Pokemon Pearl - Pal Park

Pal Park is a place in the southwest part of Sinnoh where one can bring Pokemon over from FireRed/LeafGreen and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. It only opens up after you receive the National Pokedex, and of course it's only of use if you've completed any of the previously-mentioned games. There's the further complication that this function only works on an original Nintendo DS or DS Lite, because those are the only models with the GBA port.

When I got in there, I found several people who came to watch all the non-Sinnoh Pokemon being caught, with several being fans of mine after the Championship. I went up to the man running the park and he told me that I'd be scored on what Pokemon I catch and how quickly I catch them, and depending on the amount of points I got I would receive a prize.

The way it works is that you have to go to the main menu after you boot up the game, and there is a new option there to "Migrate Pokemon from [GAME]" that you need to select. You have to use the touchscreen to say "yes" to transferring, and then to select the 6 Pokemon you want to bring over from the game in question.

After the Pokemon are transferred from the old game to Diamond/Pearl, you load up your file and fly over to Pal Park. This is when things get really interesting; you talk to the guy running the park, and the timer starts after you go in to catch all those Pokemon. You're given 6 Park Balls that are as reliable as Master Balls to catch the Pokemon, and your only options when encountering your old Pokemon are to either throw the ball or run away.

 Pal Park is made up of one big area, divided into different sections to catch Pokemon in their normal environments. The different sections include a field area, a forest area, a pond, a mountain area, and the sea. You have to go through tall grass in some sections, or Surf through the couple others to find the Pokemon and then toss Park Balls to catch them. Rare Pokemon, such as legendary ones like Rayquaza, take longer to find than more common Pokemon like Bidoof, even when you know where to find them in the park.

I admit I'd rather have a system where I just transfer all my Pokemon over, but at least Pal Park isn't really tedious, and you can't fuck it up either long as you grab all 6 Pokemon at once. The one big problem with Pal Park is the fact that you can only transfer over 6 Pokemon per day, meaning I have to wait a FULL 24 hours for each transfer.

During the past few days, I've sent over my Championship team from Hoenn, all the Hoenn Legendary Pokemon, and another group featuring Pokemon I trained and a couple rare Pokemon. After bringing them over, I got several of them to evolve and learn new moves available in the 4th generation.

I brought Bolt (Magneton, Electric/Steel, Lv. 52) over to Route 223 to build it up a bit, then I went to Mt. Coronet to train it to Level 53, and it evolved into Magnezone! I looked over Bolt's stats as a Magnezone, and I realized that it's special attack increased greatly, and so did it's defense and special defense. While I was at it I taught Bolt Flash again, and Flash Cannon in place of Shock Wave.

I got Brick (Graveler, Rock/Ground, Lv. 47) to trade over to my old copy, where it evolved into Golem, increasing his attack and defense. I also used a Shiny Stone to evolve Spike (Roselia, Grass/Poison, Lv. 47) into Roserade. I also had a Vulpix (Fire, Female, Lv. 27) I evolved into Ninetales with a Fire Stone I had her carry from Sapphire.

It's going to be another couple weeks at least of transferring Pokemon over, but it will be worth it in the end. I just wish I could spend a day simply bringing them all over. At least every Pokemon game onward lacks such a daily restriction!

Current Team:

Lucius (Rapidash, Fire, Lv. 58)
Alexander (Machamp, Fighting, Lv. 58)
Maximus (Luxray, Electric, Lv. 57)
Annabelle (Torterra, Grass/Ground, Lv. 58)
Marcus (Staraptor, Normal/Flying, Lv. 58)
Maria (Gastrodon, Water/Ground, Lv. 57)