>>35932577The level at which pokemon evolve at is arbitrary and only applies to the player character because the player character themself is pretty naturally talented with all pokemon.
Youngsters might have a level 25 Rattata and it STILL wouldn't evolve because they did not draw enough of Rattata's power and potential out for it to evolve into Raticate.
This is oppositely true for type specialists. For example, Lance is able to have underleveled Dragonite specifically because Lance is a dragon specialist and particularly good at drawing the power out of dragons.
The player character is still better as an all-around trainer/jack-of-all-trades though, which is much more valuable in team building, hence the MC characters becoming champions.
