• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Pokémon with specific roles in the single player game

Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
3,943
Reaction score
11,206
This is a bit of an odd question but I'll explain.

Pokémon is an unusual RPG series (though not unique) in that the vast majority of your opponents are useable by the player and run off the same mechanics--I don't think we had any exceptions until Sun and Moon outside maybe the Pokéstar studio. However, I think it's clear some Pokémon were designed to fill a very specific role in the game design rather than just to add to the cast list.

I once saw it mentioned--and I agree--that Onix back in gen 1 was probably built specifically for the role of "first boss" with the player using one being a secondary concern, with just about everything about it intending to serve this role--his sky-high defense but otherwise medicore stats forcing you either use a type advantage or realize you can beat it down with ineffective special moves thanks to bad HP and special, while it's awful attack power gives time for this to work. It also has an intimidating appearance.

Another teacher was the Caterpie and Weedle lines who are very weak but evolve very quickly and gain good stats for that early point, teaching the player the values of the evolution mechanic. On the opposite end is Dratini, a fairly weak line that ends up (statistically) as one of the strongest in the game when you put in the effort.

For a later game example I suspect Slaking was designed primarily to make Norman a memorable midpoint boss by giving him something very strong but with a clear weak point for the player to exploit and plan around.

What other Pokémon do you think were designed for very specific roles in the game?
 
Last edited:
The legendary Pokémon as challenging optional bosses that you had to go out of your way to find and battle, at least until they started being integrated into the main story starting with Suicune in Crystal.
 
Well I believe we know from interviews that Basculin was added to Black and White late in development because they felt that Unova lacked a generic fish Pokémon.

...which is ironic, in retrospect, because the very next generation completely lacked a generic fish Pokémon.
 
what about boss teams? champions and league masters pokemon ? gym leaders? many mini bosses inside the game.
 
Last edited:
Well I believe we know from interviews that Basculin was added to Black and White late in development because they felt that Unova lacked a generic fish Pokémon.

...which is ironic, in retrospect, because the very next generation completely lacked a generic fish Pokémon.
They had access to not just the new Pokémon, so Magikarp could go back to that role.
 
Vikavolt seems to me like it was designed with Totem battles in mind since it summons 2x Charjabug, whose Ability boosts the ally's Special Attack (and just look at Vika's concept artwork, on the right), except... they forgot to give Totem Vikavolt any Special moves, lol
 
Well, yeah, but every gen other than 6 introduced some kind of fish.

Maybe not anything as straightforward as like, a cod Pokémon or something, but we did at least still get some aquatic creatures - Skrelp, Clauncher, Binacle, and arguably Inkay.

And that's kinda nice. I mean, there's so many fish Pokémon already, and marine life is extremely diverse. If foregoing the standard fish archetype can open up a slot for something a bit more unusual and underrepresented, then maybe they should be skipping the fish more often?

Necrozma and Eternatus seem to be designed as the final boss.

Specifically, I think they way that they utilize form changes plays a lot more overtly into the JRPG love for the One-Winged Angel trope than, say, Giratina (which in Platinum, you never actually encounter in its Altered Forme) or even Kyurem (who you only battle when it's in the incomplete fused form, and it's a complete pushover). With Necrozma there's a progression, where this broken parasitic monster comes out of the sky and then hijacks Solgaleo/Lunala, and you fight that form, which is manageable. Then you have to venture into Ultra Megalopolis and confront its divine, perfected, pure light form set to a banging organ track, and it jumps up to Nuzlocke Ender difficulty. Eternatus is similar - you fight the skeleton one-on-one and it's like, okay, but then it takes a Max Raid Battle alongside the Legendary wolves to subdue its enormous, eldritch Hand of Death form. The spectacle and incident around these two is far more elevated than it was for most previous Legendary battles.
 
Last edited:
Maybe not anything as straightforward as like, a cod Pokémon or something, but we did at least still get some aquatic creatures - Skrelp, Clauncher, Binacle, and arguably Inkay.

And that's kinda nice. I mean, there's so many fish Pokémon already, and marine life is extremely diverse. If foregoing the standard fish archetype can open up a slot for something a bit more unusual and underrepresented, then maybe they should be skipping the fish more often?

Right, but Unova also had plenty of aquatic creatures already and yet the dev team still felt they needed a fish specifically.

But, yes, I was never saying more slots should go to generic fish Pokémon I would rather more diverse choices for real-world inspiration as well. I just found it ironic that they went out of their way to include it in gen 5 only to forego it a generation later and then even go back to including it from then on.
 
The monkeys were also made so they could be the aces of the Straiton trio. So basically a idea that wasn't necessary and that could have been covered by the rivals (a trainer using a super effective type to your starter) lead to 6 Pokedex species.

Speculating:

  • Oddish and Bellsprout's families were made late on development, so I think they were made so they could be version exclusives.
  • Digglet beats Lt. Surge easily.
  • Tentacruel beats Blaine easily.
  • Tangela beats Giovanni easily (on theory).
  • Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are on Saffron so Sabrina and Team Rocket (Poison resist Fighting) are harder (?).
  • Ledyba and Spinarak & Espeon and Umbreon promote Day/Night mechanics.
  • Togepi, Pichu and Igglybuff promote breeding.
  • Mareep beats Falkner easily (possibly the most famous case of this).
  • Pineco is the poster boy for headbutting.
  • Hitmontop beats Pryce easily.
  • Piloswine beats Clair easily.
  • The Gardevoir family was made for Wally, it's a green guardian angel for a green sick boy!
  • Kecleon promotes abilities.
  • Plusle & Minun promote double battles.
  • Trapinch, Cacnea and Baltoy seem tailored to the desert. Numel and Torkoal seem tailored to a volcano.
  • Milotic promotes contests.
  • Castform promotes weather changes.
  • Clamperl promotes diving.
  • Mosdeep's real life location has a space center, so it's likely Solrock and Lunatone were made for Tate & Liza.
  • Metagross was made for Steven, or vice-versa, but Beldum being available until the postgame suggests it's not vice-versa.
  • Kricketot promotes the return of day/night and the introduction of morning.
  • Cranidos & Shieldon promote the Underground, that's why they have extreme stats and one of them is used by the first gym leader.
  • Combee promotes...I don't have to say it, do I?
  • It's unlikely Lucario was made to beat Byron's ass, it's more likely the opposite.
  • Carnivine beats Crasher Wake easily.
  • All the Sinnoh evolutions and Regigigas promote Dual-slot features.
  • Heatran is a prize for completing the postgame story.
  • Timburr, Throh and Sawk beat Lenora easily.
  • Munna promotes the Dream World.
  • Alomomola is a Sea Audino, down to the encounter method.
  • Tynamo and Joltik beat Skyla easily.
  • Mienfoo beats Brycen easily.
  • Hydreigon was made for Ghetsis (?) It was supposed to have a modern army design while TP has a medieval soldier design.
  • Vivillion promotes Wonder Trade.
  • Mareanie promotes SOS Battles.
  • Crabrawler beats Gumshoos easily.
  • Salandit beats Lurantis easily.
  • Golisopod was made for Guzma and maybe Salazzle for Plumeria (both have tatoos!).
  • Centiskorch was made for Nabu, or most likely the opposite to promote Gigantamax.
  • Grapploct beats Piers easily.
  • Carkol beats Milo easily.
  • Dreadnaw beats Nabu easily.
 
Last edited:
Speculating:

"Generations III-IV"
  • Combee promotes...I don't have to say it, do I?

At least say it and be honest: it promotes feminism and the fact that we must obey the queens, otherwise the colony will perish! :X3:
Just like Salazzle proves that the best leaders are women!

Edit: Chatot promotes the DS microphone feature, Alakazam, Machamp, Gengar and Golem promote trading. The Johto trade evolutions with itens promotes the new ability to have Pkmn holding items and Hoothoot also promotes the day/night cycle.

Edit2: We can't say for sure after when did it became a staple, but the rodent, bird and bug Pkmn early on are just continuing a formula of having such creatures at the start of a game as well as the cute Electric rodent.
 
Last edited:
Munna promotes the Dream World.

Funny thing about that one, is according to Sugimori, the Munna line actually came before they developed the idea of the Dream World. Just a bit of serendipity, it seems.

> Sugimori: Munna and Musharna were also designed by Ms Nishida. For this design there weren’t any requirements — I just asked Ms Nishida to draw anything, and she ended up bringing me a design for a tapir with a dream coming out of its head. Actually, at that point we hadn’t come up with the concept for the game’s Dream World yet — so later when we realized there was already a Pokémon perfectly suited to the Dream World, we were very happy that we had Musharna. We needed this to be a two-stage family, so then we created Munna. You might expect that it would be rare for a Pokémon to be designed even before the game’s mechanics and story, but it’s actually pretty common.

Right, but Unova also had plenty of aquatic creatures already and yet the dev team still felt they needed a fish specifically.

I would say that it makes some sense given that in all four generations prior, Magikarp had been available to serve as the "overly common fish," and Gen 5 being without Magikarp meant they needed a new Magikarp (especially since so many Gen 5 Pokémon are homages to Gen 1), but the weird thing about that is, Basculin... doesn't really fill the same kind of role as Magikarp, at all. It is neither obscenely common nor memetically useless until it evolves (compare this to the likes of Feebas, Wishiwashi, and Wimpod which all try to recreate the "Magikarp Effect" of becoming very strong if you take the time to work around their shortcomings and raise one).

Although as I was looking for the source for that Munna quote, I also happened to come across what Sugimori said about Basculin, which might clarify things a little bit:

> Sugimori: After realizing we didn’t have a relatively standard Water type Pokemon, we designed a fish that could eat you. Basculin is based on a bass, because New York is place where you can go bass fishing. We made two forms because we felt there was a shortage of fish Pokemon in the Pokedex.

From that, it sounds like they designed it because they were missing a "generic" Water type, rather than a fish specifically, and the decision to give it two forms was what was rooted in the Dex's lack of fish species.
 
Yes, it's honey.

Lapras is supposed to be your surf slave in both Kanto and Kalos.

Also, other Pokémon that are handed to you in a silver platter so a gym is easier besides the ones I've already mentioned:

  • Omanyte/Kabuto, Psyduck and Slowpoke for Blaine.
  • Geodude for Falkner (Dark Cave), Bugsy (Union Cave) and Pryce (Mt. Mortar).
  • Shroomish for Roxanne.
  • Wingull for Brawly.
  • Duskull and Shuppet for Tate & Liza.
  • Psyduck for Roark.
  • Wurmprle for Gardenia.
  • Abra for Maylene.
  • Tropius for Crasher Wake.
  • Pansage/Pansear/Panpour for the Stration trio.
  • Sandile and Sandshrew (B2W2) for Elesa.
  • Riolu for Cheren (B2W2).
  • Pikachu and Pansear for Viola.
  • Mienfoo for Grant.
  • Mr. Mime, Chingling, Solosis and Carbink for Korrina.
  • Dugtrio, Trapinch and Gible for Clemont.
  • Weepinbell and Skorupi for Valerie.
  • Sneasel for Olympia.
  • Makuhita for Gumshoos.
  • Spearow, Rufflet and Vullaby for Hala.
  • Digglet for Olivia.
  • Granbull for Kommo-o.
  • Woobat, Vulpix, Growlithe and Trubbish for Milo.
  • Shellos, Binacle and Sudowoodo for Nabu.
  • Impidimp for Bea/Allister.
  • Fallinks for Gordi/Melony.
 
The early mammals seem to be created with the sole purpose of being HM slaves till Gen 6... *Looks at Bidoof*.

they got super fang , are support and steady pokemon.

Rattata with fake out and quick attack? combo?

they are the under dogs with dig that can make a diffrence in the game.
 
Miltank exists to take your preconceptions about pink, feminine Normal-types and grind them into the dirt, water them with your own tears and let them grow again only so that they can be planted six feet under a second time.

And they even make Clefairy Whitney's lead to lure you into that trap.

Hoenn seems to have a handful of rare species as a reward for searching in a specific area. In the early routes there's Ralts, then Slakoth, Skitty, and later Absol. It's not something I particularly remember prior Gens doing, where even 'rare' species are reasonably common in their specific area.
 
Last edited:
Hoenn seems to have a handful of rare species as a reward for searching in a specific area. In the early routes there's Ralts, then Slakoth, Skitty, and later Absol. It's not something I particularly remember prior Gens doing, where even 'rare' species are reasonably common in their specific area.
Pikachu was initially made rare in the Viridian Forest so that very few people could catch it.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom