The Pokemon starter trio is amongst the finest game design concepts in history. You are presented with three choices - Water, Fire, and Grass. Water beats Fire, Fire beats Grass, and Grass, for reasons that don’t entirely make sense, beats Water. It’s rock paper scissors with fire breathing lizards. While some of Pokemon’s type matchups can get quite complicated, with dual types, STAB, the Physical/Special split, and ability immunities to consider, the starter trio is crystalised, concise 🍌perfection. That’s why Pokemon needs to get rid of it.
This is not a contrarian take. I sometimes write things people disagree with, but it’s never just “here, this thing you like? Well, it’s bad.” The starter trio is perfect, and what’s more, it was perfected further with the Sinnoh trio. Beginning with the classic Water, Fire, and Grass combo, the final Evolutions beca𒁃me Water/Steel, Fire/Fighting, and Grass/Ground. I hesitate to say Fire/Fighting is perfection on top of perfection, because I’m already sick of it, but the ba🧸lance here is exquisite.
G💞rass is weak to fire, but thanks to the dual typing of Ground (resistant to Fire), the balance is reset. Meanwhile, though Water is strong against Fire, Fire counters it by being strong against Steel. Grass beats Water, but Water, for equally baffling reasons, beats Ground. Steel also resists Grass, but is vulnerable to Ground. The three main types have a simple yet effective dance with each other; Sinnoh’s trio makes this dance more complex, but the rhythm remains the same.
Pokemon took the perfect idea and made it perfecter, but now what do they do? Fire/Fighting continues to be a thing, with even Incineroar being modelled off a wrestler when it gained its Dark typing. Galar’s trio, the most recent lot, gain no secondary typing at all. It feels like everything has been done with the Water, Fire, and Grass combination, and because all starters need to fit the same tropes - cutie pie, awkward teenager, beast that will take your face off - the designs are starting to suffer. Grookey and Scorbunny are great, while Sobble is pretty good. All the middle stages are very meh though, and then only Cinderace is worth caring about in the final stage. In fact, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cinderace might be my favourite ever thanks to its football stylings, starring role in Unite, and Pyro Ball, but as a whole it&r♚squo;s clear the formula is waning.
The problem is that the trio is too perfect. There is no other triangle in Pokemon that offe🌃rs the offensive and defensive qualities of Water, Fire, and Grass. It’s not just that Water is super-effective against Fire; it’s also resistant to Fire in return. 𓆉Likewise, Fire resists Grass and Grass resists Water. Pokemon is married to the idea that every Pokemon game could be someone’s first - this is why each of them start with a long, drawn out tutorial about catching Pidgey. The starter trio is the best teacher of the game’s core mechanics - super-effective and not very effective. Before you get into any other complex ideas of stats and IVs and EVs, you know that every single type has another type it can a) deal a lot of damage to, b) take a lot of damage from, c) deal minimal damage to, and d) take minimal damage from. Your starter Pokemon teaches you that, whether your first was Squirtle or Snivy or Scorbunny.
Of course, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Freak is right - statistically, it’s obvious that any given Pokemon gꦕame will be your first. Having started with Blue, I can sometimes get impatient at the game for not evolving - like a certain Haunter I know - but part of me is glad the series remains open to all. However, this lesson of super-effective and not very effective doesn’t need to be enforced so rigidly right from the start. It’s not until the first gym where this comes into play, and even then, the rest of your party can probably help you out. The starter trio is a definitive part of Pokemon, but it’s beginning to hold it back.
Fighting, Rock, Flying is a combo that works if you squint a little, and with the addition of dual typings, could give a spotlight to some of the more neglected types in the game. Bulbasaur, the very first starter ever, was a Grass/Poison starter, while Charizard picks up Flying type. This one could work, given a chance, although it’s hard to sell this trio as cute. You can keep Fighting in the mix with Dark, Psychic, Fighting too. Ice, Ground, Steel and Ground, Fairy, Ice are also workabl🤡e. To get really chaotic, Dragon, Dragon, Dragon also works - this one could even pick up the classic trio as dual typings later on, although having Dragon in the mix upsets the delicate balance of that.
In most cases there isn’t really a wrong choice for your starter. Certain gyms may be harder, but the game itself will balance around you most of the time. A different trio could introduce more tactics - an easier early game in exchange for a tougher endgame? Or a tough sta🐼rt in favour of reaching the final showdown at a greater advantage?
The starter trio is perfect, but it’s been done eight times now. That's enough perfection for me, I already see it when I look in the mirror every day. It’s a core building block of Pokemon, but shaken up, it could become even more interesting.
