Have you ever boxed your starter Pokemon?

During all of my Pokemon play-throughs over the last 18+ years I have never had the heart to Box my starter Pokemon. Keeping my starter Pokemon on my team until the end has always seemed like such an important aspect of the main story to me. Your journey always begins with you selecting your starter Pokemon, and it only makes sense to have your journey end with that same Pokemon by your side. In the end he/she has evolved. They're not the same as they were at the beginning of your journey. They're stronger, they're smarter and they've been places and have seen some stuff. Its as if the starter Pokemon's evolution is important to me because it symbolizes your growth as a character throughout the game.

However, while playing Pokemon X for the first time, I recently decided to box my Greninja. This marks the first time I have ever boxed a starter Pokemon before finishing the main story.

Its a sad day for me :(

Unlike Generation V, Pokemon X and Y allows for you to encounter not just Generation 6 Pokemon, but also a plethora of Pokemon from all previous generations. I love this about the Gen 6 games, but it makes the selection process so beyond difficult. How to you choose just six Pokemon to keep with you at a time when there are so many amazing Pokemon to chose from? It was too tough, and at the end of the day I just didn't have room for that damn ninja frog on my team.

So my question to you: do you typically keep your starter Pokemon with you? Do you view keeping your starter as an important aspect of the game? Why/why not? And if you have deposited a starter prior to finishing the main story, which game/starter was it and why did you do it?

In all the playthroughs I've done of the games, I've never boxed my starter. I grew too attached to them, and since they were the first Pokemon I'd start using, usually they'd also be one of the strongest I'd have. As you said, I don't have the heart to box them. It's only recently, though, where I felt more... comfortable, I daresay, with leaving my starter in the box. I tried doing a FireRed playthrough before, and the Pokemon I wanted to end the game with weren't any of the starters, so I had every intention of eventually boxing it. In a romhack I'm playing right now, I don't really like the starter Pokemon, so I boxed it pretty early, too.

Basically, for the first playthroughs of main games I'd probably keep the starter. After that I'm alright with boxing the starter, and for romhacks, unless I like the starter, then I'm also okay with boxing it in favor of other Pokemon.

yup

I've boxed my starter in latter playthroughs, but never my first.

I might buck that trend in S&M, though. I prefer Pikipek to Rowlett, Salandit to Litten, and Wimpod to Popplio.

I've almost always had my starter with me on every Pokémon game I've played, although years ago, when I still had physical Game Boy Game Paks of Generation I, I would deposit the starter Pikachu in Yellow and then withdraw it almost immediately afterward just to see how he would react.

I box my starter once I've finished everything to do in the game and start to dex fill via breeding or battling for points at the Maison.

I have a couple of times, but only on playthroughs of games that I have already completed several times before that. I tend to use each starter at least once before boxing them unless I reaaaally don't like them for some reason.

I've boxed them before yeah. Never felt bad in the slightest for doing it. Sometimes I just don't like the starters enough to really use them for the game, other times its because I'm doing a monotype run where none of the starters match the appointed type, and there's always the "I've used this before so let's not this time".

All the time. Especially in X and Y because the first time I played X I chose Chespin, so on subsequent play throughs I chose the others and immediately boxed them never to be used. I absolutely hate Greninja and Delphox.

After they outlive their purpose of being my slave to carry me up to the E4, I box them and never use them again.

The only ever time I've boxed my starter was during my most recent playthrough of FireRed a few months ago. This was only because I wanted to make a team specifically without a starter, despite that I still felt bad :/

I only box a starter if I am doing a challenge in which I am not permitted to use it, such as the random pokemon challenge

I always keep them on my team, I completely agree about them being there for the whole journey! While I haven't ever done a grind to get any of them to level 100 or anything, they're always with me to beat the end of the game's story.

I usually have my team planned out and ready to be transferred - I just catch 30 random wild Pokemon, hatch the eggs and see which ones will be in the team (by ability, and gender).

Once my team is chosen, the starter will more than likely be boxed

After being a champion, I do boxed my starter and replace with other pokemon that is all decent

I have never boxed my starter. I used to see what I get and not get upset because despite what the Pokemon looks like it still has a place in my heart. The only time I boxed a starter ever was in Emerald. I was trying to raise Pokemon and I boxed my combusken, beat the league and then raised it in the Smeargle Cave in the Frontier area. It wasn't that I hated it, I was just trying to raise different types of Pokemon. I felt really bad because the Blaziken I had was pretty damn good, so I decided to check to see what Pokemon evolved into so I won't get upset later.

Ducolamia said:

I have never boxed my starter. I used to see what I get and not get upset because despite what the Pokemon looks like it still has a place in my heart. The only time I boxed a starter ever was in Emerald. I was trying to raise Pokemon and I boxed my combusken, beat the league and then raised it in the Smeargle Cave in the Frontier area. It wasn't that I hated it, I was just trying to raise different types of Pokemon. I felt really bad because the Blaziken I had was pretty damn good, so I decided to check to see what Pokemon evolved into so I won't get upset later.

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Ya I usually go back and forth on whether or not to look up the starter Pokemons' final evolutions. I did for Silver, Emerald and Pearl, and knowing the final evolutionary stages of Cyndaquill, Torchic and Piplup heavily influenced my decision in picking them. However, while playing Pokemon White for the first time I decided to choose the starter I liked the best without knowing any of the evolutionary stages and ended up being disappointed because I would've chosen Oshawott if I had known what it would become lol

Yes, I boxed Greninja as soon as he evolved too. :s I think that may have been the only time I permanently boxed a starter - I just had stronger Pokémon that covered the areas he did better and I'm not a huuge fan of the 6th gen starters in general.

When it comes to if I have ever boxed my starter Pokemon, my answer is NEVER. Why? It is because my starter Pokemon are always the leaders of my Pokemon teams.

colours said:

I feel bad because I almost always box my starter Pokemon right after I beat the Pokemon League, mostly because by the time period I have a rough idea what other teams I would want to build and my starter wouldn't really fit in those teams. :<

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Same pretty much! I don't usually have a reason to box it during the main storyline - starters are generally more powerful than typical Pokémon and also have more interesting designs, so I like to keep them around for the first while. After the game though, it's all about making more interesting/unique teams, and that Infernape that I've used in literally the past 35 DPPt runs has no place on them.