From this month’s Edge:

“…the central strength of the Pokémon world is that there is no us and them. Unusually for an RPG, there are no enemies. Every battle you have is against creatures who could just as well be on your side… The rule of RPG thumb is that you play as an alien, wandering a strange and hostile world where each monster is more venomous and bizarre than the last. In Pokémon you belong. Fought in anger only rarely, battles are as much about maintaining the natural balance there would be in the wild, as about slapping down a cocky Geodude.”