Prerelease:Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

To do: Everything. 2006 JPN prerelease https://lavacutcontent.com/masuda-interview-pokemon-platinum/ https://serebii.net/archive.shtml serebii.net stuff https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Diamond_and_Pearl_beta

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl surprisingly had little prerelease material to show off in comparison to the previous two mainline generation-starters.

It was yet another financial and critical success for Game Freak, outselling Ruby and Sapphire and critical praise going towards the Wi-Fi trading system. Retrospectively, it's seen as a sort-of underwhelming entry due to later games having superior mechanics, but is still remembered for its storyline and soundtrack.

Developmental Timeline

2003

• circa. Feb/Mar - In an interview with Nintendo Dream issue, Ken Sugimori considers making a Pokémon game based off the Hokkaido region if they could find a way to utilize the region's unique features.

2004

• Jul. 14 - Destiny Deoxys is released theatrically in Japan, featuring the debut of Munchlax.
• Oct. 7 - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is officially announced for the Nintendo DS with a 2005 release.

2005

• Jul. - Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is slated for a 2006 release.
• Jul. 16 - Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is released theatrically in Japan, featuring the debut of Lucario, Bonsly, Weavile and Mime Jr.

2006

• Feb. 17 - Date of the earliest leaked debug build.
• May 20 - Pokémon 4D: Pikachu's Ocean Adventure is released, featuring the debuts of Mantyke, Buizel and Chatot.
• Sep. 28 - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is released in Japan.

2007

• Apr. 27 - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is released in North America.
• Jul. 27 - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is released in Europe.

Early Development

Early Plans

Concepts of a Hokkaido-based region date back to February/March 2003 issue of Nintendo Dream, where Ken Sugimori brings up an idea of making a region based off the Hokkaido prefecture.

Junichi Masuda, who was the composer of the previous games went on to direct Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, where his goal in mind was to pursue what was "ultimate" in terms of that game, as well as using it as a keyword. "Communication" came to Masuda's mind, where he wanted to implement make users trade Pokémon all over the world via the internet than close by, leading to the birth of the Global Trade System, or GTS for short, at the beginning of development.

Masuda also looked at that word in terms of the game's storyline and mythology, where he thought of a relationships and balance between substance (Dialgia and Palkia relating to Time and Space), and Spirit (Uxie, Mespirit and Azelf being acting as the Lake Trio). Giratina was represented as an "antiworld", as a stark contrast to the other two legendaries.

Constructing the Region

In order to capture the region's 3D environments for the Nintendo DS, the region was constructed out of LEGO. It contains a fair amount of differences compared to the final game's map and the early debug prototypes, dating this to likely before February 2006.

Prototype	Final

• Iron Island wasn't present, apparently nor was Fullmoon Island.
• Eterna Forest was repesented via a L-shaped block than a 2x2 square block.
• Route 203 was positioned a bit differently.
• The bottom-right area of the region had more water present; Route 215 and 212 was represented as a "slope".
• The Pokemon Mansion landmark wasn't present.
• The Hearthome City area originally had a slope that apparently led to Mt. Coronet and the Spear Pillar.
• There was a path around Route 227 and Stark Mountain.

(Source: Pokémon Masterclass Panel, Japan Expo 2016)

2006

May

Corocoro June 2006

The first screenshots of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl surfaced in Corocoro magazine.

Battle

Early	Final Game (JP)

• The health bars were rounded.
• Different sprites.

Early	Final Game (JP)

• Twinleaf Town.

Early	Final Game (JP)

Early Sandgem Beach.

• Notably, the water tileset is different, appearing in a darker shade of blue.

Early	Final Game (JP)

Early Jubilife City.

• The location of the Pokémon Center was different.

Early	Final Game (JP)

Early Route 203.

June

CoroCoro July Issue

Reveals the professor and Pokemon gender differences.

Early	Final Game (JP)

Images showing gender differences of various Pokemon.

• It's not possible to encounter Scizor in the wild.

Manaphy Battle

Early	Final Game (JP)

Locations

Early	Final Game (JP)

Pokemon Center

Early	Final Game (JP)

• The NPC on the left doesn't appear in the final.
• Nurse Joy's sprite is different.

1st Japanese Trailer

• Ace Trainers have design identical to that of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Some of the earliest builds that could be compiled from the Source Code Leak use these early Overworld sprites.

Prototype	Final

• Route 217 has minor object differences. The sign in the final game is located offscreen to the left and there's less grass around the map.

Prototype	Final

• Honey trees don't look as honeyed.
• Team Galactic Grunts have blue hair, which was changed to turquoise for the final game.

July

Corocoro August Issue

To do: Get a higher res and better scan....zoidsisland is too hard to make out.

Reveals the Rival, Team Galactic and the Japanese release date of September 28, 2006. Also reveals Drapion, Cherrim and Pachirisu.

Early	Final Game (JP)

• The overworld Team Galactic Sprite originally had dark blue hair, strangely the finalized artwork was shown in this issue.

Early	Final Game (JP)

• The rival had a different overworld sprite.

Early	Final Game (JP)

Early	Final Game (JP)

Water battle background shown for the first time.

Early	Final Game (JP)

Early	Final Game (JP)

(Source: https://zoidsland.com/1rebyu-/koro06-8b.html, serebii.net)

August

Corocoro July Issue

Reveals Wi-Fi battles, contests, Battle Tower, Starters and the Underground.

Unsorted

To do: Early names for Starter Pokémon and more found in the Concept Art

1st Japanese Trailer

• Ace Trainers have design identical to that of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Some of the earliest builds that could be compiled from the Source Code Leak use these early Overworld sprites.

Prototype	Final

• Route 217 has minor object differences. The sign in the final game is located offscreen to the left and there's less grass around the map.

Prototype	Final

• Honey trees don't look as honeyed.
• Team Galactic Grunts have blue hair, which was changed to turquoise for the final game.

Misc

Prerelease	Final
"Pokémon Watch! Pokétch for short! It's really cool!"

References

• Corocoro Scans
• Serebii.net

https://serebii.net/archive/October-2004.shtml

https://serebii.net/archive/July-2005.shtml

https://lavacutcontent.com/sugimori-masuda-gen-3-interview/