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Which Gen had the worst starters?

Which Gen had the worst starters?


  • Total voters
    240

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire

10000 year Emperor of Hoenn
17,521
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13
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I got to say it's gen V, the starters were the least useful and lacked great movepools, especially Serperior which is unfortunate as it's my favorite out of the three. Next up are II and I which are tied mostly due to the single type in the case of II and overrated in the case of I. IV and III are the best (III being the best.)
 
1,071
Posts
15
Years
I'm going ahead and saying Gen I. It was the only gen where I relied on my other Pokemon rather than my starter. Venusaur was alright, but the other two were kind of mediocre. Squirtle is cute though!

Other than that, I dislike the Chimchar family and I think that's about it. My favorite starter family ever is Totodile :)
 
7
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Mar 24, 2021
Gen IV and Gen V.
For me, Pokemon stopped after the Advance games
 

Number Infinity

Equal to Zero
7
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Jan 6, 2013
Generation XXVI of course.. but for existing generations, I'd go with the status quo; Gen V. This is because Serperior has the Attack/Sp. Attack of Bellsprout and Oddish respectively(I'm not kidding/exagerating you can look it up),with Emboar, and I think I speak for everyone when I say this, it's deja vu: we've seen it twice(thrice now) in a row. I don't think I can say any thing for Samrowott and it's prevolution, but that's probably because I too lazy to keep typing.
 

Plasma Prince N

Full-time Pokémon Master.
15
Posts
11
Years
I don't really hate any generation's starters the worst, but I guess it's tied between 1st and 5th.

My personal favorite was Gen 3 in terms of starters. While Sceptile wasn't that great, it still had its uses; and Blaziken and Swampert were amazing, both in terms of battling and looks. Gens 2 and 4 are tied after that, with Typhlosion and Empoleon being my favorites out of those sets of starters.

Gen 1 just didn't appeal to me much, even back when I was playing it for the first time. The only starter I've ever liked using was Charizard, and even then it wasn't that great compared to my other Pokémon. Gen 5 was the same, even though I really like Samurott, the other two just don't appeal to me.

That's just my personal opinion on it, anyway. I'm rather picky when it comes to starters.
 

Apollo

怖がらないで
1,333
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11
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  • Age 22
  • Seen Jul 22, 2017
Fifth probably. Sure, they were pretty cool in terms of designs but meeeehhh I'm just not a big fan of them :x
 
314
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11
Years
I like them all, but if I had to round it off, then Generation III has some of the worst.

I think Gen I will be the general "perfect" starter set, because they're part of the beginning of the franchise. We have a lot to thank those 3 Pokemon for :P
 
38
Posts
11
Years
For me, generation 5...
I used to pick fire starters until this generation... I saw Tepig and I abstained myself from choosing it because I didn't want ending up with a fire/fighting pokemon just like in generation 3.... I decided to stay with Snivy because Serperior looked quite cool...
 

Killjoy

"He was a laser fish."
584
Posts
12
Years
Gen 5 for sure. Every generation has one Pokémon that I generally don't like, but Gen 5 is the only one that lacks a starter that I like period. Although they've kinda grown on my since the beginning, I still wouldn't use em.
 

LyokoGirl5000

Lyoko Princess
426
Posts
14
Years
I think the fourth gen starters are the worst. Empoleon and Torterra's move pools are awful and Infernape has horrible defenses. The starter's move pools in gen five are only slightly better.
 

ahmet476

standing around
111
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Dec 31, 2014
I was pretty disappointed with gen 2 starters probably because I liked gen 1 starters too much.
 

Volcanix769

Known as the Quilava Guy!
606
Posts
12
Years
Generation IV. Pretty much, some actually look pretty weird, especially their movesets. Empoleon had 1 Steel Type to learn, Torterra knew 1 Ground Type, and Infernape has 2. Total waste.
 

DelightedTurk

Hipsterest Hypno in the land
47
Posts
11
Years
This was a very tight decision for me between the fourth and fifth gens. I've used all 6 of the starters from these generations and feel that Gen V had the worst 'in-game.' Serperior and Emboar for me were poor and hard to use towards the end of the game, Emboars speed is appalling and Serperior just seemed below average compared to the rest of my team. Samurott was the best of the three for me but I wasn't impressed with its movepool. I enjoyed using the Sinnoh starters more than the Unova ones, however I preferred Unova's designs. Torterra, Infernape and Empoleon all made the game enjoyable for me and I enjoyed using each of them, so I voted for fifth gen in the end.
 
161
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13
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Gen1: Charizard and Venusaur were both quite the best of their types in there game as for Blastoise(I never choose Squirtle ever) I found there were better water types like Gyarados, Laprass of Vaporeon
Gen2:before HGSS Typhlosion was a beast with thunderpunch, in HGSS Feraligatr was a beast with Dragon dance. Meganium mehh
Gen3: I liked them all in there own way Swampert was a good dual type, as was Blaziken (in the time that there was only gen3), Sceptile was a speedy and had a nice movepool with dragonclaw
Gen4:Empoleon the first water/steel, I liked him very much Torterra the first Grass/Ground was a beast aswell, Infernape made the Unique types of starters perfect :/
Gen5: TBH I didn't like any aspect of it other then Samurot being a Samurai Pokemon....
 

Rewy

untitled follower
113
Posts
11
Years
Considering gen by gen of which I've liked and which I've actually used all the way. These are just personal preferences.

Gen 1 - I've usually picked Bulbasaur, for the ease of first 2 gyms while catching something reasonable on the way. I never like Charmander's final evolution. (Sorry lizard lovers.) and Squirtle... Oh god, I think this just falls to me having seen the anime episode way back then and thought how annoying they sounded like. So only 1½ points. Mostly because it's the overly hyped one.

Gen2 - Chikorita line went same as Squirtle. Saw the one episode with the possessive-over-trainer selfish Chiko and ditched the leafy dinosaur from my lists. Cyndaquil... well it was pure fire type, it had a cutesy bandwagon, but I didn't like final evo. Totodile I just thought was and enormous troll until I used it on my recent playthrough on HG. Ice Fang (later on Avalanche) and Crunch. 2½ points I guess.

Gen3 - The designs were creepy to me at the beginning. I only really liked Treecko line, because Pursuit. One of the few grass pokemon that I actually liked by looks. Torchic is okay, but I think it's wearing out on me. I've used it too many times that it's not even funny. Mudkip. All the memes. Everywhere. 1½ points.

Gen4 - Turtels. I had thought of using a grass starter at first, but then I went an looked at the stats/moves. So slow at start. ;_; So derpy face. Chimchar and Piplup are tied to me, since I used both on my first ever Diamond game (got the penguin from a trade). Both had their strong points, but the Piplup line survived more in my gaming. 1½ points.

Gen5 - I like using Snivy line. I don't find it really cripling. I'm just patiently waiting for a Contrary Snivy to be released officially. Yes, just for in-game use. I don't do competitive. I used Oshawott on my first game. It was nice, some what bulky to basically solo my E4 tries. I've yet to use Tepig. The design just puts me off. Not to mention the third Fire/Fight typing... 2½ points.
 

Mr Cat Dog

Frasier says it best
11,344
Posts
19
Years
I guess Unova. Although Johto is a very close runner-up. In both cases, I didn't really like ANY of the final evolutions in terms of their designs, stats and movepools. But I didn't dislike Typholosion in comparison to the others, so that marginally pushes the Johto starters over the edge.
 
673
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12
Years
Unpopular opinion here: I think Gen I did. Gen I, as a whole, wasn't that great in terms of Pokemon - most were just existing animals with contrived elemental motifs (or, worse, without them) and didn't seem that creatively designed. The starters, of course, were no exception. They all had similar-looking faces, which was a little eerie.

I'm surprised that Gen II is getting so many votes and Gen III so few.
 

Iceshadow3317

Fictional Writer.
5,648
Posts
13
Years
Gen 2. I did not like the starters very well in that Gen. The only starters I like are Charizard, all 3 3rd gen, Empoleon, and all 3 5th Gen. Not counting Pignite. I really hate Pignite.
 
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