Favorite starter trio?

[Guzma]

What's your favorite trio of starters? You know, like which Gen has the best starters overall? I generally just judge by final evos, though. My personal favorite trio are the Gen IV starters. It's weird, because Gen IV is my least favorite Gen (although I still like it), but I just really think Torterra, Infernape and Empoleon are all great. Torterra and Infernape are my favorite Grass and Fire-type starters, and Empoleon's my second favorite Water-type starter. I love Torterra's STAB typing, Infernape is a fantastic Pokemon all around, and Empoleon's defensive typing is a godsend. I'm playing through AS with all three of them, and they're doing pretty well. I also love their designs - Infernape's a nice little nod to Journey to the West, Torterra's definitely the toughest-looking Grass starter so far, and Empoleon is just plain badass. My second favorite trio is Gen VI, which has my all-time favorite starter, Greninja. As for my least favorite, I like the Gen II starters the least. I still like all three of them, but aside from maybe Totodile I think they're kind of bland design-wise.

That said, I have a good feeling Gen VII's starters will be cool-looking.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

My favorites are Gen II and Gen VI, because they're the only generations that actually kept the rock-paper-scissors dynamic they're supposed to have.

 

[Life]

Gen IV as well for me. Gen II is a close second though, but I love how all of the Sinnoh starters balance out with their secondary typings, and they all look really unique to me and I like their origins more than all the others.

 

[FinalArcadia]

Have to agree with Life. Gen II used to be my favorite starter-wise (and still is on a purely design basis), but I find the Gen IV ones to be better in battle overall while also having very nice designs. I also like Piplup eventually gaining Steel-type as it evolves for purely biased reasons (I adore Steel-type). Anime association also helps, since D/P had all three starters in very memorable roles and Chimchar in particular was pretty well-handled in the anime.

 

[PinkIceFox]

The only starter trio I don't like is Unova's. My most favorite so far are 1, 3, 6, and 7 though.

 

[Kharixi]

As far as designs go, I'd say I like all of the Kalos starters most. Or Sinnoh.

 

[Serpentsounds]

I've developed way too much fondness over the years for the original trio to seriously consider voting for anything else. But, I'll hand over a respectable second place to the gen 6 starters, since foxes are neat and frogs are even better.

I'll go in the opposite direction and cast my vote for least favorite, as well, awarding it to gen 4. Chimchar's and Turtwig's designs don't really do anything for me. I like penguins, but I didn't like the direction of the Piplup line. The designs go from cute -> awkward -> cool, where as I would have preferred cute -> cuter -> cutest . I'm picturing a big, fat, emperor penguin...like an avian counterpart to Totoro. Regardless, it's still my favorite of this trio, but I find them all overall a bit lackluster.

Actually, I might as well just rank them all. I don't have enough of an opinion on the new reveals yet, so barring gen 7, my preferences look like: 1 > 6 > 2 > 3 > 5 > 4

 

[Kitsuu]

I feel like the Grass types are big make-or-break points when comparing region starters.
Bulbasaur, Turtwig, and Chespin are competent enough to last you the entire game. So Gen 1, 4, and 6 are my favorites.
The other pure Grass types are decent, but I think they might struggle too much at times.
I don't mention the Fire or Water types because I think they are all good choices.

 

[Tenjiku]

My favorites are gen II, VI, and VII. Those three have starters that I like equally, while the other gens have only one or two starters I like out of the three.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I'm voting for the Gen IV trio. Bear in mind that I judge by their final forms. As cool as the Gen VII trio are, I make it a habit to evolve the starter before battling the first gym leader so the basic forms aren't going to stick around for long.

Torterra... My first choice for a Sinnoh starter, beginning as a Turtwig. What can I say, I love the Grass/Ground combination. Add in a Rock type coverage move and all of its four type weaknesses are immediately covered for, which is seriously sweet and leaves me with room for Rock Polish. It's easily my favorite Grass starter and I'd be using it far more often if Breloom didn't exist.

Infernape... My second choice for a Sinnoh starter, beginning as a Chimchar. While the second in a line of Fire/Fighting types, I feel that it does this combo better than Blaziken. It's very offensively versatile in its stats, we could go purely physical with Swords Dance to boost and Mach Punch for priority, purely special with Nasty Plot to boost and Vacuum Wave for priority, or something mixed. I like lots of options.

Empoleon... My third choice for a Sinnoh starter, beginning as a Piplup. I admittedly haven't used it as much as its Grass and Fire colleagues but the Water/Steel typing isn't anything to scoff at on a good day, and it's something I'm intending to abuse in PMD games. The combo (primarily its Steel typing) gives it a much greater amount of resistances than any starter which is definitely something to note. Now, if it could just have a more optimal HA than Defiant...

 

[Sakuraa]

I made my choice based on the trio's on their own. So even though they aren't my top favorites when I'd rank the starters individually, I voted for Gen II.

The main reason is because this is the only trio where I like every single Pokemon in every stage of their evolution design wise. For gens 1-6, there's at least one starter who has at least one member of their evolutionary line that I dislike for one reason or another. And obviously I can't rank Gen 7 yet since we currently only know the first stages; though I honestly don't care that much for Rowlet in general. This also makes it the only trio where I'd be fine using any of the starters in a run through of a main game. Honestly, it took me a while to decided who I liked more between Chikorita and Totodile (water-types are my fav, but Chikorita is adorable) and which one I wanted to use in SS. The designs are nice and simple with no drastic changes from base form to final and I like that.

Another reason is because I really like how they're the only group of starters that all start and remain single typed all throughout their evolutionary lines. I know I'm unpopular in this opinion, but I have no issue with starters remaining single typed and sometimes I prefer it to gaining another type later. Typhlosion has always been special to me for being the only final fire starter form (currently) to not gain a secondary typing. I'm actually hoping Litten remains pure fire as well.

 

[Guzma]

After starting a Y playthrough with them, I'm starting to like the Unova trio just as much as the Sinnoh trio. Kind of fitting, since Gen V is my favorite Gen, but Serperior's a badass with Contrary, Emboar's surprisingly good with Reckless, and Samurott just has a cool design even though his ability's worthless. I think I'll also put in Gen VI since I loved using those three in a previous Y playthrough.

I guess it might be because that ever since Gen IV, they've decided to add non-Type or animal-based elements to designs. It gives them more personality to their designs, IMO.

• Gen IV seems to be based on legends: Torterra's the world turtle, Infernape's Sun Wukong, and Empoleon's a cross between the mythical Posiedon (trident horns) and the decidedly non-mythical Napoleon.
  
• Gen V was stated to have "nation-based" motifs: Emboar's Zhu Baije from the Chinese novel Journey to the West, Samurott's a samurai (obviously) with a Japanese motif, and Serperior is loosely based on the anime Rose of Versailles with a French motif. It's kind of funny Serperior had a French motif considering where the next game was set =P
  
• Gen VI goes with RPG character classes: Chesnaught is a knight/fighter, Delphox is a mage, and Greninja is a rogue/assassin/ninja.

 

[Zeb]

If we're talking final stages, then Gen V easily. Not a popular opinion but I adore Serperior, Emboar and Samurott. Emboar is easily my favourite Fire starter (not exactly hard considering I don't like the others much, if at all). Serperior is godly, I loved using one in Gen V despite the constant complaints people had about them needing to box it, and since Contrary has been released it's proving itself a monster. It was my favourite Pokemon throughout Gen V and even though Skrelp/Dragalge knocked it from the top spot in XY it still ranks really high in my favourites. Samurott took me a long time to warm too, but I think it completely redeems Oshawott and Dewott which I don't really care for. Oshawott is a terrible design imo, but a shogun sea lion is badass! Look at those whiskers!

It's a shame they are generally so attacked with hate because I really like their final stages. Their first stages (Snivy, Oshawott, Tepig) don't do anything for me though I must admit.

Not sure which is my least favourite trio though.

 

[Kelleo]

Sinnoh, because I love Infernape and Empoleon is really cool too. Torterra isn't bad. Infernape is my top favorite out of any of the starters, evolutionary forms included.

 

[Guzma]

Serperior is amazing. I almost always use her on my battle team. Like I said, it wasn't until I started using them in my current starters-only Y playthrough that the other two grew on me. I always liked their designs, but Samurott and Emboar didn't really stand out to me until now.

I basically judge all starters by their final stages, and since I find the Johto starter final stages rather bland, they're my least favorites. I love Totodile because of the anime, though. Dancing Donald Duck alligator!

 

[Almonds]

It's t tie between Gen 3 and Gen 4. Gen 4 because they all balance each other even when they evolve, and Gen 3 because they're all my fav designs.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

I think gen 4 was my favorite because all the starters gained a secondary type.

 

[Zexy]

I'm going with Gen III. It's one of the few gens in which I like all the members a lot.

 

[PeaceFreak]

For me the first three starters, yea Gen I.
This were the one of the first I saw, and I love them

 

[Guzma]

Okay, now that there were some recent revelations about Gen VII's starters, I'm changing my favorite starters vote to Gen VII.