Pokemon Pearl: The Addiction Continues

Yes it's true. Even though I put in more than 250 hours into Pokemon Diamond, I have cast that aside and started a new game with Pokemon Pearl. Actually, I had both cartridges from last summer; Pokemon Pearl was for my wife. But since she was more into Cake Mania, and my daughter being able to read in the last 9 months the choice became hers. She decided she wanted to play Pokemon Diamond more than Pearl. So I copied over some of my more precious Pokemon, berries, and other items, cleared out the data for her to start a new game, and started my own new game on Pokemon Pearl. After yet another 120 hours invested in the game, these are my thoughts.


Story

The story revolves around your adventures in Sinnoh. You are a little boy or girl who has grown to admire the Pokemon trainer lifestyle. One day you and your friend (who obviously suffers from ADHD) accidentally stumble into that world by each acquiring one of three Pokemon. It is then you are thrust into the world of training Pokemon as well as recording them in your Pokedex. You'll travel all over the Sinnoh region battling trainers, Gym Leaders, and eventually vying for Pokemon League Champion. Along the way, you meet up with a ruthless group called Team Galactic who is bent on using Pokemon for their own nefarious purposes. Overall the story is pretty cliché, especially for a Pokemon game. However, as the case with the previous Pokemon games, the story serves as a minor backdrop to the actual gameplay. It's a minor quibble which is easily overlooked considering the game's wide audience.


Gameplay

Pokemon is on its surface a turn-based RPG. You control a Pokemon trainer and explore the world of Sinnoh in search of Pokemon and other items. Along the way you can talk with people who will either provide you with help items or information or battle you with their own Pokemon. Battling is a turn based affair where you pit your team of pokemon against another. You can carry up to 6 different pokemon on your team, but you can catch many more as they are stored electronically at the Pokemon Center and other locations. Battling against a wild pokemon allows you the ability to capture it. The more damage you do without it fainting and if you can inflict a status condition on it, all affects your ability to capture it with a pokeball. Against other trainers, you'll likely face more than one pokemon on their team, but yield cash rewards which can be spent on items or other prizes.

Pokemon have many abilities and attributes. Most of its base attributes affect its ability to do damage, take damage, or in what turn it can attack. Pokemon also can belong to one or two type groups. Types signify what kind of pokemon it is (fire, water, steel, flying, etc.). It also has up to 4 different moves which also are categorized by type. Thus certain types are more effective against others. For instance, a fire type move isn't as effective against a water type pokemon. However, the fire type pokemon could have an electric move that is super effective against a water type. Given that there are well over a dozen types in the game, it's more than just a rock/paper/scissors matchup.

Pokemon grow by defeating other pokemon in battle. The more powerful the Pokemon, the more experience they gain from defeating it. At certain milestones, Pokemon will gain levels. Some pokemon at a given level will evolve. Though not all pokemon evolve this way. Some evolve by activating an item, trading the pokemon to another user, or even trading a pokemon with a certain held item. Evolving not only makes the pokemon more powerful in battle, but it opens up a new set of more powerful and diverse moves. It can also add an additional type characteristic as well as increase its stats at a much quicker rate.

There are many other aspects that make up a Pokemon. You can teach them moves from Hidden Machines and Technical Machines; referred to as HMs and TMs respectively. They can hold items in battle to make them more powerful. They have the ability to love you more the more they level up and the more attention you give to them. Pokemon also have hidden statistical values that are higher or lower based on the individual pokemon and which pokemon you battle against. Finally each pokemon has an ability that can affect a battle or situation. Overall there are so many factors and nuances that make up an individual pokemon. It's because of this that the gameplay is considered to deep and immersive.

Progressing through the main story follows a typical Japanese RPG formula. The story follows a specific track of going from place to place. Bosses appear regularly whereby defeating them provides you with items or abilities that allow you to access new areas. New areas contain more powerful pokemon to capture, more powerful trainers to battle for higher cash prizes. In addition more powerful items TMs and HMs appear. As you progress Bosses have more complete teams of Pokemon with more diverse and disruptive moves.

Defeating the last boss doesn't mean the game is over. In fact it just opens up the game up even more. After beating Pokemon Pearl you can now start collecting all the Pokemon from other regions too like Kanto and Hoenn. You can have your Pokemon compete in contests. You can breed them to give them moves that aren't attainable by leveling up. You can visit the underground passage ways to play capture the flag or find pokemon fossils. Finally, you can battle more powerful trainers with more diverse pokemon in the battle tower. It's almost as if the story mode is a 10-20 hour tutorial of the game before it opens itself up for new and unrestricted play.

Pokemon Pearl also has a bunch of other features too. It introduces the concept of the Poketech. Poketechs are applications on a watch. Each application has a different function such as a digital watch, a breeding center viewer, a pokemon love analyzer, a calculator, and many more. You also have the ability to make poffins using the touch screen. This is almost a Cooking Mama-like minigame where you stir the batter as quick as you can without spilling it. The faster it finishes the better the poffin. Poffins affect your Pokemon's abilities in contests as well as their happiness. Finally, Pokemon Pearl is time sensitive. That is, the game interfaces with your DS's internal clock. Thus if you're playing at night the backgrounds will be dark, as opposed to the morning, day or evening. Different pokemon appear at different times of the day. In addition, some pokemon evolve differently based on the time of day.

Pokemon Pearl also allows you to play against other people. Inside pokemon centers you can trade with people who are within range of your DS using the Union Room. In there you can battle, mix records, trade, or just chat using a pictochat-like client. The great part about Pokemon Pearl is that you can also trade online via the Wifi access. With a 12 digit friend code you can meet up with specific players in the bottom floor of the Pokemon Center. There you can do everything you can in the union room only with people halfway across the country. Finally there's the Global Trading Station or GTS. Here you can post your pokemon up for trade. In addition, you can view other pokemon offered for trade. If you happen to have the pokemon that the person is looking for, you can execute the trade and obtain the pokemon.

Overall the gameplay seems basic and it's very easy to pick up. My daughter is playing Pokemon Diamond, which is essentially the same game. She is 5 and can read most basic words, but she didn't have much trouble capturing a team of pokemon and getting her first gym badge. Being a fan of the show, she can pick up on the basics of battle and what certain moves do as well as certain gameplay mechanics. There are certain aspects that she doesn't quite understand like how to advance farther by applying a HM. I have to occasionally intervene and offer advice. However, because we have two DSes now, it's actually a fun father-daughter activity on a rainy day. For me, I can easily put in another 100 hours on the game trying to breed a competitive pokemon team as well as trying to put together a 100 match winning streak in the battle tower.


Controls

The controls are very simple to learn and adhere to most gaming standards. The movement of your character is via the dpad. Combat and menu based actions are also primarily driven through the dpad as well. Some menu functions have an optional stylus driven interface on the touch screen. My experience with it is that it's not as great as the dpad. Most of the actions revolve around spinning a pokeball to select certain items in a menu. It often doesn't cycle that much quicker than the dpad. If you move it too quickly it can stop or even cycle backwards, which is very annoying. In most situations I find it necessary to deposit items rather than to try and scroll through 100+ item listings.

There are other control aspects to the game which are driven entirely by the stylus. One of which is the poketech feature. Some poketechs can perform basic operations by touching it with your stylus. It isn't a necessary portion of the game, but it can be useful at many points. Another aspect is creating poffins by spinning batter in a bowl at a certain speed. The stylus control sensitivity for creating poffins is great. You rarely can spin too fast and it has pretty decent touch recognition. You definitely are rewarded with consistently well executed poffin creation.


Graphics

For someone coming from a previous Pokemon game, the graphics aren't going to blow you away. Pokemon Pearl still uses sprites as its main representation of characters, Pokemon, and the environment around you. However, unlike other Pokemon games, the pallet seems to be brighter and have more color contrasting. In addition, battle animations, while still primitive, are a little more involved. Creative layering at times creates a pseudo 3D effect when climbing up to higher terrains. There's an interesting effect in one of the routes where fog only exists at a certain elevation. Still, the animations are not the same quality as in other games, and the sprites while more detailed than ever, are still sprites. It's a shame because with a little more graphical work, this game could have breathed more life into the Pokemon as being more real and living creatures.


Sound

Like the graphics the sound fails to impress too. The music is good, but there just isn't enough diversity in its battle themes. Some battles can drag on for a while, while other times you're fighting one battle after another. Over time the battle themes become overexposed and grating on the ears. I wish there was a rotation of like 4-8 different battle themes for random and/or trainer battles. Boss battle themes are good and exposed in the right quantity, so I don't think it's the quality of the composition, just the way it's presented.

As for the sound effects, there are no great technological leaps here. You won't hear Pikachu saying "Pika Pika", just more electronic sounds representing the calls of different Pokemon. It's not a big loss by having it this way. I would rather hear primitive sound effects than take away a more compelling aspect of the gameplay.


Replay

The replay value of Pokemon Pearl is very high. The game focuses heavily on the activities you can do not only during the story, but after you've beaten the game. Usually turn based roleplaying games lose their appeal once you've finished the main quest. Not Pokemon Pearl. The game starts to get really interesting once you've beaten it because you can then obtain Pokemon from different regions, participate in the Battle Tower, and import Pokemon from your Gameboy Advance cartridges. What's more there are Pokemon events that are held at various locations around the country which can net you rare legendary Pokemon. In addition, you can search for shiny (off-colored) Pokemon on your own cartridge too. Pokemon battling can be extended via the Wifi connection on your DS to battle people of varying skill levels. There is just tons to do in this game and having a solid gameplay foundation doesn't hurt much either. If there's any gripe about the replay value, it's most likely the repetitive nature of the game. Breeding, EV training, and all sorts of other activities to obtain the most statistically superior Pokemon can be really boring and repetitive. However, by the time you reach that point, you'll likely have sunk at least 100+ hours into the game.

So what is the difference between Diamond and Pearl? Not much, especially if you have access to the internet. In Diamond and now in Pearl if you observe trading trends and can acquire a few key Pokemon and/or items, you can obtain all the Pokemon you missed out on in the other version. Even if you don't have a GBA Pokemon cartridge (my daughter lost my Pokemon Emerald game), other pokemon can be obtained rather easily with a little time and hard work. The biggest shortcoming is the restriction that you cannot use the GTS to trade for a Pokemon you haven't encountered in non-online or battle tower encounters. Luckily, you can find trade partners here (http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~cat/id_~Video+Games) or hundreds over at gamefaqs.com. As for the actual differences, I've changed my mind a little on the matter. Diamond is the most popular Pokemon game out of the two simply because Diamond is (unfairly) stereotyped as the "boy's version" because of the bluish imagery. So having Pearl puts you at a slight advantage because not as many people own that version and thus would create more demand for the Pearl-only Pokemon. If you aren't going to trade with anyone, the choice is a toss-up to me. Pearl has the Palkia legendary which I believe is better than Dialga. Whereas I slightly favor the non-legendary Pokemon is Diamond, though that's a little more of a toss-up.

Overall, Pokemon Pearl is a great game. It defies age boundaries and offers something to everyone. It's not a perfect game, but it's clear why this is one of if not the greatest game available on the Nintendo DS. If you or someone you know is into roleplaying games, animals, or games involving trading or collecting things and has a Nintendo DS, then they shouldn't pass this game up.