Pokemon Bonding or "Gotta Catch em All"?

[Infinite Latios]

Am I the only person who thinks that the series goal of catching them all conflicts with getting close to your Pokemon? To catch them all, you have to hold 643 of them in the PC, while only 6 get to come with you. That's not bonding, that's called raising Pikachu in captivity. Which do you guys think is the better or more important goal? Bonding with your Pokemon, or catching them all? I think it's more important to get closer to your Pokemon. Everyone knows that Pikachu act anti-social and aggressive when you breed them in captivity.

 

[amerininja]

I feel the same as you on this point. I will sometimes only catch 6 or 7 pokemon and stop there. Untill they are you know in the 90s or 80s.

 

[MasterDraco]

"Gotta Catch 'em all" was a concept they dropped as a primary goal in Generation 3 because of the amount of Pokémon... It Hasn't been the motto of Pokémon since Gold, Silver and Crystal.

 

[Boilurn]

In answer to your question if you were in a real Pokemon Adventure then I'd suggest bonding with your Pokemon. You don't wan't them to lose friendship otherwise they'll walk away. If you're playing the games I'd suggest catching them all. You might receive a special gift if you catch all the Pokemon in B2W2.

 

[PokeChris123]

Well, you don't exactly seem to bond with your Pokemon besides battling and happiness level (and imagination, but not all do that I guess... I do) and it is really hard to "Catch 'em All". I guess it all depends on who you are. If you are a hardcore gamer, then catching them all is the answer. If you have a creative mind for Pokemon, like me, then bonding is the answer. If I had to choose a side, I would go with bonding.

 

[moon]

"Gotta Catch 'em all" was a concept they dropped as a primary goal in Generation 3 because of the amount of Pokémon... It Hasn't been the motto of Pokémon since Gold, Silver and Crystal.

I didn't know that actually, but it makes sense.

I usually capture all the pokémon I can in the game, but only train 7-8 of them. I guess I think of it more like a game and less like as if I actually have to be nice towards my boxed creatures.

But in RPs and fiction (I guess?) I think I never capture more pokémon than I intend to use. Because there you get to form personalitites for the pokémon and to box them would seem so cold ;; So yeah, I understand what you mean with it's conflicting. The gotta catch 'em all maybe is outdated though, like MasterDraco says. Because now you can't capture all pokémon within one generation's games anymore.

It's the same in the anime, where Unova was the first region Ash really rotated his team on, right? He still makes sure to bond with all of his pokémon (except the permanently 'boxed' ones @ prof Oak) but he's not really ever made an effort to capture them all. Not even in the Kanto/Johto journeys.

In the manga, the only protagonist (except for maybe Green?) who tried to capture them all (and succeeded!) is Crystal. And she didn't capture them for herself, she just captured them for professor Oak while she had her team of 6 pokémon to battle with already.

So I'd say bonding is more important than collecting ;)

 

[King Of Pokemon]

I play with only 6 pokemon (From that region only in games like PL or BW2) until I beat the E4, THEN I will make my fav. team from any region and attempt to catch em' all.

 

[.:batto:.]

i love breeding. so i am bonding with my 'pc pokemon' in a way. but thats exactly what they are. PC pokemon. they all serve the purposes. and i couldnt really care to bond with my 290+ pokemon. but those special 6... now there different. we are a team. and nobody could come between us.

 

[Brolijah]

You must be the incarnation of Lord Natural... And I do see what you mean. In recents, my primary goal has in a sense been catch few and befriend your partners. That still doesn't change the fact that I'm still an EV trainer and battler. Ooh, how conflicting at times. And such has been hardwired into my head.
Furthermore, as I saw someone state above. "Gotta catch 'em all" really was dropped after 3rd gen. They still have neato features if you do obtain all pokémon, but never have I thought it really be the effort.

 

[Hyzenthlay]

I have five or six Pokemon in my team for the whole adventure, but I catch some HM slaves and if I see a wild Pokemon I want to catch, I do. And of course I always go for the legendaries but store them into the PC.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I think both are important to a degree, why is it one or the other? I like collecting as many pokemon as I can...I completed my pokedex in Soul Silver for the first time. Which was really satisfying.

Now that in Pokemon X & Y we don't need to have a pokemon in our pokedex to request it on the GTS. Filling your pokedex might become fairly trivial if you breed some starters to trade away.

 

[Arlo]

I can see how it could be the case that the two conflict if I only used six pokemon AND tried to catch 'em all, so ended up with a PC full of pokemon I never did and never would use, but I don't play that way.

I balance the two. I catch a lot of pokemon in the course of a normal game, but I generally use almost all of them at least a bit, and I end up with a couple of dozen or so that I use regularly, rotating them in and out of my party as I need to or simply want to. And if I keep playing through the post-game, that can expand out to dozens or sometimes even hundreds of pokemon that I not only catch, but use, train and evolve.

 

[Sableye~]

How would one 'bond' with pixels?

Anyway. I do have a nearly-full PC box but they don't really mean much to me. I'm a bit of a 'mon hoarder. ]:

During the first playthrough, I just catch Pokemon I particularly like or want to be in my team. For the most part, at least.

 

[Green Stache]

View attachment 68992
I don't really care about having hundreds of pokemon in boxes, after all, it is just a game.. Not like Animal Protection services are gonna knock through my do-... Hey what's that siren outside?! Oh no! it's the Po Po! *Jumps out closed window*

Anyway, I am the one for catching them all, if I haven't caught it, I soon will. It isss the main point of the game after all (In my opinion at least..), I don't use all of them in my team though, only the chosen ones. But of course, nowadays in newer Pokemon games, if you're expecting to catch every single Pokemon, you're gonna have a bad time. But when I was a little boy, catching all 151 was possible and a worthy challenge! :D

 

[Darkrai666]

Well..I never went for pokemon bonding..I caught pokemon like ratata or Zigzagoon I just ignored them And put em in the PC..I mean It's definitely "gotta catch em all" But that's just how I like it..But in the anime It's Like Ash catches pokemon he uses them for a while and Dumps them forever except for pikachu all ash bonds with Is pikachu...But Ash Is a loser so It depends on how You like it..

 

[Elite Dialga]

Never went for *Gotta catch em' All", there's just so much to do with the ones you like, can't think of catching em all for now XD

 

[BubbleBeams]

I still like to catch as many as I can for the sake of filling the Pokedex. But I do usually make it a point to figure out which six Pokemon I want on my team and I stick with them. I definitely like to bond with my Pokemon. I actually have a hard time with the idea of erasing my game to start a new one. I usually won't restart a game on my physical cartridges, and if I want to do a replay of one of the games I download a ROM instead. I get very attached to my Pokemon.

Realistically speaking, if Pokemon were real and I were a Pokemon trainer, I wouldn't catch a heapload of them. I probably wouldn't stick with just 6, but I wouldn't go overboard with it either. I also like to think if Pokemon were real it'd be like in the anime where, say, Ash's Pokemon are sent to Prof. Oak's lab where they're still able to run free and be taken care of instead of sitting in a PC box, rotting away.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

I prefer to bond with my Pokemon. I don't really bother filling the Pokedex.

 

[Rentoray]

I thinking spend time with your Pokemon is better than catching Pokemon and just leave them in PC.

 

[Aeroblast]

This "bonding" seems like a really vague idea, is it basically getting their happiness level up to 255?