What makes a Pokémon fun to use in-game?

[Azureaper]

However, by late-game, even if Stoutland didn't hit the hardest and wasn't the bulkiest, I knew he would always be at my side to rely on. He just always performs. I fell in love <3

That was me and my Mightyena in OmegaRuby version. It was the only Pokemon on my team by the time I reached the E4 that couldn't mega evolve!

 

[LightningLuxray]

I personally love underrated Pokemon that are able to preform well. For example, I've used a Parasect that, even with its many weaknesses and poor Gen 3 movepool, proved to be an extremely powerful member. I've now used a Parasect three times since.

This is also why I feel like Nuzlockes enhance the playing experience so much. There are a lot of times where you may get stuck with a Pokemon that you at first though was terrible, boring, or weak, but after using it on your team, it turns into a powerful member that you would have never expected.

I also do agree with an expansive movepool having a big impact - if I can trick my Pokemon out with cool, flashy, and / or powerful moves, that definitely makes me like them all the more :)

 

[Kurona]

This one's a little difficult for me to answer; but I will admit the one thing I've ever consciously thought about is that I enjoy raising Pokémon with the potential to evolve more than anything else. I almost never go for the likes of Volbeat or Druddigon or Girafarig or other one-stagers unless I really like them - funnily enough, Klefki and Sableye are two of my favourite Pokémon and Sableye was a lot of fun for me back in the day; rip brawly - but I suppose I just like the idea of Progression. Evolution of my team was always an alternate goal for me aside from the gyms and league and such that still correlated to the game because yes, I could see a very clear improvement when a Pokémon evolved. I mean sure there's stat increases but those are barely noticeable from a casual perspective especially because unlike competitive there's nothing specific you have to hit and unlike certain other rpgs there's no cap you'll ever reach in-game; and sure there's level-up moves but aside from a few cases those just sort of come naturally and I usually find myself alright with what I have. But evolution works as a milestone for me that shows I'm progressing well and my Pokémon are definitely improving - for that purpose I also enjoy Pokémon with spread-out evolution levels; rather than something like Vivillon or Azumarill that evolve right away, I prefer things like Starters or Reuniclus or even a Pseudo once in a while that have a decent early mid-stage evo, but there's some good work to put in for that final stage that makes you feel like you've earned it.

 

[lucariomaster2]

Dang, that's a tough question. I'd say for me most of the fun of using in-game mons comes from the design. I also like Pokemon with good setup moves, because one of my favourite things in Pokemon is sweeping an important NPC. It's even more fun if you're underleveled.

I grew up with the original Ruby and Sapphire, so I'll mainly focus on them. First and foremost, my go-to starter is always Treecko; I know Blaziken is better than Sceptile (especially in the remakes), but something about Sceptile's design has always stood out to me. Beyond that, I always end up with a Swellow and usually a Gardevoir. I think the draw of these Pokemon is that they can be caught very early in the game and remain strong throughout.

And then there are some Pokemon that I use more as a challenge to myself. These are usually ones that need a lot of effort to get, or a lot of leveling before they pull their weight: Salamence, Armaldo, Yanmega (Doesn't get good STAB until level 54 in Platinum), HGSS Porygon, and even Darkrai in Diamond. Yes, I am crazy enough to perform the Tweaking glitch and shove a dime under my circle pad for 2 hours so that I could use Darkrai ingame.

That said, the Pokemon I had to put the most effort into obtaining or leveling ended up being the most fun ones to use. I think it's because when all was said and done, I really felt like I earned the Salamence/Armaldo/Porygon-Z/Darkrai/etc.

 

[Fluke]

I personally love underrated Pokemon that are able to preform well. For example, I've used a Parasect that, even with its many weaknesses and poor Gen 3 movepool, proved to be an extremely powerful member. I've now used a Parasect three times since.

This is also why I feel like Nuzlockes enhance the playing experience so much. There are a lot of times where you may get stuck with a Pokemon that you at first though was terrible, boring, or weak, but after using it on your team, it turns into a powerful member that you would have never expected.

I also do agree with an expansive movepool having a big impact - if I can trick my Pokemon out with cool, flashy, and / or powerful moves, that definitely makes me like them all the more :)

I've also used Parasect several times in my adventures. I think we like it because we're not used to it, and then all of a sudden it works out. And also because it's not so extremely overpowered.

 

[Detective Barricade]

What makes a Pokemon fun to use in-game for me? Well being a Steel type is often a good start, as it's my favorite type. It's also got to not die to any old random wild Pokemon, and be able to hold its own after a few levels. (most pseudo-legendary Pokemon fall victim to this before you get to that awesome 600 BST goodness at the end) Its move pool also needs to have some decent variety, or at least get the job done. (oh, Klingklang, why must your move pool suck so badly?) And sometimes... I just really want to drop the hammer with a cover legendary.

That said, I tend to gravitate towards certain Pokemon I know will be helpful for an upcoming gym, or I'm just curious about using. I love gen 4 for introducing Mamoswine... even if it's stuck needing to learn Ancient Power when it would rather not just to evolve. I had a good time using Ampharos in White2, and always go drudging through the earliest cave available in the Unova region to get myself a Drillbur to evolve into Excadrill. It's that good to me. (and well-suited for wrecking Elesa) I love Aggron despite being slow and clunky and having an enormous hatred for everything Fighting or Ground it has to face. I don't tend to bother with any regional bird not named Staraptor, though. (that Close Combat as soon as it evolves!)

I guess Staraptor also brings up something I believe makes using a Pokemon fun: the ability to cover its butt from some of its type weaknesses. In this case, Close Combat handles Ice, Rock, and also isn't resisted by Steel.

 

[cant say]

This is a pretty tough question, and there are so many things that influence what I like to use in-game. I more often than not like to use stuff that isn't necessarily competitively-viable, since there's plenty of time to use all those things post-game. Aesthetics obviously play a huge part in this, and tying in with the not-so-competitive them, I usually end up choosing cute-mons.

I also enjoy using powerful Pokemon, but I refuse to use something if it is also used by an important AI (ie: Gym Leader / E4 etc.) since I want my team to be unique. If I do happen to use something that an AI uses, then I have to make sure that I square mine off against the AI's to prove mine is more powerful! I don't really like using the game's cover legendary, but I like it when you can pick up a random legendary mid-game since you generally get them at lower levels and they come with weird (ie: shit) low-level movepools to make up for their ridiculous stats. I really enjoyed picking up the Latias in AS, I used the event Genesect in BW2 which was also really fun, Victini was one of my all-time favourite mons to use since you got a cool little sub-mission to actually catch him, and he had a great combination of cuteness+power+movepool. I do really like gift Pokemon for some reason. I once did an all-gift mons run of Platinum (Torterra / Togekiss / Porygon-Z / Lucario / Flareon / fill (between Rotom / Azelf and Bibarel) which I really enjoyed. I think this goes without saying for a lot of people but if I come across a random shiny then it's getting auto-added to my party no matter what it is, lol

I still don't really know what my main answer to the question is though, I guess I just enjoy running around the regions with a team that I imagine would be scoffed at by the locals, but then end up storming through and becoming champion anyway. Maybe I just like creating these underdog stories so the games don't seem so easy. I'm not a huge fan of doing Nuzlockes or Scrambles, so I just try to make the playthrough interesting my own way.

I guess if I were to give examples of stuff that I've found fun to use, those would include:

• Zorua / Zoroark - Illusion doesn't work so well competitively, but you can totally cheese the AI in some battles by masquerading as something like Emboar and drawing Pyschic-type moves all day while you boost up and sweep. They're both also really cool looking
• Vivillon - Sleep Powder + Compound Eyes spam was so fun. I ended up sweeping half the E4 + Diantha with a level 45 Vivillon on my X run!
• Trubbish / Garbodor - These poor dudes are so hated on, they made for the perfect underdog story. They still sucked a little bit to use (why no physical movepool??) but it was fun when they were able to do work.
• Shedinja - Similar to the Zoro's, I just find it fun to wall the AI and wreak havoc with my ghost bug thing.
• Smeargle - Horrible to use in battle, but having a dedicated HM slave with a moveset of Surf + Fly (also had Milk Drink for a bit) was still pretty funny to me

I dunno that's kinda it really. tl;dr I like gimmicks + cute/funny looking mons, with the occasional strongmon to help me in the actually tough battles

 

[Heracr055]

Like DHR-107, I’ve played through my games on many occasions, especially Yellow, Gold and Soulsilver. Thus, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I pick.

Whether I keep my starter or not depends on if I like their aesthetic, or challenge they pose. Pikachu poses a great challenge thanks to low power (though it crits relatively often), and it gets rewarded down the line with the only naturally learned Thunderbolt in the game. Chikorita fulfills both criteria for me (favorite starter and hard-mode for SS). I experimented with female Chikorita and planned a moveset of Attract/Swords Dance/Razor Leaf/Body Slam and had fun with it. In all my other games I tend to ditch the starter in favor of something else with the same typing.

Previous playthrough performance is an important component. This is why I’ll catch and raise Abra in most games it’s available in; even if I can’t evolve it into Alakazam, it’s proven itself a fantastic asset in all versions.

I’ll also select things that are unconventional or rare, stuff like Dunsparse, Trubbish, Natu, etc. In some cases it works out (like Trubbish in Black/Black 2) while in other cases it backfires (Natu in SS, ugh).

I like a good challenge, so I’ll do something that seems stupid, like using Shellder and Growlithe all the way through the Elite Four in Gold Version . Raising the Slugma I got from Primo Generator in SS turned out to be one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had in a playthrough. He’s a pain to raise until he evolves, and the payoff wasn’t amazing, but I had many noteworthy experiences, i.e. beating Clair’s team (including Kingdra!) with Magcargo 0-0

One other factor is sheer experimentation. I’ve read the ingame tier lists many times and know that Diglett is the best Ground type in RBY; however, how would something like Sandshrew or Cubone do in the Ground type role? (fyi Sandshrew’s pretty good and Cubone is awful). I do this all the time.

I guess the bottom line is that I like to keep some things the same but save a lot of room for experimenting. This is really effective in satisfying old habits but learning something new about a game that I’ve played for so many times!

 

[Detective Barricade]

Like DHR-107, I’ve played through my games on many occasions, especially Yellow, Gold and Soulsilver. Thus, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I pick.

Whether I keep my starter or not depends on if I like their aesthetic, or challenge they pose. Pikachu poses a great challenge thanks to low power (though it crits relatively often), and it gets rewarded down the line with the only naturally learned Thunderbolt in the game. Chikorita fulfills both criteria for me (favorite starter and hard-mode for SS). I experimented with female Chikorita and planned a moveset of Attract/Swords Dance/Razor Leaf/Body Slam and had fun with it. In all my other games I tend to ditch the starter in favor of something else with the same typing.

Previous playthrough performance is an important component. This is why I’ll catch and raise Abra in most games it’s available in; even if I can’t evolve it into Alakazam, it’s proven itself a fantastic asset in all versions.

I’ll also select things that are unconventional or rare, stuff like Dunsparse, Trubbish, Natu, etc. In some cases it works out (like Trubbish in Black/Black 2) while in other cases it backfires (Natu in SS, ugh).

I like a good challenge, so I’ll do something that seems stupid, like using Shellder and Growlithe all the way through the Elite Four in Gold Version . Raising the Slugma I got from Primo Generator in SS turned out to be one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had in a playthrough. He’s a pain to raise until he evolves, and the payoff wasn’t amazing, but I had many noteworthy experiences, i.e. beating Clair’s team (including Kingdra!) with Magcargo 0-0

One other factor is sheer experimentation. I’ve read the ingame tier lists many times and know that Diglett is the best Ground type in RBY; however, how would something like Sandshrew or Cubone do in the Ground type role? (fyi Sandshrew’s pretty good and Cubone is awful). I do this all the time.

I guess the bottom line is that I like to keep some things the same but save a lot of room for experimenting. This is really effective in satisfying old habits but learning something new about a game that I’ve played for so many times!

But if you seek a challenge, why go for Abra knowing it's so good? That seems odd to me. (though catching it is a challenge in of itself without a fast Taunt or Arena Trap) I mean, I'm not sure how play through performance and liking a challenge go hand in hand...

 

[Heracr055]

But if you seek a challenge, why go for Abra knowing it's so good? That seems odd to me. (though catching it is a challenge in of itself without a fast Taunt or Arena Trap) I mean, I'm not sure how play through performance and liking a challenge go hand in hand...

Thanks for calling me out so I can clarify. I'll use 2-3 Pokes I know to be good from experience, and experiment with the rest.

 

[Detective Barricade]

Thanks for calling me out so I can clarify. I'll use 2-3 Pokes I know to be good from experience, and experiment with the rest.

So a safety net of sorts, so if the ones you're goofing around with are truly terrible you have a couple to pull you through. I see. ...though I still can hardly believe a Magcargo was able to take down Clair's Kingdra, considering Sniper STAB Hydro Pump and a 4x weakness to Water. Not that I plan to try that out myself, as raising Slugma has always felt like a chore to me and I really try to avoid those sorts of Pokemon for in-game.

 

[Xen]

Tough question. To me, a handful of factors come into play for Pokemon that I decide to use on my in-game teams, following a layout similar to this: Likeness of design > Availability > Good movepool/fun gimmick.

To start, if I like the design of a Pokemon, I'm more inclined to add it to my team. It's not the most important aspect for me; I have used some Pokemon that I dislike the designs of (such as Exploud), that were amazing VIPs of my previous teams, but using a cool-looking Pokemon never hurts. It's more of an initial hook than a decisive aspect.

The second, and arguably most important aspect to me when making a decision on in-game teams is the availability of Pokemon in the game. Pokemon that are exclusive to the upper-mid/late game story tend to never make it on my final teams. Pokemon at this point in the game tend to come under-leveled, and regardless of how awesome I think the Pokemon is, I'm not going to go out of my way to level grind a Pokemon up to par with the current level curve when there's something else available earlier that gets the job done just as well, if not better. Late-game Pokemon will also miss out on many important battles, which makes a new addition to the team feel like a unnatural transition at this point. The mutual attachment simply does not compare to the Pokemon you've had with you since the first few routes/cities.

The final factor for me is if the Pokemon has a good movepool and/or a fun little gimmick that doesn't suck. Stats don't really matter as much as long as they're fairly usable; however, I don't want to use some boring Pokemon with a bog-standard movepool. I don't like using early route rodents beyond Rattata simply because they are all basically the same movepool-wise, for example. I like using Pokemon with neat movepools (such as Nidoking), or with quirky gimmicks that work (compound-eyes Galvantula/Vivillon), and will pick those over generic birds, bugs, grass-types, etc.

When it comes down to replaying a game, sometimes I'll try out different Pokemon to shake things up and/or add an extra layer of challenge, but Pokemon with the listed aspects tend to make it on my final teams more often than not. I've already mentioned him in an example, but Nidoking is one of my all time favorite Pokemon because of its in-game performance. Comes super-early in the Kanto games, decent stats, badass design, and an amazing movepool that can go physical and special, allowing it to cater to your team's specific needs.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Thread Question:
Hmm, tough to say as I think I tend to change what I do now then what I did in the past. Nowadays whenever I enter a new area I try to catch all the Pokemon in the area, mainly to fill the Pokedex but I guess also to see what options I have. But from there it gets complicated.
I guess first thing to keep in mind is that if its a new gen I always choose the Fire-type starter. In a remake or third/sequel version I may choose the non-Fire Starter, but as the general rule I choose the Fire Starter. I bring this because this means my Starter generally won't have any HM moves.
So, how do I choose the Pokemon I use? Well first is obviously type, I try to keep types varied obviously (I don't mind if two or three of my Pokemon share a type, though they'll have to have a different second type). From there I use a combination of using who I like and checking their stats. I don't mind testing a Pokemon, but if I don't feel its pulling its weight I won't feel bad boxing it. Also I do have a sort of team in mind, for example Pokemon that can use False Swipe, Surf and Fly (not on the same Pokemon) effectively they have a higher chance of being put on my team if just for convenience sake (I'm okay with a HM Slave I take out when coming to a new route but box for important battles I know coming ahead). But for the most part I experiment, especially if its a new Pokemon to just see what it does. Of course as soon as I get my party together the experimentation stops.

Vader_the_White :
Oh yes, Makuhita, I got the one you get from a trade and though I thought I'd only use it till I got a better Pokemon, it wound up as a permanent member of my ORAS team. I have an odd case of doing that, in my Y version I got the Farfetch'd you can get from a trade and I never really took it out of my party due to it having False Swipe and Fly (as well as Cut for convenience and Night Slash to have at least one more elemental move). Makuhita, who became a Hariyama, proved to be more useful learning several powerful elemental moves (plus Strength). :P

I tend not to do that. My teams are often done by the 4th or 5th gym.

Yeah, that's always been one of my problems with Pokemon on later routes. Some may cool to use but usually by then I have a full team or one off from a full team. Its kind of why I'd like a Pokemon game that is sort of free roam where you can visit all routes and challenge the gyms in any order. Of course there would still be some Pokemon you can't till later, but maybe hinting that these Pokemon can be found later may hep resolve that as some players may reserve a spot in their team if they know where it is.

Some moves are naturally fun to use. One is Nature Power, which is basically more than half a dozen different moves depending on the terrain of the current area you're in. It's equally fun in the ADV games as it is in the recentest generation (where it has a way better representation as a TM).

A Pokemon having an interest movepool is something I never really considered. I suppose it could be fun if a Pokemon who has a either a varied movepool or maybe an interesting Signature Move could bring some more enjoyment than you'll normally have though at the same time I can also see it bring in some frustrations.
I like the idea of Nature Power though always felt it was a bit limited. Like I feel a location should have a multiple moves that could be used instead of just one (I sort of like how in Gen VI it'll only do a Special Move, though once again I feel if it let you do multiple moves it could maybe choose what category of move depending on the type). FUN FACT: If you use Nature Power when first battling Deoxys in ORAS (you know, IN SPACE) it'll become Draco Meteor. ;)

Codraroll :
All good points, though I especially like the one about Progress. As I play through I constantly want to feel my team is also improving. I understand the concept of some Pokemon taking a long time to evolve, but at the same time I'm stuck using a possibly weaker form while the rest of my team are more powerful. Yeah it'll destroy when it evolves, but it could be so late in the game that may not really matter. Now I sometimes have a feeling those Pokemon are meant for the player post game while also being used by important NPCs as bosses. But still, it feels like a bit of a tease, especially if they don't include a lot of post game content to let them loose on.
As a side note, I remember using a Wobbuffet in my original Sapphire and I only ever remember it using it as a sacrifice to do Destiny Bond on my opponent (I remember needing it to do it on a random trainer's Milotic since it knocked out my Blaziken and my other Pokemon were in no way able to fight it. It saved me from blacking out... but still had to go back to heal anyway :P).

I have created a sort of "worst team" from my research... Luvdisc/Delcatty/Delibird/Wobbuffet/Unown/Ledian (With other shout outs to Smeargle, Pachirisu, Tynamo, Purrloin and Illumise). None of the listed Pokemon have any power, have awful move pools or have evolution methods which are totally ridiculous (I am looking at you Tynamo).

Well now I just want to see a playthrough of someone using that team. :P

The Pokemon in question must be stally by nature, lest it'll perish courtesy of da mimez gods. I catch my Pokemon for da stalz! All my In-Game teams MUST BE STALL TEAMS! I'm saying that every Pokemon that does not positively contribute to stall shall all burn indefinitely!

While I don't really think stall is that good for single battles in the main story, I do think a wall would have a place in a game where Double and Triples (and maybe Rotational) are more prevalent like the Colosseum games. I suppose having one on your team could be quite useful if you want to heal your Pokemon while it takes damage or maybe stall your opponent to death with Toxic or another trick, but personally I think for main story singles its power many should focus on unless you're doing some challenge run.

I'll see if there's anything to comment on the 2nd page tomorrow.

 

[Lady Vader]

FUN FACT: If you use Nature Power when first battling Deoxys in ORAS (you know, IN SPACE) it'll become Draco Meteor. ;)

That's attention to detail.

 

[JES]

That's attention to detail.

Yeah, I love attention to detail.

 

[Pikachu315111]

That was me and my Mightyena in OmegaRuby version. It was the only Pokemon on my team by the time I reached the E4 that couldn't mega evolve!

Did you evolve that Mightyena from the free PokeNav Poochyena you get at the beginning of the game?

I personally love underrated Pokemon that are able to preform well. For example, I've used a Parasect that, even with its many weaknesses and poor Gen 3 movepool, proved to be an extremely powerful member. I've now used a Parasect three times since.

Recently I also started to found out how useful Parasect is at being a Catcher. It can learn False Swipe and being able to learn Spore makes it even more useful then other Pokemon. Of course I only discovered this is ORAS which has Shroomish/Breloom which too can learn False Swipe and Spore so they got the role as Catcher during my main game. However it's something nice to know if I ever play another game where I can catch a Paras at some point.

But evolution works as a milestone for me that shows I'm progressing well and my Pokémon are definitely improving - for that purpose I also enjoy Pokémon with spread-out evolution levels; rather than something like Vivillon or Azumarill that evolve right away, I prefer things like Starters or Reuniclus or even a Pseudo once in a while that have a decent early mid-stage evo, but there's some good work to put in for that final stage that makes you feel like you've earned it.

I mostly agree though I wouldn't want all Pokemon to evolve around the same levels. I like having Pokemon who evolve at different levels so throughout many points in the game they'll evolve when no one else on my party is thus they sort of get a bit of the limelight until my next Pokemon evolve. Of course there is a limit to this. As mentioned the early bugs evolve too fast which means their stats aren't that high and the Pokemon who evolve late in the game feel like they're being dragged by the team. Usually around the 7th Gym I'd like my Pokemon to be fully evolved, as always I may allow some exceptions but at least most of my Pokemon should be able to take on the final Gym and then the Pokemon League at their full potential.

And then there are some Pokemon that I use more as a challenge to myself. These are usually ones that need a lot of effort to get, or a lot of leveling before they pull their weight: Salamence, Armaldo, Yanmega (Doesn't get good STAB until level 54 in Platinum), HGSS Porygon, and even Darkrai in Diamond. Yes, I am crazy enough to perform the Tweaking glitch and shove a dime under my circle pad for 2 hours so that I could use Darkrai ingame.

That said, the Pokemon I had to put the most effort into obtaining or leveling ended up being the most fun ones to use. I think it's because when all was said and done, I really felt like I earned the Salamence/Armaldo/Porygon-Z/Darkrai/etc.

Though they're overpowered a Legendary is fun to use on your team. In my Diamond I remember using Manaphy (I needed a Pokemon to use Surf so why not) and also Dialga to face the Pokemon League (though this was back when I only trained my Starter so I kind of needed those Legendaries. Gen V onwards I tried training an actual team). However I'm still guilty of it as I did use the wellfare Latias in my Alpha Sapphire, but come on it was a Dragon and Psychic-type how could I pass those up.
But now I'm wondering how it'll be like to play through a story only using a single Legendary. Would their high stats make up for a lack of a team or will their type still make some battles difficult for them? I'm sure there are playthroughs on Youtube of someone soloing the game with a Legendary but I'm too lazy to even think about watching any of them.

I also enjoy using powerful Pokemon, but I refuse to use something if it is also used by an important AI (ie: Gym Leader / E4 etc.) since I want my team to be unique. If I do happen to use something that an AI uses, then I have to make sure that I square mine off against the AI's to prove mine is more powerful!

... I think this goes without saying for a lot of people but if I come across a random shiny then it's getting auto-added to my party no matter what it is, lol

I guess if I were to give examples of stuff that I've found fun to use, those would include:

• Zorua / Zoroark - Illusion doesn't work so well competitively, but you can totally cheese the AI in some battles by masquerading as something like Emboar and drawing Pyschic-type moves all day while you boost up and sweep. They're both also really cool looking
• Vivillon - Sleep Powder + Compound Eyes spam was so fun. I ended up sweeping half the E4 + Diantha with a level 45 Vivillon on my X run!
• Trubbish / Garbodor - These poor dudes are so hated on, they made for the perfect underdog story. They still sucked a little bit to use (why no physical movepool??) but it was fun when they were able to do work.
• Shedinja - Similar to the Zoro's, I just find it fun to wall the AI and wreak havoc with my ghost bug thing.
• Smeargle - Horrible to use in battle, but having a dedicated HM slave with a moveset of Surf + Fly (also had Milk Drink for a bit) was still pretty funny to me

I dunno that's kinda it really. tl;dr I like gimmicks + cute/funny looking mons, with the occasional strongmon to help me in the actually tough battles

Well you gotta have those mirror matches, it's almost require as you got to prove your Pokemon is the superior one.

Even for this mirror match

Actually I always box any shiny I get because I don't want to mess up training it... which usually results me in never training them, lol.

Zorua and Shedinja would seem fun to mess with the AI. Now I want to see someone play though a game with a party of gimmick Pokemon (Zorua, Shedinja, Ditto, Kecleon, Smeargle, Slaking, Castform, Chatot(?), Rotom, Archen, Wobbuffet, Zen Mode Darmanitan, Plusle+Minun, Inkay, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few).

 

[Tazonite]

If it's a Pokemon I like, then that's when I find myself having fun with it. All of the Pokemon are fun to use, except for the glaring obvious exceptions. And Pokemon like Zubat are not that fun to train. (Leech Life, Supersonic, Leech Life, Leech Life)

 

[DahliaNoir]

It's difficult to answer a question like this, as there are so many factors that help me select my team.
On one hand design is always important. I often find myself trying to link my team with a common aesthetic: Notably my 'Serpent Squad' which comprised of Serperior, Arbok, Milotic, Gyrados, Steelix and Dragonair. Luckily in this instance, the Pokemon were well balanced in typing and none were 'lacking' statistically speaking.
But in contrast to this, I have used the Nuzlocke trick of catching the first Pokemon I encounter in various areas and persevering with them. My Raticate was a beast, if I may say so myself.

 

[Kurona]

To add another point I find important; I think something a Pokémon almost has to have in-game to be fun is a decent offensive presence and a variety of moves to choose from. I'm not necessarily talking like 150 base special attack with sheer force and Mewtwo's movepool here, but just something that I feel power behind, that I know can put in work every time. This is especially important for starters as they're the only ones that are really intended to stick with you throughout the whole game. As someone who's used every starter in the series thus far bar Greninja, I have to say that in this regard Serperior was quite possibly the worst in-game starter of all time. It has some of if not the lowest offences of any starter Pokémon to date, the moves of decent power it gets are restricted to being Grass-type, Normal-type or the lucky draw that is Hidden Power - unless you're playing BW2, where you at least can pick up Dragon Pulse... after the sixth gym leader - and not only that, but it is almost entirely useless against the major bosses of the game. I mean, it's good against the first gym leader's Lillipup - and if it couldn't beat that then I'd be very worried - a few of Clay's Pokémon but don't even think about using it against his Excadrill, and it can put in some work against Marlon in BW2 as well as Drayden if you picked up the aforementioned Dragon Pulse. Aside from that it either has bad type match-up or just fails to put in any work with it's very weak offences and not that good defences. Even Meganium I found to be more useful than this; it at least had a good end-game matchup against some of the Kanto leaders and could put in some work against Pryce, and even before then it got Petal Dance and some nice support moves.

Sorry, got into a massive rant there; but the basic point is that to me for a starter to be fun in-game it has to have some offensive presence and a decent movepool variety. Even more defensive things like Venusaur, Swampert and Chesnaught work here because their offences are still decent and they have an alright matchup at worst against their region's bosses, but Serperior just falls flat; especially when compared to the raw power of Emboar and the only good water-type in the game Samurott. (I guess golduck and vaporeon are okay in BW2)

 

[Lady Vader]

To add another point I find important; I think something a Pokémon almost has to have in-game to be fun is a decent offensive presence and a variety of moves to choose from. I'm not necessarily talking like 150 base special attack with sheer force and Mewtwo's movepool here, but just something that I feel power behind, that I know can put in work every time. This is especially important for starters as they're the only ones that are really intended to stick with you throughout the whole game. As someone who's used every starter in the series thus far bar Greninja, I have to say that in this regard Serperior was quite possibly the worst in-game starter of all time. It has some of if not the lowest offences of any starter Pokémon to date, the moves of decent power it gets are restricted to being Grass-type, Normal-type or the lucky draw that is Hidden Power - unless you're playing BW2, where you at least can pick up Dragon Pulse... after the sixth gym leader - and not only that, but it is almost entirely useless against the major bosses of the game. I mean, it's good against the first gym leader's Lillipup - and if it couldn't beat that then I'd be very worried - a few of Clay's Pokémon but don't even think about using it against his Excadrill, and it can put in some work against Marlon in BW2 as well as Drayden if you picked up the aforementioned Dragon Pulse. Aside from that it either has bad type match-up or just fails to put in any work with it's very weak offences and not that good defences. Even Meganium I found to be more useful than this; it at least had a good end-game matchup against some of the Kanto leaders and could put in some work against Pryce, and even before then it got Petal Dance and some nice support moves.

Sorry, got into a massive rant there; but the basic point is that to me for a starter to be fun in-game it has to have some offensive presence and a decent movepool variety. Even more defensive things like Venusaur, Swampert and Chesnaught work here because their offences are still decent and they have an alright matchup at worst against their region's bosses, but Serperior just falls flat; especially when compared to the raw power of Emboar and the only good water-type in the game Samurott. (I guess golduck and vaporeon are okay in BW2)

This actually connects to my problem with Gen V: the starters.
Like you said, Serperior's stats and movepool is terrible for a playthrough (and is only made good in competitive thanks to Contrary). Emboar does have some power and a really cool movepool (that is missing Fire Punch yet has Scald. What the hell), but a) it was the third Fire/Fighting starter in a row and b) has terrible Speed which is a very bad thing for playthrough Pokémon in my opinion. Samurott is easily the best of them for a playthrough, but just doesn't have the right feel for a starter. I can't put it into words, but there is a proper "feel" that Generation V couldn't get right when it comes to the starters. I can use any Kanto Starter and it would feel right. I can use any Johto Starter and it would feel right. I can even use any Kalos starter and it feels right. Unova's just are off somehow and that makes them less fun to use, which is sad since there are Gen V Pokémon that are fun to use in a playthrough (Whimiscott, you evil bastard, I love you).

Somewhat moving on:
One thing that makes a Pokémon fun is variety. Sometimes, using the same Pokémon in different playthroughs aren't as much fun. This happened to me with Weezing. I loved using it when I playthrough Ruby, but it just didn't work as well in Black 2. Now, this isn't always the case (Swampert is fun no matter what Generation) and sometimes the games themselves change enough to make it feel fresh (Gardevoir's Fairy-typing made me use it again in Alpha Sapphire and it was still a lot of fun, especially as it Psyshocked, Energy Balled, and Dazzing Gleamed his way through Team Aqua). It can be just the typing. This is why I didn't want to use Emboar or Blaziken. I've already had a Fire/Fighting-type on my team with Infernape and neither Emboar nor Blaziken* brought anything new to the table for me. Hell, again, this was a problem with the Unova Starters again since all three of them had a type that was used twice before:
Pure Grass - Meganium, Sceptile
Fire/Fighting - Blaziken, Infernape
Pure Water - Blastoise, Feraligatr
I think it was a feeling of lazy that made the Unova Starters unfun to use for me.

Wow, I just talked about what makes a Pokémon not fun to use, but that can be helpful narrowing it down.

*From my perspective since I played Platinum before I ever played Ruby, Y, or Alpha Sapphire.

 

[Codraroll]

This actually connects to my problem with Gen V: the starters.

Indeed, I fully agree that of all the Pokémon that should be designed to deliver a fun play experience, the starters are the most important by far. These are the Pokémon that the players will feel the strongest connections to, and they are likely to stick with them for the entire adventure. It's important to tweak their "power curve" to match the "progress curve" of the games. Just as - or a little before - the game steps up its difficulty, and in-game opponents will start to use tougher Pokémon, your starter should evolve for the first time. This should put its power above what is needed to progress, and the starter should be able to carry the team through any immediate difficulties (such as Gym Leaders). This should repeat again upon the next evolution - the Pokémon gets a power boost around the time you start to need it. Maybe this could also be extended to envelope Mega Evolutions, though at the point in the game when those become an option, your team isn't as reliant on the starter any more.

The starter should, however, not be totally overpowered. Strong enough to pull its weight, yes, but not so strong that you'd never need to use anything else. There should be a point in the game where your starter simply can't do the job alone. This is quite hard to design for, seeing as you get to choose three different starters in every game, and their traits form a rock-paper-scissors triangle of what they can or can't be used for. BW attempted to do this with Striaton Gym, which I guess is an alright way to do it. Early-game is where it's easiest to place difficult hurdles, and where passing them is the least time-consuming - you simply catch the right Pokémon for the job, and train it up to par in a few minutes. They could have dropped simply handing you an appropriately-typed Pokémon for the battle, though.

Late-game, the starter ideally shouldn't surpass the other options you've got, at least not by a huge margin. The starter should pull its weight, indeed, but it shouldn't be the best Pokémon available. Other Pokémon should be able to do some jobs better than the starter, at least in some circumstances. The starter should not be outclassed, though, nor should it be relegated to some niche. At least not by design. The more roles your starter can potentially fill, the better, as that allows for a huge variety of play styles with the same Pokémon. This is where balancing starts to become difficult. The starter shouldn't be able to fille every role at the same time, since that would make it overpowered (as in, make every other Pokémon look poor by comparison). It shouldn't put too much focus on defenses, because that means its offenses become too poor for it to crush opponents (which is important for Exp.). Likewise, too high offenses, and it won't be able to take hits (and a Pokémon that warrants a return to the Poké Center after every battle, is not very fun to use). Too low Speed, and it will take a hit in every other battle, necessitating frequent recovery. And of course, the movepool should be quite wide, but not to the point where it's hard to pick moves for it (a legitimate concern for the less experienced players, which comprise a very large percentage of the player base). However, coverage is a must, lest the Pokémon stops being fun (hi, Serperior!).

All this means that it's quite easy to make mistakes when designing starter Pokémon. Make them too powerful, and the play experience centralizes around the starter. Make them too weak, and the players will stop using them in favour of something better. And everything must be seen in relation to the challenges the starter will face, that is, the layout of the game. A Fire starter can be very good, but underwhelming if the game throws Ground and Water Pokémon at you around every turn. A Grass starter would have the reverse problem. Of course, all three starters will have to match the requirements of the game (or, well, vice versa), and they're all restricted in terms of typing, at least for the first third of the game. Grass/Fire/Water is pretty much a requirement because of how intuitively they illustrate the concept of elemental types to new players.

And last, the starters shouldn't be bland either. They should stand out on their own and be recognisable, as they will feature pretty heavily in marketing. Initially, Infernape had some problems with this, seeing as it had the same typing as Blaziken. There are seventeen ways to make a dual-type Fire Pokémon, but they managed to use the same combo twice. That kind of took away the point of using a dual type for variety. Then Emboar came along and repeated the trick again, and the blandness factor shot through the roof. Meanwhile, Samurott's design was a little poorly received (bipedal blade-wielding otter -> Mustachioed sea lion? What?) and Serperior had underwhelming stats and movepool, making the Gen. V starter trio the worst ever, in the eyes of many (though arguments can be made that as the generations progress, not all of the previous ones are as fun to use any more either - there's not much standing out about the Johto starters nowadays, is there?).


Hidden Abilities and Mega Evolutions are a nice touch, though, as those allow the starter to break the bonds of the frame they have to fit into for story purposes. A Mega can be totally focused towards one stat, or have stats far exceeding what would be "healthy" for story progression, because Megas have healthy competition for that team slot (and they're mostly all overpowered anyway). Hidden Abilities could send the Pokémon into a niche that would make it way too one-sided for a story playthrough, but give it awesome competitive presence. As long as the HA or Mega Stone aren't available too early in the adventure, the designers can be very creative here, transforming an otherwise rather dull Pokémon into something unique and powerful.

 

[Detective Barricade]

Indeed, I fully agree that of all the Pokémon that should be designed to deliver a fun play experience, the starters are the most important by far. These are the Pokémon that the players will feel the strongest connections to, and they are likely to stick with them for the entire adventure. It's important to tweak their "power curve" to match the "progress curve" of the games. Just as - or a little before - the game steps up its difficulty, and in-game opponents will start to use tougher Pokémon, your starter should evolve for the first time. This should put its power above what is needed to progress, and the starter should be able to carry the team through any immediate difficulties (such as Gym Leaders). This should repeat again upon the next evolution - the Pokémon gets a power boost around the time you start to need it. Maybe this could also be extended to envelope Mega Evolutions, though at the point in the game when those become an option, your team isn't as reliant on the starter any more.

The starter should, however, not be totally overpowered. Strong enough to pull its weight, yes, but not so strong that you'd never need to use anything else. There should be a point in the game where your starter simply can't do the job alone. This is quite hard to design for, seeing as you get to choose three different starters in every game, and their traits form a rock-paper-scissors triangle of what they can or can't be used for. BW attempted to do this with Striaton Gym, which I guess is an alright way to do it. Early-game is where it's easiest to place difficult hurdles, and where passing them is the least time-consuming - you simply catch the right Pokémon for the job, and train it up to par in a few minutes. They could have dropped simply handing you an appropriately-typed Pokémon for the battle, though.

Late-game, the starter ideally shouldn't surpass the other options you've got, at least not by a huge margin. The starter should pull its weight, indeed, but it shouldn't be the best Pokémon available. Other Pokémon should be able to do some jobs better than the starter, at least in some circumstances. The starter should not be outclassed, though, nor should it be relegated to some niche. At least not by design. The more roles your starter can potentially fill, the better, as that allows for a huge variety of play styles with the same Pokémon. This is where balancing starts to become difficult. The starter shouldn't be able to fill every role at the same time, since that would make it overpowered (as in, make every other Pokémon look poor by comparison). It shouldn't put too much focus on defenses, because that means its offenses become too poor for it to crush opponents (which is important for Exp.). Likewise, too high offenses, and it won't be able to take hits (and a Pokémon that warrants a return to the Poké Center after every battle, is not very fun to use). Too low Speed, and it will take a hit in every other battle, necessitating frequent recovery. And of course, the movepool should be quite wide, but not to the point where it's hard to pick moves for it (a legitimate concern for the less experienced players, which comprise a very large percentage of the player base). However, coverage is a must, lest the Pokémon stops being fun (hi, Serperior!).

All this means that it's quite easy to make mistakes when designing starter Pokémon. Make them too powerful, and the play experience centralizes around the starter. Make them too weak, and the players will stop using them in favour of something better. And everything must be seen in relation to the challenges the starter will face, that is, the layout of the game. A Fire starter can be very good, but underwhelming if the game throws Ground and Water Pokémon at you around every turn. A Grass starter would have the reverse problem. Of course, all three starters will have to match the requirements of the game (or, well, vice versa), and they're all restricted in terms of typing, at least for the first third of the game. Grass/Fire/Water is pretty much a requirement because of how intuitively they illustrate the concept of elemental types to new players.

And last, the starters shouldn't be bland either. They should stand out on their own and be recognisable, as they will feature pretty heavily in marketing. Initially, Infernape had some problems with this, seeing as it had the same typing as Blaziken. There are seventeen ways to make a dual-type Fire Pokémon, but they managed to use the same combo twice. That kind of took away the point of using a dual type for variety. Then Emboar came along and repeated the trick again, and the blandness factor shot through the roof. Meanwhile, Samurott's design was a little poorly received (bipedal blade-wielding otter -> Mustachioed sea lion? What?) and Serperior had underwhelming stats and movepool, making the Gen. V starter trio the worst ever, in the eyes of many (though arguments can be made that as the generations progress, not all of the previous ones are as fun to use any more either - there's not much standing out about the Johto starters nowadays, is there?).


Hidden Abilities and Mega Evolutions are a nice touch, though, as those allow the starter to break the bonds of the frame they have to fit into for story purposes. A Mega can be totally focused towards one stat, or have stats far exceeding what would be "healthy" for story progression, because Megas have healthy competition for that team slot (and they're mostly all overpowered anyway). Hidden Abilities could send the Pokémon into a niche that would make it way too one-sided for a story playthrough, but give it awesome competitive presence. As long as the HA or Mega Stone aren't available too early in the adventure, the designers can be very creative here, transforming an otherwise rather dull Pokémon into something unique and powerful.

The mega stones don't matter here, though. You got the one for the Kanto starter you chose in X/Y as soon as you receive it in Sycamore's lab, and Aerodactylite about as soon as you could revive an Aerodactyl from an Old Amber, (and several mega stones for early availability Pokemon in OR/AS like Alakazite) but you couldn't use them until you acquired the Mega Ring/Bracelet. (so far about midway into the adventure, though Kalos had a very skewed pace) A part of the starters would be in their aesthetic designs, which almost always seems to influence their move pool variety. Serperior was kind of doomed by being a Grass type snake with a leaf on its tail, since Grass often finds itself lacking offensive options and snake-like Pokemon tend to also be limited in what they have at their disposal.

True about the Johto starters, though, as Feraligatr is the only one to really stand out as interesting among them. Meganium has little offensive presence and as much as I love Typhlosion, there's no avoiding it having trouble with anything it can't burn to a crisp with a Fire move. This doesn't prove to be a problem for it in-game however, as most of the gyms in Kanto and Johto are weak to Fire, and only 4 gyms that resist it, most of them in Kanto.

 

[PikachuCandyツ]

The thing I really look for in a pokemon when catching them are mainly around their design (This is for the games). Sure some pokemon may offer better stats, moves, and all that competitive stuff to work with, but I just look forward to making my dream team in the game. It doesn't matter what their stats are, even with them ever being low it wouldn't be a problem because it makes Pokemon a bit more fun knowing that the battles are gonna be tougher. As for the Pokemon Showdown competitive play style, that's a different story and I put that far away when playing and enjoying pokemon games.

 

[Celever]

Well this question is a bit abnormal for me, since I played my Pokemon games in a weird order. When I was a kid and played through Pokemon Red, it was always about the strongest Pokemon I could find because I could't beat the game, so obviously I needed stronger Pokemon. I've still never beaten those games, but hey, with no real nostalgia involved, I get bored after Diglett Cave (since my only memory after that is fighting Blue's Alakazam outside Victory Road).

Really my main casual Pokemon game is Pokemon Colosseum, which is definitely an abnormality given the lack of options present in the game. Pokemon XD: Gales of Darkness is another game I play quite frequently, and while it has substantially more options, a huge amount of them are late-game, so because of this it actually feels like you have less options than in Colosseum, but that might just be me. What influences my choices on what to use on Colosseum now is usually randomisers. I do always keep in mind the fact that the Pokemon have to be usable, though. You need to think about the first fight with Venus no matter what, for example. She's the toughest boss in the game.

With XD, it's all about using things which I've never used before, couple with a few really fond memories. I had a really fun team a while ago which I nearly beat Mt. Battle with before getting bored, so I use them quite often still. The 4 Pokemon I remember from this are Walrein / Claydol / Swalot and Camerupt, but just the memories make it so that I often use at least one of them whenever I play through XD. While this may directly contradict what I said earlier about wanting to use things I've never used in the game before, I've used most of them. The last burst of Pokemon in the game (pretty much anything after the Hitmon brothers, excluding Electabuzz because that Shadow Half is really useful against Greevil) are all fairly useless since they will be shadow Pokemon when you finish the game, unless you go over to Mt. Battle and grind, which is fairly boring.

As for the handheld games... I nuzlocke them, or any of the other many variants. This means that when I on occasion play through them casually, I always use rare Pokemon which I don't often get the chance to use, like I remember playing through HG a few months ago and using a Mantine, Forretress and Girafarig. This also means that I don't really have an answer to "what makes a Pokemon fun to use" because I base what Pokemon I use around completionism and actually using as many different species as I can, rather than having fun. Though that's because for me, completionism is what I consider fun.

I'd daresay that for the most part, casual players choose by design and try lots of Pokemon out whose designs they like, eventually coming to love the strong ones, whereas more veterinary players go based on nostalgia. It's why weaker Pokemon from generation 4/5 onwards really don't get any limelight right now -- they don't really have an audience.

 

[8-BIT Luster]

Well, since I've been getting tired of Nuzlockeing, and often times when I don't i use the same Pokemon, I've begun randomizing my teams using a random team generator. This gives me stuff that I have to use like Lunatone and Mr. Mime that I would never use before, and I know what i'm going to have for my final team, unlike a Nuzlocke. Often tiems, these Pokemon become my favorite ones on my team. I guess what makes Pokemon fun to use in-game is more than just their appearance and how much use you get out of them, it's also if you are surprised by how well something new turns out. Plus, these Pokemon always pull through for you, my Lunatone especially. Gained mad respect for that thing.

Although I'm an Ubers player and love legendaries, I don't find myself using them in-game as much as I used to. I guess it has something to do with them often being ridiculously better than the AI, and i can easily give my Rayquaza moves to blow through the E4. That said, there's nothing wrong with using them.