6th Gen Kalos Starters

Braixen. No, not Fennekin. Braixen.

When I first saw Fennekin, its design was fairly standard and bland to me. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't really as cool as previous designs in that vein. (Like Vulpix.) Nothing really stood out about it. However, I was excited about what potential it had. Its evolutions. So I waited.

And then I got my new favorite Pokemon of all time. BRAIXEN! It's adorable, cute, and feminine. Just much more cuter than Fennekin to me. Great use of colors too. And its cry... plus its motions in Pokemon Amie... I literally can't get enough of Braixen. I find it to be a very relatable design, and really identify with being one. Oh my God, I was so pleased with this one that there was no way it could evolve to surpass itself. Sadly, it didn't.

I don't hate Delphox, but it definitely loses a lot of the appeal it had as Braixen. Braixen in my opinion is a much more clever design. A tail that resembles a broomstick where it also keeps its wand? It fits MUCH better with the witch theme. With Delphox, it lost a lot of not just its feminine cuteness, but it also became more... medieval and Gandolf-y. And I'm not really too fond of that. They just kind of stuck a fiery robe on it and lazily had it store its stick on its sleeve.

Now, I still like Delphox. It has more red in its color scheme. And I'll use one if I need the extra power. But I'd prefer not to evolve my Braixen. Honestly, the design of Delphox just needs some slight re-tooling to work better. I think the ear hair should be made more long and slender similarly to Braixen's, perhaps to resemble human hair a bit more since it's a humanoid witch-type thing. Also, they should've kept the part where it stores its stick in its tail and emphasized more of the broomstick nature of a witch. Or maybe something like a crystal ball made of fire since it's supposed to be based on an oracle.

Also, I do like the RPG theming in the starters this gen, but think it's a bit less original than previous concepts.

As for Chespin and Froakie, I pretty much think their evolutions turned out the best they could, and don't really think they need any improvement. I pretty much like all the Gen VI starters, which is rare because there's usually a dud each generation for me. (Which is almost always the Water-type.)

I chose Froakie because he's a frog and looked really adorable. I like ninjas too, so Greninja was pretty awesome and powerful.

My favorite Kalos starter of the bunch is Chespin, and was the one I picked. I usually pick the starter who's design I liked the most, since I would like to find out how good its stats are and the typing on my own playthrough. I still think Chespin is the best out of the trio, even after completing the game.

I don't like Chespin and his evolutions. They look really ugly to me. Both Delphox and Greninja are really awesome, but I prefer Delphox. Shiny Greninja is better though.

At glance I prefer Fennekin (Froakie looks a bit stupid to me), but if I have to choose between the final evolutions then I'll surely go for Greninja.

One my first run, I chose Fennekin. It's cute design, and it's unique Fire/Psychic typing when it evolves. I think it was a nice change from the typical Fire/Fighting that was prevalent for a few generations. Fennekin's design really made me think about if I should let it evolve or not as well.

Auros said:

At glance I prefer Fennekin (Froakie looks a bit stupid to me), but if I have to choose between the final evolutions then I'll surely go for Greninja.

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Greninja is so weak as a final that Ill take the grass starter. I used Greninja and even besides competitive play (where Greninja is good 4/10 times) I failed against most of the gym leaders and it was really embarrassing to me. I couldnt work up the nerve to get past the electric gym leader until I caught a ground Pokemon which I obviously had to just to progress through the game.

I've chosen Froakie because it's adorable and strong evolutinary. Greninja is a ninja frog as you know and I like it's sprite.

I didn't like Fennekin or Chespin; Fennekin's final evolution is creepy and useless to me. Same way Chespin. Also, Chesnaught is too ugly and I don't like ugly pokemon.

I have to be honest about something. 6th gen starters are my least favorite starters by a landslide.


I usually go for the grass starter first but since my friend had decided on chespin already, I went with froakie because I like frogs. I like the speed and design of froakie and its evos. It honestly felt like the only design that made sense all the way through. Froakie has aggravated me more times than once however. If you have ever wondertraded you received protean froakies out the rear and I just got tired of getting them. They are also a common occurrence in every try hard competitive team ever(and the personality of the person makes it harder to stand). But out of the three, Froakie has to be the best one in my opinion. Calling it my favorite would be an over statement.


Fennekin is adorable I have to admit. However its design bothers me, it looks like it started out as a fighting type and it didn't evolve into the okami dog that I wanted it to be. Stat wise it is alright but I have never liked psychic types and I usually despise the fire starter with all of my heart. So my two least favorite types in one...eh...no.


My least favorite of the three...Chespin. Chespin is cute, its evolutions on the other hand, not so much. Quilladin just looks all kinds of dumb and Chesnaught just feels like it doesn't belong in this line. It's like this evolution chain just missed a step. Battle wise, its alright, nothing to write home about. It has a good bit of defense to it and overall it didn't have the same effect on me as any of the other grass starters did.

Overall the entire trio didn't give me the same feel I was expecting from the other trios and just fell short. It felt like it was missing something, and that makes me sad.

I have always chosen water... Even though I hate the color blue and prefer red. The water ones always seem like the most badass to me. Only time I didn't choose water was in my first Pokemon game, Yellow, in whinch you're given Pikachu, obviously. :)

I liked chespin the best at first, but the evolutions ruined him for me. He's still my favorite of the first forms, but I think Froakie has the best evolutionary line.

I just started my first play through. I went with Chespin. Outside of Charmander and Kanto games, I almost always go with the grass starters.

I chose Fennekin :-]
The reason being: I like Fennekin the best out of the Kalos starters. But then again, I dislike the Kalos Starters as a whole... tbh. So I ended up boxing my starter during my Y runthrough :-/

I chose Fennekin the first time around, because I thought it was the cutest out of the three. Turns out I'm not a huge fan of its final form Delphox though, design-wise or battle-wise. So in my second playthrough (after I started a new game and carried all my Pokemon over via the Pokemon Bank) I chose Froakie, since I'm a huge fan of Greninja. Ironically enough though, Froakie is my least favorite of the first stage Kalos starters. Go figure.

I usually go with water starters as i'm pretty picky about which water type to use throughout game and starter generally doesn't disappoint. Though, once i've learned all the starters, i play without them.

chose Froakie and loved it. infact, it inspired me to shape an all "ninja" themed team based off of it.

Greninja
Umbreon(Sometimes swapped for Weavile)
Ninjask(sometimes swapped for Accelgor)
Scizor
Crobat
Toxicroak

I'm facerolling the game and do surprisingly well on Battlespot considering it's swarming with people spamming OP legendaries. :)

I've played with only Chespin so far, largely due to its character in the anime which made me think it would be a lot of fun. I was right about Chespin but not so much it evolutions. I was very disappointed with its evolutions' designs and overall use. They have a very limited movepool and the moves they can use aren't much fun. I was also a bit disappointed that the stats really aren't that great outside of its attack. With that said, I do love the line dearly since it was my first in Pokemon X but I will choose a different starter for next time.

X- Froakie. Y- Fennekin. Water is my favourite type, so I usually choose that in the first game. Then fire in the second.

Even though i went with Fennekin in my first playthrough of Y since I really liked how cute Fennekin is, I did another playthrough but on X this time with Froakie as my starter since i knew that Froakie's evolutionary line is pretty boss. Greninja is one kickass fully evolved starter.

I am pretty happy that i got the Adamant Chespin in my Y playthrough from Shauna. Though maybe the nature was already set but then again, I wouldn't know.