I'm playing pic related on a GBA emulator on Android. I feel like I missed a piece of childhood, never consumed any Pokémon media before.

I got in the town where you get the bike. My main Pokémon are Wingull, Grovyle, Lombre, Taillow, Ralts. I mostly spam Bullet Seed for the win. My only gripe with the game is the insane amount of waiting I have to endure while clicking dialogs e.g. while picking/planting berries it's really annoying and I wish it were faster.

Do you have any advice for someone who's just starting out playing the game? I feel like I sorely miss a fire Pokémon and I have caught 19 so far but they mostly look/feel alike with their skillset, does it get better as I level them up? Is it better if I keep the standard moves? I'm progressively removing most of the old moves as they learn new ones. I don't want to spoil the game by looking at wikis in depth so I just want some insight on how to not completely fuck up. Challenging the second gym leader (the one with Mahukita and Machop) was really really hard and I had to grind quite a bit to beat him.

Also is the animated series worth watching?