Opinions on Poké Ride

[Zeb]

I loved it. HM management of either having to give up a moveslot, not being able to delete trash like Cut for 70% of the game or just needing to drag around a HM slave made playing previous generations pretty annoying at times. It made the game much less annoying and more fun because there was less annoyance (in that regard at least). But as much as I love Hawlucha, I could live without the terrible outfit. And the less said about that weird Machamp "Ride" the better...

Hopefully it's a feature they keep going forward. I'd like to see other Pokemon be available to ride in different regions, rather than repeating the same ones from Alola. Things like Mantine, Dodrio, etc seeming like easy picks. We had Mamoswine and Gogoat in Kalos too, so they could make for decent returning options.

I also think they could open up more types of overworld puzzles using different types of Pokemon species Rides, since the ride's function doesn't really need to be linked to an existing move, like HMs did (because the Pokemon had to learn the Hm move). Take Mudsdale and Stoutland for examples, their Rides aren't moves, even though we have others like Lapras Surf, Charizard Fly etc. Just seems like there's potential for more things like that there.

 

[Esserise]

I thought it was great. I've said before that I thought the HM management in BW, B2W2, and XY was basically fine, but after playing SM, I think I do prefer just not having to bother with it in the first place. And the outfit is whatever. I don't mind it.

Hard to say which Ride is my favorite. Sharpedo drifting is super-fun, but the Machamp one is wickedly clever and kinda cute. Those are my top two, but in general, they were all good choices.

 

[dragon_nataku]

I've never had a problem with HM's. I usually distributed them pretty evenly across my party so I think I ever only once had an "HM Slave." I also almost never used the bike outside of hatching eggs in XY and the routes that absolutely required a bike in whatever game it was that had like two different types of bike.

I don't understand this "Stoutland is too hard" issue that everyone seems to have. I already became the Champion and used Stoutland the entire time and never had a problem with it. I did prefer the ORAS Dowsing Machine though, only cause it seems a little weird to me that this GIANT HULKING BEAST is looking for tiny tiny items. He takes up waaaaay too much space. Someone either put this dog on a diet or give his coat a trim.

I do not like the outfit. It is really stupid-looking and I don't get it~ I do really really like Tauros Charge and it's my favourite one. When I first got it and for a while afterwards I would just run around on Tauros for absolutely no reason (and kind of feel bad whenever I crashed into people ww). It is also super-convenient for hatching eggs and increasing friendship.

I don't like Machamp Shove. It looks ridiculous. Why do I need to RIDE a Pokemon just to get a giant boulder out of my way? That is silly. Machamp Shove doesn't need to carry me during that.

I think an interesting idea would have been to only be able to get the Ride Pokemon if you caught/evolved a Pokemon that was capable of it (so, only use Stoutland Search if you evolved a Lillipup into a Stoutland). I know some people will be like "NOOOOO, IT'S LIKE HMs AGAIN THAT YOU CAN'T USE THEM UNTIL A CERTAIN POINT" but Ride Pokemon don't get registered for you until certain points anyway. Also I think this issue would be lessened if they made the Ride Pokemon with more species like others have said. So if I evolve a Rufflet into Braviary or whatever then I can use Braviary Glide instead of Charizard Glide and still get to use that "ride," or Arcanine Charge instead of Tauros Charge if I evolve a Growlithe, so you wouldn't have to wait so long to get the Ride from evolving a specific Pokemon. I mean... it's mostly just me being like "but I want to keep these Pokemon why can't I keep them" Maybe they could have a place in some city where you can take your Pokemon once they've evolved far enough to learn the Ride skill, without it taking up an actual move slot, and then you can use your own Pokemon to ride around on. I dunno~

 

[SpikOriundo]

Arcanine Charge instead of Tauros Charge

Maybe they could have a place in some city where you can take your Pokemon once they've evolved far enough to learn the Ride skill, without it taking up an actual move slot, and then you can use your own Pokemon to ride around on. I dunno~

^ This is gold.

 

[Camille]

This isn't going to be a very popular opinion, but I strongly disliked the concept. It feels all kinds of wrong, considering the fact Pokemon series has always been about exploring the world by bonding with your Pokemon. Why should I use someone else's Pokemon again? Why is Charizard, a Pokemon that isn't even in the Alola Dex, used for flying purposes, and not Salamence/Skarmory/Fearow? Furthermore, field moves like Surf, Waterfall, and Fly to a degree, have been consistently great in battle, so what's wrong with teaching them to party members?
If Poke Ride was at least implemented similiarly to Soaring from OR/AS, I'd have had absolutely no issues with it. At least with Soaring, you're using the Latios/Latias you own and have saved from the evil team. But the way it is now, it just feels like a slap in the face. Hopefully it stays a region-exclusive feature. Seeing they habitually remove features that make the game more convenient, such as Hordes and Super Training, I think it won't be back in later games.

 

[Soki]

Furthermore, field moves like Surf, Waterfall, and Fly to a degree, have been consistently great in battle, so what's wrong with teaching them to party members?

Because next to those three you also have to make space for Cut, Strength, Flash, Whirlpool, Rock Smash, Defog, or Rock Climb. Some like Defog and Flash you only use once or twice, but they're stuck on your Pokémon for most of the game until you can finally delete them. And Surf's great, but a lot of people prefer Scald, so you either have to teach your mon both or choose to be stuck with Surf.

Next to that, they decide what Pokémon you should have on your team. Fly and Surf make it so that having a Flying- and Water-type on your team has been a must for all these games. And most of the time there's been at least two Water-type HM's, meaning that your Water-type is becoming an HM slave whether you like it or not. Especially in (O)R(A)SE, where you had three of the damn things.

Like, most of this game I kept thinking 'shit I still need a Flying-type on the team' and everytime I realized that wasn't a must anymore I was so happy. I had neither a Flying nor Water-type on my team, this is what real freedom is like

It's also a huge advantage in the post-game, in which my main team is mostly enjoying their earned time off in a PC box and I constantly have random mons on my team which I use for training or breeding. It was always such a drag to keep having to pull my main mons out of the box because I needed to Fly somewhere or I needed to access a certain cave. Seriously, the freedom is real.

 

[crazyben1234]

Furthermore, field moves like Surf, Waterfall, and Fly to a degree, have been consistently great in battle, so what's wrong with teaching them to party members?

These moves can still be taught as TMs.
(Though I do wish they had kept Strength as well. I know that Return exists, but I feel more comfortable having a guaranteed 80 BP Normal type attack.)

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Hmm. My first choice would've been to make HMs into field skills like in Ranger, but I do appreciate it. I like how its a cultural thing, too.

Stoutland being an Itemfinder kinda bothers me though. Not in or of itself, but because we've had like 8 different iterations of that item...

 

[PurplePopplio]

I like Stoutland. A big dog being ridden? Just imagine everyone's faces as you stroll around.

 

[Kisu]

I like it as a one time thing,taking HMS away made it way to easy.

SM were basically dungeonless and the easiest games I've ever played

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I like it as a one time thing,taking HMS away made it way to easy.

SM were basically dungeonless and the easiest games I've ever played

But it's not as if they removed obstacles entirely-they just removed the requirement to have a Pokemon learn the move. While I agree that some obstacles weren't as challenging as previous games, that's not due to the presence of PokeRide-you could still have a complicated Strength puzzle with Machamp Shove.

 

[godiego]

Because next to those three you also have to make space for Cut, Strength, Flash, Whirlpool, Rock Smash, Defog, or Rock Climb. Some like Defog and Flash you only use once or twice, but they're stuck on your Pokémon for most of the game until you can finally delete them. And Surf's great, but a lot of people prefer Scald, so you either have to teach your mon both or choose to be stuck with Surf.

i'm not sure how someone-- not you specifically-- could complain about needing to "make space" for certain HMs and then manage to prefer Scald over Surf. Scald is inferior to Surf in the main campaign.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

My favorite feature! Love riding on Stoutland! This was a very nice replacement to HMs and I hope this will be a main series staple from now on.

My only gripe with it is that they force you to wear those red and green clothes while riding a Pokemon. I'm not too keen on that. Other than that, it's great!

 

[Kisu]

But it's not as if they removed obstacles entirely-they just removed the requirement to have a Pokemon learn the move. While I agree that some obstacles weren't as challenging as previous games, that's not due to the presence of PokeRide-you could still have a complicated Strength puzzle with Machamp Shove.

You could have complicated puzzles still but SM didn't,having caves littered with trainer's and having to have 1 hm pokemon was one of the few challenging aspects of the game before

 

[TechSkylander1518]

You could have complicated puzzles still but SM didn't,having caves littered with trainer's and having to have 1 hm pokemon was one of the few challenging aspects of the game before

I already said that Sun and Moon didn't have quite as many challenges, but that still doesn't mean that PokeRide is the cause for that.

Assuming that there's a cave that even requires four HM moves at a time (which I'm fairly certain is a pretty rare thing), you can just get out of the cave and heal yourself before going back and taking on whoever's left. More trainers isn't really an obstacle.

 

[Kisu]

I already said that Sun and Moon didn't have quite as many challenges, but that still doesn't mean that PokeRide is the cause for that.

Assuming that there's a cave that even requires four HM moves at a time (which I'm fairly certain is a pretty rare thing), you can just get out of the cave and heal yourself before going back and taking on whoever's left. More trainers isn't really an obstacle.

I mean maybe others teach 1 hm move to a different pokemon but I would teach one strength,rock smash,flash. So I don't need to pull out multiple pokemon each time I hit a cave.

To me outside of the lack of difficulty there's 2 main problems with pokeride.

1. If you can just randomly call the specific pokemon you need to solve this problem why even have this obstacle?

There's no strategy.

2.while I think it's cool to ride a Tauros around and I really like the stoutland search why not use your own stoutland to search? Or surf on your own Lapras? Or fly on your own Charizard?

A big theme of Pokemon is bonding with your own pokemon.
It's kinda weird to use other people's pokemon so much on your journey.

Not to mention it'd make it somewhat harder to have to have and raise up your own stoutland before you can use search or your own Lapras if you wanna surf.

Make each function unique to a certain pokemon and you have to own that pokemon and have it in your party to use its ability.

Otherwise the obstacles are pointless wastes of time that your using other people's pokemon for

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I mean maybe others teach 1 hm move to a different pokemon but I would teach one strength,rock smash,flash. So I don't need to pull out multiple pokemon each time I hit a cave.

I was referring more to how no Pokemon needs to have its moveset entirely spent. You could teach one Pokemon multiple HM moves and still give it one or two good ones.

1. If you can just randomly call the specific pokemon you need to solve this problem why even have this obstacle?

There's no strategy.

Because you didn't always have that Pokemon. I agree that there's some obstacles that seem totally unnecessary to be added in after the player has gotten a ride-Mudsdale Gallop seems to only be in places after you get it, for example-but with Lapras Paddle, Sharpedo Jet, and Tauros Smash, they all had obstacles that were impassable beforehand. Moreover, the movement of it isn't always just intended to be an obstacle-Surfing on water also allows players to encounter Pokemon, and smashed rocks have chances to leave behind valuables.

2.while I think it's cool to ride a Tauros around and I really like the stoutland search why not use your own stoutland to search? Or surf on your own Lapras? Or fly on your own Charizard?
Make each function unique to a certain pokemon and you have to own that pokemon and have it in your party to use its ability.

That would actually require people to capture certain Pokemon and bringing them around. That's bringing even more restriction to a player's party. How are you supposed to bond with your Pokemon if they're all pre-determined from the start? How are new Pokemon going to get featured when trainers will be spending most of their time with old ones?

A big theme of Pokemon is bonding with your own pokemon.
It's kinda weird to use other people's pokemon so much on your journey.

The Ride Pokemon are supposed to be considered the player's, too-just not in a battling way. There's plenty of bonding with Tauros on Melemele Island, for example.

Not to mention it'd make it somewhat harder to have to have and raise up your own stoutland before you can use search or your own Lapras if you wanna surf.

HMs have always been directly given to the player in the storyline. With a system of requiring players to get certain Pokemon, it's pretty likely that they'd be given to the player. Machamp is a trade evolution, and Charizard is the final form of a starter Pokemon-how are players supposed to get them on their own?

 

[Kisu]

I was referring more to how no Pokemon needs to have its moveset entirely spent. You could teach one Pokemon multiple HM moves and still give it one or two good ones.

Because you didn't always have that Pokemon. I agree that there's some obstacles that seem totally unnecessary to be added in after the player has gotten a ride-Mudsdale Gallop seems to only be in places after you get it, for example-but with Lapras Paddle, Sharpedo Jet, and Tauros Smash, they all had obstacles that were impassable beforehand. Moreover, the movement of it isn't always just intended to be an obstacle-Surfing on water also allows players to encounter Pokemon, and smashed rocks have chances to leave behind valuables.

That would actually require people to capture certain Pokemon and bringing them around. That's bringing even more restriction to a player's party. How are you supposed to bond with your Pokemon if they're all pre-determined from the start? How are new Pokemon going to get featured when trainers will be spending most of their time with old ones?

The Ride Pokemon are supposed to be considered the player's, too-just not in a battling way. There's plenty of bonding with Tauros on Melemele Island, for example.

HMs have always been directly given to the player in the storyline. With a system of requiring players to get certain Pokemon, it's pretty likely that they'd be given to the player. Machamp is a trade evolution, and Charizard is the final form of a starter Pokemon-how are players supposed to get them on their own?

I'm not saying the specific pokemon used in SM should be the ones used for the moves.

But search for instance isn't necessary,to have it be only for stoutland would make people try stoutland.

Flying and surf could be accessable from any fully evolved water or flying type you choose,or to specific ones to make you try different pokemon,and making you have to fully evolve a Pokemon to use its ability would be a challenge and block off areas for a period of time.

You might not teach 1 pokemon 4 HMS but some HMS aren't good for battle.
Surf and fly are great but I'd never teach a top 6 pokemon cut or flash

 

[TechSkylander1518]

You might not teach 1 pokemon 4 HMS but some HMS aren't good for battle.

I'm well aware of that-that's why I said "You could teach one Pokemon multiple HM moves and still give it one or two good moves".

Surf and fly are great but I'd never teach a top 6 pokemon cut or flash

But this isn't about competitive battling, this is about journeying through the region in the main game. A Pokemon doesn't have to be built competitively

But search for instance isn't necessary,to have it be only for stoutland would make people try stoutland.

Since search isn't necessary for travel, why bring it when you first enter a place? A player could just bring their usual party to an area, clear it of obstacles, and bring their Stoutland back to search, still keeping Stoutland off the battlefield.

Flying and surf could be accessable from any fully evolved water or flying type you choose

And here we get closer to the original HM system. I don't dislike the idea of having multiple Pokemon as an option, but the restrictions are mostly still in place. And not all Pokemon that can learn Surf are Water-types, nor all Fly learners Flying-type. People ought to be given a bit more freedom with the types they use.

or to specific ones to make you try different pokemon

Encouraging players to try a variety of Pokemon is nice, but this restricts that idea-everyone is required to use the same Pokemon.

and making you have to fully evolve a Pokemon to use its ability would be a challenge and block off areas for a period of time.

Harder challenges =/= better gameplay.

One major problem with this is that multiple Ride Pokemon are required in the storyline-Mudsdale Gallop, Machamp Shove, Tauros Charge, Lapras Paddle, and Sharpedo Jet. (not assuming these Pokemon are the ones used, just listing the types needed) Unless players know in advance what they need to train up, it's likely there'll be a lot of grinding to get forward in the story-not exactly appealing. And then there's the issue of actually getting to the stages to evolve. Wild Pokemon won't be enough to grind up, especially with scaling exp that dwindles as the Pokemon's level rises.

And there's also the problem of defining what exactly a fully-evolved Pokemon is in the first place-does it have to be the last in a stage of three, or is it just a Pokemon that can't evolve? If it's the latter, people are just going to go for the Pokemon that don't evolve.

 

[NoirCore]

Well, the lack of challenge being a problem is rather subjective; I think GameFreak made the smart choice to remove HMs. I like the idea of using your Pokemon to navigate through the field, but not by limiting Pokemon's movesets; if they're going to have you use your Pokemon to get through, just give the Pokemon a new sub-section of abilities to specifically be used for the field, without taking up move slots. That is, if most people don't mind the idea of needing a certain Pokemon (even just by species) to get past stuff in the first place.