>>21606575Fouth-ing the opinion:
Red/Blue for the best main storyline, but its postgame is absolutely abysmal esp. when
your partner becomes a bot.
This is the best place to start if you're interested in the series and think you may want to play others.
Fun fact: genders do not exist in Red/Blue, and Attract works on everything.
Sky has the best postgame, the most up to date pokedex (thus, most starters and recruitables), and the best side missions/stories, while having a great story (though more so with the extended scenes). Other anons are correct in that the partner in Sky is probably the weakest (though I didn't find it excessively bad personally, just not good).
If you only ever plan on playing one for sure, then Sky has the most features, the most up to date gameplay, and will give you the most bang for your buck with entertainment/time efficiency, but you do miss out on the greatest story/mini-plot ever told in a Pokemon game with the
fugitive arc.
Friendly reminder that Phanpy is the worst starter with the most abysmal levelup movepool in the game. Everyone else is viable and has a niche, but not Phanpy.
>Starter choiceMost all are viable. Pikachu (Agility + Discharge + IQ group), Treeko (Agility + Bullet Seed + IQ group), leader Eevee (adaptability + run away doesn't proc on leader), Skitty (Normalize [STAB is 1.5x damage, SE is 1.4x] + Sing/Attract + normalize boosts standard attack) all stand out as amazing starter choices if you want to min-max.
However, all the starters have something to offer except Phanpy. Elemental starters get their advantage in several dungeons (which are all elementally themed), etc.
Try and plan your starters (leader and partner) to be complementary. Skitty needs a mon to take on ghost types due to Normalize, Charmander likes Grass/Electric to deal with Water themed dungeons, etc.
You can beat the game with any starter combination. Even Phanpy.
