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

[Red X]

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.



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?

I do apologise, but I'm still confused. So a simple response to this "I have an EU DS and game, I can trade with someone with a US DS and game?" would be no, correct?

 

[wakachamo]

Once again, I can't confirm this due to many obvious contradictions, but I'll go ahead with what I think.

It depends of both the consoles you guys have are the same region. Forget about the game, that doesn't matter. What matters is the the place where you bought the actual system.

 

[Kraka-chan]

Ah! <kisses the PC screen> Thank you for posting this thread. I was wanting to know about whether or not my GBA games would work with a US D/P. (Yes, I live in UK and my DS has been bought from a shop in the UK).

You see, I own a US Pokemon G/S and I was able to use it with an Australlian version of Pokemon Stadium 2 (and it worked on my N64 since it is a PAL machine). So I'm glad there aren't many problems so far. I hope... <crosses fingers>

 

[taraleigh]

thanks

Thanks this board has helped clear up so much! :)

I have one question..

what is the difference between language lock and region lock i dont fully understand... :/

 

[wakachamo]

^Region = Continent where the game is bought.

Language = Text language inside the game. All DS and Wii European games should have English, Spanish, French, German and Italian in them. There is no language lock for DS games, but to some extent there is for GBA games, I think. For example a GBA game with Spanish in it can't communicate with a GBA game with English in it. However, it's highly probable that this is completely wrong.

 

[Shiny_Latios]

like you have said before as long as both games are the same region they are fine me and my friend had a wireless battle at school and it was fine :)

 

[Kraka-chan]

Sorry if I'm going off topic, but I had thought of this when I was out looking for Pokemon Ranger...
Does the European Pokemon Ranger have the secret Manaphy Mission?
And if yes, will it work with a US Pokemon D/P?

Has anyone else thought of that?

 

[Red X]

So if I have a EU DS and an EU Pokemon D/P, I can use Wi-fo to trade with people in the US?

 

[wakachamo]

Red X, please read my first post. Wi-Fi doesn't matter; you can use any old combination.

And Kraka-chan, I'm not much of an expert when it comes to Ranger, so unfortunately I can't really help you with that. ^^;

 

[Red X]

That's awesome news. I appreciate the help Wakachamo and I do aplogoise about all the questions. I just needed to know if I would need to inmport D/P to trade with you guys in the US. And now I know I don't :)

 

[Juliette♥]

Thanks for clearing this all up! I would have imported a Battle Revolution from the US if I hadn't known.

 

[wakachamo]

That's awesome news. I appreciate the help Wakachamo and I do aplogoise about all the questions. I just needed to know if I would need to inmport D/P to trade with you guys in the US. And now I know I don't :)

No problem. =) And yup, you don't need to worry about anything if the matter is Wi-Fi. =P

Thanks for clearing this all up! I would have imported a Battle Revolution from the US if I hadn't known.

No prob. And yeah, you would regret it big time if you imported; it just doesn't work. =P

 

[Jim]

Sorry if this has been mentioned I'm in a hurry but What about the GBA insirtion? Like say a USA Pearl. European DS and European Sapphire/Emerald ECT.? Will I still be able to get Pokes that way? (EG a Lotad on route 203 w/ Sapphire inserted.)

Thanks.

 

[wakachamo]

I haven't actually tried that yet, but initially it should work like a charm. =D

 

[Jim]

I haven't actually tried that yet, but initially it should work like a charm. =D

Thanks. I actually got a few friends to test it and it worked for them. So you can add it to the first post if needed.

 

[wakachamo]

Sure, thanks. I'll add it asap.

 

[Piplup_WazUp]

I really want to buy this game no matter what. The new features seem awesome!

 

[Maple Meganium]

Wakachamo: I think the only situations where we disagree are in matters of speculation, so let's not turn this into a needless fight.

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

I didn't. I read the first page.

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.

For the first "software," I was speaking of the DS firmware. Sorry if that wasn't clear. From what I've been following in the DS homebrew community, there's no functional difference between DSes from different regions, hardware or firmware.

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.

Judging by that, I'd guess that the Metroid Prime Demos are different between the US and UK, not the DSes. Games from different regions are sometimes byte-per-byte identical, but at other times, they can vary completely, even in communications protocols.

Demos, even more than finished games, would tend to be different between releases because they're unfinished. Maybe Retro Studios decided to change the MPH communications protocols after the US demo release but before the UK one?

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.

You're right in that it doesn't provide any info as to the existence of a hardware incompatibility. The point I was trying to make is that different-regioned and/or different-languaged games are often compatible with each other. We probably both agree on this, but I couldn't tell at the time.

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.

I was speaking only of language-specific communications. Kart coordinates and such are no different in Japanese. Pokémon nicknames are different between languages, however. (The English/French/German/Italian/... names use 1 byte per character @ 10 characters, while the Japanese names use 2 bytes per character @ 5 characters.)

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)

All I was saying is that the string formatting hurdle had already been overcome, demonstrated by the third-gen interoperability (which I've experienced) and the internet interoperability. It follows that the local ad-hoc ought to work as well, which you say it does.

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.

From what I've been following in the homebrew community, this is not true. All but the lowest layers are handled entirely by the game. These lowest layers are the same regardless of where your DS is from.

Language barriers don't exist on DS and Wii games.

Not on their own, but the D/Ps from different regions (or at least those of different languages) have different programming. (Particularly the offsets of various data structures in the save file.) Japanese PBR may not know how to handle a US D/P. Someone ought to test, but I'd guess that Japanese PBR can't link with US D/P.

 

[Red X]

Can I still pal pak, if my PEARL is a US Region copy and my DS and EMERALD are EU Region?

 

[wakachamo]

Demos, even more than finished games, would tend to be different between releases because they're unfinished. Maybe Retro Studios decided to change the MPH communications protocols after the US demo release but before the UK one?

Yeah, I'm glad we can discuss this without actually fighting over this. ;P But yeah, you're absolutely right. I did wrong in depending on an actual demo for this experience, which is why I'm keeping this thread on hold until I can get a real confirmation of whether or not this hardware-related regional difference is true or not, even though it's supposedly fake.

Can I still pal pak, if my PEARL is a US Region copy and my DS and EMERALD are EU Region?

Yes you will.