>>41874342I'll use them long enough to catch a few of the route 1 shitmons, at least.
But yeah, I could see a Pokemon game starting out with you and your trainer's friends getting ganked by the game's "starters" in a forest and defending yourself with a stick, and, like, when it gets hurt enough, the game's professor finds you, says "here, kids! Catch!" and tosses you a pokeball so you can get a guaranteed catch.
...or if beating a Pokemon with a stick is too much for the ESRB, flavor it more like just defending yourself until the professor shows up, rather than attacking.