This article has a talk page!This page details pre-release information and/or media for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
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.3
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.
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- 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
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Background and sprite graphics are quite different here, with the HP bars being rounded at this point.
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The player's house in Twinleaf Town. The trees ended up getting tweaked a bit.
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Early Sandgem Beach with a seemingly taller layout. The water tileset is different too, appearing in a darker shade of blue.
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Early Jubilife City. Ground details, NPC choice, and building locations ended up getting changed, with the Pokémon Center originally being near the exit to Route 203.
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Early Route 203 with different NPC types.
June#
CoroCoro July Issue#
Reveals the professor and Pokemon gender differences.
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Images showing gender differences of various Pokémon, seemingly debug-generated since neither Butterfree nor Scizor can be encountered wild in the final game. No drop shadows for the foe Pokémon are here, and spritework/palette choice differs too.
Manaphy Battle
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Locations
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Pokemon Center
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- The NPC on the left doesn't appear in the final.
- Nurse Joy's sprite is different.
July#
Corocoro August Issue#
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To do: |
Reveals the Rival, Team Galactic and the Japanese release date of September 28, 2006. Also reveals Drapion, Cherrim and Pachirisu.
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- The overworld Team Galactic Sprite originally had dark blue hair, strangely the finalized artwork was shown in this issue.
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- The rival had a different overworld sprite.
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Final Game (JP) |
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Water battle background shown for the first time.
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(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#
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To do: |
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.
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- 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.
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- Honey trees don't look as honeyed.
- Team Galactic Grunts have blue hair, which was changed to turquoise for the final game.
Misc#
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- The interior rendering is completely different, having a more 3D-box esque view in comparison to a flatter space. It would be revisited in Generation V.
References#
- Corocoro Scans
- Serebii.net