>>38226224Gen 4 is honestly one of the better ones for this, Togepi is the only mandatory gift Pokemon and only in Platinum, the others are optional and even then their evolution methods require; Trading (Porygon), Happiness before Amie (Riolu & Happiny) or items that aren't able to be purchased (Eevee).
BW is probably the first games to kinda mess with this formula in a bad way, even though the Monkeys, Fossils and Larvesta are all optional I feel like you can get the Simis too quickly, the other two I think are fine though, thanks to BW's shallow levelling curve you're unlikely to have Archen until late game and Larvesta's level of evolution is so late that it doesn't matter.
B2W2 is also pretty good for this by having the only two Gift Pokemon being Mid-Late Game with Zorua & Deerling.
After that though yeah Gen 6 kinda shot itself in the foot, not only are there four Gift Pokemon (not counting the Kalos Starters) but they're all decently powerful. Giving a Kanto Starter was a huge mistake honestly, should've been a Post-Game thing instead, the Fossils would've been alright if the Levelling Curve in XY wasn't as high as it is. Lucario and Lapras are just broken though, there's no getting around that, you're given a Mega and a remarkably tough Water/Ice Type before the fourth gym which isn't even the halfway point in these games.
Of course can't forget how ORAS fucked RSE by giving you a fucking legendary halfway through the game, what were they thinking?
By the time you get to SM it's honestly a bit of a breath of fresh air, Eevee's an egg in this one and you can't buy stones until about the halfway point of the game plus the Fossils are a bit worse than in BW but nowhere near as bad as XY. USUM is the same although you have the addition of Poipole who's basically irrelevant at that point in the game.
