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The 'Starter Pokemon' concept needs to die now. The fact that we're 9 Generations in and they're STILL repeating the Grass/Fire/Water trio thing cements how much of a tired and Groundhog Day franchise Pokemon is. In 2022 we have 27 of these starters and it's a problem because:
1) It creates artificial scarcity - Game Freak deliberately makes these Pokemon near impossible to find outside of their own Gen, which obligates trading in from a previous game. I don't even like Unova that much, yet one of the only Pokemon I do like has been unobtainable for almost 6 years
2) It's immersion breaking - am I really supposed to believe that every single region in the entire Pokemon world just happens to have a Grass/Fire/Water trio that are always gifted to a trainer that has just begun their journey, and cannot be caught anywhere in the wild outside of this? What are the odds of something that specific happening in each region/country, most of which don't even interact with one another half the time?
3) It facilitates everything wrong with Pokemon - Dexit, seasonal/one-time distribution events, expectation to buy both versions of the game, starterwars (which is as bad as genwarring, yet somehow not against the rules) etc.
Now that Pokemon is open world, why not just have the trainer go out by themselves into the first wild area and using stealth to catch their first Pokemon (like the stealth mechanic in Legends Arceus)? This makes way more sense in terms of the story - you have to prove yourself worthy by catching your own Pokemon YOURSELF.
