Pokémon Diamond & Pearl were revolutionary games, and the fact that these games were launched in the Nintendo DS made fans speculate about how they could use its features to unlock secrets. Oddly, the gen 4 games made little use of the DS’ features, but that didn’t stop the speculation of fans.
Other rumors sparked from the fact that the Sinnoh region is filled with myths and legends, which fueled the imagination, and sometimes hope, of players looking for rare and hidden Pokémon. The 4th gen games are still generating rumors, as fans are still trying to figure out when are their remakes coming.
10 RUMOR: The Remakes
Yes. If you’ve been a fan of Pokémon for a little more than a decade, then you probably know that the rumors about the gen 4 remakes always come and go, as hardcore fans of the Sinnoh region always try to uncover the truth about when are they coming.
But who doesn’t want to hunt for clues in official announcements, or worse, grasp onto every bit of lore that references the Sinnoh region in the hopes that it means that the remakes are at least being developed. They’re probably going to come someday, hopefully.
9 TRUE: Gen 4 Games Had A Beta Version
Just like computer programs and phone apps, games usually have a beta phase where developers test gameplay mechanics, character designs, and many other things. The gen 4 games did have a beta phase, and just looking at the sprites that were shown during the 2019 and 2020 Pokémon leaks can give you an insight into how games are different from their beta versions.
Maybe one day someone will leak more Pokémon designs from the beta version of some of the newer games, just to fill the curiosity of fans of the franchise.
8 RUMOR: That You Could Catch Arceus
Well, this is more of a technicality, as while you can battle and catch Arceus in the Diamond and Pearl games, there is not a legal way of doing so. Players at first thought that Game Freak was planning to add an event item as a way for players to catch Arceus just like they usually do with mythical Pokémon.
But the thing is, they were going to do so but had second thoughts about it, and instead just gave a Level 100 Arceus to some lucky players. As a fun fact, Game Freak forgot that they never distributed the Azure Flute, which is the event item required to do find Arceus, when they distributed one during the 20 year Pokémon anniversary.
7 TRUE: Game Freak Thought That The Azure Flute Was Too Confusing
If you’re still wondering what the Azure Flute is, well, it’s the key item that was required to unlock Arceus in the gen 4 games. It was supposed to be given at special events and was designed to show a prompt to use it when the player reached the top of Mt Coronet.
Once used, a staircase would pop up from the ground to a crystal floor with a level 80 Arceus that was ready to battle. Game Freak thought that pressing the A key during a prompt would be too confusing, so they thought that it’d be a better idea to not implement it.
6 RUMOR: Yelling At The Mic
Some players even thought that saying out loud things like “Snap out of it!” would increase the odds of Pokémon doing an action while they were confused, paralyzed, or asleep. Others believed that yelling “Gotcha!” had the effect of increasing their chances of successfully catching a Pokémon.
But the truth is that yelling these things didn’t do anything. The microphone was mostly used to teach a word or phrase to a Chatot when the move Chatter was used on the field. The funny thing is that this time yelling at the mic actually did something, as it increased the chances of confusing an enemy Pokémon when the move was used against them.
5 TRUE: Nintendo Scrapped Many Gender Differences
There were many rumors about how Game Freak thought about adding some Pokémon gender differences. It’s hard to pinpoint when or where did these rumors begin to appear, but we do know when that rumor was put to rest.
Some of the Pokémon leaks released during December 2019, showed that most Pokémon were going to have gender differences. Game Freak probably had second thoughts about adding them once they realized that they’d have to create and animate two 3D models for each Pokémon with gender differences.
4 RUMOR: Pokémon Diamond GBC Version
If you used to read videogame magazines and websites back when the Pokémon Diamond & Pearl weren’t still released, then you probably recognized the cover art shown above. At some point during the year 2000, some ROM-hackers decided to translate a rom of a Game Boy Color game called: Keitai Denjū Telefang.
The game doesn’t have anything to do with the Pokémon franchise, but these ROM-hackers translated the game into the English language and then added some references to Pokémon games.
3 TRUE: The Roaming Darkrai
Some people like to delve into the code of some games, as it is a good way of learning new things and discovering stuff that regular people aren’t supposed to know.
One of these things was a small line of code, which suggested that there was supposed to be an encounter with a roaming Darkrai just like the one with the legendary dogs (Entei, Suicune, Raikou) or the Eon Duo (Latios & Latias). Sadly, that never happened as whatever activated the code was never implemented into the game.
2 True: Legendary Events
Longtime Pokémon fans know that many legendary Pokémon required some sort of item that could only be given at special events. Sadly, most of these events were usually held in Japan, which reduced the number of players who could experience certain storylines.
Many of the event items planned for Pokémon Diamond & Pearl (like the Member Card or Oak’s Letter) were never released, but for some reason, they could be obtained in Pokémon Platinum. This led to many players believe that there was a way to unlock these items for the original version of the games, but sadly there never was.
1 RUMOR: Unlocking New Regions
Something about the Johto games that many people often ignore, is that they spoiled the entire Pokémon fanbase when they also included the Kanto region. Players loved the idea of having two regions in a single game so much, that they often dream and discuss how Game Freak should make it a standard.
Players thought that just like the Johto games added the Kanto region, the Sinnoh games had the Hoenn region hidden somewhere. There were a lot of rumors about how to unlock Kanto, but sadly, none of these were true.
NEXT: Pokémon: 5 Ridiculous Gen III Rumors People Actually Believed (& 5 That Actually Turned Out To Be True)
