Pokemon Bonding or "Gotta Catch em All"?

[Brendino]

I've always preferred raising a smaller group of Pokemon rather than worrying about trying to catch them all. The only time I even bothered completing my Pokedex was on FireRed, and that was because it was the only Pokemon game I had that wasn't missing for the longest time, and you can only beat the Elite Four so many times before you need something else to do.

At least when I train a select few Pokemon (usually no more than a box full), I can switch between them for an extended period of time without getting bored. And if I ever decide I want to train different Pokemon, I'd rather go searching for one than just taking one out of the PC that's been sitting there for a year or two.

 

[Amore]

I only ever raise a small group (last couple of years that hasn't necessarily been restricted to 6 anymore), but I have no qualms with capturing tons of pokémon - it's just a game after all. If it were real, I'd just do like Paul in the anime and release most of the pokémon I capture yet don't intend to use.

 

[Tom Cruise]

I understand what you mean so I've tried to create a system in which I continuously change my team up and play with just about all my Pokemon. This of course is a difficult task to accomplish as I catch so many Pokemon.

 

[ErikaInRainbowCity]

It depends on what I get for finishing the Pokedex :P Anything useful? Then no I prefer to bond with my pokemon. It wouldn't really matter because I usually try to fill the Pokedex post-game. I always catch a few pokemon aside from the ones in my team though

 

[Jumpleet]

I always only use 6 with the occasional slave until I beat the game, then I continuously train more and more Pokemon. Although maybe I'm not one to talk about bonding with Pokemon considering I unapologetically use a Pokemon just to get rid of obstacles.

 

[Kraydl]

I just catch them along the way, less of a hassle that way for "endgame" stuff.

 

[Name]

I'm the kinda trainer who catches every pokemon I can, and if I can't catch it or already have one I knock it out!
I don't know how much my pokemon like me, the main team seems pretty chummy with me. But they don't feel particularly affectionate, so no matter how hard I work to keep them going, they don't really seem ot have a bond with me.
To this extent I don't think a human-pokemon bond can be terribly strong.

Pokemon are tools of power, and as such catching as many as possible is not only a worthy endeavor, it's the way to get more power!

 

[*Riolu Master*]

In the game I only really bond with my party pokemon that I beat the champion with and then I try to get every pokemon in the pokedex.(Which won't ever happen because of the amount of Pokemon now..)

But is Pokemon were real I would bond.

 

[disciplish]

"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.

Actually, it was dropped in Gen IV. If you look at the Ruby and Sapphire boxes, they have "Gotta Catch 'em All!" written on the front.

On another note, I prefer bonding. Although I strive to see all the Pokemon in the Pokedex, catching them is just too much trouble. I'd rather bond with the Pokemon I already have, and make those stronger.

...Although if I do see a cool-looking Pokemon, I do catch it.

 

[ChipmunkGamingInc.]

Hm. I honestly think that bonding with your Pokemon is more important. My friend claims he's legitimately caught all 649 Pokemon. A seemingly impossible feat, but alas it is true. Yet he has only six he uses. I rotate and train my Pokemon equally. Unlike someone else I know.

Ash Ketchum: Who's that?

Er, no one. Anyways, I have a large amount of Pokemon I use, and am greatly attached to. I counted and I have forty-six I use primarily. I also have forty-six total. All of them are now Level 100, and I bred most of them but I do have some that were wild. My starter, and a few others I caught at the beginning, for example. I constantly rotate them so I don't have a million Pokemon that just sit at Prof. Juniper's place, waiting for me to decide to take some action and actually train them. If I catch a new Pokemon, I train it, and rotate when I need to.

I actually have a daily rotation schedule. I think that bonding is far more important than filling a PokeDex for someone who already has hundreds of others filling PokeDexes and even NationalDexes.

*~Maelstrom~*

 

[Sonatron]

I pretty much can't catch 'em all unless I want to spend a lot of time trading, there are very few Pokémon events I can get to since they don't happen very often where I live (more frequently these days, but in the past they were basically non-existent) Despite that, I do try to collect them, I've been transferring them from older games and stuff like that.

I'm actually looking forward to Pokémon-Amie because I do like the idea of bonding with Pokémon, I hold my team pretty close to my heart even though bonding hasn't been a big part of the games as of generation five. Also, am I the only one who'd like more colour schemes and individualism for Pokémon? Just, something that sets them apart from others, I think that'd be a nice thing

 

[Hiatus]

Currently, there are over 600 Pokémon. I just don't have the time, patience, or motivation to catch them all. Catching all Pokémon is a big accomplishment, but you'd still have to catch more Pokémon when new games are introduced. To me, it's simply better to just train the Pokémon that you like and develop friendship between them. =)

 

[captain_nash]

Yeah because of the difficulty of the task it is these days no thanks, Ill focus on my main team and then benchwarmers. This time Im playing Fire Red and only catching surplus pokes to get the items from the many Professor Oaks aids. (...aids hehe Jared from Subway-Southpark) but if Pokemon were real I think most people would agree with the bond over catching them all.

 

[Shrew]

I like to do them both: bond with a main team of 6, and catch them all, too. I feel like I bond with my pokemon when I evolve them to lv40 or so; for pokemon that don't evolve or evolve through stone, I still like to train them to at least level 30 anyways.

Very relevant: Pokemon officially dropped the "Catch 'Em All" catchphrase for the anime. (no source atm)

 

[Shamol]

OP brought up an important point, friendship and bonding with pokemon isn't easy to reconcile with catching all of them.

Here's one feasible way to make sense of it.

I think it's beyond dispute that bonding and friendship with pokemon is pretty much everything pokemon stands for. Battles, contests, pokemon breeding and other pokemon-related professions follow naturally from that. One such profession is research. I think the "gotta catch 'em all" motto is to be reconciled not with the main idea of the franchise i.e. bonding, but with this auxiliary interest of research.

In other words, research seems to be no more than an incidental premise which helps you get started on your pokemon quest, the quest defined as getting to know pokemon and making new friends, and by that getting to discover what you really are. It's similar to so many other RPG games, where the initial quest is doing something simple- passing a hunter's test, running an errand for a King- but the hero ends up doing something much more profound and important. I think it's the same with pokemon.

Hence, Gotta Catch 'em All is viewed best as an auxiliary, accidental co-theme of the pokemon journey, and by no means the main theme.

 

[Yumetaro]

Normally, I have a team of 6 that I bond with, I do have 3 or 4 that I rotate into my team. I sometimes do catch Pokemon for the sake of filling the Dex, I do then usually train them after I defeat the Elite Four.

 

[Patrick]

I dunno, it's easy to drag this topic into one of ethics, but I won't because I'm lazy today and I'm gonna approach it from the game perspective.

It's not practical to train every last Pokemon you catch. The only reason to get one or more of each is for completionist purposes. Getting a few of the ones you plan to main at one time means you're looking for one with the best outcome in stats and other factors. Just release the ones you won't use.

In the end, "bonding" makes more sense. Just level up a solid team with a few in reserve. Or something, I dunno I haven't played a game in forever.

I can understand the whole "how do you bond with pixels" sentiment. There hasn't been a whole lot done to this point to make bonding feel like a real thing, save for getting spa treatments or whatever. I can't imagine forcing a creature to fight for you outside of the creature's own personal desires is going to make it like you any more, that's extremely oversimplifying it. I almost feel like it should be the other way around. You don't ask someone you don't know to help you move out your place.

It may be an annoyance to some depending on its execution and level of importance, but I'm kind of hoping the Pokemon-amie will help delve more into a real bonding aspect of Pokemon, because outside of the bug catching inspiration it was based on, isn't that what the whole theme of the series is?

So in short, for the games as they stand currently, "bonding" is the most practical because otherwise you're just wasting time away. You are also more suited for the game's challenges. For the games in the future, I'm looking forward to steps towards actual bonding. Not so realistic that I'm expected to wine and dine a Rattata just so it'll use Hyper Fang, but something that doesn't feel so unempathetic towards a series that tends to preach otherwise.

In real life, ugh, I just won't go there. D:

 

[ashketchum23]

I say bond with a couple Pokemon; 6 being the max. That way, you have 6 strong Pokemon that are willing to fight till the death, sort of speak. There's also no time to bond with every single Pokemon. You gotta focus on your main goal, which is becoming a Pokemon master(in Ash's case.) You gotta be quick, smart, and ready to take on the challenge. My opinion :D

 

[Mithel_Celestia]

I have boxes of competitively trained pokemon and each is bonded to me via nickname, which tells who they are and what they mean to me. Also a few boxes of "SPECIAL" Pokemon which identifies my in-game teams in the past or valuable assets like events or my first shiny.

 

[Legobricks]

Bonding is the overarching narrative's theme. As I said elsewhere, Gotta Catch 'em All is an atrocious slogan and no longer thematically relevant. It was only ever the franchise's subtitle outside of Japan, too, so it may never have been a 'correct' attitude toward Pocket Monsters.

"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.

They brought it back very recently, if only partially.