Major changes from the GameFreak development room

More hints from the creators of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Article Discussion Report error Monday, July 17, 2006 Originally reported on Pokeani This article brought to you by Bulbanews, your community Pokémon newspaper.

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On the 3rd floor of the Pokémon Garden, on the Yahoo! Kids official Pokémon Diamond and Pearl website, is the GameFreak development room. In the room are virtual representations of the Battle Director Shigeki Morimoto (森本茂樹), Head of Development Jun'ichi Masuda (増田順一) and Art Director Ken Sugimori (杉森　健).

According to Jun'ichi Masuda, Shin'ō will have a large underground world.

Ken Sugimori ponders about evolving Roselia, and also reveals a silhouette of a new Pokémon, revealed in full in the trailer for Diamond and Pearl, thought to be related to Electabuzz.

Shigeki Morimoto reveals that Thunder Punch will be a physical attack, while Hyper Beam becomes a special attack — physical and special are to be set by attack, rather than by type as in previous games. He states that the battle system will be changed "dramatically".

One female staff member mentions a new Pokémon she saw on Sugimori's screen — the silhouette Sugimori reveals. She also suggests that the three starters types will be Fighting, Psychic and Dark. If this were true, it is likely that the type affinity chart will be changed in order to balance the three.