4th Gen Lack of Fire Types!

[curiousnathan]

I'm sure many of you guys have noticed, as have I, of that extreme lack of fire type in Diamon and Pearl.

What are your opinions on this? Were you dissapointed? Do you enjoy using fire types? And therefore, without many did you find yourself not enjoying the game as much as you think you might have if there were more fire types? Perhaps you like the scarcity? Why? If you had to introduce more fire types into the games, which Pokemon would you add? Where do you think they'd best fit into the landscape/environments of Sinnoh?

I was really, really dissapointed with the lack of fire type in Diamond and Pearl. Mainly because there weren't really many good ones outside of the Chimchar and Ponyta lines. Having said that, consequently the battle with Flint was quite lack-luster too - especially him being the third member of the Elite Four and only having two out of three members of his team follow his specialised type.

 

[Plumpyfoof]

It wasn't so much the lack of fire types in Sinnoh, it's the lack of fire types introduced in Sinnoh. Of which there is one new string (Chimchar) and one new evo (Magmortar
In fact I struggle to find a fire type I like using in any of the games, aside from Chandelure and Ninetales so far.

I'm sure people will disagree but I'm disappointed with most fire-types and end up choosing fire for my starter just to have one on my team. What we really need is a decent non-legendary fire type with a good move pool and decent stats obtainable in game.

 

[Hikamaru]

I guess the reason why Sinnoh lacked Fire-types was because Sinnoh is a cold region, so there's not much warm areas for Fire-type Pokemon to thrive.

I was a bit disappointed when I heard Chimchar and Ponyta were the only Fire-types available in Diamond & Pearl, which was probably why they added more Fire-types in Platinum. This also made me always pick Chimchar in every playthrough of Diamond and Pearl, just cos I hate Ponyta's terrible movepool.

In D/P Flint's team was a joke, they gave him 2 Fire-types (Rapidash, Infernape) and then all these random Pokemon (Steelix, Lopunny, Drifblim). I'm so glad Platinum fixed that problem.

 

[PlatinumDude]

The lack of Fire Pokemon in D/P seriously disappointed me. Literally, the only non-Chimchar line Fire Pokemon that could be found there were Ponyta and Rapidash. It also bugged me that only 2 of Flint's Pokemon were Fire Pokemon, though the other 3 did have Fire moves on them. Well, at least more Fire Pokemon were added in Platinum and that relieved things a bit.

 

[chella182]

I did notice this, but I started with Chimchar, so I didn't really need another Fire-type on my team.

 

[Yoni Arousement]

Good thing I started with Chimchar as well when I first played Pearl version. But I don't remember being aware of the lack of Fire Type Pokémon until I progressed later in the game.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

I was just happy that Infernape turned out to be as good as it did when playing through Platinum. 'Cause there was no way I was using Ponyta at any point. Having said that, Fire-types have always been slightly rare, but this was just brought to the extreme in Gen IV, to the games' detriment. While I've never played DP (just Platinum), that there was an E4 member that didn't have a majority-type team just made my mind boggled when I read it. Just... just... why? It did seem a very bad idea horribly executed. Eh...

 

[arbok]

Chimchar and Ponyta families are the only in the original pokedex which is why Flint has them both on his team but as there are no other fire types he is forced to pick random filers.
Geographically it makes sense as Sinnoh is a far colder and wetter region than anywhere else so far. With damp marshland in the south and frozen forests in the north it makes sense fire types would struggle to even exist here. From a gameplay perspective though I think they should of added some sort of steamy hot cave with pokemon like Magby and Slugma inside, they don't have to be the best fire types but just a little variety would be nice. At least they saw the problem and attempted to fix it in Plat version.

 

[Ammako]

Doesn't affect me, since I just pick Chimchar and Infernape is good enough.

 

[tj4bigred]

I picked Chimchar in almost all my plays of D/P, simply because there weren't any other options (I refused to use Ponyta).

In Platinum, I've used Houndoom and Magmortar in separate files, and they were both excellent teammates.

 

[Pinta77]

What about Heatran?

But ya, as far as non legendaries go, d/p dont have many fire types. Never noticed til now.

 

[Evisector]

I didn't like how in Pearl, if you wanted a good Fire-type, you had to pick Chimchar. Rapidash isn't good (or at least, wasn't for me).

Pretty glad Platinum expanded on the lack of Fire-types tbh.

 

[T!M]

Didn't bother me; As I didn't like Chimchar and I never liked fire-type POKeMON as a whole. So, I was happy with Piplup.

 

[Altairis]

It disappointed me, especially because fire is like... a core type. I used Chimchar way more than I should've really, just because there wasn't really anything else.

 

[Pecilia]

What about Heatran?

Wasn't available until after the E4 so I really wouldn't count Heatran.
I don't get why they even bothered adding a fire type into the E4, Flint was more random type pokemon with fire moves. Fire type is usually ignored a lot, really need to add more fire types aside from the starter. Get fire types like water types, who's up to add HM LAVA SURF?!

 

[Katie the Friendly Ghost]

Slapped a Fire Blast on one of my random Pokemon and I was set haha. But honestly it didn't bother me. I actually didn't even notice the serious lack of fire types for awhile haha.

 

[Ach7AC]

Fire-types have always been rare on Pokemon, but GF sort of went overboard on it. I mean, I know that Sinnoh is based on Hokkaido, which is a cold part of Japan, but that was terrible in terms of game-play. Aside from the Ponyta line, there was no other Fire-types until after the E4, except if you decided to take Chimchar, of course. And to the Flint battle, that sort of reminded me of Agatha, who only had two Ghost Pokemon due to only one Ghost-line debuting in Gen. I. But at least his Pokemon made some sort of sense (Such as Drifblim being a hot-air balloon, and how Steelix is made of Steel.)
Anyway, hopefully GF learned from that mistake and will actually attempt to balance regional dexes from now on.

 

[curiousnathan]

Fire-types have always been rare on Pokemon, but GF sort of went overboard on it. I mean, I know that Sinnoh is based on Hokkaido, which is a cold part of Japan, but that was terrible in terms of game-play. Aside from the Ponyta line, there was no other Fire-types until after the E4, except if you decided to take Chimchar, of course. And to the Flint battle, that sort of reminded me of Agatha, who only had two Ghost Pokemon due to only one Ghost-line debuting in Gen. I. But at least his Pokemon made some sort of sense (Such as Drifblim being a hot-air balloon, and how Steelix is made of Steel.)
Anyway, hopefully GF learned from that mistake and will actually attempt to balance regional dexes from now on.

I definitely think they solved the issue in Platinum. Flint had a full team of fire types (with the addition of Houndoom, Flareon and Magmortar) and then actually proved to be a challenge.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

I just used Rapidash in Diamond - it didn't bother me even though fire types are my favourite, cause I like the challenge of working with new teams and pokémon I haven't tried before :)

 

[Red99]

My favorite type was fire, so I was kinda disappointed. I think the addition of good lines like Growlithe or Vulpix would have made the game easier, but then again, lots of people like a challenge.