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[Watch Da Birdie]

This is an ambitious thread I've wanted to do for awhile, and I don't know if it will catch on, or people will care for it exactly, but I wanted to talk about Pokemon.

The Pokemon series right now could perhaps be said to be going through some growing pains...the move to 3D, while something a lot of folks wanted, came with it a lot of discussion about Pokemon's viability in the modern industry. Pokemon is still popular, that cannot be argued, but its popularity at this point seems to rely on mainly classic fans who are unable to let the series go, and some would point out, their devotion to the series has led to Game Freak resting on their laurels too often. Furthermore, there's been a lot of controversy concerning the relationship between The Pokemon Company and Nintendo, with the former seemingly turning into a major heel among the gaming community for their overprotective nature of the IP.

However, that's not really what I want to discuss. I want to talk about the Pokemon themselves, the reason many of us got into the franchise in the first place, and the reason while we still remain loyal despite the sins the franchise has committed in recent years. And not just my favorite Pokemon, I wanted to seriously look at each and every one of the Pokemon and really talk about them, what the inspiration was behind them, how they've fared across the years in terms of popularity and viability, and just analyze the creatures I've come to adore and served as a major part of my childhood, and still remain almost "sacred" to me in my adult years. I don't know how much longer I'll enjoy Pokemon---these days I wonder when a main game will come out that I'll straight-up skip---but at the moment, I'm still willing to give the series a chance.

A big part of that is I honestly love Game Freak's designs. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand why people don't like certain Pokemon, and I think there are valid design decisions that can be criticized, but I don't think any Pokemon should be completely dropped from the franchise. There are Pokemon I dislike, but I realize others like, and the best part of Pokemon is none of them are ever completely dropped---Game Freak always brings them back for the next games, sometimes with a new move, ability, evolution or, yes, Mega Evolution. That joy---seeing an old favorite long forgotten about finally get its due---is a great feeling, and the reason I think Pokemon has longer legs compared to some of its contemporaries. Each Pokemon is treated with "respect" by Game Freak, there are no lesser Pokemon. Alright, that's not true---there are Pokemon Game Freak loves, and Pokemon they ignore, but the point is, each of them are given a shot at least each Generation to appeal to new players, and hopefully find players who love them.

My plan is to give a decent write-up concerning each "Evolutionary Family" that offers my insight into them, such as their inspiration, what they mean to the franchise as a whole, personal memories concerning them, and the pros and cons and how "worthy" they are of the Pokemon name. Exploration of the battling side of things---something I've never been skilled at despite playing the games for years---won't factor into my analysis too much, so I'd love to see others offer their opinions when it comes to that category. I hope to do at least one family a day, going through the PokeDex (cross-gen evolutions of course placed alongside their earliest relative in terms of Dex Order), and have a good-sized post for each Pokemon, no matter how forgettable.

Anyway, I hope this thread is alright---I thought about doing a blog, but then I realized doing this on NeoGAF would perhaps be a better option as it'd provide a better sense of community to discuss each Pokemon, and get some insight from fellow fans and compare their feelings on each Pokemon compared to mine. Plus people seemed to enjoy my Banjo-Kazooie write-ups a few years back and, well, I wanted to try a project like that again, but this time actually finish it.

LINKS TO INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES
#001 Bulbasaur
#004 Charmander
#007 Squirtle
#010 Caterpie
#013 Weedle
#016 Pidgey
#019 Rattata
#021 Spearow
#023 Ekans
#025 Pikachu
#027 Sandshrew
#029 & #032 Nidoran
#035 Clefairy
#037 Vulpix
#039 Jigglypuff
#041 Zubat
#043 Oddish
#046 Paras
#048 Venonat
#050 Diglett
#052 Meowth
#054 Psyduck
#056 Mankey
#058 Growlithe
#060 Poliwag
#063 Abra
#066 Machop
#069 Bellsprout
#072 Tentacool
#074 Geodude
#077 Ponyta
#079 Slowpoke
#081 Magnemite
#083 Farfetch'd
#084 Doduo
#086 Seel
#088 Grimer
#090 Shellder
#092 Gastly
#095 Onix
#096 Drowzee
#098 Krabby
#100 Voltorb
#102 Exeggcute
#104 Cubone
#106 Hitmonlee & #107 Hitmonchan
#108 Lickitung
#109 Koffing
#111 Rhydon
#113 Chansey
#114 Tangela
#115 Kangaskhan
#116 Horsea
#118 Goldeen
#120 Staryu
#122 Mr. Mine
#123 Scyther
#124 Jynx
#125 Electabuzz
#126 Magmar
#127 Pinsir
#128 Tauros
#129 Magikarp
#131 Lapras
#132 Ditto
#133 Eevee | Gen II | Gen IV | Gen VI
#137 Porygon
#138 Omanyte
#140 Kabuto
#142 Aerodactyl
#143 Snorlax
#144 Articuno, #145 Zapdos & #146 Moltres
#147 Dratini
#150 Mewtwo
#151 Mew

Intro to Generation II
#152 Chikorita
#155 Cyndaquil
#158 Totodile
#161 Sentret
#163 Hoothoot
#165 Ledyba
#167 Spinarak
#170 Chinchou
#175 Togepi
#177 Natu
#179 Mareep
#182 Marill
#184 Sudowoodo
#187 Hoppip
#190 Aipom
#191 Sunkern
#193 Yanma
#194 Wooper
#198 Murkrow
#200 Misdreavus
#201 Unown
#202 Wobbuffet
#203 Girafarig
#204 Pineco
#206 Dunsparce
#207 Gligar
#209 Snubbull
#211 Qwilfish
#213 Shuckle

 

[Skelter]

Crobat is best.


That is all.

 

[TheTux]

Crobat is best.


That is all.

What about Magikarp?

No, seriously Lucario is the best one.

I don't play pokemon from years, how are the latest games?

 

[Trace]

What about Magikarp?

No, seriously Lucario is the best one.

I don't play pokemon from years, how are the latest games?

Bad. They don't perform well, most of the new pokemon are trash, and the games are so easy now you could probably play them without actually looking at the game.

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

Ghost type is best type.

They don't perform well, most of the new pokemon are trash, and the games are so easy now you could probably play them without actually looking at the game.

True, I don't agree with you, and hyperbole but true-ish, in that in order.

 

[Bladenic]

I dislike the extreme hate Grass type has gotten from GameFreak compared to its starting brethren Water and especially Fire. Hate when developers show blatant favoritism toward a certain thing in their game.

 

[ColtraineGF]

Don't be hyperbolic.

Well, if it helps, here's the list of people credited under Pokemon/graphic design, by gen and first game pair (updated for XY):

Name			G1	G2	G3	G4	G5	G6
Ken Sugimori		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Atsuko Nishida		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Motofumi Fujiwara	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Hironobu Yoshida	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Tetsuya Watanabe	-	Y	-	-	-	-
Satoshi Ōta		-	Y	Y	Y	-	-
Shigeki Morimoto	Y	Y	Y	-	-	-
Jun Okutani		-	Y	Y	-	-	-
Asuka Iwashita		-	Y	Y	-	-	-
Muneo Saitō		-	Y	Y	-	-	-
Rena Yoshikawa		-	Y	Y	-	-	-
Aimi Tomita		-	-	Y	-	-	-
Kanako Eo		-	-	Y	Y	-	Y
Takao Unno		-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y
Kenkichi Toyama		-	-	-	Y	Y	Y
Hiroki Fuchino		-	-	-	Y	Y	Y
Yūsuke Ōmura		-	-	-	Y	Y	Y
Hiroyuki Yagi		-	-	-	Y	-	-
Emi Yoshida		-	-	-	Y	-	-
Hiroyuki Gotō		-	-	-	Y	-	-
Saya Tsuruta		-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Lee HyunJung		-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Mana Ibe		-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Reiko Tanoue		-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Tomohiro Kitakaze	-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Maiko Fujiwara		-	-	-	-	Y	-
Megumi Mizutani		-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Tomohiko Ōkubo		-	-	-	-	Y	-
James Turner		-	-	-	-	Y	Y
Keiko Moritsugu		-	-	-	-	Y	-
Yuki Kawamoto		-	-	-	-	-	Y
Mayo Otani		-	-	-	-	-	Y
Hitoshi Ariga		-	-	-	-	-	Y

And of the ones known (going by Bulbapedia, and some other posts):

Ken Sugimori
--Heatmor
--Xerneas/Yveltal (w/ Yūsuke Ōmura)

Hironobu Yoshida
--Wobbufett
--Deoxys
--Celebi
--Dunsparce
--Magmortar

James Turner
--Vullaby
--Mandibuzz
--Golett
--Golurk
--Vanillite
--Vanillish
--Vanilluxe

Lee HyunJung (presumably the Korean designer)
--Tepig
--Pignite
--Emboar

Atsuko Nishida (only female member of core team)
--Pikachu
--Minccino
--Lillipup (or Ibe?)
--Herdier
--Stoutland (her favorite)
--Sylveon

Mana Ibe
--Victini
--Klefki

Yūsuke Ōmura
--Piplup
--Oshawott

Reiko Tagami
--Snivy
--Pidove
--Sewaddle

Hitoshi Ariga
--Pangoro
--Inkay
--Malamar
--Honedge
--Doublade
--Aegislash
--Tyrunt
--Tyrantrum
--Amaura
--Aurorus

 

[Kinsei]

I'll be interested in seeing your thoughts on some of the latter families that people hate on because they're inanimate objects (Yet Voltorb and Magnemite don't get the same criticism from those same people). My favorite Pokemon happens to be a part of one of those lines (It's Chandelure).

What about Magikarp?

No, seriously Lucario is the best one.

I don't play pokemon from years, how are the latest games?

The Gen 6 games are great but they lack a good post game.

 

[Digital Snake]

What is the one between Mewtwo and Mew?

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

I dislike the extreme hate Grass type has gotten from GameFreak compared to its starting brethren Water and especially Fire. Hate when developers show blatant favoritism toward a certain thing in their game.

Poison-type Pokemon were pretty useless before Gen VI, but at least they only had two weaknesses.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

You are all wrong oshawott is the GOAT(not anime oshawott idk what that abomination was)

 

[NEO0MJ]

The Gen 6 games are great but they lack a good post game.

I'm really surprised by how lacking OS/AS felt in comparison to HG/SS, especially since it seems that Emerald had a lot of stuff they could have borrowed.

 

[Curry-Hakase]

What is the one between Mewtwo and Mew?

Mega Mewtwo X and Frieza

 

[Bladenic]

Poison-type Pokemon were pretty useless before Gen VI, but at least they only had two weaknesses.

I mean, in a game like this, obviously there will be mons and types have it worse or better than others. But Grass is one of the starting types, yet GameFreak generally shits on it. Let's also remember that many starters do not have equal stat totals. Charizard > Blastoise > Venusaur in stat totals, which is strange, dumb, and annoying.

 

[Cindro]

This is an incredibly ambitious and excellent idea for a thread - will read.

 

[Kinsei]

I'm really surprised by how lacking OS/AS felt in comparison to HG/SS, especially since it seems that Emerald had a lot of stuff they could have borrowed.

Yep. I'm still disappointed they didn't put the BF from Emerald in OR/AS.

 

[Firestorm]

I dislike the extreme hate Grass type has gotten from GameFreak compared to its starting brethren Water and especially Fire. Hate when developers show blatant favoritism toward a certain thing in their game.

They literally just buffed grass times in Generation 6 by having them ignore all powder-style moves which in turn makes them an excellent choice when one of the best Pokemon in the game is a grass type that carries Spore and Rage Powder roughly 100% of the time.

 

[Bladenic]

They literally just buffed grass times in Generation 6 by having them ignore all powder-style moves which in turn makes them an excellent choice when one of the best Pokemon in the game is a grass type that carries Spore and Rage Powder roughly 100% of the time.

Yeah I know. They still have 5 weaknesses and have attack coverage resisted by 7 types.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

I'll be interested in seeing your thoughts on some of the latter families that people hate on because they're inanimate objects (Yet Voltorb and Magnemite don't get the same criticism from those same people). My favorite Pokemon happens to be a part of one of those lines (It's Chandelure).



The Gen 6 games are great but they lack a good post game.

Well that's because both of those are robots and I never considered them inanimate objects. Voltorb is like the Mimic enemies in Final Fantasy. You just strolling about your day and then you come across what looks like an item and how you gonna pass down some free shit? But when you come close to it, it turns into a viscous monster and next thing you know your ass is electrocuted.

 

[Mr-Joker]

I love the Pokémon series and it's pretty much the whole reason why got into video games and Nintendo as a whole, it also got me into writing as I first started with writing story of my adventure.

My ranking for the gen,

-Gen 4, I just love gen 4 as I loved the lore, the story, music, region, the Pokémon and the champion.

-Gen 5, I was amazed by this gen and the story was very interesting. I also loved the Pokémon and the Unova region.

-Gen 2, I love the Jotho region and this game got me back into the series after I took a break from it, but it's lower on the list because I feel that Jotho never really gets a chance to shine due to Kanto overshadowing it.

-Gen 3, I loved the Pokémon and the music and while I liked the idea of having a region of being half water and half land it didn't really work well and killed the end part of the game.

-Gen 1, I like gen 1, I really do as it's what I started with but I am getting sick of Game Freak pandering to people who played gen 1. It gets annoying.

-Gen 6, It's awful, nothing but disappointment after disappointment.

However, that's not really what I want to discuss. I want to talk about the Pokemon themselves, the reason many of us got into the franchise in the first place, and the reason while we still remain loyal despite the sins the franchise has committed in recent years. And not just my favorite Pokemon, I wanted to seriously look at each and every one of the Pokemon and really talk about them, what the inspiration was behind them, how they've fared across the years in terms of popularity and viability, and just analyze the creatures I've come to adore and served as a major part of my childhood, and still remain almost "sacred" to me in my adult years. I don't know how much longer I'll enjoy Pokemon---these days I wonder when a main game will come out that I'll straight-up skip---but at the moment, I'm still willing to give the series a chance.

I used to think that I would always play Pokémon forever, but after being really disappointment with gen 6, I know that there will be a time when Game Freak make a terrible Pokémon game that I just skip out on the entire gen.

I dislike the extreme hate Grass type has gotten from GameFreak compared to its starting brethren Water and especially Fire. Hate when developers show blatant favoritism toward a certain thing in their game.

At least Grass type got something in this gen, Ice type continue to get the cold shoulder.

Plus Dark type are still yet to get a gym, fucking Fairy type got one before them.

 

[TheTux]

Never played seriously since Gen 4, were the 3D sprites a good move bt TPC? (the sprites were 3D, right?)

 

[Toxi]

Ice type is so bad the Ice gym leader of XY talks about how much Ice sucks before you battle him. Freaking Bug is better than Ice.

Give Ice a Water resistance... Or hell, any resistance besides Ice.

 

[Ezalc]

This thread reminds me of the posts on bulbapedia titled on the origin of the species, or something to that effect. It was a great little look from a usually biology perspective on what inspired certain pokemon from their names, to their abilities, looks, and etc. I loved reading them and it made sad to see the author stop writing those.

 

[darksagus]

Ive been playing since pokemon Red, but it's sad how much missed potential there is with this series. In x/y there was barely any content after you beat the story unless you wanted to pvp or farm shinys. Postgame gyms, dungeons, and other solo content would be great. This might be nostalgia, but I prefer the sprite look compared to the 3d of the current gen.

 

[Gentle Rodriguez]

Ice type is so bad the Ice gym leader of XY talks about how much Ice sucks before you battle him. Freaking Bug is better than Ice.

Give Ice a Water resistance... Or hell, any resistance besides Ice.

Ice is one of the best move types, ice Pokemon would be broken if it was good defensively too.

 

[entremet]

I love the Pokémon series and it's pretty much the whole reason why got into video games and Nintendo as a whole, it also got me into writing as I first started with writing story of my adventure.

My ranking for the gen,

-Gen 4, I just love gen 4 as I loved the lore, the story, music, region, the Pokémon and the champion.

-Gen 5, I was amazed by this gen and the story was very interesting. I also loved the Pokémon and the Unova region.

-Gen 2, I love the Jotho region and this game got me back into the series after I took a break from it, but it's lower on the list because I feel that Jotho never really gets a chance to shine due to Kanto overshadowing it.

-Gen 3, I loved the Pokémon and the music and while I liked the idea of having a region of being half water and half land it didn't really work well and killed the end part of the game.

-Gen 1, I like gen 1, I really do as it's what I started with but I am getting sick of Game Freak pandering to people who played gen 1. It gets annoying.

-Gen 6, It's awful, nothing but disappointment after disappointment.



I used to think that I would always play Pokémon forever, but after being really disappointment with gen 6, I know that there will be a time when Game Freak make a terrible Pokémon game that I just skip out on the entire gen.



At least Grass type got something in this gen, Ice type continue to get the cold shoulder.

Plus Dark type are still yet to get a gym, fucking Fairy type got one before them.

Dark types too cool and individualistic for that gym nonsense.

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

Nostalgia.

 

[Ashura_MX]

Heh I made one of these as a keyboard for a college class.

That is each key had a pokemon instead of ASCII characters. Our program printouts where cryptic as shit for those not in the loop XD

 

[Zidy]

I liked Gen 6, but I do agree the post-game is seriously lacking. From what I seem, OR/AS didn't really improve much. I'm still holding up for a Pokemon Z.

As far as my favorite pokemon, aesthetically I've always loved Sneasel/Weavile. Its ice type can be kind of crippling, but his speed and ATK I've always fancied using in some UU matches.

Scizor was my boy too. He was the first Pokemon I ever got to level 100 from the ground-up. He led my team through Gen 2 and I've yet to invest my time in another one in later gens.

 

[Reset]

Gen 5 is the worst generation. It only had like 5-10 decent pokemon designs and the rest were shit, and Team Plasma is the worst team.
Gen II > III > I > IV > VI >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> V.

The best pokemon is Charizard, and I can't wait for the next game to be released so that Charizard gets his Mega Evolution Z.

 

[Nightbird]

My ranking for the gen,

-Gen 4, I just love gen 4 as I loved the lore, the story, music, region, the Pokémon and the champion.

-Gen 5, I was amazed by this gen and the story was very interesting. I also loved the Pokémon and the Unova region.

-Gen 2, I love the Jotho region and this game got me back into the series after I took a break from it, but it's lower on the list because I feel that Jotho never really gets a chance to shine due to Kanto overshadowing it.

-Gen 3, I loved the Pokémon and the music and while I liked the idea of having a region of being half water and half land it didn't really work well and killed the end part of the game.

-Gen 1, I like gen 1, I really do as it's what I started with but I am getting sick of Game Freak pandering to people who played gen 1. It gets annoying.

-Gen 6, It's awful, nothing but disappointment after disappointment.

Swap Gen 5 and 4 for my ranking

Edit: don't listen to that Guy above me, judge yourself!

 

[Grexeno]

Seems like quite the Mamoswine undertaking.












I'll just see myself out

 

[Toxi]

Ice is one of the best move types, ice Pokemon would be broken if it was good defensively too.

Fighting, Fire, Ground, and Rock all are great move typings, yet Ground, Fire, Fighting, and even Rock are better defensive typings than Ice.

Ice type Pokemon suck. They're the least seen type in VGCup for a reason. And I say this as a huge fan of Mamoswine.

Ice is an amazing attack type, yet most of the Pokemon using Ice type attacks aren't Ice types because every Pokemon and their mother can learn Ice Beam. Hail is the worst of the four big weather conditions, with no speed bonuses or stat bonuses. Ice is weak against Rock and Fighting, two of the most common attack types in any format, and have no resistances but Ice.

Simply put, life sucks if you're an Ice type not named Mamoswine or Cloyster. You're weak or neutral to everything, you're only immune to a status that cannot be inflicted consistently, your movepool most likely sucks, and your weather condition improved your attacking ability, the one thing that doesn't need fixing.

 

[Watch Da Birdie]

Before I dive into the Pokemon, I wanted to quickly discuss the second most important part of the series---The Types.

Elemental "Types" in RPGs have been around for years, as have the idea of a "Type Chart", but most RPGs tended to be quite simple in this respect. You usually had the main elements---Fire, Water (or Ice), Wind, Earth, Light, Dark, sometimes perhaps Lightning or Plant---and they usually had a very simple linear relationship with one another. Pokemon was one of the most notable games to really flaunt the idea of "Types", and make them a major part of the battle system as opposed to a simple mechanic as they tended to be in other RPGs.

Pokemon's Type System is both simplistic---and decidedly complex, that even a veteran fan like me still has trouble remembering the relationship between each Type. On one hand, it's easy to remember the simpler match-ups---Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Grass, but becomes a bit trickier when you examine the relationship between Bug and Fighting (they resist one another equally!), or Poison and Rock, where Poison is offensively weak towards Rock, but Rock is offensively neutral towards Poison.

I actually think the Type System is very unintuitive, and not exactly taught-well within the game. The original Red and Blue had the Type Chart included, but let's go with the old notion that classic games didn't require you to read the manual---how would you understand the Type relationships then? The initial fight teaches you the relationship between Grass, Fire, and Water, but it doesn't touch upon Bulbasaur's Poison-typing, and how that effects things. Indeed, "Dual-Types" are a tricky part that are quickly introduced without much training---the Normal/Flying Pidgey and the Rock/Ground Geodude are encountered soon after, and players might be confused about how the Types are working together. Flying is resistant to Fighting, but the large amount of Normal/Flying Pokemon in Generation 1 might make you think they take neutral damage from them. And I know there are plenty of people due to how frequent the Rock/Ground pairing was in Generation 1 that believe Rock Pokemon are also immune to Electric-type attacks.

A big issue is some Types in Generation 1 lacked Pure-type Members---Flying, Rock, Ice, and Ghost---which made it harder to learn their Weaknesses and Resistances through gameplay. Thus, the Type Chart was more or less learned through reading outside sources, perhaps this was Game Freak's goal to help foster the community? Nowadays, this isn't as much of an issue, and learning the Types was perhaps part of the fun, but compared to how classic Nintendo usually tended to be skilled at illustrating gameplay elements gracefully through actual gameplay, it's a notable point to illustrate how Game Freak was possibly never on the level of Nintendo.

Anyway, a quick look at the now 18 Types...

Grass Type- When you look at the name as an adult, you question why they chose such a specific name like "Grass" to represent such a wide range of species, but as a kid, the name was catchier than "Plant" or "Nature" and it just worked. Anyway, Grass-type Pokemon usually come in two-flavors---animal-plant hybrids, usually these are the Grass Starters, and 'living' plants/fungi, 'living' in the sense more so compared to their real-world counterparts. Grass Pokemon tend to be seen as a bit weaker than their Fire and Water friends, but in terms of popularity they seem to be a Type that pretty much everyone enjoys.

Fire Type- From a gameplay standpoint, Fire being one of the Starter Types makes sense, but if you look at it from a story perspective, it being one of the Starter Types handed out to children is a bit odd. Grass and Water can of course be dangerous if improperly used, but there's a sense that they're relatively 'safe', kids play in the grass and in water, but fire is an element that is forbidden to children, and is seen as an element only adults can control. But in the Pokemon World, you can be given a lizard with a giant flame on its tail without an issue! Anyway, almost every Fire Pokemon is an animal, real or otherwise, with control of fire, and, well, that's pretty much it. We have a candle-line, but beyond that Fire Pokemon are quite simplistic in their designs, and their rarity compared to Grass and Water Pokemon comes as no surprise. There are countless real-life inspirations to use for Grass and Water Pokemon, but with Fire your options are far more limited. Despite their lack of variety and rarity, Fire Pokemon are popular. Why? Fire is a Type that's easy to appeal to folks with, as it has an innate sense of power and coolness behind it that most of the other Types lack.

Water Type- The most prolific Type to illustrate how much of the world is made up of water, Water Types are both beloved and hated. Beloved because a lot of fan-favorites like Blastoise, Marril, Mudkip, Buizel, and Greninja belong to it, but also hated because it's gave us some of the least interesting and forgettable Pokemon like Luvdisc and Barboach. With so many Water Pokemon though, and with the release of Volcanion, there's plenty of options for players as now Water has been paired with every Type at least once. Water Pokemon are typically based on creatures who live in or around water, and apparently store mass amounts of water within their body that they can call upon at any time. In fact, excluding the Castform and Rotom forms, every Water Pokemon is an animal (or a mythological animal), and we've yet to have a Water Pokemon that simply represented the idea of water itself, such as a sentient bubble.

Electric Type- Thanks to Pikachu, this can be seen as an "honorary" Starter Type, and is one of the first Types many people probably think of when they think of Pokemon. Electric Type Pokemon are quite similar to Fire Pokemon, in that due to the lack of real-world inspirations, a large majority of Electric Pokemon are animals with control of electricity, and they tend to be quite rare. Since Pikachu, pairing Electricity up with a rodent is a reoccurring theme. Beyond animals, we have a few Pokemon that tend to be a more abstract representation, such as Voltorb and Magnemite, machine-like Pokemon that perhaps may be electrical creatures that merely inhabit solid forms, and Rotom, living electricity which has been explicitly shown to do just that.

Normal Type- Another prolific Type, Normal is the Type of extremes. On one hand, it includes the most basic of Pokemon, Pokemon that are more or less normal animals without any elemental affinity, and many Normal Pokemon are some of the weakest fighters in the game. On the other hand, Normal also serves as an "Other Type", where weird and abstract Pokemon that wouldn't fit into any other category are placed, often possessing a unique gimmick, and includes some of the most powerful Pokemon as well including the God Pokemon. Recently, however, quite a few Normal Pokemon who fit into this "Other" category became Fairy-type Pokemon, which perhaps might signal a change in Normal's priorities. The Normal Pokemon introduced in Gen 6 were all based on fairly basic creatures, and going forward perhaps Fairy might become the new designation for "Other" Pokemon. Originally, Normal tended to only be paired with Flying due to the insistence to avoid having a pure-Flying Type, but in recent years we've seen more and more dual-Normal Types. I have to admit, I'm confused as to how Game Freak decides upon this---it makes sense I think with a Normal-type gaining a new Type upon evolution like with Bibarel and Mega Lopunny, but I don't understand why Deerling and Litleo are considered more "Normal" than their Grass and Fire counterparts.

continued in next post...

 

[Roufianos]

Great idea for a thread. Good luck, I'll be reading!

 

[Kinsei]

Since other people are doing it here's my gen rankings.

1. Gen 5: I loved the refreshing take on the main story in B/W by having you really only run across the new Pokemon, I really like a lot of the designs (Joltik line, both fossil lines, Tynamo line, Litwick line, etc), and I really enjoyed the post game in B2/W2.

2. Gen 4: Almost entirely for HG/SS. I'm not a huge fan of the Sinnoh regions and the Gen 4 Pokemon designs so I felt D/P/Pt lacking.

3. Gen 3: Hoenn is my favorite region from a design standpoint and I love most of the new Pokemon introduced. The Battle Frontier also happened to be the best thing ever introduced in the series. Please bring it back GF. The remakes of R/B were nice too.

4. Gen 1: Very dated and flat out bad in comparison to gen 3 onwards, but it has a special place in my heart fue to it being the first.

5. Gen 2: I never liked G/S/C as a child. I always felt the new Pokemon were bland, Johto wasn't very interesting, and Kanto was a shell of its former self. Of course these are technically better than R/B/Y so the only reason it's below gen 1 is nostalgia goggles.

I refrained from ranking gen 6 as it's not finished yet.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

BW2 has the Pokemon World Tournament, one of the series' best features ever that will never come back.

 

[Velcro Fly]

I find myself drawn to Ghost, Steel, and Bug the most.

I just like pokemon that happen to be those types mainly.

I just did a living dex within the past two months too, only missing some Gen 4/5 events and Mew.

Most of the cool designs and pokemon are ones I have nostalgia for. That is like 100% of what it is.

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

This thread reminds me of the posts on bulbapedia titled on the origin of the species, or something to that effect. It was a great little look from a usually biology perspective on what inspired certain pokemon from their names, to their abilities, looks, and etc. I loved reading them and it made sad to see the author stop writing those.

I loved those articles. The ones looking at Pokemon inspired by Japanese folklore were like Meowth and I think Castform cool, too.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Before I dive into the Pokemon, I wanted to quickly discuss the second most important part of the series---The Types.

Elemental "Types" in RPGs have been around for years, as have the idea of a "Type Chart", but most RPGs tended to be quite simple in this respect. You usually had the main elements---Fire, Water (or Ice), Wind, Earth, Light, Dark, sometimes perhaps Lightning or Plant---and they usually had a very simple linear relationship with one another. Pokemon was one of the most notable games to really flaunt the idea of "Types", and make them a major part of the battle system as opposed to a simple mechanic as they tended to be in other RPGs.

Pokemon's Type System is both simplistic---and decidedly complex, that even a veteran fan like me still has trouble remembering the relationship between each Type. On one hand, it's easy to remember the simpler match-ups---Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Grass, but becomes a bit trickier when you examine the relationship between Bug and Fighting (they resist one another equally!), or Poison and Rock, where Poison is offensively weak towards Rock, but Rock is offensively neutral towards Poison.

I actually think the Type System is very unintuitive, and not exactly taught-well within the game. The original Red and Blue had the Type Chart included, but let's go with the old notion that classic games didn't require you to read the manual---how would you understand the Type relationships then? The initial fight teaches you the relationship between Grass, Fire, and Water, but it doesn't touch upon Bulbasaur's Poison-typing, and how that effects things. Indeed, "Dual-Types" are a tricky part that are quickly introduced without much training---the Normal/Flying Pidgey and the Rock/Ground Geodude are encountered soon after, and players might be confused about how the Types are working together. Flying is resistant to Fighting, but the large amount of Normal/Flying Pokemon in Generation 1 might make you think they take neutral damage from them. And I know there are plenty of people due to how frequent the Rock/Ground pairing was in Generation 1 that believe Rock Pokemon are also immune to Electric-type attacks.

A big issue is some Types in Generation 1 lacked Pure-type Members---Flying, Rock, Ice, and Ghost---which made it harder to learn their Weaknesses and Resistances through gameplay. Thus, the Type Chart was more or less learned through reading outside sources, perhaps this was Game Freak's goal to help foster the community? Nowadays, this isn't as much of an issue, and learning the Types was perhaps part of the fun, but compared to how classic Nintendo usually tended to be skilled at illustrating gameplay elements gracefully through actual gameplay, it's a notable point to illustrate how Game Freak was possibly never on the level of Nintendo.

Anyway, a quick look at the now 18 Types...

Grass Type- When you look at the name as an adult, you question why they chose such a specific name like "Grass" to represent such a wide range of species, but as a kid, the name was catchier than "Plant" or "Nature" and it just worked. Anyway, Grass-type Pokemon usually come in two-flavors---animal-plant hybrids, usually these are the Grass Starters, and 'living' plants/fungi, 'living' in the sense more so compared to their real-world counterparts. Grass Pokemon tend to be seen as a bit weaker than their Fire and Water friends, but in terms of popularity they seem to be a Type that pretty much everyone enjoys.

Fire Type- From a gameplay standpoint, Fire being one of the Starter Types makes sense, but if you look at it from a story perspective, it being one of the Starter Types handed out to children is a bit odd. Grass and Water can of course be dangerous if improperly used, but there's a sense that they're relatively 'safe', kids play in the grass and in water, but fire is an element that is forbidden to children, and is seen as an element only adults can control. But in the Pokemon World, you can be given a lizard with a giant flame on its tail without an issue! Anyway, almost every Fire Pokemon is an animal, real or otherwise, with control of fire, and, well, that's pretty much it. We have a candle-line, but beyond that Fire Pokemon are quite simplistic in their designs, and their rarity compared to Grass and Water Pokemon comes as no surprise. There are countless real-life inspirations to use for Grass and Water Pokemon, but with Fire your options are far more limited. Despite their lack of variety and rarity, Fire Pokemon are popular. Why? Fire is a Type that's easy to appeal to folks with, as it has an innate sense of power and coolness behind it that most of the other Types lack.

Water Type- The most prolific Type to illustrate how much of the world is made up of water, Water Types are both beloved and hated. Beloved because a lot of fan-favorites like Blastoise, Marril, Mudkip, Buizel, and Greninja belong to it, but also hated because it's gave us some of the least interesting and forgettable Pokemon like Luvdisc and Barboach. With so many Water Pokemon though, and with the release of Volcanion, there's plenty of options for players as now Water has been paired with every Type at least once. Water Pokemon are typically based on creatures who live in or around water, and apparently store mass amounts of water within their body that they can call upon at any time. In fact, excluding the Castform and Rotom forms, every Water Pokemon is an animal (or a mythological animal), and we've yet to have a Water Pokemon that simply represented the idea of water itself, such as a sentient bubble.

Electric Type- Thanks to Pikachu, this can be seen as an "honorary" Starter Type, and is one of the first Types many people probably think of when they think of Pokemon. Electric Type Pokemon are quite similar to Fire Pokemon, in that due to the lack of real-world inspirations, a large majority of Electric Pokemon are animals with control of electricity, and they tend to be quite rare. Since Pikachu, pairing Electricity up with a rodent is a reoccurring theme. Beyond animals, we have a few Pokemon that tend to be a more abstract representation, such as Voltorb and Magnemite, machine-like Pokemon that perhaps may be electrical creatures that merely inhabit solid forms, and Rotom, living electricity which has been explicitly shown to do just that.

Normal Type- Another prolific Type, Normal is the Type of extremes. On one hand, it includes the most basic of Pokemon, Pokemon that are more or less normal animals without any elemental affinity, and many Normal Pokemon are some of the weakest fighters in the game. On the other hand, Normal also serves as an "Other Type", where weird and abstract Pokemon that wouldn't fit into any other category are placed, often possessing a unique gimmick, and includes some of the most powerful Pokemon as well including the God Pokemon. Recently, however, quite a few Normal Pokemon who fit into this "Other" category became Fairy-type Pokemon, which perhaps might signal a change in Normal's priorities. The Normal Pokemon introduced in Gen 6 were all based on fairly basic creatures, and going forward perhaps Fairy might become the new designation for "Other" Pokemon. Originally, Normal tended to only be paired with Flying due to the insistence to avoid having a pure-Flying Type, but in recent years we've seen more and more dual-Normal Types. I have to admit, I'm confused as to how Game Freak decides upon this---it makes sense I think with a Normal-type gaining a new Type upon evolution like with Bibarel and Mega Lopunny, but I don't understand why Deerling and Litleo are considered more "Normal" than their Grass and Fire counterparts.

continued in next post...

I actually forgot Geodude and Onix are half Ground-Types. Really Rock-Types can be hurt from Electric attacks? That just seems weird to me. I also forgot about the Pidgey like being half Normal. There seems to be no point in Pokemon being half Normal. They don't get any resistances or strengths from being half normal, the other half seems to be the only important part. Do Normal types tend to do more damage for Normal moves? This is the only reason I can see for half Normals to exist.

 

[fredrancour]

I actually forgot Geodude and Onix are half Ground-Types. Really Rock-Types can be hurt from Electric attacks? That just seems weird to me. I also forgot about the Pidgey like being half Normal. There seems to be no point in Pokemon being half Normal. They don't get any resistances or strengths from being half normal, the other half seems to be the only important part. Do Normal types tend to do more damage for Normal moves? This is the only reason I can see for half Normals to exist.

Everything does more damage with moves of its type, yeah, so normals get a boost on normal moves.
Also at some point they changed things to make normal types immune to ghost type moves, so it does add a type advantage defensively. not sure when that happened. at some point after they decided to create a meaningful number of ghost type attacks, i suppose.

 

[Dryk]

I actually forgot Geodude and Onix are half Ground-Types. Really Rock-Types can be hurt from Electric attacks? That just seems weird to me. I also forgot about the Pidgey like being half Normal. There seems to be no point in Pokemon being half Normal. They don't get any resistances or strengths from being half normal, the other half seems to be the only important part. Do Normal types tend to do more damage for Normal moves? This is the only reason I can see for half Normals to exist.

All Pokemon get a 50% power boost on attacks they share a type with

 

[WrenchNinja]

I'm really surprised by how lacking OS/AS felt in comparison to HG/SS, especially since it seems that Emerald had a lot of stuff they could have borrowed.

What really gets me about ORAS is they kept the same damn Gym lineups and didn't include rebattles

like why would you do that

it's not like asking a huge bunch of work like it is with including the battle frontier

 

[TimorousPanda]

Love the idea, OP.

 

[KarasuEXE]

Just checked today, I have 484 different pokémon with me. Going to catch 'em all, doing a living dex.

 

[PreyingShark]

Also at some point they changed things to make normal types immune to ghost type moves, so it does add a type advantage defensively. not sure when that happened. at some point after they decided to create a meaningful number of ghost type attacks, i suppose.

They did that in Gen I.

 

[Toxi]

Everything does more damage with moves of its type, yeah, so normals get a boost on normal moves.
Also at some point they changed things to make normal types immune to ghost type moves, so it does add a type advantage defensively. not sure when that happened. at some point after they decided to create a meaningful number of ghost type attacks, i suppose.

Normal types were always immune to Ghost type attacks.

There were some important changes on the type chart after Red and Blue though: For example, Bug used to be weak to Poison and Poison used to be weak to Bug. Now the two types resist each other.

 

[fredrancour]

They did that in Gen I.

Oh. i guess I just didn't notice cause it was never relevant til later. i don't think any of my friends ever actually used night shade or lick in battles and I always had a team of non-normal type things by the time lavender town happened.

 

[Dryk]

They did that in Gen I.

Ghost and Dragon were irrelevant offensively in Gen I so nobody noticed

 

[Ryan_09]

One of my favorite game series of all time!

I can honestly say I love pretty much every single Pokemon. Some more than others of course. Literally the only 3 Pokemon I couldn't care less about is Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit. Not that I hate them... but they're just so samey and bland to me. All three are a plain Psychic type, way too similar aesthetics, the same ability, etc. At least their movesets and stats are different. xD

Glad to see this thread. Hopefully it'll shine some light on some less popular 'mons.