The Pacing of Types

A characteristic that makes Pokémon unique is types. They are part of what makes the games of the series what they are, as I've also illustrated in a song about them. As is true of any expanding game series, Pokémon types also have expanded, though not at a constant rate or pace. Still, this becomes a valid consideration, given that there is always the possibility of new types coming in the future, however small.

Pokémon started out in the first generation with 15 types, which are Normal, Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Rock. Ghost, and Dragon. This is a fairly large number to start out with, perhaps a bit mind-boggling in some sense. And yet with only 151 monsters of those types, it works, and they're all mostly in harmony. Many of the types are well-represented, except for the elusive Dragon type, which only ended up as a very small fraction of that 151 Pokémon. Even so, the Dragon type managed to become a standout strong type, with Psychic as a runner-up of sorts.

The second generation then quickly came with the new Dark and Steel types, and at that point the types totaled to 17. The former could counter the standout Psychic type, while the latter just appeared as another strong type, which it did, with all of its resistances. New Pokémon had the new types, but no old Pokémon did, and for three generations afterwards, Steel and Dragon held the post as standouts. The sixth generation added only one type to even things out, the 18^th Fairy type as an intermediary for both, and for the first time, many old Pokémon gained the designation. Compared with the suddenness of Dark and Steel with no prior changes, this took quite some time.

Will any new types ever come? Given that the games seem quite stable with 18, it doesn't seem likely that new types will come, though there are still some loose ends. For example, Electric is weak to (and only to) Ground, while Dragons themselves can only counter another Dragon, and Normal cannot counter anything, the only one of the 18 types that cannot. A new type can maybe rectify these loose ends, but that may or may not happen, and if it does, not for a long time, as with the case of the Fairy type. The fact remains that anything is possible.

The expansion of Pokémon types have not been steady or regular, but it seems it doesn't try to be or have to be so. Notwithstanding the standout strong types, the other types have been more or less harmonious for playing the games, and expansion is as much a "minor fix" as it is a "major new thing" that plays into the logic of the game. Whether or not this unique logic will expand again in the future is something to be seen.