Personally, mine is joint first between Sandshrew (the cutest), Espurr (most relatable), and Gastrodon.
After those, in no particular order, I like Turtwig (best starter, fight me), the Roggenrola line (little rock guys), the Litwick line (candles and lamps with nefarious intentions), and Metagross (cool robot thing).
Kyogre is the best legendary in my opinion
My favorites are Torchic and Blaziken. Pokemon Saphire was one of the first video games I ever purchased, and he stuck with me through a lot.
I hate how TPC has repeatedly done the evo line dirty by overriding them with multiple fire/fighting type starters with higher stats