>>43433277I agree it's a very strong design for a base stage. When Piplup turned out to be a sleeper hit, it seems like GF tried to replicate the formula by making an unconvincing and quirkier version the following gen, Oshawott even borrowing Piplup's color palette blatantly, but with Plup's beak coloring in Wott's nose for some reason.
I always thought Piplup was good, but slightly bland, while Oshawott was just a failed attempt to replicate its success. Chespin follows a similar build but much more successfully. The quirkiness fits the base animal, it's has it own look and feel instead of being a carbon copy and he's overall a cute bugger. Probably in my Top 3 base stage starters. The rest of its line is not as bad as people say, but they're not as good as Chespin either.
