A Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl player has discovered their copy of the game contains the wrong Legendary Pokémon, offering Dialga instead of Palkia in Pokémon Shining Pearl. Nintendo's newest games in the beloved franchise, remakes of the original Nintendo DS' Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, released just last week on November 19, and fans have since been roaming the Sinnoh region discovering everything the games have to offer.
Mainline Pokémon games have traditionally launched with two separate versions ever since the release of the first Pokémon games in Japan in 1996. The versions differ in slight ways, and Pokémon fans get exclusive Legendary Pokémon depending on the version of the game they buy. In the past, seen with Pokémon Sword and Shield, both versions had their own ROMs. However, it has been confirmed that both Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have the same ROM. This means that Pokémon fans are actually buying the same game regardless of the version they purchase. The version that is accessible to the player is dictated by a type of flag in the code of the game. This was discovered via Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl ROM leaks ahead of the games' official release.
In a post on the Pokémon BDSP subreddit, user Beary-Allen09 posted several images of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond's Legendary Pokémon Dialga appearing in their Pokémon Shining Pearl game. Shining Pearl's Legendary Pokémon is Palkia, so it's certainly odd that Dialga appears instead. What's even stranger is that Beary-Allen09's photos show that some other aspects of the game surrounding the correct Legendary remain, like Palkia's Lustrous Orb. Furthermore, a photo of the fan's Nintendo Switch homepage shows that they are playing Shining Pearl.
See the post on Reddit here.
At first glance, Pokémon fans may assume the flag in the code of Beary-Allen09's Pokémon Shining Pearl game is simply switched to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond. Therefore, though the game is packaged as Shining Pearl, it's really the Brilliant Diamond version with Legendary Pokémon Dialga. However, with the game offering items exclusive to Palkia, it's likely that Beary-Allen09's copy of the game is bugged. This is further supported by the fact that Beary-Allen09 commented that all dialogue in their game referred to Palkia, but the cutscenes contained Dialga. Though a glitched copy of the game may prove frustrating, it may be worth some money in the future.
Players can trade Pokémon with each other, regardless of the version they own, and while Beary-Allen09 can trade their oddly-placed Dialga for a Palkia, it may be best to hold onto that Legendary Pokémon for the novelty. It's not clear if multiple people have been affected by the apparent bug, or whether or not Nintendo will take action if further players report the same issue. It's possible that a Pokémon BDSP patch could restore order to Beary-Allen09's Pokémon problem, but that may depend on how widespread the error turns out to be.
Source: Beary-Allen09/Reddit