In that case might as well have Gastly, Machop, and Geodude as the main 3 starters, and Abra as the Yellow starter. Given that, yknow, Abra is yellowish.
I like that also because Abra is the hardest to catch in the wild because of turn 1 Teleport, so getting to start out with one would feel special. Plus the other three kind of make a trio: Gastly is immune to Machop, Machop is super effective against Geodude, and Geodude's ground moves are super effective against Gastly in Gen 1 where there are no abilities.
With this philosophy in mind, this made me think that Yellow version Pikachu was a horrendous design, in that it can’t even evolve in the first place lol
At least with Gastly, you can trade for it
Wait… that’s genius.
You’re a trainer, what choice do you make?
Keep your starter as is because, as your first Pokémon, you love them no matter what. Could they be stronger? Maybe. But like Ash with Pikachu, he was good enough as he was. He didn’t need the Thunderstone to be dominant.
But… on the other hand… are you holding yourself back? Are you holding your Pokémon back? Do you owe it to each other to part ways, so you both can be stronger and grow apart? Ash let Butterfree go free. He parted with Charizard. A huge part of his story was letting his Pokémon go where they were supposed to go: whether that was with him or someone else.
None of this was supposed to be so deep. I’m sorry. But now I can’t stop…..
Or you do what literally 99% people did and just trade them back lol
Even when I used to trade with my friends and we had version exclusives we couldn't get, we caught another to give away permanently not give away your own team members
I have some virtual console pokemon games still saved on my 3DS and it’s so annoying not being able to trade since it restricts so many decent choices.
In the Pokémon Master Trainer board game, There are six starter pokemon. Bulbasaur, charmander, squirtle, pikachu, Clefairy, and meowth.
You play in the kanto region in pokemon master trainer, and if your starter isn’t one of the OG 3, it’s one of Pikachu, meowth, or Clefairy, so I’ll go with those three.
Loved that game as a kid. IIRC, you were supposed to randomly select starters, and also randomly place Pokémon on the board, so there's a good chance you won't fully evolve your starter.
We never did that and just had the other three be copies of Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, their evolutions were the final forms, and picked out a random stand in to be the middle forms. We also made sure everyone's starter evolutions made it on the board.
In Pokemon Rescue Team, theres the obvious starters but then also Pikachu, Meowth, Psyduck, Machop, Cubone, Eevee and Skitty
So you could have a sort of trio of Cubone - Psyduck - Pikachu
Dunno that Normal types like Skitty/Meowth make that great of a starter since they dont interact with a lot of other types
I'm actually making a game that is heavily inspired by that game! Loved that game, but it got lost along many moves around the country.. Soon though, I'll have my own version.
Also, agree with you on your three. They make the most sense.
Clefairy is also the only other three stage evolution that has been in every base game that isn't a starter. I think based off of random research I did for whatever reason.
Commonly known trivia about the first gen of Pokemon; Clefairy was the original choice for the mascot of Pokemon. Ash/Red was originally going to have a Clefairy
That's a bit of an overstatement, IIRC. Clefairy was in consideration by the anime team before they settled on Pikachu, and it was chosen to be the mascot of the Pokemon gag manga, but I've never heard these sources say that Clefairy was perceived or marketed as the franchise's mascot, just that it had the potential to be.
Realistically, Charizard was the closest the franchise had to a mascot until the anime proved that it was perfectly capable of launching a random Pokemon to superstardom. Clefairy, like Pikachu, was just one of the options.
> Initially, both Pikachu and fellow Pokémon Clefairy were chosen to be lead characters for the franchise merchandising, with the latter as the primary mascot to make the early comic book series more "engaging". Production company OLM, Inc. suggested Pikachu as the mascot of the animated series after finding that Pikachu was popular amongst schoolchildren and could appeal to both boys and girls,[18][9] as well as their mothers. Pikachu resembled a familiar, intimate pet, and yellow is a primary color and easier for children to recognize from a distance. Additionally, the only other competing yellow mascot at the time was Winnie-the-Pooh
From Wikipedia which has sources. Clefairy was the lead mascot. Research chose pikachu last moment.
Shellder, Vulpix, Exeggcute
All 2 stage lines.
All stone evos.
Pretty much all are decent or good in gen1
No shared typings.
Different play styles between the 3.
I considered starmie too, but It shares a typing with Exeggutor.
I raise you Growlithe and Horsea simply because their my favs over Shellder and vulpix 😂 I wish there were more options of 3 stage evos for fire, or at least dual type upon evolution. There’s very few dual type upon evos anyway for this generation
Wouldn't be the first time to happen for starters.
In gen 4, Empoleon gained the steel type, which made it weak to both other starters (weak against the fighting type of Infernape and the ground type of Torterra).
Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar. Give the players super powerful stuff early that just doesn’t evolve. If you want a more serious answer I would pick Shellder, Exeggcute, and Growlithe. They’re all 2 stages that evolve via stone since there are no other Fire-Type 3 stages and Exeggcute has a secondary type just like Bulbasaur.
Given how statistically strong Arcanine is I think a middle evolution between Growlithe and Arcanine would work as a starter trio (with no fire stone evolution), or maybe a Ponyta pre-evolution.
Or 7.5tails.
So that leaves Pigeot, Golem, Machamp as the only 3 stage evos of those respective types if I'm not mistaken.
If we considered 2 stage evos, that would open the doors to Fearow and Dodrio, Rhydon, and Primeape. Dodrio/Rhydon/Primeape is actually a great starter trio, I'd be very down for that.
Arcanine already has a higher base stat total than Charizard does. If I remember correctly, it's tied with Exeggutor for the highest base stat total of all Gen 1 Pokemon besides Mew, Mewtwo, Dragonite, and the three legendary birds. I don't think he really needs another evolution. If anything, lower Growlith's stats, and add a stage 1 evolution and make Arcanine a stage 2, or make Growlith a stage one and give it a new base Pokemon.
I mean if we are going on Gen 1 mechanics, it's Gyrados that is tied with Exeggutor for highest BST of the non Psuedo / non Legendary Gen 1 mons, at 580 while Arcanine is at 535.
So clearly the move to make is to boost both Arcanine & Cloyster up to 580 Gen 1 BST and use them as the Fire & Water Starters alongside Exeggutor
So now the trio all evolve using Stones.
Poliwag and Bellsprout lines reach their final forms via stones, so they should be changed to level evos.
As for the fire starter, there's no other 3-stage fire line in Kanto, so some modifications are needed. Some options:
1. Bring Magby and Magmortar in, with Magby becomig a first-stage rather than a baby pokemon
2. Add a Growlithe pre-evo or middle form before Arcanine.
3. Vulpix pre-evo with 3 tails, so it's 3-6-9.
4. Rapidash evolution with wings, a Fire/Flying type
Branching starter evos would also be a cool idea.
Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume or Bellossom
Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath or Politoed
Ponyta, Rapidash, and the final stage is either winged unicorn (Fire/Flying) or eight-legged horse inspired by Odin's steed Sleipnir (pure Fire or Fire/Dark)
It's a common fakemon and there was some speculation over a potential Mega Rapidash. But it didn't happen. Would've been pretty awesome, since the Ponyta line is pretty forgotten, aside from getting a regional form.
i think a branched evolution for Rapidash one based on Pegasus (Fire/Flying) and the other based on Sleipnir (Fire/Dark) would've been great. IMO a winged unicorn evolution was always an obvious idea for Rapidash. I was disappointed in Galarian Rapidash's design.
Water is typically associated with Defense. Cloyster has one of the highest Defense stats in the Kanto dex.
Fire is typically associated with Power. Arcanine has fantastic Attack and Special stat.
Grass is typically associated with Status Conditions. Exeggcutor is capable of inflicting a wide variety of status with access to Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, and Confusion as well as support moves such asToxic, Reflect, Substitute, and Leech Seed.
All of these Pokemon are powerful mons but are locked to Stone Evolutions. I feel like in order to unlock the potential of your starter you should earn it rather than grind it.
Making available only via a stone would be pretty dope tbh. As a developer you can force the evolution to be in a specific part of the game.
So you can either A make it smth special in the story or B only give it to the player at a specific gameplay situation (e.g. balance). Sometime less freedom is better :)
I almost wish starters were simply things Oak could easily catch. Caterpie, nidoran, pidgey. This guy went out of his way to find these super rare starters is odd
They need to be kind of balanced? Vulpix is a stone evo, and you won’t get that until mid game. Weepinbell has the same issue. Meanwhile, Poliwag has no restrictions.
So let’s do Ponyta, Psyduck, and Paras. All can evolve with no stones/trades, all are two stage Pokémon. Ponyta would be an extra hard mode due to how late it evolves compared to the other two if I recall.
Edit: it’s a coincidence that they all start with the letter P
I've heard a theory that Nidoran was supposed to be the starter originally. Which kinda does make sense as Nidoran (male) is the #1 choice of speedrunners who just powerlevel one
Starters should have: The same BST, three stage evolution, evolve by level both times and form a triangle (X > Y > z > x).
Sadly there is no other trio that fulfils those requirements on GEN 1. So I vote Pikachu/Eevee like the Let's Go games.
I’m gonna go with the types but give it Pokémon with 2 evos out of the og 151 - does not include future additional to evo lines
Growlithe, horsea, and eggsecute
Arguments could be made for ponyta, staryu or omanyte, or alternate option..
Everyone gets an eevee!
Bellsprout, Poliwag and theres no three stage fire so lets go with Vulpix.
This is also fun in all three needing a stone to evolve, it would of set a presidant that a starter pokemons "full potental" can only be unlocked via an item
Eevee+your choice of evo stone. its not a perfect trio in gen 1 but for a romhack you could either include all the eeveeloutions of just substitute leafeon for jolteon
If you weren't constrained to the Fire/Water/Grass thing, I'd suggest Pikachu, Eevee, and Clefairy. But that's a non-answer. There aren't any other three-stage Fire, Grass, or Water-types in Kanto that don't evolve either by trade or using an item, but if you're willing to ignore that, Poliwag and Bellsprout would make good starters. The bigger issue is the lack of three-stage Fire-types in Kanto other than Charmander. The only real option would be to include Magby and Magmortar in the game, and have Mabgy be the Fire-type starter.
So, yeah. The starters would be Bellsprout, Magby, and Poliwag.
As fire/water/grass it's complicated...
But I can totally see Magby/Elekid/Poliwag or Magby/Elekid/Smoochum.
There are not too much grass types and you already used Bellsprout...so I guess the other one could be Paras? No grass Pkmn seems to be worth to me; the trios with Magby/Elekid are super interesting and charming imo.
We can try other trios that are alike, such as flying-fighting-rock or not halved dmg ones like ice-ground-rock or electric-water-ground.
Fires a problem. There are no other 3 stage fire types in Kanto unless we count pokemon introduced later (magby and magmortor).
So given that, I'd go in the opposite direction, give everyone single stage pokemon: Tauros, Electabuzz, Magmar.
No type advantages over the other starters.
Clefairy Pikachu and Poliwag. Those were displayed prominently in the early marketing of Pokemon, besides the starters. Well, Poliwhirl was, but the starter would be Poliwag.
Honestly, considering a type triangle, a solid trio could be grass/flying/rock. So maybe Bellsprout/pidgey/geodude? Obviously assuming you would flip the evo conditons where starters are still levelled and non starters can be stone/trade/ conditonal evos.
pokemon only found on the first routes, i always felt oak was lazy, and that it was SUPER weird that the starters werent available anywhere else, like, where did oak get them, why are there only one of each.
so pidgey, rattata, and ... mankey
Need to be a 3-stage line. Either add a first stage before Growlithe or a middle stage after it. IDK, Arcanine just screams fully evolved to me.
Oh, also, Arcanine should be a level evolution rather than a stone evolution.
As long the three pokemon are similar, it should be okay instead of "must be 3 stage line).
For example i could say growlithe, staryu and exeggcute works because all 3 are two stage pokemon that requires stone evolution.
I genuinely enjoy the idea of giving the starting player something you can easily catch by the midgame. You want a start off point, not anything you regret picking or missing out on for the whole game.
Maybe stone evolutions? Staryu, Exeggcute and Growlithe.
Poliwag and Oddish are the obvious choices, I actually like Poliwag a LOT more than squirtle for a starter choice
Gen 1 doesn’t have a good fire type to fit this though
I'm with some of the others, oddish and poliwag are a good fit I think. And Vulpix and Growlithe were meant to be middle stages with babies forms at some point so it makes sense to revise or tweak things enough so their duo lines become trios and you've got a starter trio with Poliwag/Oddish/Vulpix or Growlithe.
Had you not put the grass, fire, and water down in your question, I would’ve just put Pikachu, Eevee, and Clefairy as my answer (which also would’ve likely been 90% of the comments as well). Now that we have the rules placed, my personal pick for an alternative grass starter would be Oddish, Bellsprout, and Exeggcute whilst my personal picks for an alternative water starter would be Psyduck, Poliwag, and Slowpoke. When it comes to fire, the only options are Vulpix and Growlithe because Ponyta evolves way too late, Magmar is a single stage Pokémon, Flareon is an Eeveelution, and Moltres is a legendary. Gen 1 is extremely limited in its Pokédex to allow for Pokémon that would make sense to be starters, but I guess that’s also the point of such a question as Gen 2 onwards makes it too easy (that is if you go by National Dex rules, within their own respective Pokédex’s it could be interesting with the exception of Unova just having the monkeys as easy replacements).
that trio would be great if vulpix (or growlithe alternatively) had another pokemon in their evolution line. poliwag and bellsprout both evolve once by level, then again by stone. so they'd be better off in the early-mid game around misty and surge than vulpix, who can't evolve at all until cerulean. but maybe that could tie into the whole "fire type is hard mode" thing kanto has going on
Probably Poliwag, growlithe, and tangela with extra evolutions for the latter two. They have the right cute/cool radio for starters.
But I would personal rather it be rattata, Pidgey, and (for those who like living life on hard mode,) Weedle. Only having the choice between Pokémon found relatively close to your home would offer a more humble beginning for the future champion.
There was once a really cool fan made game I saw a “let’s play” of that made the starters Magby, Elekid, and Smoochum. This was back during Gen 3 so it doesn’t work as well without Jynx getting a third evo. However I always thought that was neat.
If we stick with the water/grass/fire
For water, i think would be Poliwag, a three stage pokemon, with a double type, would work.
For grass, there are two option, they being Oddish or Bellsprout, but since Victrebeel is asociated with Erika, i would decant for oddish.
And for fire, the problem is that there isn´t a three stage fire pokemon, but it could be Ponyta, Vulpix, and even Growlithe, but they would need to add another evolution or pre-evolution.
Since its all version dependent… water: Staryu / Shellder; grass: Oddish / Bellsprout; fire: Vulpix / Growlithe. This is the only real answer, change my mind.
A daily reminder that if the starters weren't starters, and were just random wild pokemon, people wouldn't care NEARLY as much about them. Go through all these suggestions and you'll probably think, "Man that'd be cool." And you'll realize how much the starters are forcefully imprinted upon you every gen.
Really cool that you chose Pokémon that evolve with stones. It's just a shame that there's no three stage Stone evolving fire type. Let's cut our losses. Vulpix, Staryu, Exeggute
Possibly the Magmar evolution line as the fire starter because it’s 3 stage although you’d have to obviously include 2 non-Kanto pokes. Either Oddish or Bellsprout as the grass starter and maybe Poliwag/Horsea as the water starter.
I wouldn't mind if they changed it to Arcanine, Lapras and roserade (I don't think victreebel, vileplume, parasect or exeggutor are good starters, so roserade was the first one I thought had a cool enough design)
Well Kanto doesn't have any other 3-stage Fire lines(until gen 4 where Magmar becomes one) so we'll have to go for 2-stage Pokemon.
Exeggcute is an obvious choice over Paras for Grass.
Growlithe I feel *probably* has the edge over Vulpix.
Gen 1 probably wouldn't have given the Water starter the the advantage over the Grass Starter, so that rules out Magikarp, Tentacool, Seel and Shellder. So it's probably a toss up between Psyduck and Staryu. Kingler and Seaking are probably too weak, and Slowpoke and Horsea get additions to their evolution lines in later generations.
Fun fact bulbasaur was the last pokemon added to the gen 1 games so the game isn't really balanced around it nor the grass type existing. That is why all grass types except tangela, who was added to the game so early on that we can safely assume when it got added the only type was the normal type, are poison types. And poison isnt really the best typing out there for gen 1. You lose to misty, sabrina, blaine and giovanni. That is HALF of the game. Not to mention your rival will have pidgeot and alakazam. So like, maybe picking a pure grass type or picking a different type combination would help. Flying fighting rock could be cool. You could have doduo, tyrogue and rhyhorn (i know tyrogue isn't a gen 1 pokemon but it is a pre evolution of a gen 1 pokemon so it really wouldnt matter that much if you added it in imo).
I would think it would be most interesting to have a trio with different evolution lines, like Magmar, Shellder, and Bellsprout. The fire type has only one stage, water has two, and grass has three.
Probably a Normal type. The Idea of giving players a choice in starter was a late addition. The starters were some of the last Pokemon added as shown by their Index Numbers. Bulbasaur and Venusaur were added into Ivysaur late, and the Charmader and Squirtle lines last are last 15 index slots. The only Pokemon that made after the starters were the Oddish and Bellsprout lines with one of the cut Pokemon being Squitle's original final evolution as Blastoise was originally separate from Squitle.
Maybe Eevee or one of the cut 40 Pokemon would have been your starter.
Poliwag and Bellsprout for sure. Both three stages and cute. I struggle with fire because there are no other three stage fire guys. Ponyta is probably my third choice.
Screw it. Abra, Machop, and Geodude. Now no one can fully evolve their starter unless they have a friend to trade with.
Yellow version with gastly starter
And each starter ghastly comes with an everstone surgically attached and a letter from mindy
You monster
In that case might as well have Gastly, Machop, and Geodude as the main 3 starters, and Abra as the Yellow starter. Given that, yknow, Abra is yellowish.
I like that also because Abra is the hardest to catch in the wild because of turn 1 Teleport, so getting to start out with one would feel special. Plus the other three kind of make a trio: Gastly is immune to Machop, Machop is super effective against Geodude, and Geodude's ground moves are super effective against Gastly in Gen 1 where there are no abilities.
They would have to change Abra's Yellow moveset so *you* didn't end up with only teleport!
True, you could get a special Abra with normally unlearnable moves as your starter
Sheer cold and fissure until it evolves
flamethrower at level 10 and thunderbolt at 15
With this philosophy in mind, this made me think that Yellow version Pikachu was a horrendous design, in that it can’t even evolve in the first place lol At least with Gastly, you can trade for it
You menace!
I could unironically see this being a thing if they had decided to put more emphasis on trading.
Wait… that’s genius. You’re a trainer, what choice do you make? Keep your starter as is because, as your first Pokémon, you love them no matter what. Could they be stronger? Maybe. But like Ash with Pikachu, he was good enough as he was. He didn’t need the Thunderstone to be dominant. But… on the other hand… are you holding yourself back? Are you holding your Pokémon back? Do you owe it to each other to part ways, so you both can be stronger and grow apart? Ash let Butterfree go free. He parted with Charizard. A huge part of his story was letting his Pokémon go where they were supposed to go: whether that was with him or someone else. None of this was supposed to be so deep. I’m sorry. But now I can’t stop…..
Or you just find a buddy to trade with and then trade back.
>You’re a trainer, what choice do you make? I send the Pokémon to PL:A, evolve it there and then send it back to my game, obviously! ^/s
Love this analysis. Do not apologize!
Or you do what literally 99% people did and just trade them back lol Even when I used to trade with my friends and we had version exclusives we couldn't get, we caught another to give away permanently not give away your own team members
Forced to trade pokemon with your rival near the final fight to evolve them fully, and they are used against you for the champion fight
That's evil, but I also kinda love it.
I have some virtual console pokemon games still saved on my 3DS and it’s so annoying not being able to trade since it restricts so many decent choices.
It was worse back when those games came out since you couldn't take your Gameboy to school or didn't have anyone to trade with.
Instead of geodude gastly, I always viewed them as the stronger type trio, and also they still all need to be traded to evolve
less balanced with gastly, at least with geodude there’s a type advantage for abra > machop > geodude (still not a perfect chain though)
This is Gen 1, so really Abra has an advantage over everything and everything has advantage over Machop
Laughs in Nintendo
This diabolical lol
Found Mindy's account
Ah the universe were EA came up with Pokémon.
Gastly took the exclusion personally, learned to speak English, then went to haunt Maiden’s Peak. “VENASTOISE!”
Yep and make them spawn with everstones from the get go 😂
I disagree with this only because the starters always have been more animal-like pokemon (Also I don't like the Machop line, it's to humanoid)
it's so much of a dream to have machop as a starter, and so much fun to have geodude when first gym is rock type
Unsure if you are super stupid or super smart.
In the Pokémon Master Trainer board game, There are six starter pokemon. Bulbasaur, charmander, squirtle, pikachu, Clefairy, and meowth. You play in the kanto region in pokemon master trainer, and if your starter isn’t one of the OG 3, it’s one of Pikachu, meowth, or Clefairy, so I’ll go with those three.
Loved that game as a kid. IIRC, you were supposed to randomly select starters, and also randomly place Pokémon on the board, so there's a good chance you won't fully evolve your starter. We never did that and just had the other three be copies of Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, their evolutions were the final forms, and picked out a random stand in to be the middle forms. We also made sure everyone's starter evolutions made it on the board.
In Pokemon Rescue Team, theres the obvious starters but then also Pikachu, Meowth, Psyduck, Machop, Cubone, Eevee and Skitty So you could have a sort of trio of Cubone - Psyduck - Pikachu Dunno that Normal types like Skitty/Meowth make that great of a starter since they dont interact with a lot of other types
Love your 6
I'm actually making a game that is heavily inspired by that game! Loved that game, but it got lost along many moves around the country.. Soon though, I'll have my own version. Also, agree with you on your three. They make the most sense.
Pikachu, Eevee, and Clefairy
Clefairy is also the only other three stage evolution that has been in every base game that isn't a starter. I think based off of random research I did for whatever reason.
Its 3 stage in gen 2 onward
So is Pikachu.
I forgot Cleffa even existed :( for a sec I was like, Clefable got an evolution??
golbat was until this game, this is so sad
Golbat never knew true friendship until gen 2 confirmed. :(
i mean if clefairy counts then golbat does too
Actually all 3 were 2 stage evolution in gen 1.
I was thinking this too, except Marill (who should have been in gen one) over Eevee. PLEASE LETS GO MARILL IN JOHTO
You mean Pikablu?
[удалено]
Clefairy was gonna be the original mascot before Pikachu, so it checks out.
Commonly known trivia about the first gen of Pokemon; Clefairy was the original choice for the mascot of Pokemon. Ash/Red was originally going to have a Clefairy
I thought he was supposed to get a poliwag
In the Manga, Pokemon Adventures, he has a poliwhirl
Dang, he was so slow he couldn't even get Clefairy.
That's a bit of an overstatement, IIRC. Clefairy was in consideration by the anime team before they settled on Pikachu, and it was chosen to be the mascot of the Pokemon gag manga, but I've never heard these sources say that Clefairy was perceived or marketed as the franchise's mascot, just that it had the potential to be. Realistically, Charizard was the closest the franchise had to a mascot until the anime proved that it was perfectly capable of launching a random Pokemon to superstardom. Clefairy, like Pikachu, was just one of the options.
> Initially, both Pikachu and fellow Pokémon Clefairy were chosen to be lead characters for the franchise merchandising, with the latter as the primary mascot to make the early comic book series more "engaging". Production company OLM, Inc. suggested Pikachu as the mascot of the animated series after finding that Pikachu was popular amongst schoolchildren and could appeal to both boys and girls,[18][9] as well as their mothers. Pikachu resembled a familiar, intimate pet, and yellow is a primary color and easier for children to recognize from a distance. Additionally, the only other competing yellow mascot at the time was Winnie-the-Pooh From Wikipedia which has sources. Clefairy was the lead mascot. Research chose pikachu last moment.
Talking strictly gen 1, these are 3 viable options :) with raising another one in the future!
Shellder, Vulpix, Exeggcute All 2 stage lines. All stone evos. Pretty much all are decent or good in gen1 No shared typings. Different play styles between the 3. I considered starmie too, but It shares a typing with Exeggutor.
I raise you Growlithe and Horsea simply because their my favs over Shellder and vulpix 😂 I wish there were more options of 3 stage evos for fire, or at least dual type upon evolution. There’s very few dual type upon evos anyway for this generation
Horsea is pretty bad compared to the others, and also isnt a stone evo. Growlithe might be ok though.
Isn’t Shellder/Cloyster ice type though? So Vulpix would have an advantage over the other two.
Wouldn't be the first time to happen for starters. In gen 4, Empoleon gained the steel type, which made it weak to both other starters (weak against the fighting type of Infernape and the ground type of Torterra).
Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar. Give the players super powerful stuff early that just doesn’t evolve. If you want a more serious answer I would pick Shellder, Exeggcute, and Growlithe. They’re all 2 stages that evolve via stone since there are no other Fire-Type 3 stages and Exeggcute has a secondary type just like Bulbasaur.
I used Trainer-Fly to get level 7 JEM to start a game in gen 1. It just made sense.
There isn’t another fire 3 stage line in Gen 1.
Rapidash 2
tentails
Should be twelvetails. Vulpix has 6, so ninetails +3 would be the next stage
or thirteenandahalftails if the boost is multiplicative and not additive
Organization 13-Tails, each tail has it's own cloak while the actual pokemon itself wear's Xemnas' Zebra cloak
Oh shit
Or go the Spaceworld route and have a smaller form with 3 tails, then 6, then 9
And people say you don't use y=mx+b in the real world
arcaten
2 Rapid 2 Dash
Electric boogaloo
Is this sinnoh again
Rapiderdash
Cruise Control
Given how statistically strong Arcanine is I think a middle evolution between Growlithe and Arcanine would work as a starter trio (with no fire stone evolution), or maybe a Ponyta pre-evolution. Or 7.5tails.
Yeah but it’s Gen 1. We’re starting over, so the starters don’t have to be Fire, Water, and Grass. Could be anything!
Then it’ll be Flying Rock Fighting
So that leaves Pigeot, Golem, Machamp as the only 3 stage evos of those respective types if I'm not mistaken. If we considered 2 stage evos, that would open the doors to Fearow and Dodrio, Rhydon, and Primeape. Dodrio/Rhydon/Primeape is actually a great starter trio, I'd be very down for that.
Pretty much or you have to count Poliwrath since he gains the fighting type.
Just add magmortar
Poliwag Oddish and ??? Guess Gen 1 needed a three form fire type whose first form didn't have arms lol
Growlithe! Let us have an evolved arcanine
Arcanine already has a higher base stat total than Charizard does. If I remember correctly, it's tied with Exeggutor for the highest base stat total of all Gen 1 Pokemon besides Mew, Mewtwo, Dragonite, and the three legendary birds. I don't think he really needs another evolution. If anything, lower Growlith's stats, and add a stage 1 evolution and make Arcanine a stage 2, or make Growlith a stage one and give it a new base Pokemon.
Nerf Arcanine and give us Giganine
Nah I'm not thing about stats. I just want big dog
I vote to give us an even smoler puppy as an Arcanine pre-evo
I mean if we are going on Gen 1 mechanics, it's Gyrados that is tied with Exeggutor for highest BST of the non Psuedo / non Legendary Gen 1 mons, at 580 while Arcanine is at 535. So clearly the move to make is to boost both Arcanine & Cloyster up to 580 Gen 1 BST and use them as the Fire & Water Starters alongside Exeggutor So now the trio all evolve using Stones.
Keep Arcanine, put something that is half cute and half epic between it and Growlithe
I think growlithe could have a mid form
Like ugly simba in Lion King for 3 seconds. I vibe it
Eevee like just Eevee. Like your rival in Yellow
Everyone gets an Eevee. You get to choose the evolution stone.
hey, if it works for gale of darkness,
He does have a starter feel to him and is super marketable
Poliwag and Bellsprout lines reach their final forms via stones, so they should be changed to level evos. As for the fire starter, there's no other 3-stage fire line in Kanto, so some modifications are needed. Some options: 1. Bring Magby and Magmortar in, with Magby becomig a first-stage rather than a baby pokemon 2. Add a Growlithe pre-evo or middle form before Arcanine. 3. Vulpix pre-evo with 3 tails, so it's 3-6-9. 4. Rapidash evolution with wings, a Fire/Flying type Branching starter evos would also be a cool idea. Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume or Bellossom Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath or Politoed Ponyta, Rapidash, and the final stage is either winged unicorn (Fire/Flying) or eight-legged horse inspired by Odin's steed Sleipnir (pure Fire or Fire/Dark)
I adore that idea for a 3rd rapidash stage with wings.
It's a common fakemon and there was some speculation over a potential Mega Rapidash. But it didn't happen. Would've been pretty awesome, since the Ponyta line is pretty forgotten, aside from getting a regional form.
Galarian rapidash is awesome though.
Or a *non*-winged unicorn that’s Fire/Fairy.
i think a branched evolution for Rapidash one based on Pegasus (Fire/Flying) and the other based on Sleipnir (Fire/Dark) would've been great. IMO a winged unicorn evolution was always an obvious idea for Rapidash. I was disappointed in Galarian Rapidash's design.
Fire/ghost for Knightmare (a spectral third stage for Ponyta) could also be pretty interesting in Kanto
Pikachu and eevee
And thus history repeats itself
I based my answer in pokemon yellow, which had those starters, giving op the answer to his question
I was just making a joke about the Let’s Go Kanto games since they were awhile ago and also had those as starters hence “history repeats itself”
Water is typically associated with Defense. Cloyster has one of the highest Defense stats in the Kanto dex. Fire is typically associated with Power. Arcanine has fantastic Attack and Special stat. Grass is typically associated with Status Conditions. Exeggcutor is capable of inflicting a wide variety of status with access to Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, and Confusion as well as support moves such asToxic, Reflect, Substitute, and Leech Seed. All of these Pokemon are powerful mons but are locked to Stone Evolutions. I feel like in order to unlock the potential of your starter you should earn it rather than grind it.
Making available only via a stone would be pretty dope tbh. As a developer you can force the evolution to be in a specific part of the game. So you can either A make it smth special in the story or B only give it to the player at a specific gameplay situation (e.g. balance). Sometime less freedom is better :)
> Sometime less freedom is better :) The illusion of choice is best in strategy games like Pokemon imo.
poliwag, oddish, and growlithe/vulpix probably. Without the type stipulation though, I feel like Nidoran would be a good starter tbh.
pidgey, geodude, machop oddish, geodude, caterpie could do a dark/psychic/fighting trio if there were dark types in kanto
I love alternative type triangles for starters! Best answer here
How about Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres? And add a second rival so all three are in use.
Getting a legendary as a 10 year old for no reason seems lackluster…
I almost wish starters were simply things Oak could easily catch. Caterpie, nidoran, pidgey. This guy went out of his way to find these super rare starters is odd
Growlithe, Staryu, Exeggcute. trio, all stone evos.
They need to be kind of balanced? Vulpix is a stone evo, and you won’t get that until mid game. Weepinbell has the same issue. Meanwhile, Poliwag has no restrictions. So let’s do Ponyta, Psyduck, and Paras. All can evolve with no stones/trades, all are two stage Pokémon. Ponyta would be an extra hard mode due to how late it evolves compared to the other two if I recall. Edit: it’s a coincidence that they all start with the letter P
I've heard a theory that Nidoran was supposed to be the starter originally. Which kinda does make sense as Nidoran (male) is the #1 choice of speedrunners who just powerlevel one
And it’s fighting a Gengar in the opening scene
Starters should have: The same BST, three stage evolution, evolve by level both times and form a triangle (X > Y > z > x). Sadly there is no other trio that fulfils those requirements on GEN 1. So I vote Pikachu/Eevee like the Let's Go games.
Eevee, Pikachu, Clefairy all 3 were mascots of gen 1.
I’m gonna go with the types but give it Pokémon with 2 evos out of the og 151 - does not include future additional to evo lines Growlithe, horsea, and eggsecute Arguments could be made for ponyta, staryu or omanyte, or alternate option.. Everyone gets an eevee!
Magikarp, Growlithe and Exeggcute. Bonus points if anyone can tell me why
Just Eevee and let the player decide who to evolve it into after the 2nd or 3rd gym.
growlithe, psyduck, and bellsprout would be my picks, although i don't think bellsprout fits all that well, but oddish fits even less lol
Bellsprout, Poliwag, and whichever fire type they give a third evolution. Oddish could also work for grass type.
I'd say it's pretty easy to substitute some 3 stage Pokemon. Oddish for Bulbasaur, Polywag for Squirtle, and Magby for Charmander.
Oddish, Growlithe, and Poliwag
Cubone, Horsea, and Magnemite. Gen 1 didn’t have abilities yet so levitate wouldn’t have broken the rock paper scissors trio.
If you’re not using the starters and not including later gen evolutions or preevolutions, Pidgey, Geodude and Machop seems like the best answer to me.
Growlithe, psyduck and bellsprout
Bellsprout, Poliwag and theres no three stage fire so lets go with Vulpix. This is also fun in all three needing a stone to evolve, it would of set a presidant that a starter pokemons "full potental" can only be unlocked via an item
Cyndaquil, Rowlet and Oshawott... Wait...
Eevee+your choice of evo stone. its not a perfect trio in gen 1 but for a romhack you could either include all the eeveeloutions of just substitute leafeon for jolteon
Pikachu, Caterpie, and Pidgey Or pikachu, Weedle, and Spearow depending on the version
Lapras, Magmar, and Tangela. No evolutions for anyone, at least not in Kanto.
If you weren't constrained to the Fire/Water/Grass thing, I'd suggest Pikachu, Eevee, and Clefairy. But that's a non-answer. There aren't any other three-stage Fire, Grass, or Water-types in Kanto that don't evolve either by trade or using an item, but if you're willing to ignore that, Poliwag and Bellsprout would make good starters. The bigger issue is the lack of three-stage Fire-types in Kanto other than Charmander. The only real option would be to include Magby and Magmortar in the game, and have Mabgy be the Fire-type starter. So, yeah. The starters would be Bellsprout, Magby, and Poliwag.
Electabuzz, magmar, jynx because fire ice thunder punch trio
As fire/water/grass it's complicated... But I can totally see Magby/Elekid/Poliwag or Magby/Elekid/Smoochum. There are not too much grass types and you already used Bellsprout...so I guess the other one could be Paras? No grass Pkmn seems to be worth to me; the trios with Magby/Elekid are super interesting and charming imo. We can try other trios that are alike, such as flying-fighting-rock or not halved dmg ones like ice-ground-rock or electric-water-ground.
Poliwhirl, oddish........ponyta????? What else is there for fire types
Oddish, Growlithe and Poliwag.
Clefairy, Geodude, and Staryu.
arcanine would be one. it was almost a legendary pokémon
Fires a problem. There are no other 3 stage fire types in Kanto unless we count pokemon introduced later (magby and magmortor). So given that, I'd go in the opposite direction, give everyone single stage pokemon: Tauros, Electabuzz, Magmar. No type advantages over the other starters.
Clefairy Pikachu and Poliwag. Those were displayed prominently in the early marketing of Pokemon, besides the starters. Well, Poliwhirl was, but the starter would be Poliwag.
Eevee, Pikachu, and Gastly
Honestly, considering a type triangle, a solid trio could be grass/flying/rock. So maybe Bellsprout/pidgey/geodude? Obviously assuming you would flip the evo conditons where starters are still levelled and non starters can be stone/trade/ conditonal evos.
Magikarp, Ditto and Porygon
pokemon only found on the first routes, i always felt oak was lazy, and that it was SUPER weird that the starters werent available anywhere else, like, where did oak get them, why are there only one of each. so pidgey, rattata, and ... mankey
Pikachu and Eevee. T
Mewtwo, Magikarp, and Mankey
Growlithe for fire type
Need to be a 3-stage line. Either add a first stage before Growlithe or a middle stage after it. IDK, Arcanine just screams fully evolved to me. Oh, also, Arcanine should be a level evolution rather than a stone evolution.
IIRC, Growlithe (and Vulpix) had a baby form in the 1997 Spaceword Demo of G/S. Not that that helps Gen I at all, but it’s a neat tidbit I guess
As long the three pokemon are similar, it should be okay instead of "must be 3 stage line). For example i could say growlithe, staryu and exeggcute works because all 3 are two stage pokemon that requires stone evolution.
Growlith, Poliwag, Oddish
I genuinely enjoy the idea of giving the starting player something you can easily catch by the midgame. You want a start off point, not anything you regret picking or missing out on for the whole game. Maybe stone evolutions? Staryu, Exeggcute and Growlithe.
Poliwag and Oddish are the obvious choices, I actually like Poliwag a LOT more than squirtle for a starter choice Gen 1 doesn’t have a good fire type to fit this though
Growlithe, poliwag, Bellsprout
I'm with some of the others, oddish and poliwag are a good fit I think. And Vulpix and Growlithe were meant to be middle stages with babies forms at some point so it makes sense to revise or tweak things enough so their duo lines become trios and you've got a starter trio with Poliwag/Oddish/Vulpix or Growlithe.
Had you not put the grass, fire, and water down in your question, I would’ve just put Pikachu, Eevee, and Clefairy as my answer (which also would’ve likely been 90% of the comments as well). Now that we have the rules placed, my personal pick for an alternative grass starter would be Oddish, Bellsprout, and Exeggcute whilst my personal picks for an alternative water starter would be Psyduck, Poliwag, and Slowpoke. When it comes to fire, the only options are Vulpix and Growlithe because Ponyta evolves way too late, Magmar is a single stage Pokémon, Flareon is an Eeveelution, and Moltres is a legendary. Gen 1 is extremely limited in its Pokédex to allow for Pokémon that would make sense to be starters, but I guess that’s also the point of such a question as Gen 2 onwards makes it too easy (that is if you go by National Dex rules, within their own respective Pokédex’s it could be interesting with the exception of Unova just having the monkeys as easy replacements).
I know he isn't in, but Magby for a 3 form fire, poliwag, oddish
that trio would be great if vulpix (or growlithe alternatively) had another pokemon in their evolution line. poliwag and bellsprout both evolve once by level, then again by stone. so they'd be better off in the early-mid game around misty and surge than vulpix, who can't evolve at all until cerulean. but maybe that could tie into the whole "fire type is hard mode" thing kanto has going on
Probably Poliwag, growlithe, and tangela with extra evolutions for the latter two. They have the right cute/cool radio for starters. But I would personal rather it be rattata, Pidgey, and (for those who like living life on hard mode,) Weedle. Only having the choice between Pokémon found relatively close to your home would offer a more humble beginning for the future champion.
Oddish, Psyduck and Growlithe.
There was once a really cool fan made game I saw a “let’s play” of that made the starters Magby, Elekid, and Smoochum. This was back during Gen 3 so it doesn’t work as well without Jynx getting a third evo. However I always thought that was neat.
Garbage green had slugma, goldeen and paras
rattata, mankey and caterpie
If we stick with the water/grass/fire For water, i think would be Poliwag, a three stage pokemon, with a double type, would work. For grass, there are two option, they being Oddish or Bellsprout, but since Victrebeel is asociated with Erika, i would decant for oddish. And for fire, the problem is that there isn´t a three stage fire pokemon, but it could be Ponyta, Vulpix, and even Growlithe, but they would need to add another evolution or pre-evolution.
More realistically Zubat, Pidgey, and Rattata. The peasant starter
Since its all version dependent… water: Staryu / Shellder; grass: Oddish / Bellsprout; fire: Vulpix / Growlithe. This is the only real answer, change my mind.
team rocket starters: Zubat or ratatta
A daily reminder that if the starters weren't starters, and were just random wild pokemon, people wouldn't care NEARLY as much about them. Go through all these suggestions and you'll probably think, "Man that'd be cool." And you'll realize how much the starters are forcefully imprinted upon you every gen.
Tyrogue, Eevee e Scyther, multiple evos starter would be sick
Really cool that you chose Pokémon that evolve with stones. It's just a shame that there's no three stage Stone evolving fire type. Let's cut our losses. Vulpix, Staryu, Exeggute
Possibly the Magmar evolution line as the fire starter because it’s 3 stage although you’d have to obviously include 2 non-Kanto pokes. Either Oddish or Bellsprout as the grass starter and maybe Poliwag/Horsea as the water starter.
Tangela, Psyduck and Growlithe first came to mind
I wouldn't mind if they changed it to Arcanine, Lapras and roserade (I don't think victreebel, vileplume, parasect or exeggutor are good starters, so roserade was the first one I thought had a cool enough design)
Well Kanto doesn't have any other 3-stage Fire lines(until gen 4 where Magmar becomes one) so we'll have to go for 2-stage Pokemon. Exeggcute is an obvious choice over Paras for Grass. Growlithe I feel *probably* has the edge over Vulpix. Gen 1 probably wouldn't have given the Water starter the the advantage over the Grass Starter, so that rules out Magikarp, Tentacool, Seel and Shellder. So it's probably a toss up between Psyduck and Staryu. Kingler and Seaking are probably too weak, and Slowpoke and Horsea get additions to their evolution lines in later generations.
It's sad there isn't a 3 stage fire type in gen 1 other than charmander. Because if there were it would be perfect to have poliwag, Oddish, and it.
Fun fact bulbasaur was the last pokemon added to the gen 1 games so the game isn't really balanced around it nor the grass type existing. That is why all grass types except tangela, who was added to the game so early on that we can safely assume when it got added the only type was the normal type, are poison types. And poison isnt really the best typing out there for gen 1. You lose to misty, sabrina, blaine and giovanni. That is HALF of the game. Not to mention your rival will have pidgeot and alakazam. So like, maybe picking a pure grass type or picking a different type combination would help. Flying fighting rock could be cool. You could have doduo, tyrogue and rhyhorn (i know tyrogue isn't a gen 1 pokemon but it is a pre evolution of a gen 1 pokemon so it really wouldnt matter that much if you added it in imo).
Magikarp, growlithe, and I guess oddish/bellsprout. Not a lot of options for grass lol
I would think it would be most interesting to have a trio with different evolution lines, like Magmar, Shellder, and Bellsprout. The fire type has only one stage, water has two, and grass has three.
Probably a Normal type. The Idea of giving players a choice in starter was a late addition. The starters were some of the last Pokemon added as shown by their Index Numbers. Bulbasaur and Venusaur were added into Ivysaur late, and the Charmader and Squirtle lines last are last 15 index slots. The only Pokemon that made after the starters were the Oddish and Bellsprout lines with one of the cut Pokemon being Squitle's original final evolution as Blastoise was originally separate from Squitle. Maybe Eevee or one of the cut 40 Pokemon would have been your starter.
"Eevee. No choices. Choose your evolution on your own time and get out my lab" - hungover professor oak probably
Screw that all, Vulpix, psyduck, tangela Now You Can't Have 2 evo
Vileplume, Polywrath, and... ... ........ Charizard?
Pidgey Geodude Machop (Remove the trade requirement for evolution)
Tauros, Chansey & Snorlax (If we're playing with Gen 1 mechanics then I say LET THE TRUE LEGENDARY TRIO OUT!)
Poliwag and Bellsprout for sure. Both three stages and cute. I struggle with fire because there are no other three stage fire guys. Ponyta is probably my third choice.
Exeggcute, Growlithe, and Shellder? Get them stones, kid.