Villa in the Resort Area of Platinum counts as well, with its extensive garden areas, a swimming pool and an interior that the player can decorate themselves.
  • Blackout Basement: This time the only place you need Flash is Wayward Cave, which is why it was demoted to a TM.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • At certain points in the game, you team up with one of five Trainers, often referred to as the Stat Trainers. You explore an area and every battle becomes a Double Battle, and your Pokémon get healed after each battle. It's a good way of leveling up your Pokémon since you're getting more experience by fighting two Pokémon at once, and you don't have to worry about healing your Pokémon afterwards.
    • Starly can be caught early, and will serve the player well until the end of the game on account of Staraptor's great ability, moves, and power, and it also has the ability to use Fly to traverse around Sinnoh.
  • Bowdlerise:
    • The P.I. Trainers are Gamblers in Japan; pay attention to how they talk about chance and how they are flipping a coin in their sprite. Their resemblance to a detective was purely coincidental.
      • The Game Corner itself was bowdlerised, too; the machines lack all functionality in the Korean versions of all three games and the European version of Platinum.
    • A literal translation of one of the myths you can read in the Canalave Library explicitly states that people and Pokémon used to get married to each other. The localization changed it into a metaphor about "[eating] together at the same table" to imply equality with no mention of marriage.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing:
    • Hiker Alexander on Route 208 in Platinum. He only has one Pokémon, but it's a Level 40 Probopass with the moves Block, Thunder Wave, Sandstorm and Rock Slide. If you don't have a Fighting- or Ground-type (or a Mon equipped with a Fighting or Ground move), you'll have an extremely difficult battle on your hands due to its high bulk.
    • There is the duo of Ace Trainers Dennis and Maya at the north entrance to Veilstone City. They use high-powered, high-level Pokémon for that point in the game (Gyarados and Drifblim in Diamond and Pearl, Lickitung and Gligar in Platinum). At this point, you'll only have two or three badges, and if you don't talk to them from the side and instead rush toward the city entrance, you have to battle both of them at once in a Double Battle.
    • Bronzor and Bronzong. Their Psychic/Steel-typing leaves them with only two weaknesses, Fire and Ground, and both of their abilities negate one of those weaknesses. If they have Heatproof, they don't take any extra damage from Fire, and if they have Levitate, they are immune to Ground. Combined with their above-average bulk and access to several moves that inflict Status Effects, they can be a handful to take down.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
  • Breakout Character:
    • Lucario's popularity surged to the point where it essentially became the mascot of the Generation. It got a movie focusing on it, was included in Super Smash Bros. as a playable character, and was even given a Mega Evolution in Pokémon X and Y.
    • Among the cute Pokémon introduced, Piplup stood out from the rest thanks to being a penguin chick and having a prominent role in the anime as Dawn's starter Pokémon. It was the secondary Series Mascot during Generation IV, co-starring with Pikachu in several advertisements and media promotions. It even appeared in Pokémon: I Choose You! movie alongside Lucario as one of the protagonists' main Pokémon.
    • Among the human characters, Cynthia and Looker were popular to the point that subsequent games would try to feature at least one of them.
    • Dawn's status as a costar with Ash in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl has made her into one of the most iconic Pokémon Trainers in the franchise, second only to Red. She completely overshadowed Lucas in the franchise's marketing to the point that she's the only Sinnoh protagonist to appear in Pokémon Masters in the first two years, even getting a special costume for a holiday event.
  • Broken Bridge:
    • A man next to Route 222 won't let you pass because of a blackout in Sunyshore City until after you've beaten the Big Bad. This one is at least slightly justified by the fact that not only did Volkner cause the blackout, it likely would have shut down his Gym, meaning there would be little point in going to Sunyshore anyway.
    • Random people block your way for no legitimate reason. Route 212 is blocked from the northern side, even after you've beaten Hearthome City's Gym, just to make you take a longer path. No badges, no special events, nothing.
    • In Platinum, a battle is blocking the entrance to Canalave City if you manage to Surf there before picking up the HM from Celestic Town.
    • After you escape from the Distortion World in Platinum, you're placed outside the entrance to Turnback Cave. Cynthia just happens to be standing in front of the entrance, and will remain standing there until you defeat her at the Pokémon League.
  • Bubblegloop Swamp: The Great Marsh, as well as some of Route 212.
  • But Thou Must!:
    • You can refuse to help Professor Rowan complete the Pokédex, but he will "stand here without speaking for hours" until you say yes.
    • When you get the Old Rod and Good Rods on Routes 218 and 209 respectively, the Fishermen will ask you if you need an explanation on how to use the rods. Even if you say no, they'll still blab on about them.
    • When you get to the end of Iron Island and Riley offers you the Riolu egg, if you say no, he'll "insist". You have to say yes, even if you have a full party, in which case he'll wait until you come back with a free spot. This is rectified in the remakes, where you can simply send the Egg to the PC since you can now access the Boxes remotely.
    • In Platinum, Cynthia will stop you from going to the bike shop unless you accept the Togepi egg.
    • When you reach Stark Mountain for the first time you encounter Buck who asks you to patrol it for some suspicious activity. If you say "No" he'll keep asking.
  • Captain Obvious: Daisy the Psychic: she states that she will battle you when she catches you, and that she will reluctantly give you prize money when you beat her. Both of which you would know by the time you encounter her, especially since you've beaten the Pokémon League as she's on the island you can only reach via beating the game. Perhaps that's why she uses Pokémon from the Slowpoke line...
  • Capture the Flag: A minigame in the Underground. Capturing enough flags from other player's Secret Bases lets you improve your own base.
  • Cast from Hit Points:
    • The new Life Orb item boosts the power of the holder's attacks by 30%, but every successful hit costs the user 10% of their total HP.
    • The ability Solar Power increases the strength of the user's Special moves in intense sunlight, but saps 1/8th of their maximum HP each turn.
  • Character Select Forcing: In Diamond and Pearl, there are only 2 Fire-type families in the region before the post-game: the Ponyta and Chimchar lines, the latter being a starter. This had to be known by GameFreak, as they made one of the Elite Four a Fire-type user and only 2 of his Pokémon are actually Fire-type, and it doesn't actually include every Pokémon introduced in Generation IV. This was fixed in Platinum.
  • Central Theme: According to Word of God, the theme of the Sinnoh games is "Ultimateness" - or, in more palatable terms, the absolute. Traces of this theme can be seen in many aspects of the game:
    • Diamonds are generally believed to be the rarest and hardest-to-break gemstones, and Pearls are said to be among the most valuable.
    • The main legendaries, depending on the legendary and the game, are fought at either the highest point in the region, the lowest, or the most far-removed.
    • Arceus, a hidden legendary, is said to be the absolute creator of everything. Likewise, the game's villainous organization - Team Galactic - aims to bring about the absolute end to everything.
  • Chromatic Arrangement: These games notably feature the subtractive colors cyan, magenta, and yellow.
    • Player Characters Lucas and Dawn cover Cyan and Magenta by wearing Pink Girl, Blue Boy clothes, while Barry and Cynthia both cover yellow with their blonde hair.
    • Dialga and Palkia have strips of cyan and magenta across their bodies, while Giratina's armored portions provide the yellow.
    • The heads of the Lake Trio Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie also have these colors.
  • Color Motif: Blue, pink and yellow are prominent color in several aspects of Sinnoh, ranging from the protagonists, the lake trio and the mascot Legendaries note . The Shellos line are (depending on the variant) blue or pink with yellow trimmings.
  • Company Cross References: An NPC in the Lost Tower is a Roughneck named Kirby and uses Cleffa, a pink spherical Pokémon that is associated with stars. Why does that sound so familiar?note 
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
    • The Team Galactic admins have Pokémon at levels way before they should be available — Purugly and Skuntank at level 16/17 when neither is supposed to evolve until its 30s.
    • The Battle Hall in Platinum prevents the player from using Pokémon below Level 30, though this doesn't stop the AI from doing so.
  • Console Cameo: This time both playable characters and Barry have a Wii in their room. Additionally a Wii is one of the items available as a decoration in the player's Underground Secret Bases, simply called a "game system".
  • Convenient Weakness Placement:
    • If you're having trouble with Water-type Gym Leader Crasher Wake in Pastoria City, the nearby Great Marsh happens to have a decent selection of Grass-types you can use against him.
    • The routes between Mt. Coronet and Snowpoint City contain a couple Fighting-types you can use for Ice-type Gym Leader Candice.
  • Cooking Mechanics: Making Poffins for contests requires playing a mini-game where you stir batter with your stylus, trying not to burn it or spill it. How well you do and the type of berry you add changes the flavor and strength of the Poffin.
  • Cosmic Egg: These games established the origin myth of the Pokémon universe: In the beginning there was only chaos, and in this chaos there was a single egg, from which Arceus hatched. Arceus them created three more eggs, from which Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina hatched. Lastly, it created an egg from which the Lake Trio emerged.
  • Cosmic Horror Reveal: Cyrus, the Big Bad attempts to destroy and re-create the entire universe as he sees fit. He does this by imprisoning three legendary Pokémon (Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit) in order to create an object called the "Red Chain" which he then uses to summon Dialga and Palkia (who happen to be the God of Time and God of Space respectively). Cyrus then attempts to use their power to bend reality and reshape the universe in his image. In Pokemon Platinum, this causes Giratina (a ghostly dragon-god living in an alternate dimension) to become enraged and drags Cyrus into its world (a bizarre realm where the laws of physics and so forth are far beyond human understanding. Appropriately, it's called the "Distortion World"). And, once again, it's up to the player to save the day.
  • Crescent Moon Island:
    • Despite its name, a place called "Fullmoon Island" exists, which is vaguely crescent-shaped alongside having a crescent pond in its center. Here, you find the appropriately-named Legendary Pokémon Cresselia, who roams Sinnoh upon encounter but leaves behind a special Lunar Wing to help off her counterpart Darkrai's nightmares.
    • Newmoon Island is also a vaguely crescent-shaped and is a mirrored version of Fullmoon Island, which makes sense given Darkrai, Cresselia's counterpart, resides there.
  • Crutch Character: See the series' page here.
  • Cutting Off the Branches: In Black and White, Cynthia refers to Dawn/Lucas fighting Giratina. Cynthia is not present for the DP Giratina fight (which is a minor optional fight in those games on top of that), implying Platinum is the canonical game.
  • Darker and Edgier: The opening of the game and title screen certainly invoke this, but the adventure itself doesn't venture outside the tonal norm for Pokémon games before or after, aside from the bigger stakes for the world compared to the last game, which is really mainly explored towards the end of the main story.
    • The first thing you see when booting up the games is the copyright info against a dark screen and low, foreboding droning music, the creepiness of which is even worse in Platinum. The intro itself is tame and harkens to the bright, happy, adventurous tone all Pokémon game intros (sans the first Black & White) are known for.
    • After said region and protagonist montage, it goes back, to set the mood for the subsequent title screen: a thunderous Mt. Coronet (Diamond/Pearl) or a demonic Giratina's face above the Distortion World's portal (Platinum), each backed with dramatic and unnerving music as we zoom into the respective subject and end up in a dark void with only a model of the cover legendary who's lit only by an occasional blue/pink/red (with gold highlights) glow respectively, and in Dialga and Palkia's case, the titular jewel on their body and their red eyes. The title screen is just that, with the only music being the same droning tone heard at the beginning, only continuous (DP's being accompanied by an occasional ominous chime and a weird scrape-like sound while Platinum has two slow, eerie, high pitched notes repeatedly played after the other with irregular timing). The cheery, iconic series' main theme isn't in the title screen like all the other games before or since, which can really inspire unsettling feelings going into one of these three for the first time. As stated before though, other than the much bigger stakes at the climax of the story, the overall adventure has its emotional highs and lows as much as the others.
    • The previous generation's villains were misguided Well Intentioned Extremists who wanted to either raise the land or the seas, and they ultimately see the error of their ways once they realize they went too far with their plans by summoning the legendary Pokémon in the Hoenn Region. Cyrus is a far darker and complex villain who is an Omnicidal Maniac that intends to reset or rewrite the universe (or both in Platinum), and doesn't care who stands in his way as long as he accomplishes his goals. Unlike Maxie and Archie, who both saw the near-fatal consequences of awakening and angering the mascot legendary Pokémon, Cyrus does not and still plans to resume that goal (even when trapped in the Distortion World by Giratina).
    • Whereas Team Rocket was a criminal empire and Team Aqua and Magma tried to expand the world, their villainous acts did not involve kidnapping and torturing Pokémon, and committing full-on terrorism such as blowing up the Great Marsh and Lake Valor, the two historical sites in the game.
  • The Day the Music Lied: In Diamond and Pearl, Rotom uses the Legendary Battle theme. While certainly rare in every game it's available in, it has always been able to be bred (albeit only with Ditto because it lacks a gender), a sure sign of not being a legendary.
  • Death Mountain: Mount Coronet, which is by far the biggest and most complex dungeon in a Pokémon game. It is a very straightforward dungeon on your first time through, but the second and third times take you first to Sinnoh's icy northern area, then to Spear Pillar at the actual mountain top. There's also Stark Mountain in the postgame, through which you initially travel with Buck.
  • Developer's Foresight: Has its own page here.
  • Disc-One Nuke: See the series' page here.
  • Disconnected Side Area: In Floaroma Meadow, visited between the first and the second badge, the North Area is visible and separated only by a small ledge. However, you can only access this area much, much later, as you need the HM Surf to reach it via a long detour.
  • Divine Assistance: Happens in Diamond and Pearl. Just when Cyrus would have succeeded with the creation of his new universe, the Lake Trio, who have previously been freed by the protagonist, appear, destroy the Red Chain that had bound Dialga/Palkia, and thereby make the new universe collapse.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The game and its remake's map and locations differs greatly from its distant prequel Pokémon Legends: Arceus. This includes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl:
    • The location of the moss rock. In these games and the remakes, it's in Eterna Forest, and that area is near Floaroma Town and Eterna City. In Legends Arceus, the moss rock is located in the third main island's forest in the Obsidian Fields. The Ice Rock likewise is located near Lake Acuity, but the rock in Legends Arecus is in a hole.
    • Floaroma Town is located north of Jubilife City, but the area itself if you use an Old Save Bonus from Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is nowhere near that location. In Legends Arceus, Shaymin's Gracidea garden is near where future Twinleaf Town and Sandgem Town would be.
    • As for Jubilife City, it is shown to be a landlocked city and connected to other routes and towns. In Legends, it's connected to the ocean, and several people from other regions had arrived from other regions to Hisui.
    • The Snowpoint Temple in this game has an unusual Bizarrchitecture. There's no stairs leading to the top of the temple, only below. And going each lower level leads to Regigias. In Legends Arceus, it has multiple stairs and puzzles that leads you to the top, and lower level doors lead to Regigias.
  • Easter Egg: If you play around with the Pokétch calculator and your result happens to match up with the Sinnoh/National Dex number of a Pokémon you've seen at least, it plays their cry.
  • Eldritch Location: In Platinum, Giratina lives in a strange alternate dimension called the Distortion World. Time does not flow, space does not expand, and gravity is not a consistent concept in this strange reality. There are a few points where the camera changes angles and the character is walking sideways or upside-down. Finally, there are some spots where the plants appear or disappear depending on where you stand.
  • Eternal Engine: The Fuego Ironworks is a factory where Oreburgh's coal is refined into mechanical parts. As part of an optional sidequest, the player can visit Mr. Fuego who will reward with an item.
  • Exposed to the Elements: In Diamond and Pearl, the protagonist is somehow able to survive the likes of Snowpoint City with just a t-shirt and jeans (for the boy) or a short, sleeveless dress (for the girl) and a scarf. This is averted in Platinum, where the protagonists are wearing jackets.
    • Platinum also exaggerates and lampshades it with Maylene, who walks all the way to Snowpoint in nothing more than a leotard and sweatpants (she's even barefoot). She sneezes while explaining to the player that she's going to visit Candice, but she's otherwise suffering no ill effects for this by the time she's met in Snowpoint's Center.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Uxie's are. According to the Pokédex, it's because looking into its eyes will wipe your memories.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Map: Sinnoh's map strongly resembles Hokkaido.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: The Lucario, Roselia, and Mime Jr. from the kiosk demo of the game.
    • Lucario is the fighter—Bone Rush gives it the most damage output potential and its support moves are Me First, which hits the foe with its own attack, and Metal Sound, which weakens the foe to set it up for the attacks of Roselia and Mime Jr.
    • Roselia is the mage—its support moves Grasswhistle and Leech Seed both induce Status Effects and Magical Leaf is an Always Accurate Attack.
    • Mime Jr. is the thief—it knows both Mimic and Copycat to help itself to the foe's moves at will.
  • First Town: Twinleaf Town has the houses of the two playable characters and your rival, but Professor Rowan's Lab is found in the next town.
  • Forced Tutorial: Annoying as always, but the really annoying part is that you can have already captured Pokémon by the time it is given and your tutorial giver makes no mention of it.
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • There have been reports of Pokémon straight up disappearing from the PC due to unknown causes.
    • Platinum only, and carried over to HeartGold and SoulSilver: the Acid Rain glitch will cause every weather to activate at once if a Pokémon faints to Pursuit while attempting to switch out if a weather is in play during a Player Versus Player battle. If Castform or Cherrim are sent out after the glitch has been triggered they will constantly transform due to their abilities being weather-dependent and cause the battle to softlock, requiring a restart.
  • Gender-Equal Ensemble: This region's Gym Leaders. Four male (Roark, Byron, Crasher Wake, Volkner) and four female (Gardenia, Fantina, Maylene, Candice).
  • Girly Run: When deciding on your gender while starting Platinum, you're presented with Lucas and Dawn in a running motion which becomes animated while under selection. Dawn's arms noticeably flail compared to Lucas' normal run.
  • Gravity Screw: The Distortion World in Platinum has various sections where the gravity will shift.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: There are 5 Trainers you can team up with over the course of the game. They'll accompany you through the area you meet them up in, participating in Tag Battles with you against other Trainers and Random Encounters and healing your team after every battle. You can also team up with them in the Battle Tower (all games) and fight them in the Battleground (Platinum only), but only if you've traveled with them to the end of their area.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • There's a trick to make the same Mon pop up repeatedly while using the Poké Radar and (eventually) increase the likelihood of a Shiny appearing. Naturally, neither trick is alluded to anywhere in-game and isn't even mentioned in official guides.
    • Getting Spiritomb involves several steps that the game never tells you about. You have to put the Odd Keystone in the Hallowed Tower at Route 209, talk with 32 other players in the Underground, and come back to the Hallowed Tower to find Spiritomb.
    • To get the National Dex, you need to see all 150 of the Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex. Given that you'll encounter 99% of them just by playing through the story, this isn't too bad. However, three slots belong to Pokémon that can be very easy to miss:
      • #114 belongs to Unown, which isn't used by any in-game Trainers. Instead, they only appear in the Solaceon Ruins, which are very easy to miss your first time though as nothing else sends you there. It's telling that typing "Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl dex..." into Google has "...#114" as one of the top autofill results as players look up what they're missing.
      • #115 belongs to Riolu. This one isn't quite as severe, as you will see Lucario (#116), can deduce that you're missing Riolu if you know what Lucario evolves from, and one Trainer in the game does have a Riolu. However, that one Trainer, Veteran Grant, is in the optional basement section of Oreburgh Gate, which you have long passed at that point and are not prompted to return to when you can face him. In addition, you can only get your own Riolu by hatching the egg given to you by Riley on Iron Island, an optional (and easy-to-miss) dungeon.
      • Another easily missable Pokémon is the version mascot of the opposite version. Players can't obtain it in their game, but you can talk to Cynthia's grandmother and she'll show you a picture of it, which will be enough to add it to the Pokédex.
      • There is only one trainer in the game who uses Drifloon, in Hearthome Gym, and once you beat that Gym you can't battle them again and have to wait up to a week to find Drifloon outside Valley Windworks (an arguable Guide Dang It! in and of itself) on a Friday. It was further exacerbated by the games generally releasing on a Friday, as the Team Galactic occupation prevents Drifloon from showing up.
    • After you beat Cyrus the first time (in Diamond and Pearl) or the second time (in Platinum), the game will tell you that Team Galactic has gone to the top of Mt. Coronet. Only, it doesn't tell you exactly how to get there. After you get Surf in all three games, you can go across the pond in the southern part of the mountain to find it, but the path will be blocked off. It will only be cleared after you complete the Team Galactic building in Veilstone.
    • Getting a Regigigas is a combination of this trope and The Key Is Behind the Lock. The only way to get a Regigigas is to have all three Regis, which you'd normally have to transfer from the Gen III games. But you can also use Regis caught in Platinum. And how do you get those Regis? Simple: by already having another Regigigas gotten through an event! In other words: you need a Regigigas to get a Regigigas!
    • The herbal medicines' relations to the friendship system are not so easily understood at a glance; while the description for the herbs goes out of their way to mention how bitter they are, it doesn't outright tell you that using them on a Pokémon results in a hit to their friendship values. Pair this with the fact that the shop which sells them is early in the game, making it enticing to early-game players as a way to get access to high-powered restoratives, and you end up with many players wondering why their Pokémon don't seem to like them very much.
    • Friendship is never actually explained in-game. Players might be surprised and confused when the game randomly starts giving them information about some of their mons current mood and reactions during fights, something that only happens once they've achieved a high friendship level.
    • Getting the two new Eevee evolutions is rather unintuitive. Many players assumed Leafeon would evolve with a Leaf Stone (an item that's been around since the first games), much like Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon with their respective stones. However, both Leafeon and Glaceon require leveling up in specific locations (near a Moss Rock or Ice Rock, respectively). The remakes partially Retcon Leafeon's evolution method by making it evolve from Eevee with a Leaf Stone in addition to the first method, which is carried over from Sword & Shield since Galar doesn't have a Moss Rock. They also carry over Glaceon's ability to evolve with an Ice Stone, which was first introduced in later generations. Furthermore, if you were trying to get an Espeon or Umbreon (which both evolve based on friendship), but happened to level your Eevee up in a location with one of the evolution-inducing rocks, you'd get a Leafeon or Glaceon instead.
  • Headbutting Pachy: Cranidos and its evolution Rampardos are both based on pachycephalosaurs, and both are routinely shown performing head-butting attacks.
  • Holiday Mode: At certain dates of the year, including the Christmas days, all snow and hail in the game world changes to diamond dust.While it mostly looks beautiful and doesn't affect gameplay, it does indeed nulllify all natural hail in the snowy regions.
  • Inn Between the Worlds: You know that one inn in Canalave with the worn-out sign and the perpetually locked door? If you get a certain item made available via Nintendo Event (or hack it into your game with a cheating device), you'll be able to enter, being told that you have a reservation. The innkeeper seems quite suspicious, and after you go to sleep, you'll be plagued with nightmares similar to what Sailor Eldritch's son had in the Cresselia quest and either wake up on Newmoon Island or travel there in the nightmare; it's a bit ambiguous. Darkrai can be found there, and after you catch or defeat it, you'll travel back to the inn, where the innkeeper is nowhere to be found; it's somewhat implied that the innkeeper was Darkrai.
  • An Interior Designer Is You: Players can create their bases in the Underground and decorate them as they please.
  • Interspecies Romance: In the Japanese version, one of the Sinnoh stories found in the Canalave Library says humans and Pokémon used to marry each other.
  • In-Universe Game Clock: Made use of the Nintendo DS's internal clock in a similar manner to how the second generation of games used a clock built into the cartridge, and future DS games kept that feature.
  • The Jeeves: Mr. Backlot's Butler is certainly a Hypercompetent Sidekick while always loyal to his master. After you receive the National Pokédex, every day Mr. Backlot will boast about another rare Pokémon he has encountered will strolling in his Trophy Garden. The butler quickly notices this, and, after short consultation with Mr. Backlot, will leave the facility and the next time you enter the Trophy Garden, said Pokémon will indeed be there, although it doesn't exist anywhere else in the entire Sinnoh Region. If you inquire the butler about it, he will only state how impressed he is that this Pokémon is indeed in the garden, and how his doubts about his master were wrong.
  • Kubrick Stare: Cyrus does this (to the 4th wall most likely) near the end of the intro to Platinum.
  • Lava Pot Volcano: In the base games, Stark Mountain is a fairly sedate rocky peak. In Platinum, the crater on its peak contains a pair of bubbling, smoking pools of lava.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading:
    • This set of games has small, but noticeable, wait times everywhere, including 15 second save times. There's also considerable lag in battles between animations, even with the animations off. Fixed in Platinum.
    • Diamond and Pearl may give you a message when you save that it's "saving a lot of data," which means it will take about three times as long to load. This is caused by the Box System. If you catch a Pokémon and it's sent to the box, prepare to take a while to save. If you look at the Box System for one second and don't even bother touching anything, prepare to take a long while to save. If you go hours on your journey without bothering to mess with the Box System, you'll save in a few seconds. This is because doing anything with the boxes triggers a flag that causes the game to calculate the checksums of all boxed Pokémon data on the next save, to make sure nothing got corrupted. It's a good programming practice taken into overdrive.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Stark Mountain in Platinum. Being an active volcano, it has pools of lava and is home to the legendary Pokémon Heatran.
  • The Lost Woods: Eterna Forest is a natural maze with a thick canopy that blocks out most sunlight. The back of the forest is home to the abandoned Old Chateau that seems to be haunted by real ghosts and Ghost-types.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
  • Magikarp Power: Combee starts off knowing three moves, can only learn more with the help of the Move Tutors in Platinum (so if you have Diamond or Pearl, you're out of luck), and its stats are lousy. Also, its ability is only useful for producing Encounter Bait. But if you can get your hands on an elusive female and raise her up to level 21, you'll have yourself a Vespiquen, a combination of a bee and a battleship with a touch of European royalty. Not only are her stats better, but she has a much wider variety of attacks to choose from, including three signature moves each revolving around controlling swarms of Combee, and she has good abilities to choose from.
  • Mascot Mook: Dialga for Diamond, Palkia for Pearl, and Giratina for Platinum.
  • The Maze: Turnback Cave is very cryptic and the player will find themselves moving around in circles constantly unless they follow a series of patterns to get through.note  At any time, going back through the door you entered will take you back to the entry room. At the end of the cave is Giratina in Diamond & Pearl' and another entrance to the Distortion World in Platinum.
  • Mind Screw: The Distortion World in Platinum. Plants, rocks and entire platforms vanish and appear depending on your proximity to them, you can walk sideways or upside down, and you can surf down a waterfall without even having the HM. All the while Giratina flies around, periodically crying out.
  • Missing Secret:
    • Mr. Backlot's mansion consists of a hallway with doors to five rooms and the back garden (which is the only important part anyway). At each end of the hallway, there's a door blocked by a maid who says that the rest of the mansion is private and off limits. They never leave or let you through. The reason for this is probably to demonstrate that the mansion (which does look like a mansion from outside) consists of more than five rooms. Also, one of the rooms contains a statue that you're not allowed to touch. The security guard who won't let you in front of it works 23 hours a day. If you go there between 5 AM and 6 AM, you can touch the statue, but there's still no point in doing so.
    • Without cheating or legitimately obtaining the event items (which isn't possible anymore in the original game), you will never find out what's inside the locked building in Canalave City, or what that white rock at the end of route 224 is used for.
  • Metal Slime: Beldum. It can only be found as a swarm Pokémon, meaning it can only be encountered for one day at a time after beating the game and it can potentially take weeks before a Beldum swarm shows up. Beldum has a catch rate on par with most legendaries, which means an extremely low likelihood of catching it even if it's at 1 HP and asleep/paralyzed. It also only appears in a route with a perpetual sandstorm that whittles down your Pokémon's HP unless it's a Steel, Rock, or Ground-type. If that's not all, Beldum's only move learned naturally is Take Down, which damages the user every time it's used. You can block Take Down with a Ghost-type, but there are no Ghost-types immune to sandstorm damage in those games, meaning you have to waste a turn healing every now and then. And if you don't catch it before it runs out of uses for Take Down, it can damage itself with Struggle. It's worth it, though - Beldum eventually evolves into the extremely powerful Metagross.
  • Mundane Utility:
    • The boss of the Pokétch company demonstrates his device's functions to you by counting your coupons. Yes, he uses his fancy wristwatch to count to three.
    • The Dowsing Machine Pokétch app can be used to look for hidden items or the mystical Plates, ...or a lost hotel key.
  • Musical Nod: The Sinnoh Gym Leader theme rearranges part of the theme for the Olivine Lighthouse and Mt. Silver from Pokémon Gold and Silver. The themes are nearly identical in places.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Some Team Galactic members who were closely involved in The torture of the Lake Trio and the creation of the Red Chain suffer from this. One of them states that although they are a devout believer of the cause, this is still unacceptable, and another wonders how they'll ever be able to justify this.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Three Trainers from the Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker and Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys movies appear as Ace Trainers in the Battle Zone. Butler and Diane from movie 6 appear on Route 229, the two of them sharing four of the Pokémon Butler owned in the movie. Rebecca (named "Hitomi" in Japan) from movie 7 appears on Route 224 with her Metagross. The English translation team did not notice this Easter Egg however, as Butler and Diane are renamed "Felix" and "Dana", respectively, and Rebecca/Hitomi is renamed "Jamie" instead.
    • Diamond and Pearl open up with a TV documentary about a sighting of a red Gyarados.
    • One of the guards in the houses connecting routes will complain about his thirst. Luckily, he's not on duty, so he can't stall your progress.
    • Once all of the events involving him have been completed, Looker can be found at the Veilstone Game Corner, apparently on a long run at the slots. Given that the "Gambler" Trainer class was Bowdlerized into being detectives internationally, finding an actual detective on a gambling binge makes perfect sense. note 
  • Mystical 108: Diamond version's Pokédex description of Spiritomb is "A Pokémon that was formed by 108 spirits. It is bound to a fissure in an Odd Keystone." Both its Defense and Special Defense are 108, its Regional Pokédex number is 108, and it weighs 108 kg.
  • Nerf:
    • Hypnosis' accuracy was reduced to 60% in Platinum after Diamond and Pearl increased it to 70%.
    • A quite cruel, but hilarious one happens to poor ol' Regigigas in Platinum. In Diamond and Pearl, this legendary is level 70, but in Platinum, the legendary is Level 1. That's right, the big Daddy of Golems starts with the level of an infant Pokémon.
    • Surf, one of the best Water-type moves in Generation III, was nerfed by no longer avoiding your ally in Double Battles.
  • Never Recycle a Building: The Old Chateau was abandoned several decades ago (at least), yet still stands more or less untouched since it was vacated despite being literally on Eterna City's doorstep. This probably has something to do with the fact that it became overrun with Ghost Pokémon at some point.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Galactic Grunt that guards the door to the Valley Windworks building retreats inside and locking the door would have been a great idea had he not stated another Grunt had a copy of the key...
  • No Fair Cheating: If you spawn Pokémon through an Action Replay device, and spawn legendary Pokémon outside of events they're connected to, they are not considered legitimate because they do not have Fateful Encounter as a meeting point. Doubly so if you spawn Arceus and send it to HeartGold and SoulSilver, it will not trigger the Sinjoh Event to spawn to Creation Trio.
  • Noob Cave: Oreburgh Gate. It is just a straightforward cave on the first visit with only two Trainers. Of course the cave is deeper than that, but HMs are needed to explore further.
  • North Is Cold, South Is Hot: In the Sinnoh region, the south is warm enough that people can swim in the ocean, while the north is stuck in perpetual snow.
  • Number of the Beast: Giratina, which has some Satanic qualities according to what we see about it, has 6 armored plates below its head, six legs, and six spikes on its wings, evoking this trope.
  • Old Save Bonus:
    • Dual-Slot Mode allows you to encounter Pokémon that normally don't show up in the wild (like Gengar) by having a copy of one of the Gen III games in the bottom slot of the DS. This only works when played on the original Nintendo DS or DS Lite, since the DSi onward lacked the slot for Game Paks.
    • The Pal Park feature allow the player to transfer Pokémon from the third generation by inserting one of the games in the GBA slot.
    • By completing Pokémon Battle Revolution, the player can receive a Pikachu that knows Surf via Mystery Gift.
  • Olympus Mons: These games take it to the logical conclusion by making the Title Legendaries Physical Gods with extreme reality-warping powers.
  • Palmtree Panic: The Resort area counts as this because it is a beachside resort town.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: See the series' page here.
  • Permanently Missable Content: Platinum is the first game in the series to avert this with catching the legendary Pokémon. In Diamond and Pearl, legendary Pokémon would be unobtainable for the rest of the playthrough if you fled from or defeated them, just as in all games before them. Starting with Platinum'', you can battle them again after beating the Pokémon League.
  • Play Every Day: As it's tradition for the series, this game features various daily events, especially after receiving the National Pokédex.
    • Prior to receiving the National Dex, you can draw a lottery ticket in Jubilife City, and fight a new trainer in the same place. Various other places have daily trainer battles as well. You can get two berries in Floaroma Town and Route 208, respectively, you can give your Pokémon a massage (two in Platinum), some vendors change their daily stock, and the Pokémon encountered in the Great Marsh change.
    • After receiving the National Dex, swarms of wild and previously unencountered Pokémon will roam a random route only for this day, there will be a new Pokémon available in the Trophy Garden, you can transfer up to 6 Pokémon from the Game Boy Advance games, and your rival waits for you for a daily battle in the Fight Area.
  • Plot Lock: Route 210 is blocked by a group of Psyduck, which you could've defeated easily, but instead you have to get a Secret Potion because they have headaches.
  • Pop Quiz: Hearthome's Gym in Diamond & Pearl requires you to answer basic math equations to avoid battle, which means answering them wrong if you do want to battle each Trainer. Fortunately Platinum changed this Gym, completely eliminating the math puzzle.
  • Port Town: There are three this time: the industrialized Canalave City, the frigid Snowpoint City, and the tourist-friendly Sunyshore City. Despite all being at opposite ends of the map, these are actually the locations of the final three Gyms you'll face.
  • Pun:
    • From a Skier: "As we skiers like to say, 'spur thing!'"
    • Also, from a Birdkeeper with a Noctowl: "We'll show you 'owl' best!"
  • Regional Redecoration: Floaroma Town used to be a desolate hill until someone expressed thanks for a blessing of nature and the entire hill burst into bloom, which is implied to have been the work of Shaymin. The evidence being that during the Oak's Letter event it turns the rocky hill both Lucas/Dawn and Professor Oak are standing into a grassy flower field after the former gives thanks for their journey, before heading off to the Flower Paradise.
  • Rewrite: Platinum changes the circumstances of how you obtain your starter, possibly to avoid any Fridge Logic when you meet Looker, as he is searching for Pokémon thieves. note 
  • Schrödinger's Question: Barry and Professor Rowan's assistant (Lucas or Dawn) use the starter Pokémon the player didn't take. Justified with Barry as he took his Pokémon from Rowan's briefcase after the player, but Rowan's assistant had their Pokémon long before the game started.
    • If Dawn is Rowan's assistant, she will comment that if the player had chosen differently, he could have the same Pokémon as her. Which can't happen due to the Schrödinger's Question in play.
    • Lucas and Dawn themselves are another Schrödinger's Question. Whatever gender the player chooses for their character, the opposite gendered character is Rowan's assistant.
  • Sequel Hook: Cyrus is never apprehended, and in Platinum he is still somewhere in the Distortion World. His last lines to the player imply he'll try something again.
  • Sequence Breaking: Once you get to Solaceon Town, you actually don't need to complete any of the towns or beat the Gym Leaders in them to progress further down the routes. The only areas blocked off here are Celestic Townnote  and Sunyshore Citynote . So, if you really want to, you can circle around all the way back to Hearthome City. Granted, the only reason worth doing this would be to open a shortcut to the Pokémon Mansion, or if there's a Pokémon you just want/need that much that's only available on those routes, but it is a possibility.
  • Shared Family Quirks: Barry is always in a hurry and tends to bump into people. When you finally meet his father, Palmer, it's made clear that this behavior was inherited.
  • Sheathe Your Sword: An interesting variation. It is perfectly possible to move the plot forward in Platinum by defeating or capturing Giratina, but you can also simply refuse to fight it by running. The game, through Cyrus being astounded at simply choosing to not fight it making Giratina come to its senses, will acknowledge this decision.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Route 228 is a desert route with a constantly-raging sandstorm.
  • Shout-Out
    • There's a Trainer in the post-game part of Victory Road that wants to judo chop you.
    • One of the Galactic Grunts makes a reference to Sony's 2006 E3 presentation, specifically the "for massive damage" line.
    • The lead translator was a Something Awful regular, and decided to throw in a reference to a Let's Play from the site. The female Interviewer that can be battled in the Jubilife TV station had her name was translated as "Roxy" since she uses a Wooper, after the player character from Chorocojo's run of Pokémon Crystal.
    • The area in which the most powerful Steel Pokémon is found is called Stark Mountain.
    • The Pokémon Rotom is clearly based on Pulseman, and one possible translation of Team Galactic's name is "Galaxy Gang". And speaking of Pulseman, a bit of the Pulseman overworld music is used in the 2nd last part of the rival's (Barry's) battle theme.
    • On Iron Island, there is a worker named Noel who says that he is a working-class hero.
    • Who does Looker remind you of? In addition to his appearance, in this game alone he investigates criminals threatening time and space, acts eccentrically, and is generally a Non-Action Guy. Later games would have him constantly popping up as the Doctor does. He's even implied to visit alternate dimensions.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Route 217 is covered in snow and plagued by a constant snowstorm. Snowpoint City is a snowy town, and the Gym plays this straight with the typical sliding ice puzzles. The upper areas of Mt. Coronet's outdoor portion are also cold and snowy.
  • Solar Punk: The franchise in general has elements of this, but Sunyshore City is the most literal incarnation of this aesthetic. It's a coastal city that looks mostly rural and sparsely developed except for the prominent solar panel walkways that power the entire grid. Floaroma Town is also a pastoral flower paradise powered by wind energy. Oreburgh City is the opposite: an old mining town, but as the first Gym, it creates a symbolic contrast with the end of the Badge quest in Sunyshore.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Who'd expect the BGM for places known as the Fight Area and Survival Area to be peppy carnival music? This also carries into Platinum's Frontier Brain theme, which is derived from the Fight Area BGM and thus gives the Superboss Trainers of the region some of the most upbeat battle music in the entire series.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Team Galactic buildings have big honking spikes sticking out from their sides. Even moreso in Platinum, which makes them look more detailed and streamlined. The locals comments on this penchant, wondering if it's fashionable.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: The characters and some props are sprites while the buildings and overworld are 3D models.
  • Superboss:
    • Getting a win streak of 20 in the Battle Frontier facilities (50 in the Battle Hall) lets you fight that facility's Frontier Brain. Getting a streak of 49 (170 in the Battle Hall) lets you fight them again with a different team. In Diamond and Pearl only Tower Tycoon Palmer can be fought since the Battle Tower is the only facility available in those games.
    • In Platinum, there is an area called the Battleground in the Survival Area where you can rematch all of the Gym Leaders with new teams and fight the Guest Star Party Members you've encountered.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: The lady at the front desk of the Canalave Library, after the earthquake.
    "It certainly wasn't me who screamed 'Gyaaah!!' or shouted 'Help meee!!' No really, that wasn't me screaming!"
  • Temple of Doom: The Solaceon Ruins. The player can encounter and catch Unown here. See them all, and you can access the top floor of the ruins from a tunnel on Route 214.
  • Temporary Online Content: Pretty much anything involving Wi-Fi, since Nintendo had permanently shut down Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to replace it with the Nintendo Network (which Diamond/Pearl/Platinum aren't compatible with).
  • Terrible Trio: The three commanders of Team Galactic, with Jupiter and Mars being the henchmen and Saturn, who is introduced relatively late during the main story, being the apparent leader of the three. Of course, they all report to the true leader of Team Galactic, Cyrus
  • Third-Option Adaptation:
    • In Diamond, Cyrus summons Dialga for his plans. In Pearl, Cyrus summons Palkia. In Platinum, he summons both, only for Giratina to intervene.
    • There is a statue in Eterna City that looks like both Dialga and Palkia. In Diamond, the plaque identifies it as a statue of Dialga. In Pearl, the plaque identifies it as a statue of Palkia. In Platinum, the plaque on the statue has been torn off and the player character can't tell which one it is. Later in the game, the reconstructed inscriptions from both plaques from Diamond and Pearl can be found and read in the Galactic Veilstone Building, but without a way to tell which one belongs on the statue, leaving its inspiration ambiguous once again.
  • Third-Person Person: Mira, one of the possible Trainers you can team up with during your journeys, speaks like this.
  • Toggling Setpiece Puzzle:
    • Raising and lowering water levels in the Pastoria City Gym. To reach the leader, you have to navigate a maze designed around staircases, rafts that serve as bridges, and switches that control the water level. The color of the switch indicates the exact level it will shift the level into; the order from lowest to highest is: Yellow, green, blue.
    • Pressing color-coded switches to rotate large clockwork cogs to reroute path junctions in Sunyshore City Gym. Each switch is in the center of a clockwork cog, and pressing it will make both its cog and all others; some will rotate clockwise and others counterclockwise. Also, green and blue switches make the cogs rotate 90 degrees (the difference between both colors is that the green switches will make each cog rotate in a specific orientation while the blue ones make them rotate the other way), while red ones make them rotate 180 degrees. The player has to work around these setups to navigate through the junctions and reach the gym leader.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: All of Platinum's marketing was based around the Distortion World and Giratina's true form.
  • Troll:
    • A lady named Mindy will trade her Haunter for a Medicham in Snowpoint City. Expect a Gengar without having to buy another game/trading with friends? Too bad. Said Haunter holds an Everstone, so it will not evolve. Even she is apathetic about it, and her brother, who lives in the same house, states that he loves his sister's humor.
    • The Canalave Gym is a Steel-type Gym. To get to Gym Leader Byron, you fight a bunch of Trainers who all have Steel-type Pokémon. Then the last Trainer suddenly throws an Azumarill at you.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable: It's possible to permanently strand yourself on a certain island on Route 226 after trading a Finneon (which can learn Surf) to an NPC for a Magikarp (which can't). However, the circumstances are so obscure, as well as Route 226 being a post-game route, that it's highly unlikely that anyone would ever have it happen to them: you need to have Finneon as the only Pokémon able to learn Surf, nothing in your party with Fly or Teleport, no Rare Candies to get the Magikarp to evolve into Gyarados (which learns Surf) and no fishing rod to either get experience to evolve Magikarp, catch something else to learn Surf, or get yourself knocked out to go back to a Pokémon Center. Although all three fishing rods are optional, Finneon needs a Good Rod to be caught, meaning that Finneon needs to be traded from another game to make stranding yourself possible. This is one reason why later games simply prevent the player from trading away anything in their party that knows an HM move, and the remakes simply make Fly an unlockable Field Move in the Pokétch, which summons a Staraptor for you so you can easily escape.
  • Unique Enemy: Prior to getting the National Dex, some Pokémon cannot be encountered as opponents in the wild and are only used by a single, not story-bound, trainer. These Pokémon include Bastiodon, Machamp, Wormadam, Clefable, and Riolu. If you select a starter other than Infernape, Empoleon is this as well (otherwise, your rival will have one).
  • Unsound Effect: When visiting Dr. Footstep, instead of speaking, a few voiceless Pokémon will say, "Ssshhhnnn... ... Ssshhhnnn... ... Ssshhhnnn... ...", which is similar to the Japanese "sound effect" for silence.
  • Video Game Delegation Penalty: As per previous generations, you may choose to leave two of your Mons at the Pokémon Day Care. Pokémon in Day Care gain one experience point per every step the player takes. While it's nice to have a Pokémon leveling up while you simply walk around, there are several drawbacks to this method. For one, Pokémon in Day Care will not evolve. Two, if a Pokémon reaches a level where it can learn a new move, it will always learn that move; if the Pokémon already knows four moves, its first move will be forgotten and the new move will be placed last. This can lead to your Mons forgetting moves you wanted while learning moves you do not. Third, the Mon will not gain Effort Points as it would have if you leveled it up yourself through battle. This will leave it with somewhat lesser stats at higher levels than it would have had if you leveled it up yourself.
  • Visible Silence: Elite Four member Flint reacts like this when you defeat him. If you talk to him again after this fight, he'll merely state "... ... ... Go on..."
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Only a handful of 'cute' Pokémon can play in Amity Square; about 11 in Diamond and Pearl and 20 in Platinum. This is actually Lampshaded by an angry Trainer who complains about not being able to take his Gyarados or Steelix into the park.
  • A Winner Is You: Quoted by a clown in Veilstone when he gives you the Coin Case.

    Tropes used in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl 
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: While Bebe, the manager of the region's storage system was an optional encounter who lives next to Hearthome City's Pokémon Center, she directly appears right after the skirmish against Team Galactic in Jubilife City and gives the player remote access to their storage boxes.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield:
    • All members of Team Galactic have space-themed backgrounds when you battle them. The Grunts have a field of stars, the Commanders have planets, and Cyrus's includes a swirling galaxy.
    • The fight against Dialga at Spear Pillar has the sky full of distorting orange lines that bring Primal Dialga to mind, whereas the fight against Palkia features a giant black hole behind it sucking in the sky.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • To help cope with the returning mechanic that TMs break when used, you are given multiples of ones obtained from people so you don't have to fret over every single one. Additionally, every TM is available for purchase from vendors in the Grand Underground and with BP in the Fight Area.
    • HMs (Hidden Moves) can now be used without sacrificing a Pokémon to be their HM-Slave. The app on the Pokétch allows the player to use wild Pokémon to perform HM moves. This means the player no longer has to carry around Pokémon just because they can perform the HM moves they need just to navigate the world. It also avoids the unlikely-but-possible situation where the player could release a Pokémon with the HM necessary to leave an area and be left with no Pokémon to learn that HM, potentially getting stuck. For further convenience, you can use your map to select a location to Fly to or pressing A on an HM-required part (cutting branches or surfing). The only time you actually have to use your app is Defogging, but is rarely used.
    • In the original games, Munchlax had a 1% chance of appearing on four particular Honey Trees that are determined at random by the Trainer ID and Secret ID. Here, Munchlax can also appear in the Grand Underground after obtaining Defog.
    • In order to obtain Spiritomb in the originals, you needed to activate the Hallowed Tower and interact with a set number of players in the Underground. Here, talking to the various NPCs in the Grand Underground outside of the returning Hikers also count towards the total in case the player doesn't have access to Wi-Fi and/or other players.
    • The Rotom Key was originally an online-exclusive item which allowed you access to Rotom's Room to obtain its different forms, which barred you from doing so if you didn't obtain it in time. Here, it's a fixed item that's automatically picked up after defeating Rotom in the Old Chateau. Additionally, the Rotom Catalog from Pokémon Sword and Shield is obtained after using one of the appliances in Rotom's Room, allowing you to register all of them to use whenever.
    • Being able to access the storage boxes remotely makes it much easier to navigate long stretches where no Pokémon Center is available such as Mt. Coronet, since the player is no longer limited to only 6 Pokémon, and any fainted ones can be quickly swapped out.
    • Accessing the Local and Global rooms by just pressing Y makes it much easier to have an impromptu battle or trade almost anywhere without the need to run to the nearest Pokémon Center.
    • The Grand Underground Hideaway's Pokemon levels loosely match towards the next challenges available up until post-game (maximum: 63), a few higher than the original content's. This is especially helpful when preparing against the Elite 4 for the first time.
    • Relearning a move that requires the rare Heart Scale becomes unlimited after you give the move reminder 10 Heart Scales.
  • The Artifact: Pokémon Centers still contain the upper and basement floors for multiplayer features, even though they can now be accessed anywhere by simply pressing the Y button.
  • Artificial Brilliance:
    • The games attempt to use this to its advantage by giving certain Trainers (mainly Gym Leaders and the League) updated movesets not unlike actual competitive kits to compensate for the relatively low difficulty of the original Diamond and Pearl. There's just one hitch, however; some of these updated movesets include moves that were Dummied Out in Sword and Shield and were not added back in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (except Hidden Power, which is now the Signature Move of Unown). The result is that some Trainers inexplicably have moves that would theoretically synergize well with their Pokémon if they could actually use them.
    • Played absurdly straight with Cynthia's already infamous team, especially her Garchomp. All now have proper IV levels, held items to trigger certain effects like their abilities, and the latter has coverage against Ice-type moves with its Yache Berry as well as a Poison-type move to take down Fairy-types.
  • Ascended Glitch: The wall pattern in the protagonist's room is based on the DS rendering the stripes incorrectly in the original games.
  • Ascended Meme: Bidoof and Bibarel's status as perfect HM slaves (due to being able to learn practically every HM move and being easy to obtain) is recognized with the new Hidden Moves Pokétch app, which calls for help from a wild Pokémon to perform the moves for you. With the exception of Fly and Defog (which summon a Staraptor), all other HM moves will always summon Bidoof or Bibarel.
  • Beneath the Earth: The Grand Underground has additional areas full of capturable Pokémon.
  • Book Ends: Depending which game you bought first, in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you can meet and battle Arceus at Spear Pillar. In this game, you can meet and capture Arceus (legitimately) in this game at Spear Pillar.
  • Bowdlerize: As with ORAS and Let's Go, the Game Corner has been removed to comply with PEGI's updated policies regarding simulated gambling in children's games. This time around, it's been replaced with the Metronome Style Shop.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: You still get the Shiny Charm for completing the Pokédex, but it's nerfed so that it only works on eggs, rendering the charm useless outside of breeding.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
    • These are the first games to be considered a part of the main series and to not be developed by Game Freak.
    • These are the first remakes in the series that don't redesign all of the characters. Unlike the remakes of the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn games, in the first trailer, we can see that everyone from minor NPCs to the playable characters looks the same as they did in the originals.
    • They are also the first remakes not to introduce any Pokémon from later generations that did not appear in the original games; only the 493 Pokémon of Generations I to IV appear here.
  • Character Customisation: Dawn and Lucas can change their appearance with preset outfit styles.
  • Console Cameo:
    • The Wii in the player character's room in the originals has been replaced with a Nintendo Switch.
    • The post-game DS Sounds item is explicitly a Nintendo DS with headphones plugged in, and it's mentioned that it can be turned on with a flick of the switch, which is how its power switch worked.
  • Crutch Character: See the series' page here.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • When Dialga/Palkia start distorting time/space, the cutscene shows multiple areas of Sinnoh. If you're playing on a Friday, you'll actually see Drifloon in the Valley Windworks.
    • Changing clothes updates the "Bag" icon on both the pause menu and the battle menu so that it consistently resembles the currently equipped bag.
  • Disc-One Nuke: See the series' page here.
  • Eldritch Location: Much like its namesake, the Distortion Room in Ramanas Park has the player walk on the ceiling.
  • Easy Level Trick: The Snowpoint Gym's sliding puzzle layout is completely identical to the originals, but it does not take into account the newly implemented omnidirectional movement. Because of this, you can completely bypass the puzzle by landing near Candice and walking onto the stairs in front of her at an angle.
  • Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: You now wear a helmet and protective gear whenever you ride your bike.
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • The ice physics in Candice's Gym were clearly not meant to interact with omnidirectional movement, making it possible to break the puzzle in various ways by simply moving even a little bit diagonally. It is also possible to get yourself stuck in the pit in the middle if you use the analog stick to slide into it from the side without hitting the snowballs, making it impossible to get out; if autosave is on, you can potentially doom your save file. This was fixed in the game's second patch.
    • In the original release, Fantina's rematch team included a Banette that knows Snatch. Problem here? Snatch is one of many of the moves cut from Gen VIII that didn't return in these games. This essentially limits Banette to selecting three moves, which isn't too big of a deal, but if you happened to bring a Ditto with you that transformed into that same Banette, you could be locked into an endless battle if you use up all of the other moves (Shadow Sneak, Sucker Punch, Trick) beforehand, as selecting Snatch just leads you to a message that you can't use the move. A later patch addressed this by replacing Snatch with Payback.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • The so-called "graceful" Pokémon you can take out to the Amity Square are just coincidentally the ones with overworld sprites (not counting legendaries).
    • In one of the few instances of Pokédex entries and gameplay/animations not contradicting each other, Shellder's entry mentions how it swims backwards by opening and closing its shell. While you can't see it swimming in this game, its walk animation does show it moving backwards.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The default "the water is deep blue..." message appears prior to Surfing regardless of where you are, even in Grand Underground hideaways that are swampy or boggy with green/brownish water.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: You can fight the Team Galactic Admins and Cyrus (Saturn/Jupiter and Mars/Cyrus fight as a team) in Battle Tower in the postgame.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • Poffin cooking in the original games was already hard enough, but it's insanely difficult here. One of the reasons why is that you'll always get a Foul if you use duplicate berries, something you're not told anywhere.
    • The Grand Underground has 5 seperate areas that can only be accessed via certain locations on the surface. The tiny area that houses Stargleam Cavern however, can only be accessed specifically in Celestic Town.
  • Hitbox Dissonance: Unlike previous 3D remakes, which made collision for objects behave according to the player's omnidirectional movement, in this game collision for all objects still adheres strictly to a grid. This can make it frustrating to walk around objects that have clearly rounded edges or are small but the game won't let you run past them that way because the object still takes up the entire "square" (trees are particularly guilty of this; despite having small trunks they still take up a full square). Or it can sometimes have the opposite effect, and the prompt for digging won't show up despite your character being squarely in front of the sparkling dig spot, thus requiring you to nudge the analog stick diagonally.
  • Honor Before Reason: As with Mega Evolutions in Generation VI and the big battles in Sword and Shield with their Dynamax evolutions, Cynthia will only send out her Garchomp at the end once it's her last Pokémon.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: The Game Corner theme has been ported over, remixed, and appropriately used in the Metronome Style Shop. Unfortunately, unlike the Game Corner, there's not much to do in the shop itself, so the player is unlikely to hear the entirety of the theme unless they intentionally stay to listen to it.
  • Money Sink: The Metronome Style Shop features several expensive outfits, the most egregious being the Leather Jacket Style which costs 120000 Pokédollars.
  • Musical Nod:
    • The game features two new Legendary themes for encounters at Ramanas Park, both of which incorporate riffs and leitmotifs from battle themes from previous games. Uniquely, both themes recycle a leitmotif from (of all things) "Dialga's Fight to the Finish!", the theme of Primal Dialga from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers.
    • The Global Terminal music has elements of the HeartGold and SoulSilver arrangement of the Global Trade Station music, as well as the original track.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Eterna City's statue of the legendary Pokémon is more clearly a fusion of Dialga and Palkia, as it was labeled in Platinum and the Adventures manga, as the original trick of labeling the same slightly vague statue Dialga or Palkia based on version is impossible due to the graphical overhaul.
    • The new Metronome Style Shop in Veilstone City occupies the same spot that the Veilstone Game Corner did in the original games, and also uses the same BGM.
    • The Slates used to summon Legendary Pokémon for the player to catch in Ramanas Park take the form of either Game Boy, Game Boy Advance or DS cartridges, depending on the debut Generation of the Pokémon in question. This also hearkens back to the Dual-slot mode in the original which added new encounters if a previous-generation Game Boy Advance Game Pak was put in the DS' Slot 2.
    • A postgame item you can get is called "DS Sounds", which takes the form of a Nintendo DS with headphones plugged in. When used, it replaces the music with the original DS tracks as well as reverting Pikachu and Eevee's voice clips with the original cry. This is also similar to the "GB Sounds" item from the Pokémon Gold and Silver DS remakes.
    • When talking to the Jubilife TV producer about television programs, the "EVERYONE HAPPY WI-FI CONNECTION" password is a fixed option rather than a puzzle through the old Easy Chat system. He'll then unlock Mystery Gift for you unless you obtained any three badges.
    • The distortion during Dialga's fight has a navy and orange scheme, which is Primal Dialga's color scheme.
    • If a male player chose Turtwig as their starter, the hardest version of Dawn's post game match uses a fully evolved version of her team from the anime, with a Belossom in place of her Pachirisu.
  • Nerf: Toxic's distribution has been drastically reduced in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl when compared to previous generations, being limited to mostly Poison-types or those that already learn it through leveling up or breeding. Mew is one of the few exceptions since it's able to learn every TM moves.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: Not only are the Pokémon models recycled like before, but the game's entire source code operates using code from the original Diamond & Pearl as a base, which conveniently explains why so many of its quirks are very similar to those found in the original games but not found in games like Sword & Shield.
  • NPC Roadblock: After getting your bike at Eterna City, the Bug Catcher at the exit to Route 205 will prevent you from backtracking, encouraging you to ride it to Hearthome City via Cycling Road.
  • Old Save Bonus:
    • Players with save data from Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! and Pokémon Sword and Shield can obtain Mew and Jirachi respectively by talking to certain NPCs in Floaroma Town.
    • By having save data from Pokémon Legends: Arceus with all main story missions complete (which requires catching all Pokémon), you will be gifted the Azure Flute and gain access to the event to catch Arceus at the Hall of Origin. Interestingly for this trope, the save data needed comes from a game that came out after this one.
    • As with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, it's possible to obtain a Time Travel Award certificate by showing the Game Freak designer a Pokémon obtained in the original Diamond and Pearl games.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: See the series' page here.
  • Production Foreshadowing: A book in the Canalave Library that was not present in the original games mentions a Qwilfish with gigantic spikes. Overqwil, the evolved form of Hisuian Qwilfish, fits that description to a T. In fact, this specific book is required to find out how to solve a mystery in that game.
  • Retraux:
    • These games use 3D versions of the original 2D overworld sprites.
    • It also keeps the general aesthetic of the originals in terms of geographic layout, similarly to how Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire compared to the original Ruby and Sapphire.
    • If the DS Sounds Key Item is turned on, all music is replaced with those from the originals as well as replacing Pikachu and Eevee's voiced dialogue with their original cries.
  • Rhythm Game: The Contests now include a rhythm component, with moves being able to be performed simultaneously.
  • Shot-for-Shot Remake: The games are faithful the story and version of Sinnoh found in the original Diamond & Pearl rather than being based on Platinum. The only differences are an overhauled Underground, overhauled contests, and the replacement of Pal Park with Ramanas Park.
  • Shout-Out: In your first battle against Barry, he'll tell you "Don't get cocky, kid!"
  • Sore Loser:
    • Ace Trainer Alyssa on Route 210 won't take loss well, and will tell the player to "get lost" if interacted with. She cannot be rebattled.
    • Tuber boys will throw tantrums when defeated, but only in terms of animation; their dialogue is otherwise unremarkable in this respect.
  • Superboss:
    • Reaching specific points in the post-game will allow for rematches against the Pokémon League where the Elite Four as well as Cynthia sport much stronger and more diverse teams with competitive-style movesets and items. Capturing Heatran upgrades them even further, with fully-powered Cynthia matching Red's record in HeartGold/SoulSilver of possessing the highest leveled Trainer-controlled Pokémon in the entire series.
    • Taking a Distortion Tablet to Ramanas Park unlocks a fight against a shadowy, Lv. 100 Origin Forme Giratina in the Distortion World. It can't be caught (since Giratina is already catchable elsewhere), but defeating it rewards the player with the Griseous Orb.
  • Upgraded Boss: Some Trainers, such as Gym Leaders, can now be rematched with higher levels than before (and in the case of Elite Four members, they will use their tougher and more streamlined teams from Platinum). Also applies in general to the later Gym Leaders and first battles with the Elite Four and Cynthia, who use competitive sets on their Pokémon (for instance, Aaron's Heracross uses the Flame Orb+Guts strategy to boost its Attack by 50%), with (almost) perfect IVs (albeit only for the E4 and Cynthia) and being EV trained (and in Cynthia's case, almost with the maximum 510 total EVs). After you complete the Stark Mountain events, the Elite Four gets its biggest upgrade in the entire series yet. Every Elite Four member now has 6 Pokémon to deal with instead of 5. The median levels, instead of 65-78, are now 75-88. At this point, even Pokémon at Level 100 will have trouble if unprepared.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable:
    • The autosave feature can result in unintentionally locking your entire game progress if you get stuck in the 7th Gym's puzzle. This was later patched.
    • It's possible for the collision detection to end up pushing you behind two NPCs in Veilstone City, trapped in a two-block wide space. Of course, no sane person would ever save here, and thus it would force you to lose whatever progress you made since you last saved, but if you forget you have autosave on and go to the Grand Underground and it autosaves, you're screwed if you don't have a Pokémon with Teleport or don't have both the Fly HM unlocked in the Pokétch and the Badge required to use it.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: During the double-battle with Barry against Mars and Jupiter at the Spear Pillar, he'll lead with his Munchlax, whose unevolved state and lack of speed can be detrimental. If your opponents don't take it out fast enough for you liking, you can attack it yourself (directly or with a move that hits all the Pokémon on the field) and force him to bring out one of his better Pokémon like his fully evolved starter or Staraptor.

Alternative Title(s): Pokemon Diamond Pearl And Platinum, Pokemon Diamond, Pokemon Pearl, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, Pokemon Shining Pearl

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