Just finished it, but I don't think it really worked? Like the obvious optimum tactic, which I exploited, was to just not think about your starter as a real Pokemon and just rush Mount Silver to catch a wild Ursaring which will just carry you through the game. You do have to solve some navigation to get there, and you do need to actually make the catch which is rather low odds (you can't actually fight a like level 44 Ursaring with your level 5 starter; you chuck balls and pray). I wouldn't recommend trying to play "normally" and do silly things like actually raise Pokemon from level 5; it would probably be pretty annoying if you did that.