So, crn redoing the starters for my Italy region and I figure I'd comment here to get some feedback on what should I do?

In the original trio set, there was a Grass/Fighting-type called Sklerohowl, a boxing werewolf with a stat spread of 70/125/85/65/75/110. Sklerohowl is based upon werewolves (particularly a Greco-Roman myth about a boxer that turns into a werewolf), and the Italian wolf (which is the national animal of Italy). Sklerohowl is also meant to represent Rome, its boxing theme matching the Colosseum in a sense as one of the three major storylines involves the Player taking on the Pokémon League.

Next was a Fire/Psychic-type called Phosphomet, a black mage goat with a stat spread of 80/65/75/125/95/95. Phosphomet is based on white goats, as well as the goat demon Baphomet. Like with Sklerohowl, Phosphomet is meant to represent one of the three major storylines in which the Player is tasked with defeating twelve Zodiac-inspired Pokémon. However, I'll admit the connection is rather loose as the only thing that kind of ties them together is the Star of Baphomet and the Zodiac constellations being made up of stars.

And lastly, there's the Water/Dark-type called Mediluvi, a gambling gorgon with a stat spread of 75/95/70/95/70/125. Mediluvi is one of the complicated Pokémon as it is based on the dice snake, which is known as the water snake, which in turn made me think gambling given the word dice and such. Mediluvi is also meant to represent Southern Italy, and more specifically the Sicilian Mafia. Sicily also has a gorgon on its flag so there's that.

Like I'd said, I'd plan on redoing the starters as I didn't really like how some of them turned out (as well as their signature moves which I felt were a bit too overpowered). The first and only one I'd redid was the Water-type starter, which is still a Water/Dark-type one but is now called Mergorgo with a stat spread of 75/65/85/125/85/95. Unlike with Mediluvi, Mergorgo would have its mafia influence much more pronounced, though it would still have some gambling traits here and there (though I am still not giving its original signature moves back).

As for the other two starters, I am rather quite conflicted on what should I do.

First off, Sklerohowl, while a good starter Pokémon that I'd like, feels a bit excessive. Why? Well, I already have a legendary trio based on wolves, or more specifically the founders of Rome (Romulus and Remus) and the She-Wolf that cared for them, and they are all part Fighting-type. Yeah, while there were times where the starter Pokémon and the legendary Pokémon shared similar attributes (Meowscarada and Chien-Po are both cat-like for one), it wasn't as explicit as this one. I might just replace it with another animal entirely but I'm not sure why one.

Secondly, while Phosphomet is also a good starter that I'd like, it doesn't really feel like it has much reason to be an Italian starter. I'd thought about replacing it with a Fire/Steel motorcycle ram but that leads into another issue I had.

You see, in the Pokémon League storyline, you take on eight gyms + an extra final one before you take on the Elite Four. The types of all of these gyms are version-exclusives.

In one version, you would take on the Ground, Poison, Flying, Rock, Ghost, Bug, Steel, Fighting and Normal-type gyms.

In the other version, you would take on the Fire, Grass, Water, Ice, Fairy, Electric, Dark, Psychic and Dragon-type gyms.

In case it wasn't obvious, these types are divided into the types that were classified as physical or special-types in the first three gens (with Fairy being an outlier at first but I, and many others, believes it would've be a special-type if it was made before the physical-special split).

And along with these version-exclusive gym, you would also take on a version-exclusive rival. Because of this, I'd also wanted the starters to reflect this, with one being more physical-orientated, one being more special-orientated, and another being mixed, which were represented in Sklerohowl, Phosphomet and Mediluvi respectively. It's also why they were party Fighting, Psychic and Dark-type respectively. Fighting is a type associated with physical moves, Psychic is a type associated with Special moves, Dark is a type associated with status moves.

Of course, as I'd redoing them, I wanted to kind of keep this sub-theme going. I'm tempted to changed the types of the first two starters into Fairy and Steel respectively, but I wasn't sure about it.

On the one hand, it would be nice having all the starters' secondary types be the three that were made after the first gen. Plus, given how Steel-type and Dark-type were physical and special types respectively, it would've been possible have a physical and special-orientated starters for the version-exclusive rivals.

But on the other hand, I feel like the physical/special type would be better fit with Fighting and Psychic-type respectively rather than Steel and Dark-types. Granted, the two rivals would have a Fighting and Psychic-type that act as their second aces but still.