The Faults of GenII

[Sprinter1988]

To be honest there were a lot of issues regarding the availability of fire and electric types.
Fire
So unless you chose Cyndaquil as your starter, getting a fire type pokemon was a pain in the hole. The two other non-legendary fire types introduced in Gen 2 were Slugma and Houndour, neither of which is available until you get well into Kanto. Pontya was unavailable until you were well on your way to Victory Road (also in Kanto) while Magmar wasn't available until Mt Silver (they changed this to the burned tower in Crystal, thankfully). So this left Vulpix or Growlithe (depending on version) or evolving an Eevee into Flareon. However, in order to evolve said Eevee into Flareon, or to evolve a Vulpix or Growlithe requires a fire stone, which were not readily available in Gen 2 - unless you lucked out with Mystery Gift, you had to wait until getting to the Sea Cottage which was (you guessed it) in Kanto.

As for the electric type, it was Mareep, Magnemite or nothing. Pikachu and Electabuzz were unavailable until Kanto, Chinchou was pretty hard to get even with a Good Rod, Voltorb was available, provided you were willing to waste your money on 5,500 game corner coins on the Thunder TM. Last option (evolving Eevee into Jolteon) has the same problems as obtaining Flareon.

Then of course there is the dark type problem, with Houndour and Murkrow being unavailable until Johto, and Larvitar (for Tyranitar) being unavailable until Mt Silver, your only real choice for a dark type was Umbreon.

Other issues regarding pokemon includes the fact that so many of the newer pokemon were so underwhelming - did anyone ever actually bother with Gligar, Yanma, Sneasel, Togetic, Aipom or Misdreavus until they could evolve?

 

[Leonhart]

I'm pretty sure that wild Boober (Magmar) could be found in Gold and Silver at the Burned Tower, so it was a viable Fire-type option.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

The limited typing never really affected me because I usually choose cyndaquil in gen 2, but even when I don't I don't actually like using Fire pokemon. Mareep also just happens to be my favorite line of electric pokemon. For Dark types... Psychic pokemon aren't that much of a problem but if they ARE I usually get a Heracross with Megahorn

 

[LadyTriox]

Always peeved me that I couldn't play crystal over the phone in the american version of crystal :/

Otherwise, I found the games pretty much without flaws. They had very nice graphics and Chikorita was a really good starter since it learned a powerful attacking move at only level 8.

 

[Leonhart]

They had very nice graphics and Chikorita was a really good starter since it learned a powerful attacking move at only level 8.

But unfortunately, its evolutionary family was still weak against the specialty types of three Jouto Gyms, four if we count the fact that Matsuba's (Morty's) Ghost-types were all half Poison-type.

 

[RileyXY1]

Most of the Johto Pokemon were unavailable until Kanto.
The level curve is rubbish.
Kanto is so stripped down and barren compared to its Gen 1 counterpart.
Chikorita is completely useless.

 

[Kage-Pikachu]

One of my faults with Gen 2 is the beginning of a specialized Champion. I like some specialized trainers but I feel that making the Champion use multiple Pokemon of one type (even dual type) makes them much easier to deal with (though I guess to be fair, we still have to make it through the Elite 4! lol)

 

[Mega Altaria]

One of my faults with Gen 2 is the beginning of a specialized Champion. I like some specialized trainers but I feel that making the Champion use multiple Pokemon of one type (even dual type) makes them much easier to deal with (though I guess to be fair, we still have to make it through the Elite 4! lol)

But there weren't too many Dragon-types in GSC and the only fully evolved ones were Dragonite and Kingdra. Lance's team had 3 Dragonites to fill up for the lack of Dragon-type Pokémon in GSC and all of his three other Pokémon are not Dragon-type and they do not have a common weakness.

 

[Kage-Pikachu]

True, I just found that it laid the basis for eventual Champions to follow that (Wallace and Iris for example).

 

[Leonhart]

Kanto is so stripped down and barren compared to its Gen 1 counterpart.

While that was disappointing, I didn't think it was too detrimental to my own enjoyment of G/S/C since I had played through Kanto enough in R/B/Y. G/S/C should've focused more on the new region anyway.

 

[Missingno.Fan]

I don’t like it how Gen I Pokemon are front and center while Gen II Pokemon (for the most part) take a back seat. Some of the new Pokémon are not even available until the post game in Kanto! What the crap?

Also the level curve. ‘Nuff said.

 

[Wabblebabble123]

This guy pointed out a bunch of flaws about gen 2

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/989552-pokemon-black-version/55361008

 

[Leonhart]

I don’t like it how Gen I Pokemon are front and center while Gen II Pokemon (for the most part) take a back seat. Some of the new Pokémon are not even available until the post game in Kanto! What the crap?

That was likely done for the sake of making Jouto seem like a continuation of Kanto.

And now that the beta G/S has been datamined, I can't help but feel that Generation II could've had a lot more Pokemon if the beta ones had been added to the final games.

 

[FullmetalJackie]

The sprite differences between Gold and Silver made me mad. I liked Silver more because it had better version exclusives but it sucks that Gold version had better sprites.

 

[Mega Altaria]

Even though I have to admit that some of the sprite animations in Crystal are cool, whenever battle animations are turned on, the game became much slower not only due to the move animations but combining that and the long sprite animations, Crystal was one of the most painful games to progress. I kept on wishing that they were shorter.

 

[Leonhart]

The sprite differences between Gold and Silver made me mad. I liked Silver more because it had better version exclusives but it sucks that Gold version had better sprites.

Gold's sprites looked decent compared to Silver's except for Lugia's, which looks somewhat creepy from my vantage point. I do wonder why the two games had differing sprites despite said games being completed at the same time.

 

[((JAWS))]

The cartridge battery memory erasing. Many great teams were lost..

Also the fact that you can’t bring the Pokémon to Gen 3. Very disappointing.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

No access to any Dragon Pokémon before you challenge Clair aside unless you trade and evolve Seadra into Kingdra. That was just ridiculous. Kingdra was insanely difficult to take out since Ice attacks do very little to it and the Fairy type didn’t exist yet.

 

[Mega Altaria]

No access to any Dragon Pokémon before you challenge Clair aside unless you trade and evolve Seadra into Kingdra. That was just ridiculous. Kingdra was insanely difficult to take out since Ice attacks do very little to it and the Fairy type didn’t exist yet.

It would have been better if the player was at least given access to it first so that the player could fish up a Dratini using a Good Rod and catch it. It at least still shows how much of a challenge Dragon-type Trainers could present but Game Freak surely went far here.

 

[Leonhart]

No access to any Dragon Pokémon before you challenge Clair aside unless you trade and evolve Seadra into Kingdra. That was just ridiculous. Kingdra was insanely difficult to take out since Ice attacks do very little to it and the Fairy type didn’t exist yet.

I vaguely recall Miniryu (Dratini) being available from the Game Corner, however.