Board Thread:Pokemon Arena X - Discussion/@comment-5398529-20131021054436/@comment-5537612-20131027135239

PaxFanHelper - M wrote: Don't get me wrong but these are just the starters they aint meant to be godly... Yes. But they also have to be pleasant to play. They sorta gotta be the Mario character in Mario Kart games; jack of all trades, master of none. The three starters at the start of each game come close to this, their stats are balanced but gravitate towards a specific role.

Pokemon like happiny and gastly, on the other hand, are much more specialised (the former in taking special hits like a champ and do shenanigans, the latter in being a fast yet brittle special attacker). They are not the optimal choice for beginning players, and if they'd choose one of those, chances are they couldn't do certain missions because their pokemon do not suit them.

Another thing that is a factor is movepools. Happiny has fuck all, and will not be fun to play as. Gastly has a decent movepool, but most attacking moves are only available later on, so gastly has to rely on status.

This is, of course, assuming you get to choose a single poke. If you have access to all of them then it shouldn't be as much of a problem.