4th Gen Clearing up the Confusion on Regions - Regional Differences in Pokémon Games

[ss5vegeta]

Now we no that Pal Park is only language locked and not region locked, the same thing might happen with Battle Rev.

 

[mko]

There is also "GBA Pokémon Insertion". However, if pal park workd this should work too. (I belive)

 

[Virtual Headache]

There is also "GBA Pokémon Insertion". However, if pal park workd this should work too. (I belive)

GBA Pokémon Insertion isn't blocked in any way.
I've got Japanese Diamond and German GBA games and it's working for me.

 

[wakachamo]

GBA Pokémon Insertion isn't blocked in any way.
I've got Japanese Diamond and German GBA games and it's working for me.

That's right, since the GBA Pokémon insertion doesn't actually have to look in the code for that to work.

 

[_Prince_]

Well well well, looks like wakachamo you was right after all.
I'm still not getting the USA d/p, I'm still happy to wait.

 

[wakachamo]

I've updated the first post with more accurate examples and some stuff based on personal experience, seeing as I've got the game as well now. =P

 

[kingofgames157]

its ur decison?

o_0????
=D

 

[wakachamo]

...could you please try to make sense in your post? XD

 

[Toothache]

Ok, this makes sense. I think I'll hang fire until a European release date happens for D/P and PBR.

 

[Red X]

So just to clear things up, you can trade if one person is using a EU DS and the other an US DS?

 

[wakachamo]

^No. You can trade if you have an EU and US D/P. The DS's region needs to be the same.

 

[Red X]

But you said you could...

Global Trade Station
Like I said above, Wi-Fi is fully supported no matter where you are, no matter what DS you have.
However, like many of you know, the Global Trade Station, located by the Pokémon School in Jubilife City, uses a special globe called the GeoNet, which shows the position of people whom you have traded (whether it's GTS or not, doesn't matter) and battled.
So, obviously you will have to input your location as well.
Question is, will you be able to put a European location on Pokémon D/P that came from the US? The answer's yes, you will be able to, seeing as I've got my location on my Diamond. =P

 

[laxstar333]

I got Uk DS and American pokemon pearl and it works fine

 

[Red X]

So I need an American copy of Pearl/Diamond to trade people in the US region?

 

[Virtual Headache]

So I need an American copy of Pearl/Diamond to trade people in the US region?

No.
You can trade with people from everywhere with every version.
You can trade between a Japanese D/P and an US one for example.

 

[Red X]

So example:

I have an EU DS and game, I can trade with someone with a US DS and game?

 

[wakachamo]

But you said you could...

You pointed out the GTS. GTS uses Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi a completely different story. We're not talking about that here, are we? We're talking about local trades.

So example:

I have an EU DS and game, I can trade with someone with a US DS and game?

The game's region doesn't matter. However, even though I can't exactly prove this for the moment, the DS's region needs to be the same. So:

EU DS and any game, with EU DS and any game.

Get it now?

 

[Senerio]

Nintendo DS units appear to be the same worldwide. There shouldn't be any physical "regions" between the units.

 

[Maple Meganium]

I really don't want to read this thread. Most of it is filled with worthless "will XXX work with YYY?" BS. I hope you can understand.

Now Wakachamo, I'm going to have to disagree with you in regards to the DS region locking portion. To the best of my knowledge, there's no difference between the software on different DSes from different regions. The same generally holds true for same-language games from different regions. (This is also the basis for the Pal Park Language Lock as opposed to a Region Lock.) So, a US D/P should be compatible with a UK D/P over local wireless. I'd even go so far as to say that different-languaged games ought to be compatible over local wireless but I can't confirm this.

What I can confirm is that I was able to race my brother, who was using a Japanese MKDS game, with my US MKDS game, over local wireless without difficulty. Diamond/Pearl are much more complicated in their communications protocols, so they may not be locally compatible, but, seeing as Japanese and English Pokémon can be exchanged freely over the internet (as well as 3rd-gen link trading between versions), it would appear that the language barrier has already been broken, so it's possible that the communications protocols for local wireless are the same as well. (This needs confirmation. Anyone have an English D/P, a Japanese D/P, and 2 DSes?)

So, to summarize:
-The DS has NO region locking.
-DS games have NO region locking.
-Communications protocols are determined entirely by the game. The DS unit has nothing to do with them.
-There may be language barriers between games, but this is on a per-game basis, and most games are compatible between different-languaged versions. (This thread provides testimony that MKDS and Tetris DS work.)
-Because the DS has no region locking, a Wii has no idea what the region of a DS wishing to connect is. Therefore, any DS can connect with any Wii. Language barriers may apply on a per-title basis. (I would expect a language barrier with PBR.)
-Treat Slot2 connectivity the same way you would DS-DS connectivity. Language barriers may exist, and it's been confirmed that Pal Park is language-restricted. I believe this is due to technical constraints rather than malice, as the Japanese D/P developers didn't know what the English D/P data structures would look like, so they couldn't properly handle English-version Pokémon. I have no idea why English D/P versions can't handle Japanese carts. Maybe to keep it fair?

 

[wakachamo]

I really don't want to read this thread. Most of it is filled with worthless "will XXX work with YYY?" BS. I hope you can understand.

What I can't understand is that you still put yourself through reading this thread even though you didn't want to.

Now Wakachamo, I'm going to have to disagree with you in regards to the DS region locking portion. To the best of my knowledge, there's no difference between the software on different DSes from different regions. The same generally holds true for same-language games from different regions. (This is also the basis for the Pal Park Language Lock as opposed to a Region Lock.) So, a US D/P should be compatible with a UK D/P over local wireless. I'd even go so far as to say that different-languaged games ought to be compatible over local wireless but I can't confirm this.

When did I say there were any restrictions, software-wise? Plus, Different-languaged games are compatible over local wireless.
Plus, you have to stop thinking that language = region. They're two completely different things.

And do note that I'm basing this off just pure logic, since I can't confirm this. (yet, btw) This also has a bit of personal experience. When I talk about that "experience", it's when something weird happened to me. I tried to play against my friend. I had a US Metroid Demo, and he had a UK one. Since I knew at that time that DS software was in no way region-restricted, it must've been because of the DS. My DS was American, and his was European. So, even though this might contradict many people on the fact that the DS isn't actually hardware-locked (which I'm almost sure is true, like you said in your post), I think it's still possible that NoE might screw with things every once in a while. However, don't get offended with what I say, since I can't confirm this. I'm still, as of now, basing this off logic and basing it off of this little happening as well. Nonetheless I will try to confirm this ASAP when D/P comes out here.

What I can confirm is that I was able to race my brother, who was using a Japanese MKDS game, with my US MKDS game, over local wireless without difficulty.

Of course that works. Why? Because it's probable that you both have a DS bought in the US. Plus in this thread, I'm not talking about JP-US differences. I'm talking about US-EUR differences. You might've not realized that NoE does make a lot of changes in games very often.

Diamond/Pearl are much more complicated in their communications protocols, so they may not be locally compatible,

Tell me how they're much more complicated in their communications. In fact, it should be the opposite. Do note that Mario Kart DS has to request the player's coordenates all the time, and D/P doesn't even need to do something close to that.

but, seeing as Japanese and English Pokémon can be exchanged freely over the internet (as well as 3rd-gen link trading between versions), it would appear that the language barrier has already been broken, so it's possible that the communications protocols for local wireless are the same as well. (This needs confirmation. Anyone have an English D/P, a Japanese D/P, and 2 DSes?)

English D/P and Jap D/P work fine. 1Up confirmed this. And please take note that playing over the net is very different when comparing to local wireless. That's a big mistake, since the two don't work the same way. (One's actually connecting to a network, the other's communication via ad-hoc)

So, to summarize:
-The DS has NO region locking. It doesn't. However, NoE can change the way games communicate with each other.
-DS games have NO region locking. Of course they don't.
-Communications protocols are determined entirely by the game. The DS unit has nothing to do with them. I think it does. The base of the connection is handled by the DS itself, I believe. I can't confirm this nonetheless, but I will be able to as soon as D/P comes out here in Europe.
-There may be language barriers between games, but this is on a per-game basis, and most games are compatible between different-languaged versions. (This thread provides testimony that MKDS and Tetris DS work.) Your MKDS testimony proves nothing, seeing as it's a US-JP connection. We're not talking about that in this thread.
-Because the DS has no region locking, a Wii has no idea what the region of a DS wishing to connect is. Therefore, any DS can connect with any Wii. Language barriers may apply on a per-title basis. (I would expect a language barrier with PBR.) Language barriers don't exist on DS and Wii games.
-Treat Slot2 connectivity the same way you would DS-DS connectivity. Language barriers may exist, and it's been confirmed that Pal Park is language-restricted. I believe this is due to technical constraints rather than malice, as the Japanese D/P developers didn't know what the English D/P data structures would look like, so they couldn't properly handle English-version Pokémon. I have no idea why English D/P versions can't handle Japanese carts. Maybe to keep it fair? If I heard it right, English D/P versions can handle Japanese carts. I've asked Hiroshi Sotomura and he says everything worked fine.