History VideoGame / PokemonDiamondAndPearl

** 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"!

* {{Irony}}: Many TMs are placed in rather ironic environment.
** Frustration[[note]]a move that becomes stronger the more a Pokemon hates its owner[[/note]] and Snatch are available in Team Galactic facilities.
** Dig can be found in the Ruin Maniac's Grotto, i.e. in a place where a human digs up an entire cave by himself.
** Swagger can be found in the Pokémon Mansion. Its owner is indeed anything but humble.

* NorthIsColdSouthIsHot: In the Sinnoh Region, the South is warm enough that people can swim in the ocean, while the North is stuck in perpetual snow.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: 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.

* UniqueEnemy: 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 Primeape, Empoleon is this as well (otherwise, your rival will have one).

** A lady named Mindy will trade her Haunter for a Medicham in Snowpoint City. [[SocializationBonus 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.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Geographically, Sinnoh is a counterpart to Hokkaido, Japan.

* UpgradedBoss:
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.

* TookALevelInBadass: 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 becoming Champion and getting the National Dex, you can rematch Barry, the Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and Cynthia in a greatly upgraded fashion. The developers definitely added Pokémon setup teams that behave like you are playing a competitively built team. The Gym Leaders and Rivals all have a full team of 6 Pokémon with optimal [=IVs=] and maxed out [=EVs=], useful egg moves, beneficial Hidden Abilities, and items normally seen in competitive such as the Choice items, Life Orbs, and Focus Sashes.
** 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.

* UniqueEnemy: Prior to getting the national Dex, some Pokémon cannot be encountered 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 Primeape, Empoleon is this as well (otherwise, your rival will have one).

** In both ''Diamond'' and ''Pearl'' or ''Brilliant Diamond'' and ''Shining Pearl'', it's possible for the player to screw themselves out of getting the National Dex for a while if they do the Hearthome Gym Puzzle the way the game suggests you do: answering the questions correctly and ignoring the Trainers. Said Trainers are the only ones in the game who use Drifloon, and once you beat the Gym you can't battle them again and have to wait up to a week to find Drifloon outside Valley Windworks (an arguable GuideDangIt 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.

** 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.

The fourth generation of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, ''Diamond and Pearl'' hit the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS 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: [[HelloInsertNameHere you]], a child from the modest little village of Twinleaf Town, and your [[TheRival 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 [[{{Mon}} Pokémon]], so naturally you set out ToBeAMaster, collecting monsters and badges and challenging/defeating opposing Trainers along the way.

As part of the franchise's [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary]], a pair of [[VideoGameRemake remakes]] for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, ''Pokémon Brilliant Diamond'' and ''Pokémon Shining Pearl'', were released on November 19, 2021. Unlike previous remakes, this set is [[ShotForShotRemake 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 Creator/GameFreak being busy with the development of ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', ''Brilliant Diamond'' and ''Shining Pearl'' were the first games in the mainline series to be developed by an outside studio, that being [=ILCA=], Inc.

* InUniverseGameClock: Made use of the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS'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.

** [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Dual-slot_mode 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 UsefulNotes/NintendoDS or DS Lite, since the UsefulNotes/DSi onward lacked the slot for [[UsefulNotes/GameboyAdvance Game Paks]].

** The Wii in the player character's room in the originals has been replaced with a UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.
** The post-game DS Sounds item is explicitly a UsefulNotes/NintendoDS 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.

** A postgame item you can get is called "DS Sounds", which takes the form of a ''UsefulNotes/NintendoDS'' 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 ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' DS remakes.

* {{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 learn it through leveling up or breeding. Mew is one of the few exceptions since it's able to learn every TM moves.

* AndYourRewardIsInteriorDecoration: 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.

** While ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' made use of a ChromaticArrangement involving the primary colors of light: red, green, and blue, ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' use the secondary colors of light: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

* MundaneUtility: The Dowsing Machine Pokétch app can be used to look for hidden items or the mystical Plates, ...or a lost hotel key.

* TooDumbToLive: In ''Platinum'', Barry's "plan" to avoid RandomEncounters at the beginning of the game, is to "scoot over to the next patch of grass before any wild Pokémon can appear". Gameplay mechanics dictate that running through tall grass actually makes wild Pokémon ''more'' likely to appear compared to walking. Fortunately, Rowan intervenes to give him and the player a Pokémon.

* NoFairCheating: 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 ''[[VideoGame/PokémonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and Soulsilver]]'', it will not trigger the Sinjoh Event to spawn to Creation Trio.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Enemy Trainers tend to give their Pokémon moves that can cope with their weaknesses. And yes, they ''will'' use them on ''you''.