One of the hardest things about growing up is realizing that sometimes, Pokemon don’t get better when you evolve them. Their stats go up of course, and they often get access to powerful new moves, but I think we all know there’s a lot more to Pokemon than how much fire they can breathe. Ash’s Pikachu understood this from the beginning, but for some reason, we’ve all just been evolving our Pokemon as soon as the mood strikes for the past 20 years.
In my Pokemon career, I’ve only ever stopped a Pokemon from evolving in extremely rare circumstances. Every time I did, it was just to give them a few more levels so they could learn a particular move faster than their evolved form. All my Pokemon eventually get to evolve, even if I need to find a special stone or magnet to do it.
But evolving Pokemon doesn’t need to be this compulsive thing we do just to make our team bigger and stronger. If you’ve ever seen someone do the Nuzlocke Challenge — a permadeath-style playthrough where you have to catch the first Pokemon you encounter in each area and release any that faint — you already know that having the strongest team isn’t a necessary requirement to enjoy the game. You can show up to the Elite Four with any old team, or even with fewer than six Pokemon, and as long as they’re properly leveled, you’ll get through it just fine. Unless you intend to play competitively, there’s really no requirement to ever evolve your Pokemon.
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are only a few months away. This is the perfect opportunity to keep your starter Pokemon forever young. It’s a lot harder to resist the temptation with a new generation because you want to see what every Pokemon is like and fill out your Pokedex, but with a remake, there’s a lot less pressure. If you grew up with Diamond and Pearl, you’ve already caught ‘em all and evolved your starter, so why not take this opportunity to try something different?
Torterra, Empoleon, and Infernape are great, don’t get me wrong, but are they really better than Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar? Some might argue that the dual-type advantage each acquires in their third-stage is a must-have, but don’t forget that types have resistances and weaknesses. Turtwig is a grass-type that gains ground-type when it evolves into Torterra, which gives it resistances to poison and rock, but it also doubles its already double weakness to flying. There’s advantages and disadvantages to every type, so don’t take it for granted that more types are always better.
Also, first and second stage starters learn some moves faster than third stage evolutions do. In Gen IV, Chimchar learns the dark move Nasty Plot at 23 and Flamethrower at 41, but Infernape doesn’t learn either of these. A level 41 Chimchar is still going to be strong enough to get you through the game as long as you have a half decent team.
If you love Infernape or any of the other third-stage evolutions, then by all means let them evolve naturally. But there’s no “correct” way to play Pokemon, and if you’ve always wanted to have a baby Turtwig on your team through the whole game, now is your chance.