Roar of Time

My name is Joey, I am a student currently attending a community college. I have been a massive fan of the Pokemon series since the early to mid-2000’s. A time where HeartGold and SoulSilver were the newest released games on the Nintendo DS, although I myself not only owned a DS but a DSi XL as well, given my regular DS to this day is very old. It is hardly able to turn on or function at all sometimes, so when it doesn’t work I simply switch over to play on my DSi XL instead. I’ve always preferred playing games on bigger screens, especially Pokemon. Seeing all of the pixelated sprites on a bigger screen to me is always able to immerse me deeper into the world and characters more for some odd arbitrary reason. I always felt nostalgic returning to previous generations, not that the newer games are as bad by any means, they’re very unique in their own ways. I’ve simply never been as attached to them as I have with the games in the fourth generation. In terms of nostalgic favorites Diamond, Pearl and Platinum easily take the cake although HeartGold is not too far behind in my personal favorites list as well. Yes I am more than aware of Diamond and Pearl’s flaws, especially the clunky faulty game engine they were made on. Call it nostalgia goggles if you will, but they were the first Pokemon games I have ever owned. Although my brother received the Pearl version while I received Diamond seeing as to how my mother thought there would be no reason that I should receive two of practically the exact same game, my brother was into Pokemon around the same time I was so I thought it was only fair. Looking back, I’m kind of glad I never got too attached to Pearl. I love Palkia and I personally believe it is one of the more underrated legendaries in the series, but I have always found Dialga personally to be the more superior of the two. Its design as well as overall concept simply struck me as far more interesting, a god-like creature whose sole purpose is to preserve the natural flow of time? That concept to me always sounded fascinating, even as a kid. Recently I have also bought an Action Replay device to help me access the Mythical events scattered around the game for me to unlock. Soon I had every single legendary and Mythical in Platinum, but I have not yet tried it out on Diamond yet. Curious, I have decided to do some digging online for possible codes and cheats I could use to make the game more interesting, walking through walls, infinite cash, all cheats I could do on Platinum as well, but one I wanted to experience in a different game. Sounds weird I know but I love experimenting with more than one game, that’s simply just a personal preference of mine.

Regardless I went digging around for some codes on the internet until I stumbled across one particular site which contained a code I didn’t recognize, it was labeled ‘Roar of Time : Scrapped Event’.

‘What?’ I pondered to myself.

‘What scrapped event? The only scrapped event I knew of was the Azure Flute event for Arceus.’ The description simply stated to be sure that it was activated before triggering the Dialga event otherwise the code wouldn’t work. Now far more curious about what this code could possibly contain, I manually put the code into my Action Replay as I didn’t have the USB wire that connects to my computer, to say it was a lengthy code to put in would be a massive understatement. It was far longer than any other code I have had into my system up until that point. I assumed this event probably contained a lot of data, at least that was my assumption at the time. I was rather sad that I had already triggered the Dialga event, which meant I had to restart my game. Before I activated my code however, I went into my old Diamond save file and transferred all of my Pokémon to my copy of Platinum, all that was left in my Diamond save file afterwards were old Bidoof’s, Geodude’s, Magikarp’s and Rattata’s I nicknamed when I was a kid. Otherwise, no other Pokémon were lost in the transfer.

I restarted my DSi XL, activated the code and started my game.

Everything during the introduction occurred like normal. After I pressed start to speed up the intro, I was thrown into the title screen like normal, only the colors that would typically flash on Dialga didn’t display at all and the music didn’t play whatsoever.



Once I pressed start however the sound effect played and everything resumed as normal, I clicked ‘New Game’ and started over from scratch. The entire game played out as it normally would, I received my starter Pokémon, conquered all of the gyms before Volkner etc. It was a very nice trip down memory lane even despite its many flaws. I had a very decent team, not the most competitive friendly team but pretty solid, nonetheless. Some were level 47, while others were in the early to mid 50’s and although it had a very rare chance of appearing I somehow managed to find myself a shiny female Gible in the Wayward Cave. I used my Master Ball to catch it as I did not want to run the risk of accidentally knocking it out, I raised it up to Level 48 and now it is one of the strongest Pokémon on my team besides Infernape who only surpassed her by a few levels. Consider it stupid in hindsight if you will but at the time, I genuinely thought I made a smart decision in the end. At least that’s what I thought, regardless at this point I was ready to head over to Mt.Coronet and take on Team Galactic. I was on my way to the top of Mt.Coronet when I encountered a Graveler in a patch of grass. I wondered what Graveler was doing outside of its cave where you normally encounter it, regardless I figured this would be a good time to farm for some experience points. Some of my team members were a little far behind, especially my Luxray, so I switched my Infernape to my Luxray only for the textbox at the bottom to say

‘The wild Graveler ran away’ as it transitioned back to the overworld. I found this to be pretty weird, so I tried encountering other Pokémon only to find that all of them would run away from me on the very next turn the same way that Graveler did. I started re-considering using this code, given as to how it was the only possible explanation that the game would act up in this way. Eventually however, I decided to press onwards. Nothing else was different, everything played out exactly like it should. All of the grunts went down with ease and they said nothing different when defeated. I made it to Spear Pillar and battled the two grunts, I defeated them, however they said something a little different.

“Urgh..Just you wait!”

“Yeah, soon Master Cyrus will have the power of time at his fingertips!” Very odd indeed, but not unfitting considering how blindly devoted Cyrus’ grunts normally were. I walked towards Cyrus and the usual cutscene would play with Cyrus spouting and prattling on about how everything will end and start again. When Dialga appeared his usual cry played, only I could have sworn it sounded a tiny bit louder than it normally did. Miniscule details aside, the cutscene continued on as normal, with the skies being filled and Cyrus continuing his little tangent. I beat Mars and Jupiter with no problem, in fact I personally believe I did so well that I didn’t even need Barry’s help at all. Anyways Barry then healed my Pokémon and ran off like he normally does, the camera then panned in on Dialga with the galaxy enveloping below the deity like it normally would. Cyrus would continue on about how excited he was that his dream is finally becoming a reality, only something different happened. At the part where Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf would unite to calm Dialga instead Dialga played its signature cry only louder as the screen would flash white until its cry was finished playing. The screen would seem to be frozen until a textbox below said

“DIALGA used Roar Of Time!”

Just then the screen would repeatedly flash white until Dialga’s cry was heard again only slightly lower pitched, the screen became completely white as a result. It would fade into the cutscenes I saw before of the towns and windmills, only this time everything seemed to be frozen in place. Nothing was moving whatsoever, when the screen faded back to the overworld the music for Spear Pillar stopped completely and all of the other NPC’s were frozen in place including my character. Just then suddenly Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf appeared, and their music played as they would in the regular cutscene. Only this time the Lake Trio surrounded me instead of Dialga, as a result I was able to successfully move again. Then just like that, the three vanished instantly and the music immediately cut out. All that could be heard were the angered cries of Dialga in the background, the closer I walked to Dialga the louder its cry would become. Once I stopped in front of it, I decided I wanted to save my game, however when I clicked the ‘Save’ option a textbox would appear.

“Time has stopped completely, saving unsuccessful.” I couldn’t even save my game anymore, so I then decided to go into my team and swap my Pokémon around. I put my Infernape in the front, given it knew Close Combat and was overall my strongest Pokémon. I also equipped Infernape with a Focus Sash for good measure, because you can never be too safe especially given the context of the current situation I’m in. Before I faced Dialga however I took a brief moment to observe my surroundings, I spoke to Cyrus but it instead said

“Cyrus is frozen in time.” This repeated for every NPC that I talked to; only the first part would obviously be changed, for instance ‘Commander Mars is frozen in time’ so on and so forth. I was able to exit Mt.Coronet and explore anywhere I wanted to freely, only there would be no music playing in any area. The animations that would normally play for the environments wouldn’t play at all, the water in Mt.Coronet’s waterfalls for instance would stay stuck on that singular frame not moving whatsoever. I couldn’t believe it, everywhere I went nothing would move besides my character. Everyone besides me was frozen and I checked every NPC on the map just to make sure. With reluctance I ran back to Spear Pillar and interacted with Dialga, it would play its signature cry as well as its signature

“Gugyugubah” as a battle would then commence. The usual animation played and Dialga’s battle theme would play like normal if not only a teensy bit louder. Dialga appeared on-screen only; it was its Platinum sprite instead of its Diamond sprite and it was level 70, the same level you encounter him in Platinum. Instead of the textbox below saying

‘A wild DIALGA appeared!’ instead it simply said

‘DIALGA appeared!’ I sent out my Infernape and I could have sworn his animation was playing a little bit slower than it normally does. The UI appeared and I selected Close Combat, seeing as to how Dialga outnumbered me by a landslide in terms of level, Dialga went first.

‘DIALGA used Roar Of Time!’ The usual animation played, and my Infernape’s HP was reduced to a sliver of health, good thing I equipped Infernape with that Focus Sash. Sure enough Infernape used Close Combat as normal, only the move did a lot less damage than I was expecting it to do. In fact, I believe it did less than a half percent of damage to Dialga, which should not be possible considering that Dialga is part Steel-type. Knowing Dialga would out speed, I take this opportunity to heal my Infernape back to full health. I used a Full Restore only for Dialga to use Roar of Time again, dropping my Infernape to zero HP. I thought to myself

"Wait, isn't Dialga supposed to recharge after using Roar of Time just once?" However I brushed it off as simply a part of the event in the end, none of this battle made sense at this point. Try explaining this one competetive experts, something far more weird caught my attention at this point however. When it reached zero, Infernape's usual cry and fainting animation didn’t play. Instead it played an animation similar to where Castform would transform in either the rain or the sun even with the same sound effect accompanying it as well. My Infernape’s colors were now completely inverted, nothing happened until a textbox appeared shortly afterwards that said

“INFERNAPE is frozen in time!” Then the prompt for switching Pokémon occurred, I checked my Infernape to see that his overworld sprites have changed to the exact same colors as his battle sprite. All animation for Infernape stopped to a complete halt, as if it had fainted in battle. Curious, I tried to switch him in again but instead of saying Infernape was already out it said

“INFERNAPE has been frozen in time, it cannot battle anymore.” This concerned me to no end, the stakes in this battle were far more cataclysmic than Dialga’s original battle in Diamond. Serves Team Galactic right however for toying with essentially the deity of time itself, now I was stuck having to fight their battle. At least that’s what I am beginning to pick up judging by how this new, yet familiar storyline was presented anyhow, considering the situation I switched into my Garchomp to see if she would fare any better against the terrifying beast. The animation that would play when you switch out Pokémon played as Infernape simply returned to his Poke Ball, Garchomp was then sent out in his place, in all of her shiny glory. My plan at this point was to use Dragon Rush and simply hope and cross my fingers that I would be able to survive from Dialga’s attack, as expected Dialga went first and used Roar Of Time. Not as expectedly however, it knocked out my Garchomp within a single blow. The same animation that happened to my Infernape happened with Garchomp the moment her health bar reached zero, the same textbox then appeared

“GARCHOMP is frozen in time!” as it threw me back into the same Pokémon switch prompt, I checked Garchomp’s status as well. Unfortunately, what I saw was the exact same situation that happened to Infernape. Inverted colors, no animations playing you get the picture. This cycle continued on with the rest of my party shortly afterwards. Luxray, Roserade, Floatzel and soon after Staraptor all became frozen in time with the same inverted colors that Infernape and Garchomp had. The

“*Player Name* is out of usable Pokémon…” prompt played, only the battle was not quite yet over. My player character sprite took my frozen Staraptor’s place on the screen, as nothing would happen for quite a bit. Just when I think the game had frozen up another text box appeared below,

“DIALGA used Roar Of Time!” My character took damage, as he made the same transformation animation the Pokémon did. His colors were now inverted along with his Pokémon, the screen stayed still for what felt like a few seconds before the screen faded to black and transitioned back into the overworld. Dialga then released its signature

“Gugyugubah!” again before the screen slowly faded to white, when it slowly but surely transitioned back my character became frozen with the same inverted colors everyone else had and Dialga was nowhere to be seen.

I couldn’t move my character whatsoever; in fact, I couldn’t even open the menu at all. Just to see if anything else would happen I waited for what felt like an eternity before I reluctantly decided to shut the game off and turn it back on again. Sure enough it brought me back to that same frozen title screen with no intro music, however my save file was somehow still there. I opened it only for the screen to fade back to where I was originally, frozen and unable to do anything. I tried to open up my menu again, still nothing. Eventually I shut the game off and went to relax on my bed, thinking about the events that had transpired. Taking all of this into consideration I think I’ve come to a pretty definitive conclusion as to what might have happened in the canon of this event’s story. Dialga, enraged with Team Galactic’s attempt at imprisoning it, used the last of its power to freeze everyone in Sinnoh. Forcing them to be stuck in a permanent loop, where time isn’t moving forward or backwards, simply standing still.