Pokémon Diamond Version, Pearl Version, and Platinum Version - Language Versions
Each Pokémon as well as the player has a value called "language version."
A Pokémon comes from a particular language version if it was generated in
a game whose text is in that language, regardless of what country the game
was sold in. For example, in an English language game, every Pokémon
generated in that game will come from an English "language version". The
player’s language version is set to the game’s language when a new game
begins. In Pokémon Diamond Version, Pokémon Pearl Version,
Pokémon Platinum Version,
Pokémon HeartGold Version, and
Pokémon SoulSilver Version, there are seven possible language versions:
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.
Migrating Pokémon requires a GBA game with the same language as the DS game. (The exception is Korean language games, which accept Japanese language GBA games, since no GBA Pokémon games were in Korean. However, the migrated Pokémon will come from a Korean language version.)
In Japanese and Korean language games, the player can input up to five characters for both Pokémon nicknames and Trainer names (including OT names). In other language games, the player can input up to ten characters for Pokémon nicknames and up to seven characters for Trainer names (including OT names).
A Pokémon’s language version is never displayed directly, but here are some hints for determining language version.
- Some Pokémon have different names in French and German. For example, a Froslass named "FROSDEDJE" or an Infernape named "PANFERNO" is likely to come from a German language version. (However, Spanish and Italian language games use the English names for Pokémon.)
- The presence of hangul or up to five question marks makes it extremely likely that a Pokémon comes from a Korean language version. (Non-Korean language versions don’t include Korean characters, so they display them as question marks instead.)
- The presence of hiragana and katakana makes it extremely likely that a Pokémon comes from a Japanese language version.
- A traded Pokémon from a different language version will earn slightly more Exp. Points than a traded Pokémon from the same language version (see "Experience", above).