5th Gen The Unova Starters

I played through the game several times so I have used all the starters throughout the story and although Gen 5 is my favorite region I have to say the starters let it down massively which I'm surprised no one else really mentions considering people love to nitpick on Gen 5 but the one actual bad thing about it no one takes notice of.

My favorite was Snivy as it always seemed like a cool Pokemon to me and I loved role playing as Snivy back when I used to role play.
 
When I first saw the starters from Unova, I labelled Oshawott as the best of the three - and I picked him both in White and Black 2. I really like his design and the fact that it has proven very good in battle (thanks to his well rounded stats) only made this Pokémon better for me! Recently, though, I've tried out Snivy and it has grown on me. His movepool is not that great, let's admit it, but it still did his job effectively.
Now, I've never used Tepig - it never appealed to me as much as the other starters - but I might try it out in the future.
 
I picked Oshawott in Black and Snivy in Black 2. Oshawott is definitely the cutest; it's actually one of my favorite starters of all time.

Tepig is adorable too, but its evolutions? Not so much...
 
Tepig was definitely my least favorite of the three. Hated its final evolution.

In all seriousness, I of course picked Tepig when I first ran through the games. Emboar's high attacking stats do not lie, and it has a movepool to back them up. Picked Oshawott a few times, but I only ever chose Snivy so I could trade it to Black 2 for my Pokedex.
 
Snivy, although tbh I never really used the starters past my first runthrough of each game. Their designs aren't really as memorable as Gen II/III/IV to me.
 
Having played through the Unova Games multiple times I have completed the games with all three starters.

Tepig Line - I like the design here and Emboar looks impressive. Whilst Unova isn't great for Fire Types it does have some excellent Fighting Types. Unfortunately Emboar was a non-player on the Elite Four as by that time I had a Mienshao.

Snivy Line - Nice design again but fades quickly. In the White Games you can get a Lilligant early on and in all my playthroughs the Grass Snake always falls behind the Flowering Pokemon. Indeed in my recent Grass Monotype of White Serperior was the fifth most important Pokémon on my team. Behind Sawsbuck, Lilligant, Virizion and the much maligned Simisage. The Snivy Line has a great Hidden Ability but the regular one not so much.

Oshawott line - Oshawott may be the cutest Pokémon ever and Samurott served me well in my initial Black playthrough. Whilst perhaps not as good as Jellicent Samurott was a key member of my team.
 
I chose Tepig. Didn't think I would get too attached to it, to be honest, but along the way I really took a liking to Emboar.
 
Gardy has a strong point - two of the Unova starters do get heavily outclassed by other Unova Pokemon of their types.

As she mentioned, Snivy fades out the most of the three since you can get access to a lot of good Grass-types after the second Gym, namely Lilligant (if you're playing White, that is). Whimsicott, Simisage and even Leavanny all seem to be better options and that's mainly because they learn better moves than Snivy, or in the case of Simisage it gets some neat coverage moves through TMs.

Tepig is a decent starter, but its evolutions' lack of level-up Fighting-type moves does make it face fierce competition for a team slot from other powerful Fighting-types like Conkeldurr, Throh, Sawk and even Mienshao. Even its Fire-type gets outclassed by other options, especially the hard-hitting Darmanitan and Chandelure.

Oshawott is the only one of the three that doesn't get outclassed as much, likely due to the fact there's not many good Water-types available in Unova. Jellicent can't be obtained until after you have Surf (which is after the fifth Gym) and the other options besides Simipour are mediocre at best.
 
I usually go with Snivy, I love all of its evolutions and it does get access to some pretty good moves later on. The starter I've used the least in Unova is Oshawott, I only really liked its final evolution but I'm gonna give it a try in my next playthrough of White soon.
 
Because I was an idiot, Tepig is whom I chose. It's a fire pig.

It was my second ever Pokémon to reach Level 100, after my Blaziken in Ruby (I hate my past self for always using the Fire starter, but when Sun and Moon comes out I'll use Litten anyway).
 
Forever said:
That's cool, I know a lot of people don't go all the way with their starters but I did too! Eminem (Emboar) reached level 100 and is now retired. Good luck getting it to 100 if it hasn't happened anyway :)

Hey did anyone else get the other starters and try to level them up too? Because I did even though I completed a lot of the game already lol c:
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Got my serperior to lvl 100, even though Oshawatt is my favorite.
 
i've never actually fully played through a gen 5 game, so i don't have much of an impression on them, however i recall my very first glance of them in an unofficial magazine i collected as a child.

i was fascinated at tsutaja[snivy] cause it looked. so. cool. and i really wanted to own one. i thought pokabu[tepig] looked eh, but i because i didn't get much internet then, so i was excited to see a pig pokemon. [and then i played mystery dungeon eos]. mijumaru[oshawott] was the one that caught my attention the most. i knew this was gonna be my partner. i love otters and oshawott looked like an otter, what can i say?

i'm currently playing through black 2 [even though i haven't touched it in a month >->] and i'm finally using my destined gen 5 starter i chose back in 09/10. that's oshawott btw >w<
 
Snivy is easily the best. I already had special feelings for it before I decided to play the gen. 5 games. It was my first starter, and it's now currently a mighty Serperior with a powerful sp. attack stat.
 
I actually played all four games, so I've tried all the starters. Based on their appeal overall, I'd have to rank them
Oshawott
Snivy
Tepig.

Samurott dished out serious damage compared to the others, Serperior was always good with defensive play and elegant design factors, and then Tepig was... Fire. That's cool, I guess. Tepig also turns into a giant boar when he evolves, so I guess that's cool too.
 
Mardovelin said:
i've never actually fully played through a gen 5 game, so i don't have much of an impression on them, however i recall my very first glance of them in an unofficial magazine i collected as a child.

i was fascinated at tsutaja[snivy] cause it looked. so. cool. and i really wanted to own one. i thought pokabu[tepig] looked eh, but i because i didn't get much internet then, so i was excited to see a pig pokemon. [and then i played mystery dungeon eos]. mijumaru[oshawott] was the one that caught my attention the most. i knew this was gonna be my partner. i love otters and oshawott looked like an otter, what can i say?

i'm currently playing through black 2 [even though i haven't touched it in a month >->] and i'm finally using my destined gen 5 starter i chose back in 09/10. that's oshawott btw >w<
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It's never too late to fully playthrough the games! We could all set a Challenge for you to help motivate you. Trust me, these games have THE best endings - it's worth it!

Your Everyday Ghost said:
Because I was an idiot, Tepig is whom I chose. It's a fire pig.

It was my second ever Pokémon to reach Level 100, after my Blaziken in Ruby (I hate my past self for always using the Fire starter, but when Sun and Moon comes out I'll use Litten anyway).
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You're not an idiot Ghost! Did you struggle though?? NOPE and that's because Emboar is a smart choice.
Emboar said:
Tepig was definitely my least favorite of the three. Hated its final evolution.

In all seriousness, I of course picked Tepig when I first ran through the games. Emboar's high attacking stats do not lie, and it has a movepool to back them up. Picked Oshawott a few times, but I only ever chose Snivy so I could trade it to Black 2 for my Pokedex.
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You are a wise person.

Rai said:
I picked Oshawott in Black and Snivy in Black 2. Oshawott is definitely the cutest; it's actually one of my favorite starters of all time.

Tepig is adorable too, but its evolutions? Not so much...
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They're adorable in a not so good to stare at for too long way.

Cyaloom said:
When I first saw the starters from Unova, I labelled Oshawott as the best of the three - and I picked him both in White and Black 2. I really like his design and the fact that it has proven very good in battle (thanks to his well rounded stats) only made this Pokémon better for me! Recently, though, I've tried out Snivy and it has grown on me. His movepool is not that great, let's admit it, but it still did his job effectively.
Now, I've never used Tepig - it never appealed to me as much as the other starters - but I might try it out in the future.
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Tepig's worth trying. It's pretty easy to use at the start of BW at least - it's evolution is super effective against the first two gym leaders after the monkey business. B2W2 it's OK but not super amazing. Still good.
 
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I've used all of them and I was extremely disappointed in the starters. Serperior was my favorite design but really lacked power that the other starters had. I absolutely hated Emboar's and Samurott's designs when I first saw them. I won't say they grew on me... it's more like I can tolerate/accept them now.

I used Snivy first, I think, then Emboar in White 2. I used Samurott in another game. I thought that the starters really needed a wider movepool to be more useful; Serperior didn't get a whole lot in the first games =/

For me, it's Serperior > Emboar > Samurott, but just barely.
 
Forever said:
It's never too late to fully playthrough the games! We could all set a Challenge for you to help motivate you. Trust me, these games have THE best endings - it's worth it!
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oo, maybe a challenge would be fun for gen 5. gotta look into what type of challenge i'd do for the game, especially one that'd stop me from using the same pokés. always wanted to run through the game with snivy.
 
Mardovelin said:
oo, maybe a challenge would be fun for gen 5. gotta look into what type of challenge i'd do for the game, especially one that'd stop me from using the same pokés. always wanted to run through the game with snivy.
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Absolutely! Using Snivy itself is a challenge (it really can be when you have done it easy with the other two). Doing a Nuzlocke would certainly motivate you (except Snivy, which you keep) but there's a million others. You should check out the challenges forum, it's impossible to find something you don't want to do lol Plus others will be involved too, which will further motivate you to not give up :)
 
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