4th Gen Who put out the Fire?

[Sonikkts]

I remember the release of Gen IV like it were yesterday, and almost instantly I recall Internet boards/forums and discussion with friends about the lack of Fire types available.

If you didn't pick Chimchar as your starter, prior to the National Dex you only had a single Fire type in Ponyta to pick up along your journey. Odd then, did they decide to have a Fire type member of the Elite Four who out of a team of six had only Infernape and Rapidash to call himself a Fire type trainer.

Platinum fixed this, with the introduction of several other Pokémon upon its release.

How did you feel about this? Was it annoying, or did you not find it too troubling?

 

[Khoshi]

I never really payed attention to the amount of Pokemon each type had in the original Diamond and Pearl games. I never really like to use Fire types in my team anyway, so it didn't affect me too much. The whole Flint situation got me fuming - a Fire type trainer, let alone an Elite Four member, with only 2 Fire types?! It got me pretty mad...I was really happy they fixed that issue in Platinum though, along with everything else wrong with D/P.

 

[Yato]

I started with Chimchar in Pearl and didn't really need a Fire type in Diamond, so it didn't bother me too much. In fact, I kinda liked how Flint only had two Fire types (but gave the remainder of his Pokemon Fire-type moves to compensate), as it made the battle against him more challenging. Still, it was odd for an Elite Four member to break the pattern of having an entire team of their assigned type--especially since the rest of the Sinnoh E4 had full teams of their types--so I felt his team change in Platinum was for the better.

 

[Pendraflare]

Yeah, i'm one who found it pretty underwhelming as well, because in DP, Ponyta doesn't get any physical Fire-type attacks until Flare Blitz which is pretty late in the game. In Platinum at least it gets Flame Wheel pretty early on, but in DP yeah it's just sad.

 

[Hikamaru]

I have to admit I did find the Diamond & Pearl Sinnoh Dex to be the worst of all the regional dexes and that was due to this very topic, the severe lack of Fire Pokemon in the dex. Having Ponyta as the only Fire-type option to players who didn't choose Chimchar as their starter was just pure crap especially given it takes quite a long time to evolve (Level 40) and you'd have to put up with its mediocre stats until then.

This was often what led to me always picking Chimchar on pretty much almost every playthrough, and thank god Platinum fixed the issue by adding more Pokemon to the Sinnoh Dex. Flint having just two Fire-types (yet calls himself a Fire specialist) in his roster was just really dumb idea from Game Freak there, thank god Platinum finally made all his team made of Fire-types.

 

[Misaka]

This honestly never occurred to me, but now that I think about it, there really was a lack of fire pokemon. I guess it never really mattered to me, though, because I started with Chimchar.

 

[Hiatus]

It wasn't that much of a big deal to me, honestly. Personally, I haven't even noticed it. Though, one reason for this could be because I chose Chimchar as my starter in my first play-through. If I had not, then maybe I would've started wondering as to why there's a lack of fire-types. Either way, it wouldn't really have bothered me.

 

[Pepperton]

It's always ideal for the new Pokemon introduced to have some sense of equality in terms of types, so it was a bit unsettling, except it didn't really effect me personally because I chose Chimchar. However, I would've liked to see them introduce some new Fire types instead of keeping the pool of them so small in D/P! And then make one of the Elite Four fire type, to me, is very hard to understand. Flint's team is hard for me to understand. Why Lopunny? D:

 

[27thColt]

I was new to Pokemon at the time (my first games!). Once I was able to get to Flint, I was confused. Two fire types? Whaaattt?? I also started questioning myself, "is Lopunny and Drifblim part fire?"

I think Volkner had the same problem.

 

[Mega Venusaur]

It wasn't much of a big deal. I don't use Fire Types too regularly anyway so I didn't really notice.

 

[pokemonbeauty]

I loved Chimchar, so it didn't bother me at all!

 

[Amore]

Flint irritated the hell out of me, but I never really noticed it until Lucian's Bronzong swept my entire team because I didn't have a single Fire-type attack (I dislike Rapidash, and Piplup was my first starter)

 

[Captain Gizmo]

Tbs, I never really noticed since I caught Ponyta and then never bothered to look for other fire type Pokemon since I already had one. But nice to know xD

Maybe it's because I only played Diamond once and didn't even play Pearl or Platinum yet to even realize the changes they made. But I'm glad that they fixed it in Platinum :)

 

[Synerjee]

On my very first playthrough of Pearl, I picked Chimchar as my starter so I didn't have to worry about not having enough Fire-types to choose from. The second time, I played Platinum and chose Piplup, so I had more Fire-types such as Houndour to go with. There was never a shortage that crossed my mind.

 

[AmyTheOddball]

I didn't really notice the lack of Fire Pokemon either. Well, it has been made aware to me now, but at the age of 10 I don't think I was paying attention to the amount of certain types aha. I did catch a Ponyta that I had in my party, so that added to my unawareness xD

 

[.Missingno]

I have always liked fire pokemon and using them but it honestly must have slipped by me in this game considering I started with chimchar for the large majority of my playthroughs!

 

[Arceus Whisper]

Between the lack of fire types and the fact Levitate made my Torterra's ground type attacks useless, I developed an unusual distaste for Bronzor. It also nerfed water types in my opinion because I didn't need a water type to counter the fire types I normally encounter on my adventure (Azumarill still earned a place on my 'Favorite Pokemon List' for being a total bro that run)

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

Chimchar was never an option for me so I had to go with Ponyta BUT this was actually really good for me :)


Fire is my favourite type, and I've got so many favourites that it meant that I'd never had the chance to use a Rapidash on my team when I'd always wanted to, so I really relished the chance to do just that on Diamond :)


On my second run-through I ended up trying out a Skuntank, and when I discovered it learned Flamethrower on its own I was pretty settled on using it as my honorary Fire-type that time around, which proved to be a very successful decision haha :)


So yeah I can understand why some people wouldn't have liked it, especially with Fire being such a popular typing but for me it was very beneficial, and I'm happy that one of the more overlooked (imo) Fire types was given some love :)

 

[Bounsweet]

If my starter isn't Fire-type, then I usually don't have a Fire-type on my team, unless it's a favorite of mine like Ninetales. I didn't notice it when I first played the game, but suddenly there were Fire-types in Platinum and that's when I realized how badly Diamond and Pearl were lacking with that. It is kind of funny how one of the Elite Four members was even a Fire-type trainer.

 

[Dreg]

The only fire type I used on Diamond and Platinum was Ponyta. But yeah, there was a severe lacking of fire types this gen. There were only Chimchar, Monferno, Infernape, Magmortar and Heatran available in the game.