What makes a Pokémon fun to use in-game?

[[T]imo]

Nostalgia plays a huge role in my choice of Pokémon in my re-run of Gen II atm. I tend to lean towards those I (1) used when I played it as a kid and (2) have good memories of with regards to the Anime and Pokémon cards. For example, Mareep was always on my team in my original Gen II run as a kid, which was the first I think of when designing my ingame team. Favoring Magmar, Noctowl, Umbreon, Slowking, Dragonite, Heracross, Kingdra, Quagsire, Foretress, Gengar and Lapras all resulted from the Anime, with Magmar vs Charizard, the large Dragonite at the Lighthouse, Ash trying to catch a Ghost pokémon to beat Sabrina and the episode 'Once in a blue moon' with Quagsire, all in particular constituting my reasons to find these Pokémon ingame due to the associated positive memories. I also really loved Kingler due to a particular battle against Cloyster in the Anime, but it wasn't that great in Pokemon Silver, lol.

The Neo cardsets during my childhood certainly was the peak of interest in Pokémon at my school and many cool looking cards translated in a fond obsession to get this particular Pokémon ingame, i.e. liking Ampharos as a result of an amazing looking Neo Ampharos card of a friend of mine, or wanting a Scizor because I had that particular Scizor holographic card from the Neo Discovery card set. I legit leveled my Scyther all the way up thinking it would evolve in a Scizor, consequently being quite dissapointed when I had a level 100 Scyther in the end in my original Silver run as a kid. The same thing applies to Raikou and Suicune in particular, as I adored the rare Raikou-, Umbreon- and Suicune design in the Neo set (not holographic). Entei and my interest for Unknown originated from the movie.

Eventually I have a big pile of Pokémon I favor and my main 6 then depends on useability and some sense of synergy!

Btw, didn't post much at all back in the day, but this is the first post in literally 10 years, lol.

 

[Bayleef030]

What makes a Pokemon fun to use in-game? Well, liking said Pokemon. I personally prefer cute and beautiful Pokemon (Bayleef, Vaporeon, Togetic) over tough-looking ones (Tyranitar, Machamp, Houndoom) and prefer animal-like ones over inanimate object-like ones. Everyone has their own preferences. In-game, I don't really care if a Pokemon is unviable competitively. I enjoy using Bayleef or Ledian in-game.

Often, I have a fondness for a certain Pokemon because of the anime, which I grew up with in the good old Kanto and Johto days. Ash's Chikorita/Bayleef is the main reason why Bayleef is my favourite Pokemon. But I also have fondness for Pokemon because of TCG cards and figurines I got as a child. For example, I bought these Mantine and Misdreavus figurines as a kid, and then used them in Pokemon Colosseum a few years later, cementing my fondness for these Pokemon forever. And the Pokemon 4ever movie had a huge impact on me loving Suicune and Celebi.

Other nostalgia? The Pokemon Play It CD-rom game I played as a child, with the Seaking TCG card causing me to like Seaking a lot.

My competitive knowledge... Well, in-game, I just use that to my advantage when it comes to movesets, EV training etc., and try to make Pokemon I like shine as well as I can, whether they are strong competitively or not.

Back when I played competitively in Gen 3 and 4, competitive use of a Pokemon was more important to me, of course. I wasn't going to use a Ledian in Ubers or anything like that. I did once use Seaking on a Gen 4 UU Rain Dance team as a joke, but that was just once. It didn't even do that badly, but of course I used that as a joke, because of the Seaking Fuck Yeah meme.

In 'competitive' in-game enviroments, like the Battle Frontier in Gen 3 and 4, and the Orre Colosseum in XD Gale of Darkness... I tend to use Pokemon I like, that are good in such enviroments, like Latias and Suicune.

 

[mertyville]

I feel viarity is what makes it fun. Different types, different abilities and rarity can play a role. While I don't do it anymore, I loved catching Mewtwo and then sweeping the elite 4 with it.
Or back when there was no internet and people told me that you can get Pikachu in the forest in Pokemon RB, I was looking forward to use it once I got it. Since I couldn't get past Rock Tunnel back then, I just grinded what I could find and I was told Pikachu was one Pokemon that can help me through because it could learn Flash (I thought I required Pikachu back then and it has to have Thunder Wave).

Now I wouldn't even bother with that knowing the Power Plant has Pikachu far more common.

 

[jordanthejq12]

I like a good tank Pokemon. Someone who can comfortably take a hit and then dish one out in return. I know a lot of people want to go full glass cannon and "just don't get hit LOL", but there's something about knowing your mons can trade blows if necessary and you don't have to panic if you miss an OHKO.

(Until you get statused, which, TBF, is a major problem with the archetype.)

 

[Pikachu315111]

I like a good tank Pokemon. Someone who can comfortably take a hit and then dish one out in return. I know a lot of people want to go full glass cannon and "just don't get hit LOL", but there's something about knowing your mons can trade blows if necessary and you don't have to panic if you miss an OHKO.

(Until you get statused, which, TBF, is a major problem with the archetype.)

I agree with this, especially when it comes to catching Pokemon. Just got through catching the Swords of Justice and the Legendary G-Birds and, yeah, you need a few tanky Pokemon with you because they hit hard (especially those that have a way of increasing their stats/decreasing your stats).

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

What makes a Pokémon fun to use in-game?

There's nothing as satisfying as getting a sweep with Staraptor in-game because you can just click Close Combat if a fool tried to throw out a Rock-Type to stop you.

 

[Lumii]

For me, it has to be how much I like the design. Idk, whenever contests exist, I just love picking mons that look cute in contests and stuff. Power is something that comes next. Like, there's Pokemon that I find cute and strong, like these guys.

But there's probably a reason I have a level 89 skitty in my Omega Ruby save right now.

 

[PokemonCrusader]

Has good speed and can hit hard.

Not a fan of Pokemon that require constant healing or toxic/stall strategies just to clear a route.

 

[NuttyRabbit]

When it comes to picking Pokemon for a team, whether I'm planning ahead of time, doing it on the fly, or doing a mix of both, I have some rules I like to follow to make things more interesting, and while this is separate from what makes a Pokemon fun to use for the most part, it's just something I'd like to share.



1. I can't use the same Pokemon line twice across games. This is to prevent me from using the same Pokemon each run, forcing me to consider options that I wouldn't otherwise, especially on the rare occasion I replay games. HM Slaves are generally the exception to this rule otherwise I'd end up crippling my team by my 3rd or 4th playthrough. This is also something I do with my Nuzlockes, so that way I can't just beat every game with a Gyarados or Magneton and am forced to actually use different stuff. Finally, it gives an interesting tactical component to planning out playthroughs where I have to think "Do I use this here and lock myself out for a future game" which I find to be fun.

2. On my first playthrough of a region, I can only use Pokemon lines native to the region (So no cross-gen evolutions or forms). This was something I implemented following my Pokemon X playthrough where my team only had 2 Kalos Pokemon, with one of them being the starter and the other being a Meowstic. I figure that if I'm playing a new region for the first time, I might as well use the new Pokemon. Generally this pans out well (such as in Sword and Platinum) and other times....I get my Sun playthrough where the most useful Pokemon were Mudsdale and Alolan Muk, (the latter of which technically broke these rules but since Muk was one of my favorite Pokemon I couldn't help but break the rules just that one time) and everything else was borderline worthless. Still, I think it adds a lot of fun using stuff I'm relatively unfamiliar with and getting to play with the new toys. Of course on subsequent playthroughs of the region I lift this restriction but for a first playthrough I love doing this.

3. No type overlap. This is probably the single hardest rule to work with, but also one of the most fun, making it so my teams have to be truly diverse and making teambuilding harder since I can't just stack the most powerful shit since there's bound to be some overlap. Though sometimes it means that I screw myself out of varied options (Most regions I've only used the starting Water type as my Water type because of this) most of the time it means that I have to look to more interesting options to fill the team and that can make things really interesting.


Now taking these rules into account, building a team in any given Pokemon game becomes a really fun, tactical experience. Putting aside the rules though, in terms of what I tend to look for in a Pokemon, there's quite a few things that can make a Pokemon fun to use in my opinion:

1. Offensive potential. This is easily the vaguest thing on the list, but also the most important. Above all else, I'm inclined to use Pokemon with good to great offensive potential, whether that be a combination of speed and power (Inteleon, Staraptor, Gengar), type coverage (Primarina, Gengar, Electabuzz, Pelipper), hitting like a nuclear bomb with the funny STAB button (Sawk, Archeops, Darmanitan, Feraligatr, Toxtricity) or a combination of the three (Garchomp. Really just Garchomp holy shit this thing is absurd). If you hit hard, I'm inclined to use you

2. Defensive utility. Now generally I don't like using defensive mons in playthroughs, but I sometimes like stuff that has some defensive utility, whether that comes from typing (Corviknight), sheer bulk (Alolan Muk, Mudsdale, Hariyama), some sort of ability to inflict status conditions, party buffs or debuffs (Sandaconda, Vileplume, Electrode, Malamar), or a combination of all of them (Ampharos). That being said I generally expect these Pokemon to have some offensive capabilities so I'm not using stuff like Toxapex or Chansey in-game, and generally a lot of the good mons that have defensive utility on my teams can either hit really hard out of the gate (Mudsdale, Hariyama, A-Muk), or use that bulk to set up and sweep (Corviknight. Corviknight is so goddamn broken like I think it's more broken in SS than Chomp is in Platinum)

3. Availabilty/Ease of Use. Last but not least is availability. Generally the stuff I find fun to use is helped by being either really easy to find, easy to use, and/or easy to raise. I really enjoy seeing something either get better as it goes along at a reasonable rate or something that's just hilariously strong out the gate. I also enjoy the pleasant surprise of finding such a Pokemon by accident rather than having to go searching for it.

If a Pokemon evolves super late or is annoying to find (Crabrawler, Gible) it better be able to make up for that by either being good out of the gate or having the effort going into finding/raising it be really goddamn worth it. If something requires me to wait around or do specific shit to find it, I'm more inclined to just pass on it and find something more convenient.


I know all of this sounds super tryhard and on paper it is, but surprisingly enough, I actually play these games super casually, just kinda taking my sweet time exploring every nook and cranny and not worrying about being "optimal". I also like using really weird stuff when I can.

This took way longer than it should've to type out but I had a lot to say on what I think makes for a fun Pokemon to use

 

[aegon the unlikely]

> Good design (see: Alolan Ninetales, Charizard, Espeon, Primarina)

> Good matchups (see: USUM Magnezone, ORAS Blaziken, GSC Golem)

> Quick enough to train (see: USUM Trade Hawlucha, GSC Trade Fearow, ORAS Azumarill)

 

[The Mind Electric]

The biggest thing for me is effectiveness against wild Pokémon. I don't care if a Pokémon can't do too much in an important battle, but if it sucks to train against wild encounters, I'm going to hate it.

 

[Siggu]

The biggest thing for me is effectiveness against wild Pokémon. I don't care if a Pokémon can't do too much in an important battle, but if it sucks to train against wild encounters, I'm going to hate it.

The EXP Candies in Sword and Shield can help at that.