>>37466348Indifferent, mostly. They sucked in Gens 1 and 2 where they were either the only way to get certain Pokemon which you then couldn't rename (the only Farfetch'd in Gen 1 is forever named DUX) and/or the Pokemon you got from them were guaranteed to suck (the Machop in Goldenrod is useful against Whitney but nothing else, since it's female which means its attack DV is absolute shit).
That being said, they have a lot of potential to actually ease the burden of players without people to trade with. They could easily make trades for version exclusives available, even if they were relegated to the post-game only so you still had to trade with friends to use them during the story. Or they could have unique Pokemon with things like egg moves that you don't normally use in-game. As with many things in Pokemon, the potential is there but Game Freak doesn't deliver.
