My opinion on fully evolved starters (up to Gen-4)

Ah the starter Pokemon. These tend to be the mainstays of any trainer because they are often unique and always generally strong when fully evolved. Of course, none are created equal, and the rival just has to pick the starter with the type advantage all the time. This post focuses on the fully evolved forms of the starters, up the Gen-4 of course, because I don't have enough information about newer games.

In general, I almost never pick the Grass starter, usually because of what I said in the types post. Grass is mostly utility instead of offense, and while Leech Seed and other moves are often essential, I'm more inclined to go on the offense moreso than to whittle enemies down. You never know if the opponent had an ace up their sleeve when using such moves. Which is why I always go for Water or Fire for my starters.

Gen-1: This generation is pretty unique in that the first form of a starter is already dual-typed. Bulbasaur starts out as Grass-Poison and stays that way as it evolves. It gets rid of one type weakness for...a worser one (Psychic). Obviously, everyone chose Charmander, including myself, because Charizard is a blast to use, unless of course you are facing a Rock type (like Lance's Aerodactyl in FR/LG or something). Blastoise in all honesty is quite boring being a pure water type, but at least it's bulky. I can actually say the same for Venusaur. Based on base stats go, I would go with Charizard all the way.

Gen-2: I had thought the Grass starter, or at least Meganium, was also Grass-Poison, but I found out that it wasn't. In my opinion, the Johto region has the most boring starters in that all of them are single-typed. Alright, so Typhlosion wrecks, and I still like it, and maybe Feraligatr does too even though I never really used it. Though Typhlosion is certainly a glass cannon of a starter due to his low defense in comparison to the other two, it makes up for it in other stats (oddly according to Bulbapedia they are the exact same as Charizard's). That's about all I got for Gen-2's starters.

Gen-3: Blaziken started a trend of Fire-Fighting starters apparently. But it's also a wrecker, powerful, and being part Fighting helps cover quite a number of types as well, including Rock, one of its weakness. The starter that has a type advantage over it, Swampert, is more of a defensive Pokemon in actuality, with very high defense and the Protect move. Oh, and it's Water-Ground, which is a double-edged sword in my book. 4x Grass weakness can be bad especially when confronted with Hoenn's Grass starter (which stays a pure Grass type), but you at least don't have to worry about Electric attacks. Stat-wise, Sceptile oddly enough is the same as Blaziken, with Swampert being above both of them particularly in defense. Though I will say that Sceptile does have the highest Speed rating, so if you are speedy, go for it.

Gen-4: Hard to judge. For one, all fully-evolved starters are dual-typed. Then again, Infernape is of the same typing that Blaziken had. On the other hand, I said it before, but Diamond and Pearl failed to deliver on Fire type Pokemon with just the starter and the Ponyta/Rapidash line being the only ones present. Looking at base stats, Infernape is all over the place, and certainly a glass cannon in comparison to other Fire starters I mentioned. It's all about being fast and attacking, with HP and defense being low. A good starter if you are generally speedy, like me.

Now wait a minute, let's look at the other starters here. Torterra is in the same vein as Swampert, but I like it's typings more. Like Swampert, it is fully defensive, can naturally learn Earthquake without the TM, and is very good as a physically attacker. Of course, it's slow, but it can hold its own, except when you get hit with an Ice type move that is. That's truly its Achilles heel right there. Empoleon may have less defense than Torterra, but looking at its second type to find it is part-Steel means it has many resistances. Not to mention that Special Attack is the highest for any starter so far, and Empoleon's other stats show that it manages to not be bad in most. All in all though, I actually like all three of the starters in many different ways.

Yeah, focusing on stats may be a little too much to ask for, but some people find them important when judging starters instead of going "Fire all the way" or some other crap like that. Yeah, I lean towards Fire a lot, but Gen-4 at least made me like a Grass starter for once, and Water ones generally tend to be well-rounded. The later Gens in the series tend to round the base stats in ways that all of the fully-evolved starters are totaled to equal numbers, hmm...