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The starter you pick definitely determines how long you can solo the game before running into problems(Bulba-6 gyms, Char-1 gym, Squirtle-3 gyms). Actually, because Bulbasaur has such a good typing for fighting gym leaders, you could probably easily solo the entire game just through the overleveling it would receive by being your only Pokemon.
However, choosing which Pokemon to catch(or knowing that you can catch Pokemon at all) is not the only measure of difficulty. There are many other choices to make in the game: which trainers/wilds to battle, which items to buy, which moves to delete, etcetera.
I feel like Bulbasaur fucks the game so hard by complete accident. Like, no one at GF stopped to realize "Hey, Bulbasaur can completely destroy the first 5 gyms by itself".
