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[Discussion] Do you like Route 1 Pokemon?

Voultronix

Pokemon Fossil Creator
40
Posts
7
Years
Do you like route 1 Pokemon ? or do you feel they should be more elemental than just plain old boring normal? would you prefer more extreme Pokemon in the begging and maybe only a few basic ones? just wondering what do to in my fan game...
 
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WriterRaven

I Illustrate Through Words
54
Posts
9
Years
I think it depends entirely on how strong you want your players to be in the early game. How powerful do you want the player to be when they meet their first major challenge, such as a Gym?

The main series games usually use the first few routes to give the player an idea of what kind of Pok?mon they'll use against the first Gym, then expand on the different types and species from there.

If you want to skip the "introductory route" where you mostly meet Normal-types and go straight into building a diverse team, I think you need a good reason to do so. Everything in a game has a purpose, even the first few Pok?mon the player will encounter.
 

Voultronix

Pokemon Fossil Creator
40
Posts
7
Years
I think it depends entirely on how strong you want your players to be in the early game. How powerful do you want the player to be when they meet their first major challenge, such as a Gym?

The main series games usually use the first few routes to give the player an idea of what kind of Pokemon they'll use against the first Gym, then expand on the different types and species from there.

If you want to skip the "introductory route" where you mostly meet Normal-types and go straight into building a diverse team, I think you need a good reason to do so. Everything in a game has a purpose, even the first few Pokemon the player will encounter.

yeah true , I dont want extreme typings in the beginning i guess but its kind of hard because my Pokemon are set to certain parts of the map
 

elynxer

Sworedyz
40
Posts
15
Years
Please put interesting pokemon in. Bonus points if they can be useful in the long run.
Who enjoys catching ratatas, pidgeys, spearows.... hoothoots... blargh so many generic useless pokemon.

Think about it this way: Route 1 is the first route in the game, right? Why not put your best foot forward and put interesting encounters in and such, rather than effectively making the same old boring route that everyone has played through a dozen times?

Who has fond memories of the first route in the games? (Well, I enjoyed route 1 the first time I played Red/Blue. But the first route in G/S... psh.....
 
13
Posts
8
Years
  • Age 25
  • Seen Nov 11, 2019
I would prefer at least one interesting/cool Pokémon in the first couple of routes. I don't usually start catching Pokémon until after the second badge because of how boring they are.
 
1,805
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 30
  • USA
  • Seen Jan 15, 2024
Often the main series games gives wild pokemone or pokemon that own that will have some advantage over the first gym leader (unlike gen 1 and FL LG where if you pick charmander you're screwed unless you find a mankey). Gen 3 mitigated this by giving the fighting type to combusken, allowing you to use basic fighting moves against Roxanne (or using the lotad/seedot) and gave you ralts, zubat, tailow, wingull, sableye, and shroomish (with effect spore) before the second gym, etc.

For instance I'm doing a washington state pokemon game and the first leader is a dragon type. I'm sneaking in a very rare Goomy and cubchoo in the temperate rainforest you have to navigate. (Cubchoo has an environmental reason; polar bears are fishing in the rivers of northern Quebec now due to the receding ice.) They're both fairly weak and evolve until late in the 30's or 40's, making them a perfect early game treat (and the other pokemon in the game will quickly outclass them...unless you are patient). For the second gym (a fairy gym) I'm also making a normal/steel prairie dog and sneaking roselia and venipede before the second gym across routes 2-4 to give smart players an advantage. However, the third gym leader would be much more difficult, etc.

It is a matter of placing the good and useful pokes carefully. If you place too many useful pokes too early on, then you've made it too easy and the opposite is true: if you don't place enough helpful mon's then it would be hard only because of bad design.

You also want to allow the player to obtain some basic pokemon to begin formulating his or her team. XY gave the widest variety at the start, I think, which allowed for pretty unique teams early on. Since normal isn't super-effective against anything it seems to be a great introduction type with more complex types later to be introduced. Unleashing the full 18-type chart at once would be ridiculous and overwhelming to the new player. However, by the fourth gym usually a full variety of pokemon have been seen (minus a few types, usually ghost, ice, and dragon). By then the player would be fully acquainted with a large variety of pokes as well enough to make a stable team and the normal types you would have collected at the beginning would start to be outclassed by the others you encounter, anyway.
 
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178
Posts
10
Years
I hardly use any pokémon from route 1. Most of the time, I wait to see route some route 2 pokémon that usualy will have one pokémon that I use in my journey. But I have a preference for catching my team in my long run. That said, I don't care that much for route 1 pokémon. Would be better if we had something cool to play early game, beside the starter, though.
 
13
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 30
  • Seen May 30, 2021
It's better to begin with weak Pokemon's in the begin because its your first introduction to Pokemon's in that game. And they should be weak so you can level up your starter Pokemon's quicker.
 

NikkuGe

Wannabe the very best
8
Posts
7
Years
Pokemon usually starts with weaker/boring Pokemon to make it easier for newer players to get a hang of the game, so I'd think a fan game has more room to have more extreme Pokemon in the starting route. I don't dislike the boring Pokemon though, but some variation of boring and maybe a more rare exciting Pokemon would be cool too. The context of the story should dictate the route 1 Pokemon imo.
 
7
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 24
  • Seen May 18, 2017
I like to have pokemon with three stage of evolution. Have somthing different snice on most route 1 there are normal types and bugs maybe have the some differnt types on route 1.
 

Azurestonedog

AZR Stonedog
21
Posts
7
Years
Personally, as long as they're not overpowerful early on, they should be organic to the environment. Time of day should be very important here too. My fangame starts in an urban area surrounded by green lands (based on my street irl). I'd expect to encounter rats, mice, squirrels, hedgehogs, birds, tadpoles and fish, and more. But I wouldn't put zubat and woobat in the same map that early, i'd need to choose which of the two I'd want, again to not overwhelm the player.
 
12
Posts
4
Years
You need to find a good balance between simple (it's your first route after all) and interesting. Maybe a Pokemon with an interesting type or one that might be useful in the game, e.g. in the first gym? I personally loved to see a regional bird with a different type in Gen 6.
 
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