>>48135066A lot of the Pokemon this gen are extremely weak, both in terms of movepools and stats. Pokemon like Noctowl, Sneasel, and more are handicapped by some combination of issues. Noctowl is fine design wise, but it has terrible stats and poor moves. Sneasel is a Dark/Ice type with *terrible* special attack. How are you ever going to use this thing? Heracross is a great design with good stats, and even it feels useless because it has no good moves. Most of the Pokemon don't have bad design, but they're not appealing options because they just happen to be extremely weak. There's a reason why most Johto teams run a starter, Ampahros, and Gyarados: the other Pokemon just aren't worth it.
Even the Gym leaders suffer from this issue. Morty doesn't use a Misdreavus, he uses Gengar. Falkner doesn't use Noctowl, he uses Pidgeotto. Chuck doesn't use Hitmotop, he uses Poliwrath. They gym leaders don't feel representative of the region because, were they to use Johto Pokemon, they would be too weak.
For some reason, nearly all the good Pokemon are locked in Kanto. Houndoom, Tyranitar, and pokemon that evolve with a stone, are all locked behind Kanto. Why?
Even worse, Crystal, the "definitive verson" of Gen 2, still has similar issues. You can't even *obtain* a Ampharos, one of Gen 2's most iconic Pokemon, period. Why?
I had such a hard time building a team in Gold because the Pokemon are either weak or straight up unavailable.
The issues here are compounded by the terrible level curve. For most of the game you'll be fighting level 30 Pokemon due to the more open-ended nature of the region. Even in Kanto, the trainers and Pokemon are extremely weak. This only makes the Pokemon issue worse-the move pools are smaller than normal since you don't gain many levels, and your Pokemon are going to be pretty weak due to low levels.
