[ComicGuy89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

Being 3rd straight after a string of Fire/Fighting types already put him on a lot of people's hit list.
Then being inferior to Blaziken and Inferape put him an even more people's hit lists.
Then being the 2nd Chinese design influenced Fire/Fighting starter put him on even more people's hit lists.
Also not helping his case is his poor design, bland movepool, and unremarkable stats compared to the other starters.

Basically, Emboar hit every wrong chord at the perfect time.

I don't think Emboar himself is a terrible design. Being a fire/fighting Journey to the West-based design is pretty cool, if Infernape didn't come before him, and Blaziken before that. Everything bad about him is simply a "been there, done that" thing, and while Game Freak tried to spice up the formula by making him a slow heavy-hitter instead of an agile fighter like Blaziken and Infernape, not many people like slow heavy-hitters.

Plus, he was overshadowed in his own generation by two other extremely cool final evolution starters, namely (the coolest grass starter ever) Serperior and (a freaking samurai) Samurott.

He's not a bad Pokémon, just a really uninspired choice. He's grown on me, too, but I can't say he's really cool compared to the other two starters.

And Fennekin better NOT evolve into a fire/fighting, but it's still a sad possibility.