Starter Fight

[Darien Shields]

So, the starters have been around for a while now, so you should be able to tell by now whose your favourite.

Mine's gotta be Goukazaru. What's not to like about the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven? Okay, I confess, I have two disappointments. 1) they re-used fire/fighting from Blaziken. I thought this was a little unimaginative. However, since Goukazaru is awesome I am willing to let it slide. 2) They didn't give him levitate at top level. I had been rooting for this as his basis (linked above) is known for flying around on a little cloud (if you've watched Dragon Ball, Goku is based heavily on Wukong as well, and his "flying nimbus cloud" is the same sort of deal Wukong had), and I thought it would be an awesome gimmick if Goukazaru got it at final evolution. Of course, it'd have probably overpowered him ridiculously ... ^_^;

Anyway, who are your favourite starters? What do you like about 'em?

[mr_pikachu]

1. I'm not sure the Romanizations of "Dotaitos" or "Enperuto" are correct; Bulbapedia (and Wikipedia) have them listed as "Dodaitose" and "Emperte," respectively.

2. For once, I have to go with the Grass type. Dodaitose/Dotaitos looks impressive, and I think a land-based turtle was a good addition.

[Blademaster]

Dodaitoise is my favorite, hands down. I always love the underdogs...

Even if it will be pwned HORRIBLY by Ice and Flying types.

[Darien Shields]

1. I'm not sure the Romanizations of "Dotaitos" or "Enperuto" are correct; Bulbapedia (and Wikipedia) have them listed as "Dodaitose" and "Emperte," respectively.

2. For once, I have to go with the Grass type. Dodaitose/Dotaitos looks impressive, and I think a land-based turtle was a good addition.

Sorry, just went by their names listed on Serebii's Dex'. Are those actually official translation names now? I didn't know they were out.

Personally, I think that all round this is a good generation of starters, and that they all might be my favourites for their respective elements, so I can see what you mean about the 'toise. He looks strong, but with his legs like that, there's a certain mobility. He doesn't quite look agile, but he looks like he can move. Venusaur just seemed too squat and fat to get around.

[frylock]

I like the Dotaitos. Enperuto is pretty cool, but you just can't say no to a snapping turtle with a landscape growing out of it's back. I don't care much for Goukozaru, he's just another speedy fire-type. If he levitated on a little cloud or turned into a giant gorilla, he'd probably be my favorite, but they made him a Blaziken rip-off.

[SilverPersian]

A grass type that gets stabbed equake rox. It probably won't be that great for online battling, like blademaster says, its got some horrible weaknesses. But it can learn razor leaf _and_ equake, which is just sexy.

Although, the water penguin might be good - anything that gets a normal resistance in game is sexc. Firemonley I don't like But I never like the starter fire types.

[Blademaster]

But I never like the starter fire types.

Hmmmm... Well, Fire-type starters have always been kinda iffy... Let's take stock, shall we?


RBY:

Venusaur: +Awesome Special, decent movesets, impressive max HP.
-Heavy/abundant weaknesses, flimsy attack, low speed.
Overall: Average.

Charizard: +Awesome Special Attack, multiple strengths, high speed, amazing movesets.
-Iffy Physical, multiple weaknesses.
Overall: Very good.

Blastoise: +Awesome defenses, decent movesets, high max HP.
-Low speed, weak offenses.
Overall: Good.

RBY Overall Starter Ratio: Good.


GSC:

Meganium: +High max HP, awesome defenses.
-Poor offenses, low speed, limited movesets.
Overall: Bad.

Typhlosion: +High max HP, good speed, high Special Attack.
-Weak attack, horrible defenses.
Overall: Good.

Feraligatr: +Awesome max HP, incredible Physical.
-Poor Speed, low Special (Which is what most of its best moves are.).
Overall: Average.

GSC Overall Starter Ratio: Average.


RSE:

Sceptile: +Good movesets, High Special Attack, amazing Speed.
-Horrible defenses, iffy max HP.
Overall: Good.

Blaziken: +Awesome movesets, high max HP, amazing offenses.
-Horrible defenses, multiple weaknesses, low speed.
Overall: Average.

Swampert: +Amazing max HP, high Attack.
-Poor movesets, low defenses, horrible Speed.
Overall: Bad.

RSE Overall Starter Ratio: Average.


DP:

Dodaitose: +High max HP, good Physical.
-Poor movesets for a dual type, multiple weaknesses, low Special, horrible Speed.
Overall: Very bad.

Goukazaru: +Impressive movesets, good max HP, solid attack, high speed.
-Multiple weaknesses, low defenses.
Overall: Very good.

Emperte: +High max HP, great Special.
-Shoddy Physical, low Speed.
Overall: Average.

Overall DP Starter Ratio: Average.


...

Well, I guess I was wrong. Fire starters may not be that great overall, and some of them are certainly poorer than the others, but they certainly seem to be the dominant choice of the three...

[Chris 2.1]

The grass final evo irks me simply because it has a tree coming out its back at a dodgy angle. It's just....odd. Although Sugimori art does make it look very cool.

Firemonkeyzoid thing is ace. Guys just because it has Blazikens type doesn't mean they're clones; Hizo learns slack off which is pretty neat; they have much more fighting moves (mach punch etc). Think about other types that there are more than one species of.

Penguin is AWESOME. I just heart it.

So.....actually, in retrospect, all three are fairly good.

[Everoy]

I <3 Enperuto.

[rinku]

Dodaitoise is my favorite, hands down. I always love the underdogs...

Even if it will be pwned HORRIBLY by Ice and Flying types.

It learns a couple of good Rock moves, so Flying shouldn't be that bad. I can live with the Ice weakness in return for more effectiveness against Fire, Steel, Poison and Electric than most Grass types can achieve.

4x vulnerable to Ice doesn't prevent people using Flying Dragons, after all.

[SilverPersian]

I guess the main problem with groundtortoise is that we all tend to go olol grass>water...but that won't really be the case anymore if the waters all have ice beam.

Ive been thinking about steel penguin, and its actually got a pretty interesting type. It loses its grass weakness and its fire resistance, but then gets a whole punch of other resistances (poision, bug, psychic, ghost, dark, steel, normal, rock, flying..maybe more that I cant think of). It's movepool isn't the greatest though...I wish it learnt ice beam naturally...

EDIT: This probably isn't the best place to ask this, but, as there are 100 TMs now, will it be possible to get the first 50 in game without trading? Or will we need to trade them from other games, attached to pokemon? If there is no in game earthquake TM I will be a sad panda

[Chris 2.1]

Silver: Nope, they're all in game. Locations here

[SilverPersian]

Thanks for replying Chris

It will be great having more TMs to use


Also, I love the new ground hippopotamus and the recovery move for birds ^_^