Are there any pokemon that are considered “taboo” to eat or are they all pretty much game? (as long as they are farmed or hunted properly of course)

Well, if you hunt it, it’s by definition game.

Bill. —LH

Edit: Right, right. Terribly sorry.

Generally speaking, there are quite a few pokémon humans should not eat, either due to cultural issues or simply because not all pokémon can be eaten.

First and foremost, there are the legendaries, as these are culturally significant—although the sheer difficulty in obtaining one would make this moot anyway. Ghost-types and dragon-types are likewise considered to be untouchable for the exact same reason.

Second and equally obvious are pokémon that are not edible to begin with. This category includes all rock-types and most steel-types due to body composition (excadrill is the only exception when it comes to steel-types, as the others either possess armor or are taboo for other reasons), as well as many poison-types due to the difficulty in removing their venom. As noted in earlier entries, there are other poison-types that are completely fine to eat so long as they’re prepared with the utmost care. These are typically the more animal-like poison-types. The less animal-like a poison-type is, the more likely it is to be lethally poisonous, with pokémon such as grimer, koffing, and trubbish (as well as their evolved forms) being particularly deadly.

Additionally, there are members of other types that are also not edible, including slugma, the baltoy line, the porygon line, the voltorb line, cryogonal, the bergmite line, and anything whose special ability is either Flame Body or Magma Armor. Grass-types tend to be either-or on the subject; of the non-poisonous species, anything that is not made of or covered in wood may be eaten.

Ditto is likewise not edible for reasons similar to the problem facing poison-types. As ditto produce more ditto by budding, breaking off a piece of one (say, by biting it) is not a guarantee that what you consume will actually be dead, and it’s not easy to kill a ditto, either. Which is to say, consuming a ditto, even cooked, may result in a very unpleasant death for the person daring enough to try it.

On a technical level, psychic-types are also considered to be inedible, although this is largely because all psychic-types possess a telepathic defense mechanism. In other words, attempting to kill a perfectly healthy psychic-type, even using humane slaughtering techniques, may result in permanent brain damage. It’s simply not worth it.

Among the pokémon that are technically edible, only a percentage is universally or culturally acceptable to eat. We do not, for example, kill and eat pokémon that greatly resemble humans, including the machop line, the tyrogue line, the timburr line, the makuhita line, sawk, and throh (as well as those that are also psychics, such as jynx and gardevoir). Likewise, most cultures frown on the consumption of “pet” pokémon, such as the clefairy and jigglypuff lines, as well as starters, monkey- or ape-like pokémon, and all feline, equine (yes, including blitzle and zebstrika), and canine pokémon. Pokémon known for their healing attributes, such as audino and chansey, are also taboo, although chansey’s eggs are fair game (but only if the chansey freely gives you one). Speaking of eggs, the togepi line is also frowned upon, despite the fact that many cultures have plenty of jokes concerning the slaughtering of togepi for breakfast.

Finally, if it’s rare, then there are actually government regulations in place protecting those species from being hunted. Farfetch’d is a notable example of this, as there was a period of time in which they had been overhunted (due to not only the taste of their meat but also the convenience of having your main course carry its own garnish around as a weapon) to the point of near-extinction in Kanto and Johto. Thanks to strict regulations that had been implemented fairly recently, the farfetch’d population is only now regaining its numbers. Other pokémon that enjoy government protection include wailmer and wailord (in Unova, Alola, and Kalos), lapras, carvanha and sharpedo, and absol (especially in the Hoenn region).

I suppose the shorter answer would be “if you would eat the animal, plant, or thing they resemble, then you may eat them.” But short answers are hardly fascinating, in my view.