Have you seen the starter popularity polls around the internet? More often than not Venusaur...doesn't rank all that high. It's generally a mix of Sceptile and Serperior at 1-2. It seems most of the ones who played the Gen 1 games as kids and lost interest later went with Charmander or Squirtle because they looked cooler.
I have, and that's why I think the Bulbasaur line is more popular. On the
IGN poll, Venusaur scored at #15 while Sceptile was at #66 and Serperior #74. Additionally, Bulbasaur did better then both as well, scoring at #52. I will admit though that this is a bit outdated now since a new generation has come and ORAS has put Gen 3 back in the spotlight, but unfortunately it's the only one that rates all Pokemon on an (mostly) even playing field that I can find and has a large sample size (Dorkly excluded any Pokemon that weren't in the top 15 in their respective generations, making it hard to see how Venusaur stacked up since it barely missed it at #16).
Also, I will add that the Bulbasaur line is actually the second most popular Kanto starter in Japan behind Charmander, so it's not really unliked globally.
And notability is subjective. I don't see why older characters should get priority solely because of seniority, and from what we've seen from the Smash developers, they don't think so either. And while you could argue Pokémon was at its mainstream peak around 2000, the fanbase is bigger now than ever.
I never said that older characters should have priority, the point was that Venusaur has more popularity to it due to being a part of the much more well known and popular generation.
Anyway, I have to disagree, at least in the context of this. Lets be honest, as much as we may prefer the other generations, Kanto is always going to be the one that the most people remember and are familiar with, the one most people experience, and that's going to mean that the Kanto starters and their Pokemon are always going to be among the most well known in the franchise. Venusaur may be the least popular of the Kanto bunch (at least outside of Japan), but it's still one of the three starters of that generation and one of the Pokemon people would've picked to start off their journey. Due to that, it's going to have a lot of popularity to it even if it's not at the top of its group.
You make some valid points. I take it you're a Blaziken supporter?
Well, not really. I do think he'd be a fun character if he does make it in and along with Sceptile he's one of my go-to starters for traveling in Hoenn, but he's not exactly at the top of my most wanted list.
Character selection involves a delicate balance. You want to find characters at least decently well known, who have enough moveset potential to work with (the higher the better, of course) and who first and foremost will stand out on an ever-growing roster. The more means they have to stand out, the better. While Blaziken could feel a little different from Falcon and different enough from Charizard's tail- and head-heavy moveset, being yet another physical-based fire user puts a damper on that uniqueness.
I do see your point, I won't lie and say that Blaziken doesn't carry those similarities to other characters that Sceptile does not, but I do feel that Blaziken can still be a good character in his own right despite that. I feel the best example of this would be Greninja, he follows the same ninja motif that Sheik does and yet is one of the most popular new characters because of how much he brought to the table on his own alongside the similarities he had with Sheik.
So due to that, I don't think Blaziken would suffer too much from having similarities, I do think he has good points to him that would make him a worthwhile character.
Yet Olimar's Pikmin have their own elements and Villager uses a tree and potted plant basically as ranged bludgeoning tools. Nature as an element still isn't present, meaning a character that uses it primarily would already be super-unique. And as said before, I'm not buying the idea that Ivysaur gets priority solely for being a veteran. Especially not when Sceptile is just as unique and--so far--has significantly more support.
Fair enough on Olimar and Villager.
As for Ivysaur, my main point was that he also brings in the nature inspired moveset that you're talking about for Sceptile as well as his own tools. So because of that, there's not that much of a monopoly on that aspect as while both will operate differently, they do fall into the same category of having a nature inspired moveset that can be brought into the game.
