5th Gen The Elemental Monkeys!

[Sirfetch’d]

Before you challenge the first gym in Black and White you are given a special Pokemon, either Pansage, Pansear, or Panpour, depending on the weakness of your starter. These Pokemon are really helpful for beating the first gym which you are otherwise weak to. What did you think of these little guys? Were they super helpful? Did you like them? What do you wish was different about them? Have a particular favorite of the bunch? Discuss!

 

[Hikamaru]

Ignore what I deleted earlier, I was just being a huge derp again

Anyhow, I'm probably one of the very few people who likes these monkeys since I hear they get hated a lot for being like carbon copies of each other. But I still know they have the differences, especially with the designs of them.

My fave of the bunch is Panpour (I love Simipour and its design) but all three are equally loved by me and they can be useful team members thanks to their useful movepools. It's just that most players hate them so much they box them after the Gym.

 

[adameastment]

I really like them, they're super helpful in the first gym - and to be quite honest, they're great. But since I chose Oshawott I got Pansear and Simisear, so when Darumaka came up I caught that and replaces Simisear off my team.

 

[LucarioFan3]

Tbh, they might as well been just one Pokémon with a form for Grass, Fire, and Water. Having them as separate Pokémon just feels like a waste.

 

[esperance]

I thought they were really cool when I first got them in BW, but honestly they're all gimmick. They lack any real power for the late game, and are only useful in that single situation before the first gym. Once that's past, it's best just to get rid of yours for something better.

 

[loser]

They're okay as pokemon, but I really feel like they are forced upon the player. The gym is really hard without them, but with them its a breeze. The are better pokemon of these types, so they are often replaced and just serve the purpose of beating the first gym, which I do not like.

 

[Firox]

They aren't a Pokemon I would use team, unless it's a challenge.
Their design falls on meh - it's what prevents me from using them, I boxed mine as soon as I got it.
If I had to choose one as a favorite it would go towards Panser & Simisear

 

[Drayton]

These monkies are out-of-the-box starter, but they aren't starter at all. After, beating the first gym I decide to keep it and at the point I replace and find a better pokemon with tons of diversity than keeping this elemental apes which is very fragile despite of it's high attack and speed.

 

[Coffee]

Ignore what I deleted earlier, I was just being a huge derp again

Anyhow, I'm probably one of the very few people who likes these monkeys since I hear they get hated a lot for being like carbon copies of each other. But I still know they have the differences, especially with the designs of them.

My fave of the bunch is Panpour (I love Simipour and its design) but all three are equally loved by me and they can be useful team members thanks to their useful movepools. It's just that most players hate them so much they box them after the Gym.

Wait, people hate them for their designs but they don't hate eeveelutions on their designs! ?

 

[JJ Styles]

I love how these things can be found in the wild in the later games in order to help supply the early-game. Of course the highlight of their use was in BW1 where one of each could be picked to help out the first gym.

In battle, they are average at best, but they do have a good speed tier to say the least. They may not be the heaviest hitters but they are pretty fast and their movepools aren't too bad either.

[S-HIGHLIGHT]Wait, people hate them for their designs but they don't hate eeveelutions on their designs! ?[/S-HIGHLIGHT]

Unlike eevee's evolutions which works well with how they were designed as easily recognizable as eevee's evolutions and they all had their own unique designs such as the faces, skin patterns, and whatnot while keeping up with the whole theme, the monkeys almost look EXACTLY the same, almost as if they look like the same monkey but wearing a different pelt. Even when fully evolved.

Of course, that's the only thing i didn't like for the monkeys. It would have been interesting if Simisear looked like a cousin of Infernape.

 

[Pendraflare]

I like the monkeys, and I did use Simisear in one of my last White adventures, at least for a majority of the way until Cheren cut it down at Twist Mountain. Although they're not really that unique when you see Pokémon like Whimsicott, Chandelure and the like, but they're more original I guess.

 

[mew_nani]

Why do these things even exist?

Not to sound rude toward any fans these things may have but they're not that well designed and not useful much past a certain point. Heck Pansear in particular is nothing more than a bootleg ripoff of Chimchar; both are monkeys, both are Fire type and both have some kind of swirl motif on them. The only difference is that Chimchar evolves into a super awesome Pokemon while Pansear evolves... into...

this thing. WHY?!

 

[Xebelleon]

Thought they were useful in mostly niche ways, though -sage and -pour were by far the fun ones. Role Play as an egg move made for some fun moments such as when my Simisage Role Play'd for Liquid Ooze.

Not sure if snot... or broccoli soup.

 

[Sheep]

Helpful against Cilan without a doubt - I had a pretty hard time with just Oshawott when I first battled him and Pansear was very useful. Tried using it for a while afterwards since I loved the Striaton trio's elemental monkeys in the anime but that didn't last long as they just weren't useful in the long run, nor did I want to use up an evolution stone on them. :( So by the time I got to Castelia Pansear went straight to the box. Sorry, buddy!

 

[Synerjee]

I've never used these things more than once. The first and only time I used them was when I was trying them out. It, to be more precise. I picked Oshawott as my starter and got Pansear. I tried training it a little and found that it was too weak and grew too slowly for my taste, so I boxed it. There are other better things to use than these monkeys imo, tbh.

 

[Usagi-Chan~]

I liked them a lot, just because it felt like a good compliment to my starter. I used Pansage in my first Black playthrough and it stayed on my team until the post game.

 

[SparklingMistral]

Design wise, none of them are really appealing. I believe I ended up with either Panpour or Pansage, I don't remember which because I can't remember if I chose Snivy or Oshawott in Black. xD While I think it's nice that they gave you that Pokemon to help you out in the first gym, I feel like they were just handing you a Pokemon to make the game easier for you since the monkey you got gave you a type advantage over whichever of Striaton's leaders you faced.

 

[SleepyTrainer]

They are pretty cool. I like them design wise, and they are usefull in battles too.
I'm not sure which of the three is my fave.
Simisage's "hair" could have gotten a better design.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

My fave of the bunch is Pansage, although I think I got Pansear in my game. I feel bad cause I wish I liked them more, I really liked the way you obtained them, it almost feels like a second starter cause you get them so early on and plus some of their typings aren't really found till later in the game, but unfortunately mainly for design reasons I ended up boxing mine.

 

[Oakesy]

I played Bolt Black before I got a hold of black and got Pansear. I then evolved it into Simisear but found myself boxing it after I caught Darumaka in the desert.

I can see myself keeping it for a while in my current playthrough of White as I am doing a Nuzlocke so if I don't find Darumaka, I might be in for a hard time without a fire type.