Using older pokemon in a new game

Do you use pokemon from a previous generation inside a brand new game, or do you prefer to make a team using only the pokemon introduced in the new game?

For me, I like using the brand new pokemon because I've already used my most favorites in the older game and would rather not reuse them on a different team.

Usually it'll be a mix of old and new Pokemon. I like some older Pokemon and like to have them in a team, but I also include newer Pokemon too. The one exception to this rule is Butterfree: if it is obtainable, it'll probably be in my team. I love that Pokemon, and it kicks some serious tail all the way to the Elite Four.

I mix mine too. I usually go for the 1st-2nd gen pokemon but if a new one catches my eye I'll use it. I always have a Charizard and a Jolteon on my team, plain and simple.

My issue is that I don't have the pokebank so I have to rely on others for older pokes not available in the newer games.

I too will often attempt to use a mix of old Pokémon and new Pokémon, except in Kanto games and BW where you can't really do that. Granted, some people will argue that the point of playing in a new generation is to use its Pokémon instead of ones you've likely used before, but it should still come with some of the old ones that you may have missed.

I do try to at least mostly use the newer stuff, but I still like to enjoy using older Pokemon as well. In fact most of my main story teams often had the Pokemon that were new to said region dominating my team, and here's a rundown on some of them.

Ruby: My initial team was entirely Hoenn Pokemon, but I did have a Golduck that sometimes rotated into the team so I guess that sorta counts.

Pearl / Platinum: I did several playthroughs of these games, and mostly Sinnoh Pokemon were the focus of my team, but there were a few times I had an older-gen Pokemon in the team, such as a Golduck in one of my Platinum runs and a Quagsire in my first Pearl run. One of my Platinum runs had an Ambipom, which is related to an older generation, along with countless times where I used a Roserade.

SoulSilver: First team for main story was four-sixths Johto Pokemon, the only two Kanto Pokemon there were a Golduck and Vileplume. Rest of my team was Typhlosion, Xatu, Ampharos and Miltank which are all 2nd Gen.

Black 2: I know this game sadly corrupted for me, but my initial team was all Unova Pokemon except for my Roserade and Lucario. The others were all 5th Gen: Samurott, Excadrill, Chandelure and Sigilyph.

White 2: When my Black 2 save corrupted, I started a file on this to "replace" it and so far I only have one Pokemon who isn't a Unova Pokemon, which is a Crobat.

X: Four-sixths Kalos Pokemon there on my main story team, although that was half my team when my Sylveon was still an Eevee but I did evolve him very quickly since capture so he wasn't an Eevee for long. The other non-Kalos Pokemon I had were a Charizard and Roserade.

Alpha Sapphire: During the main story my team was entirely Hoenn Pokemon but since finishing the Delta Episode I have been rotating different Pokemon into the team, so now I use a variety of both Hoenn and non-Hoenn Pokemon. It is also interesting this was the only game where the Roselia line is available before postgame that I didn't use it in my main story team.

Whenever I play a new Pokémon game for the first time, I try to use exclusively new Pokémon. If I can't really find enough new Pokémon that I like to form a team of six, then I at least use some older-generation Pokémon that I wouldn't have used before. Fun fact - the first Pidgeot I've ever properly used was in X, and I've been playing since Yellow.

In subsequent playthroughs, I've found it can be fun to use older Pokémon. For example, I had a White playthrough where I hacked in exclusively Kanto Pokémon for my team. That can be pretty cool.

I used to not care about the generations my pokemon came from. I just caught myself a team of pokemon that I thought would be useful in the long term, no matter what generation.
However, in Black/White and Black 2/White 2 you were kind of forced to exclusively use new pokemon and for some reason I really grew fond of that idea. Therefore I carried that on in Pokemon X and AS and used only pokemon of the respective region.

I usually try to use a mixture of old and new.

Ruby/sapphire/Or/As: I used what what's in the dex, so I used mixed for the originals. As I used only Hoenn pokemon, in Or I traded over some XY pokemon.

In diamond I used only Sinnoh pokemon. In platinum I used mixed.

B/w you were forced to use new ones, b2/w2 I used mixed

X/y I used mostly Kalos native. Oly 2 in my X weren't new and that was charizard and the event Blaziken.

I use Pokémon native to the region, mostly.

In Black 2 I used mostly foreign Pokémon with only Samurott as native, but I had used none of the other Pokémon in previous playthroughs.

On my second run of a newer game I would, I'm currently using Vespiquen in my current run of Pokemon Y.

My first run of any game, new or remake, I always stick exclusivly with Pokemon introduced with that region. After that it's fair game.

I really like a mix. I always want to try to get a Dratini/Dragonair/Dragonite in my first playthrough, as well as a Mareep/Flaaffy because I love those Pokemon. If I come across another Pokemon I love, I will generally scoop them up, such as Nuzleaf or Eevee. Beyond that, however, I do usually stick to the new gen's Pokemon, simply because I am excited and want to see them. I also might grab a Poke from the past if it's one I've never really used before, because it might as well be new. :P

In the current games I tend to catch and use Pokémon that I like. Usually by the end of the game, however, I always end up with three native and three foreign Pokémon, it's not even intentional! In the next game I do plan on trying to stick with a team that is native to the current region. I guess you could say it's going to be a bit of a challenge for me, haha. Hopefully I can make a fairly good team with this goal in mind, but I personally doubt it. We'll see!

I catch mostly what I feel like catching. My first playthrough tends to be mostly with Pokemon I like using, which also includes ones from older generations. When I replay those games I like catching Pokemon that I'd normally never consider having in my party.

But sometimes I wish that there be more than six team slots. So many Pokemon to choose from and only so much space available. xD

I could definitely say I've done this at least once in the past.

If memory serves right, one moment when I had done this would be in my third (fourth, maybe?) play-through of Platinum version. After choosing my starter, completing initial tasks, and finally gaining access to trading area in Pokémon Center, my friend had offered me an Adamant-natured Gyarados (with decent IVs) in-exchange for my starter Pokémon, which he needed for PokéDex purposes. Considering how good this offered seemed to have been in my eyes at the time, I instantly accepted. It wound up making my game-play too easy, unfortunately, but it was still a new experience nonetheless, which is nice.

As for if I prefer using old-time Pokémon in newly-introduced games and whatnot, that would depend. If they have any older Pokémon in the wild that I happen to like, I'd probably capture and use. Otherwise, I side with newer ones to see how things turn out.

I will try to use only the Pokemon introduced in that Generation. With the exception of Johto because it's really just an extension of Kanto. However, I do allow myself ONE slot for an older Pokemon.

In Kalos, I broke that rule and had too many old Pokemon. So I'm going to replay it with more new ones. Although Mega Evolutions do count as a newer Pokemon, so I can technically have a slot for two older ones. But my planned team only has a Charizard in it, which covers both requirements.

The reason I use newer ones is because it gets boring to just use the same old over and over again. I'd rather try out the ones whose design I took a shining to when they were first revealed, and see how they play out. It helps keep an otherwise stale gameplay experience a bit fresher. I don't want to play the same exact Pokemon game over and over again.

Arylett Charnoa said:

The reason I use newer ones is because it gets boring to just use the same old over and over again. I'd rather try out the ones whose design I took a shining to when they were first revealed, and see how they play out. It helps keep an otherwise stale gameplay experience a bit fresher. I don't want to play the same exact Pokemon game over and over again.

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Not to be rude or objective here, but this is coming from someone who (if memory serves) said that one of her major disappointments with B2W2 was that it had old Pokémon in it, unlike BW which was exclusively new Pokémon. Now don't get me wrong, I did like that (although it had to grow on me, because in 2013 it soured on me thanks to the B2W2 haters making it out to be the best thing ever), but if they had done that again with B2W2, then would it have the same special vibe to the adventure that BW had? If you already used the Pokémon present, then you'd be looking at the Pokémon you already entered the new region with - you would be pretty much playing the same game if it weren't for the old Pokémon that B2W2 had.

For that matter, let me ask you this: what about Platinum and HGSS? Or Emerald for that matter? The former extended the Sinnoh Pokédex (mostly with evolutions of the old Pokémon that weren't available in DP until post-game), so when it comes to remakes/third versions are you any more lenient with old selections?

Pendraflare said:

Not to be rude or objective here, but this is coming from someone who (if memory serves) said that one of her major disappointments with B2W2 was that it had old Pokémon in it, unlike BW which was exclusively new Pokémon. Now don't get me wrong, I did like that (although it had to grow on me, because in 2013 it soured on me thanks to the B2W2 haters making it out to be the best thing ever), but if they had done that again with B2W2, then would it have the same special vibe to the adventure that BW had? If you already used the Pokémon present, then you'd be looking at the Pokémon you already entered the new region with - you would be pretty much playing the same game if it weren't for the old Pokémon that B2W2 had.

For that matter, let me ask you this: what about Platinum and HGSS? Or Emerald for that matter? The former extended the Sinnoh Pokédex (mostly with evolutions of the old Pokémon that weren't available in DP until post-game), so when it comes to remakes/third versions are you any more lenient with old selections?

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It appears there's a misunderstanding here. Let's clear that up.

When a new generation begins, I expect a newer experience. That is why within that generation, I will use only the Pokemon that are native to it. (Unless it is a remake, because the remakes are harkening back to older generations.) However, the sequels to Black and White are within the same generation, so of course I'll want them to focus more on the Pokemon that were introduced in that generation. Another point I made in that post from many months ago:

This is a region completely distinct from all the others and that's why it has different Pokemon. It's far away, it's got a different vibe, and it's even based on the country where I live.

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I was also disappointed in the fact that in Black and White, Unova was portrayed as being farther away, more distinctive from the other regions. By introducing older Pokemon, that separation vanishes, and the experience is ruined to me. I preferred it being more self-contained. Also, it didn't make much sense that there was so many change in the species in two years. That explanation was rather poor to me.

Plus, I hadn't even scratched the surface with all of the B/W Pokemon. Whilst I've used/seen a lot of Pokemon from Gen I, II, III, and IV over the years, I hadn't had the chance to endear myself to the vast amount of Gen V Pokemon. I hadn't looked at them enough for them to look familiar to me. They still look strange and new. A team of six is very limiting, and that's why when I played the sequels, I largely ignored the older Pokemon anyway, and formed a new team which has all Pokemon from Unova that I haven't used. (And one older one as per my rule and to reflect the change in the sequels.) It was still new to me because I didn't have a lot of time to get to know and see this generation's Pokemon. Whilst I've seen Eevee, Magnemite, etc. SO MANY times in my other playthroughs.

For remakes, by the way, I'll typically try to use only older ones to recreate that generation's experience better. So I will usually avoid using Pokemon with new evolutions all-together. Yes, you could say this contradicts what I said before about not wanting to play the same game over again in the form of a new game. Remakes are acceptable generally because I can't go back to older generations and back to those old mechanics once I've become used to newer ones. It becomes harder to play them. So having an older experience upgraded on a newer console is fine with me. Remakes aren't supposed to introduce anything new - they're intended to invoke nostalgia, so I generally remake my old teams (particularly in HGSS because of the Gen II incompatibility) to upgrade that experience. Although honestly, I'm not really too familiar with the original Red/Blue or Ruby/Sapphire, so the remakes were basically a newish experience to me anyway.

And I don't really see how a third version changes anything. I'll still use Pokemon introduced in that generation as the majority of my team. IF I decide to buy it, which I usually don't anyway. I typically ignore third versions because they don't have enough significant changes to warrant it. (Unlike Black and White 2, which had a new story and were sequels)

Speaking of older Pokemon who evolve into newer ones, those are acceptable because I'll be using the new evolution the majority of the playthrough anyway for the most part. I consider a new evolution both an extension of an old Pokemon and a new Pokemon in its own right. Similar to how I feel about Megas and why I would find using one of those to be acceptable.

when I first get a new game I usually make a team of Pokemon that are only from that generation. Then as I replay I mix old and new Pokemon.

I always have a few old ones and a few new ones. I like seeing what the new ones are like, but I also want to use my favorites from other regions that are available.