>>54320713While I recognize that bug Pokemon were designed for this purpose, it has always bothered me that they fall off so hard by gym 6. A playthrough of Platinum where I used pizza slice wormadam was actually hard-walled until I swapped him out. A playthrough of Emerald where I used ninjask only worked out because fury cutter + Shadow ball + protect is fucking goated against two of the elite four members. I've just had a long-standing issue where unless the bug is very, VERY pushed (see: Heracross, Scizor), they are just underwhelming. And the thing about early game is that it's over in less than 2 hours, and you're spending the first third of that even getting your bug to level 10 because the first stages suck ass so that the third stages can be merely okay.
It doesn't help either that first gyms are:
Gen 1: Rock
Gen 2: Flying
Gen 3: Rock
Gen 4: Rock
Gen 4 gets closer to righting this by having the second gym be grass type, but every other gen places bugs at a disadvantage in the early game, where they are supposed to be "good".
I understand the philosophy. But in the purview of what I'm doing (gen 3 hack), the philosophy does not match the gameplay.
