2nd Gen Starting With Chikorita

I fought Bugsy 107 times on my first playthrough, but it was worth it. That was one of my favorite companions :D

I've played Silver and Crystal dozens of times. I always alternate. Totodile, Cyndaquil, Chikorita. I think Totodile is so awesome. Cyndaquil and Chikorita are so-so to me. I like Fire Punch and it takes till Typhlosion to get it. Neither Chikorita nor its evolutions can learn the Punch moves. Totodile on the other hand can learn Ice Punch at any stage of its evolution and it's super-effective against one of its weaknesses.

tl;dr I'm a fan of Chikorita, but Totodile is tops.

Chikorita... probably the most misjudged starter ever. Sure, it does not hits so hard as Cyndaquil or Totodile, but it's quite bulky and can outtank some of the most dangerous opponent's in Johto like Whitney's Miltank or Clair's Kindra.
Also, people say that first two leaders are strong against Chikorita - BULLSHIT. Falkner does have like 0 high-powered moves (lol Gust), and Bugsy is a joke except his Scyther.

Right now after playing GSC multiple times i'm strongly believing that Meganium is the best starter in Johto, actualy.

My Chikoritas always end up being support as soon as they learn Reflect. My other Pokemon are the heavy hitters. I never had that much trouble with Falkner. It's Bugsy I had trouble with, specifically his Scyther. To be fair, all my Pokemon had trouble with Scyther.

Honestly Chikorita, despite being cute, was mostly useless. Bayleef did not really struggle much but Meganium was always ditched. It isn't necessarily the hardest to use... it really is the least rewarding. :/ There's nothing useful about Meganium end-game! Why have that when you can have a Pidgeot??

If it means anything Meganium is consider to be the most useful Johto Starter in the gen 2 meta game(according to Smogon).

I did used the Chikorita line for my first Crystal playthrough(I was like 9 at the time). I don't recall having much issues with it. I did use a Quagsire and an Onix to help with it's shortcomings though...

That being said, I did used an Unown with Hidden Power Electric when I fought aganist Falkner... and it actually worked...

Chikorita was my starter the first time I played Crystal (firt time I played a gen 2 game). I was young so I don't remember much tbh but HootHoot was in my team. Whooper too. I don't remember having too much trouble, but I did grind a lot I think.

I've always tended to go for water type starters, so my Gold starter was Totodile. I have used Chikorita in a couple of challenge runs, though, and I'll admit that it certainly has a more difficult early game than the other starter options. That being said, since I didn't try using it when I was younger, and I never tried to plow through the game with Chikorita alone (with the obligatory terrible move set that I likely would have come up with at the time), I never experienced any frustration from using Chikorita.

Hmm, this kind of makes me want to do a Chikorita/Meganium solo run. I suppose I've always been very fond of the other two Johto starters, so I've never paid Chikorita much attention.

Lets see...

Falkner - Pidgey is a joke, Pidgeotto is slightly more threatening because of much higher stats but with few potions it's doable. Also, dunno how about others but i always accidentaly was overleveled for this gym, lv.9 for leader's ace is a joke.

Bugsy - Metapod and Kakuna are a joke, again. Scyther is not worth of trying, tho. Even if Beyleef can tank Fury Cutter or two, after few turns it will build-up too much power.

Whitney - Clefairy is a roulette for everything so meh. With its superior bulk, Reflect and poison powder Beyleef has a best chance to beat Miltank, tho.

Morty - Actualy totaly untouchable by Beyleef. Probably the worst match up for it. Immune to normal attacks and poison powder and resists razor leaf, pass.

Chuck - Primeape is meh, and Poliwrath is dead after one or two razor leafs. Bring confusion- and sleep-healing items, tho.

Jasmine - Magnemites can only strike your only with Sonic Boom, but on the other hand you have nothing strong against them. Steelix has pathetic Sp.DEF and Ground secondary typing. Iron Tail will hurt like hell, but doable.

Pryce - Seel and Dewgong have lowish stats and only Icy Wind, doable. Piloswine has pathetic Sp.ATK, but can fire off Blizzard and that's scary. Meganium could probably tank one Blizzard from Piloswine and cut it up with Razor Leaf, but player could probably have better options.

Clair - Dragonairs are meh, Her Kingdra normaly is a monster, but if player fire off Poison Powder onto it and stall it out then it's easy and boring.

I'm too lazy to analize E4 and Kanto, but overall E4 is a mixed bag for Meganium and Kanto has plenty of Grass-weakness.

Overall so feared opponent's for Meganium are... not that scary. Type match-up looks not promising and all, but then player realize that besides few exception they just lack fire power or proper movesets to beat Chikorita. Chikorita's problem is not that it "sucks", it just trades the fire power and Thunder/Ice Punch coverage for tremendous bulk and few support options, and players prefer offense over defense.

Typically when it comes to Pokemon games, there is an Easy mode, Normal mode and then OMFG Hard mode(ok I'm exaggerating but you get the point). First 2 Gym's in Johto are extremely anti-grass so it makes logical sense that Chikorita is arguably the equivalent to Charmander in Generation 1(with no Steel moves). Does that make Chikorita a useless Pokemon? Heck no because the purpose of the game is to CATCH Pokemon and therefore other types can take the lead with regards to the Gym Leaders(same deal with Charmander in Generation 1).

The main difference though, as I see it, is that Charmander had a bit more usefulness beyond the first two Gym's. Every single Gym in Johto is relatively impervious to Grass Type's, hence one could argue that if you want a true challenge to go with Chikorita to start. Easy street would be Cyndaquil with Totodile a close second.

I do not recommend chikorita. One of the worst grass starters to have. Stick with the other two starters.