I'm playing Pokemon Emerald, although this is generic to any pokemon game. My questions are really about two ways of picking Pokemon: How do I pick Pokemon, at all? I assume I should have some sort of strategy around ability types (eg. fire, electric) and weaknesses, and some sort of balance. How do I go about designing a basic party?
Given that I have already decided on, say, a psychic or stone Pokemon, my next question is: how do I pick between two similar-type Pokemon?
Let's say I have Ralts (psychic type), and now capture an Abra (psychic type). Both have different stats, moves, and evolutions; how do I decide which one to pick over the other? Do I look at moves? Weaknesses? Final evolutions?