09/13/08 Latey McLate is late.

See, this is why The Cave of Dragonflies is not a news site. The Cave of Speculative Theories is a truly marvelous display of my amazing incompetence at news coverage. I should stick to writing elaborate theories about Pokémon genetics and huge sections of trainer data.

Okay, so all joking aside, Platinum is out. Yada yada. PokéBeach has a whole bunch of coverage on the storyline and such if you don't mind being spoiled and can be bothered to read it; Serebii.net has all the Platinum sprites (only one frame, though) in its Pokédex and various information, Serebii and Coronis have a Platinum discoveries thread at Serebii's forums, Bulbapedia has all sorts of information about changes, Marriland has pretty nice video coverage of Platinum's new stuff.

Okay, really. This game seems awesome. Some of my main observations:

I can't confirm this for certain, but judging from Marriland's videos, scrolling through items in the bag is faster now. Here's something you didn't expect them to fix, eh? But it is obviously awesome.
And I might be imagining this, but I also think that battling is a little bit faster. As I said, I could be imagining it, but it does look that way in those videos. And that's been a major complaint with D/P.
One of the new characters is a detective who calls himself... wait for it... 'Handsome'. I like him already.
You get to battle your rival immediately after you two receive your starter Pokémon again! Ah, the nostalgia. :3 Yeah, I hated how in R/S/E and D/P you don't get to battle your rival until the game has made sure you're higher-leveled. :< I want to have the possibility of losing, damn it.
The sprites, by the way, vary - some look awesome and some look weird - but a lot of them have an uncanny resemblance to the second-frame D/P sprites, and in fact for many of them it looks like the second-frame Platinum sprite is the first-frame D/P sprite or something close. The sprite the animation actually stops at that is displayed for you the rest of the battle, however, looks different from D/P. Usually.
Your rival seems to be all over the place now. Which could be a good thing storyline-wise, as he seemed just to pop up randomly in a few places in D/P, but I can also see it being annoying.
The Sinnoh Pokédex, as you've probably already heard, has 210 Pokémon in it now, mostly the evolution lines of the ones that had new evolutions in the fourth generation, but also Scyther and Scizor, Absol, Houndour and Houndoom, etc.
It follows that you can get some Pokémon much earlier. Scyther? Route 210! (Freaking YES.) Eevee? You can get it from Bebe in Hearthome City when you first get there.
It appears that Tangela and Tropius were just Platinum's version exclusives - making this the first Pokémon game where the third version has actual version exclusives that could be obtained in neither of the previous two games.
Speaking of version exclusives, ouch - two sets of version exclusives from D/P are also unavailable in Platinum. Diamond is thus the only fourth-generation game where you can get Stunky/Skuntank and Murkrow/Honchkrow, and Pearl the only one where you can get Glameow/Purugly and Misdreavus/Mismagius. Of course, this isn't so bad since after all the fourth generation does have the Global Trade Center and plenty of trainers in the game will allow you to see those Pokémon, thus adding them to your Pokédex and allowing you to ask for them in the GTS. The Trapinch line is also unavailable in Platinum, it seems. Aww.
You get both Dialga and Palkia at Spear Pillar after the Elite Four.
Rotom has new Formes resembling various household appliances that have better stats than the original and use moves of various types (though they're all Ghost/Electric). They're awesome. And of course, random fans start going on about how "Game Freak are running out of ideas" because of this, even though making Pokémon based on lawnmowers and electric fans is considerably more creative than grabbing random animals. Why is the Pokémon fandom so crazy?
The order of the Gyms has been changed - Fantina is now the third Gym leader, Maylene fourth and Crasher Wake fifth.
Speaking of Gyms, a few of them have had their puzzles changed.
Gym leaders also have neat animations when you face them in battle.
Some trainers also have Pokéball Seals - that is, you see a fancy little display of flowers or something when their Pokémon come into battle.
Supposedly, Surfing is no longer agonizingly slow.
Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres (yes, all three - no starter-dependent crap) roam around Sinnoh after you get the National Pokédex! Now, that's something I didn't expect them to pull.
You get a Togepi egg from Cynthia instead of a Happiny egg from a random Hiker. And you get a Porygon as a gift too.
There is an extra Pokétch button to go back by one app! Thank you, Game Freak. We needed that.
You get the Magmarizer (and then presumably also the Electirizer) as an item lying around instead of having to have a certain version in your GBA slot and hoping to steal one off an Elekid/Magby.
You now get a house in Resort Area where you can buy freakishly expensive decorations to use there. Sort of like a fancier, private Secret Base. Should be nice when you want to waste some of your 999,999 Pokédollars.
Swarming and PokéRadar Pokémon seem to be more or less the same as in D/P.
Ditto now appear in the Trophy Garden, however.
You can get into Amity Square with more Pokémon. Which reminds me, I've never gone into that place in Diamond, not even once. I need to try it sometime.
There is a tent in the Day-Care. You can interpret that as shelter from the weather or just a place to, ahem, procreate in private without that creepy little girl staring at you. Take your pick.
The Underground is not actually Wi-Fi-enabled, contrary to previous rumours.

And so on. Just read all that news coverage. Or not, if you want the game to surprise you. Either way it looks great.

Comments

(Comments are closed.)

Machi Tobaye
I've been playing Platinum, kupo. I don't know much Japanese. But, hey, your rival dances around crazily when you fight him, it's all good, kupo.

Zora of Termina
Welp. That certainly is interesting. Although I can't find anything about a tent in the day care. I want one of those new Rotoms. :D

...Waitaminute. Hrefna was wrong. You CAN catch Giratina right off! Haha I was riiiight :DDDDD

Maecenas
I know I'M certainly psyched. Has anyone heard the Platinum Frontier Brain Music on YouTube? It sure blew me away.
I've been reading everything I can find about this game and it really looks incredible. All the redesigned sprites (with the possible exception of Buizel and Golbat) are awesome, and I already have half my team planned out just based on how awesome their sprites look (they're Rhyperior, Tangrowth and Rotom Toaster Forme.)
Even though I can't read Japanese, I can tell that Handsome's gonna be a riot.

pancakeswordsman
I looked at the Game Locations part of the Scyther page in Bulbapedia, and it says "Trade". What do you think that means?

Disaster Lord, im a weavile in your test!!
Awesome i cant wait to put my fingers on that disk.
All i want is faster surf, it is a pain in the "beep" to go between the routes, also some of the trainer sprites look god in the vids, my favorite one is flint(so random), and im expecting all about handsome he is gona be a random butterfre blast!!!
The new tracks of the frontier brains, and giratina battle owns!!
BTW.. does someone know if there are still 10,000 starlys and bidoofs within a ten feet radius or they solve that problem in this version.
We need I-pod rotom!!!

Maecenas
In regards to whether Scyther can be found at Rt. 210 or not, I at least know that a trainer in Byron's gym now uses a Scizor. Also, Serebii.net says that Shellos is trading-only, but I have seen videos of people encountering them in the wild.
...For what it's worth, I've revised my planned team. I'm now thinking Tangrowth, Feraligatr, Giratina, Milotic, Mamoswine and Porygon-Z. Got any suggestions?

Flora and Ashes
Thank God for the back-up button on the Poketch. Woo~

...Holy crap, the tent thing's gonna give me more nightmares than "Anything Goes"- if that's even possible.

Umbreonmaster
Okay, This is going to be the next BEEEEEG thing. Thank you, Nintendo, faster scrooling, faster Surfing, AND a TENT!!!

Scepterra
3 things that could've been in DP that should've been put in there:
1. Faster surfing
2. Poketch back-up button (LOVE)
3. The rival dance

Water
Will it be avaidable in the UK as well? I would love to buy it, if I wasn't so broke. >_>;