Opinions on Poké Ride

[Peachy]

They were the best quality of life update the series has done in a long time. My only gripe is Tauros replacing the bicycle, it's not 1-1. I hate how I have to hold down B to go faster and that Tauros can't get into small gaps, which the bicycle never had problems with.

 

[Kisu]

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".

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

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.

And here we get closer to the original HM system.

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

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.

When I say competitive I'm saying a Pokemon you'd use for battle in game,I wouldn't teach a Pokemon I'm going to challenge the elite 4 with cut.

But I also wouldn't call someone else's Charizard if I needed a ride either.

Besides ingame everyone was using the exact same pokemon for rides,and any region only has so many pokemon available and only some of them could learn various HM'S anyway.

Making the ride abilities exclusive to certain pokemon would eliminate hm's and make you have to train your own pokemon to access them, raising difficulty as opposed to just calling someone else's pokemon.

Unless it's a Pokemon you have to trade to evolve getting to a final evolution isn't difficult.

I mean my starter was fully evolved halfway thru the 2nd island.

In game your supposed to be learning about pokemon,alot of people don't know about magmars ability to hatch eggs faster,don't mean it isn't there.

Learning which pokemon would give you ride abilities and when wouldn't be hard and it'd be incentive to evolve and grind up pokemon faster to access areas.

It's just an idea,I don't mind losing HMS I just didn't like the loss in difficulty,and using other people's pokemon was weird.

Having stoutland on my team but calling some other stoutland to ride? Be like having a gf but only taking other girls on dates.

Not to mention to pointlessness of having an obstacle that's not an obstacle because you can just easily call some random pokemon you didn't train to get past it in 2 secs.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

When I say competitive I'm saying a Pokemon you'd use for battle in game,I wouldn't teach a Pokemon I'm going to challenge the elite 4 with cut.

The Move Deleter has always been available before the Elite Four.

But I also wouldn't call someone else's Charizard if I needed a ride either.

Besides ingame everyone was using the exact same pokemon for rides,and any region only has so many pokemon available and only some of them could learn various HM'S anyway.

It's said by multiple NPCs throughout the games-these are Pokemon bred to be Ride Pokemon. The idea is that each person has their own personal one to call. (that's why you can go up to NPCs while riding a Pokemon of the same species as they are) Charizard isn't even native to Alola.

And each one of them could learn the moves they were assigned to:
Tauros can learn Rock Smash
Lapras can learn Surf
Charizard can learn Fly
Machamp can learn Strength
Sharpedo can learn both Rock Smash and Surf

The only purposes that don't have HMs associated with them are Stoutland and Mudsdale. Stoutland can learn Odor Sleuth, as good a justification as any, and Mudsdale's is just because of the hardness of its hooves.

Making the ride abilities exclusive to certain pokemon would eliminate hm's and make you have to train your own pokemon to access them, raising difficulty as opposed to just calling someone else's pokemon.

Forcing players to grind is just busy work, that doesn't mean it's a better challenge.

Unless it's a Pokemon you have to trade to evolve getting to a final evolution isn't difficult.

I mean my starter was fully evolved halfway thru the 2nd island.

The Pokemon you had since the start of the game was able to get a lot of experience? Wow, I wonder where it all came from?

And my point isn't about putting a Pokemon on one's team and raising it up-it's about picking up a Pokemon that wasn't on someone's team and having to grind it up.

In game your supposed to be learning about pokemon,alot of people don't know about magmars ability to hatch eggs faster,don't mean it isn't there.

Neither are you required to hatch eggs. Information that is required to complete the storyline, like what Ride Pokemon are required for navigation, should not be a secret.

And the point isn't that people would have no idea about the right Ride Pokemon-it's that they would know at the wrong time. It's not very helpful to be told what Pokemon you should have been raising after battling trainers with other Pokemon.

Learning which pokemon would give you ride abilities and when wouldn't be hard and it'd be incentive to evolve and grind up pokemon faster to access areas.

It's not an incentive, it's requiring it. An incentive would be a bonus that's not necessary to advance the plot.

It's just an idea,I don't mind losing HMS I just didn't like the loss in difficulty,and using other people's pokemon was weird.

Again, the change in difficulty is not directly linked to Ride Pokemon, and the Ride Pokemon are your own Pokemon given to you by others. (save for, I believe, the case of Hapu's Mudsdale) Does it feel strange to use gift Pokemon that used to belong to someone else?

Having stoutland on my team but calling some other stoutland to ride? Be like having a gf but only taking other girls on dates.

At no point do you ever pledge anything resembling monogamy to your Pokemon. Pokemon are switched out all the time-are we supposed to feel guilty for using a different Pokemon in battle? Or for playing Pokemon Refresh with different Pokemon? And on top of that, Ride Pokemon are supposed to be specially trained-I don't think Pokemon will feel bad for not doing a task they don't know how to do.

Not to mention to pointlessness of having an obstacle that's not an obstacle because you can just easily call some random pokemon you didn't train to get past it in 2 secs.

I already replied to this point, so I'll just quote my point again:

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.

 

[Kisu]

The Move Deleter has always been available before the Elite Four.

It's said by multiple NPCs throughout the games-these are Pokemon bred to be Ride Pokemon. The idea is that each person has their own personal one to call. (that's why you can go up to NPCs while riding a Pokemon of the same species as they are) Charizard isn't even native to Alola.

And each one of them could learn the moves they were assigned to:
Tauros can learn Rock Smash
Lapras can learn Surf
Charizard can learn Fly
Machamp can learn Strength
Sharpedo can learn both Rock Smash and Surf

The only purposes that don't have HMs associated with them are Stoutland and Mudsdale. Stoutland can learn Odor Sleuth, as good a justification as any, and Mudsdale's is just because of the hardness of its hooves.

Forcing players to grind is just busy work, that doesn't mean it's a better challenge.

The Pokemon you had since the start of the game was able to get a lot of experience? Wow, I wonder where it all came from?

And my point isn't about putting a Pokemon on one's team and raising it up-it's about picking up a Pokemon that wasn't on someone's team and having to grind it up.

Neither are you required to hatch eggs. Information that is required to complete the storyline, like what Ride Pokemon are required for navigation, should not be a secret.

And the point isn't that people would have no idea about the right Ride Pokemon-it's that they would know at the wrong time. It's not very helpful to be told what Pokemon you should have been raising after battling trainers with other Pokemon.

It's not an incentive, it's requiring it. An incentive would be a bonus that's not necessary to advance the plot.

Again, the change in difficulty is not directly linked to Ride Pokemon, and the Ride Pokemon are your own Pokemon given to you by others. (save for, I believe, the case of Hapu's Mudsdale) Does it feel strange to use gift Pokemon that used to belong to someone else?

At no point do you ever pledge anything resembling monogamy to your Pokemon. Pokemon are switched out all the time-are we supposed to feel guilty for using a different Pokemon in battle? Or for playing Pokemon Refresh with different Pokemon? And on top of that, Ride Pokemon are supposed to be specially trained-I don't think Pokemon will feel bad for not doing a task they don't know how to do.

I already replied to this point, so I'll just quote my point again:

So basically your opinion is you like "ride pokemon" that are bred for our use and you dislike Hm's.

My opinion is I don't mind having or not having hm's and I like riding pokemon in game but dislike not being able to use my own for it or being able to earn the ability.

And we both think there should be more difficulty

 

[Soki]

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.

Surf has more power yes, but Scald has that 30% chance on a burn, and often you don't really need the extra power of Surf to KO mons weak to Water. And it's not important why people make a certain choice, it's that they can make a choice.

And I don't really get the idea that HM's increase difficulty. If you have access to all the HM's on your team, getting rid of the obstacles is not really hard. Only some of the Strength puzzles were, and as said before; we could've still had those now but GF chose not to. The most difficult thing was being able to have all of the HM's on your team. That's adding tediousness to the game, not difficulty. That's like saying that you dislike being able to check IV's in the PC now, because going to the IV judge all the time was more difficult.

Also I'm quite fine with the HM puzzles not being hard. If I want to solve hard puzzles I'll play a puzzle game. I think most people play Pokémon for the collecting and battling, not for solving hard puzzles.

 

[NoirCore]

Making the ride abilities exclusive to certain pokemon would eliminate hm's and make you have to train your own pokemon to access them, raising difficulty as opposed to just calling someone else's pokemon.

And that's a huge turn-off. Giving only specific pokemon certain abilities just for the sake of higher difficulty? No thanks. At least assign field abilities to as many appropriate Pokemon that you can if we're going the "you need this Pokemon to get past this" route (no exculding Pokemon for the reason of "raising difficulty").

Learning which pokemon would give you ride abilities and when wouldn't be hard and it'd be incentive to evolve and grind up pokemon faster to access areas.

So what about people who prefer not to evolve their Pokemon in their playthroughs like myself? I'd like to beat the game while keeping my Pokemon how I'd like them appearance-wise, even if they're not strong. If anything, that ups the difficulty in itself.

 

[Kisu]

And that's a huge turn-off. Giving only specific pokemon certain abilities just for the sake of higher difficulty? No thanks. At least assign field abilities to as many appropriate Pokemon that you can if we're going the "you need this Pokemon to get past this" route (no exculding Pokemon for the reason of "raising difficulty").

So what about people who prefer not to evolve their Pokemon in their playthroughs like myself? I'd like to beat the game while keeping my Pokemon how I'd like them appearance-wise, even if they're not strong. If anything, that ups the difficulty in itself.

It'd be about the same as trying to complete a pokedex,if you don't wanna evolve the pokemon your using catch 2 to evolve one or trade for it

 

[Soki]

It'd be about the same as trying to complete a pokedex,if you don't wanna evolve the pokemon your using catch 2 to evolve one or trade for it

And here we end up back at the word 'choice' again. Completing the Pokédex is a choice, but Poké Ride is something you need to complete the main game. You can't go forcing people to trade just to complete the main game, or forcing them to have certain Pokémon on their team in the first place. That's even worse than HM's, with which you can at least choose from a range of Pokémon, but with Poké Ride you need specific ones.

Also, have you tried catching a Lapras? It has a 5% encounter rate and knows Perish Song. Again, that's not difficulty, that's just tediousness. There is a difference.

 

[Kisu]

And here we end up back at the word 'choice' again. Completing the Pokédex is a choice, but Poké Ride is something you need to complete the main game. You can't go forcing people to trade just to complete the main game, or forcing them to have certain Pokémon on their team in the first place. That's even worse than HM's, with which you can at least choose from a range of Pokémon, but with Poké Ride you need specific ones.

Also, have you tried catching a Lapras? It has a 5% encounter rate and knows Perish Song. Again, that's not difficulty, that's just tediousness. There is a difference.

Like I said my stance is I prefer being able to ride my own pokemon,and gave training your own as an example.

To me it's tedious to go thru a cutscene that's takes longer than walking over the rocks you need it for does.

It seemed pointless to have most the pokeride pokemon for such an easy thing.

GF could just have easily made it where you didn't need hm's or ride pokemon to beat the game and if you wanted to surf to catch pokemon or find tms or whatever you could choose to do it.

 

[Dieter]

I love the concept of Pokemon Ride, it's a lot better than the way HM moves worked (constantly needing a specific pokemon to get around is just really annoying and limiting). Suddenly, I can conveniently travel anywhere I want, whenever I want, without a single change to my team!

However, I got quite a few issues with Ride as well:

• The removal of the bike. Tauros charge is nice, but it's not exactly a smooth ride, nor can you get into smaller spaces and you constantly have to press B. I really miss having a bike
• Not sure if the surf spots are due to Lapras/Sharpedo, but if they are, well, they're quite a hassle. Mo-stly due to the encounter rate, but it also feels limiting in the way you encounter wild pokemon
• Stoutland is cute, but SLOW. I prefer any of the old item finders (with HGSS probably being my favourite, but iirc the Gen V was kinda similar?)
• Why are you here Charizard? You're cool, but you don't even go here? Couldn't we have had a native pokemon instead?
• The riding gear is incredibly ugly, feels unnecessary and seems clunky. In some cases it doesn't even make sense, I mean lapras' shield already is like a sortof saddle, it's known as the Transport Pokemon, so why the stupid saddle?
• I no longer get to traverse the world with my own pokemon. I mean, I do, they're in my team and I can play with them in refresh (which I like a lot and I can't say I miss the mini-games). But I no longer have the feeling my pokemon (get to) influence the overworld in any way anymore. It's not just that they don't have to perform HM moves anymore, but other moves their functionality in the overworld has been removed too (Sweet Scent, Dig, Teleport). It just throws me off a little

All aside, I do adore Ride and I hope HM's will never return in the way the used to be, but the current system definitely needs some tweaking

 

[SpikOriundo]

I mean lapras' shield already is like a sortof saddle, it's known as the Transport Pokemon, so why the stupid saddle?

I've seen this thing around a bunch, so I'mma say why I think that is at least partially needed.
Have you people seen an elephant? Probally. It has a nice and big back for people to ride around on. EXCEPT, that an elephant's back was not made for people to ride around on. If you ride on it without a saddle, you will end up causing back problems on it. It may even happen WITH the saddle, too, but I'm not completely sure.
Second point: have you guys seen a Lapras? Here's a reminder. This image is perfect, Lapras shows its shell perfectly.
Look at all of those pointless spikes, and looks at how you wouldn't be able to sit by the middle confortably. THAT is why the existence of the saddle: for the player to be able to sit confortably, and to not risk hurting or making the Lapras unconfortable. Yes, it probally could take the player without the saddle on him. The anime also showed that. But do you think that, while transversing the Orange Archipelago the character were confortable at all? Or that Lapras really liked taking them around like that?

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'll agree that riding Lapras without any kind of saddle wouldn't be as comfortable as it's cracked up to be - however, I'd take issue with some of the logic here. Calling those projections on the shell "spikes" is something of an exaggeration - they're clearly stubby and blunt. Given that there's otherwise nothing to hang on to, sitting hanging on to or perched astride one of those horns would probably be welcome. Then, given that it's clearly a shell, I don't see how having a human sitting on it would bother the pokémon at all

The problem I have with the design is that it's overdesigned. If you were to sit in something like that, first of all it would be a lot of clambering to get up into it. Then the height wouldn't really be of any use except perhaps to give a better view over Lapras' head. And then with it being set back so far you'd not have a very stable time if you wanted to turn sharply. It'd make more sense for the saddle to sit squarely on the middle of the back

 

[TechSkylander1518]

So basically your opinion is you like "ride pokemon" that are bred for our use and you dislike Hm's.

My opinion is I don't mind having or not having hm's and I like riding pokemon in game but dislike not being able to use my own for it or being able to earn the ability.

Given a pick of HMs or Ride Pokemon, yes, I much prefer Ride Pokemon.

Right now, you earn the ability just the same as you would in previous games-you progress enough in the story, you're allowed a new form of transportation. This has always been the setup-Gym Badges would even prevent you from using HM moves in the event that you did get them ahead of time.

I've seen this thing around a bunch, so I'mma say why I think that is at least partially needed.
Have you people seen an elephant? Probally. It has a nice and big back for people to ride around on. EXCEPT, that an elephant's back was not made for people to ride around on. If you ride on it without a saddle, you will end up causing back problems on it. It may even happen WITH the saddle, too, but I'm not completely sure.
Second point: have you guys seen a Lapras? Here's a reminder. This image is perfect, Lapras shows its shell perfectly.
Look at all of those pointless spikes, and looks at how you wouldn't be able to sit by the middle confortably. THAT is why the existence of the saddle: for the player to be able to sit confortably, and to not risk hurting or making the Lapras unconfortable. Yes, it probally could take the player without the saddle on him. The anime also showed that. But do you think that, while transversing the Orange Archipelago the character were confortable at all? Or that Lapras really liked taking them around like that?

Huh, I never thought of it like that! That's a really good point!

I'll agree that riding Lapras without any kind of saddle wouldn't be as comfortable as it's cracked up to be - however, I'd take issue with some of the logic here. Calling those projections on the shell "spikes" is something of an exaggeration - they're clearly stubby and blunt. Given that there's otherwise nothing to hang on to, sitting hanging on to or perched astride one of those horns would probably be welcome. Then, given that it's clearly a shell, I don't see how having a human sitting on it would bother the pokémon at all

The problem I have with the design is that it's overdesigned. If you were to sit in something like that, first of all it would be a lot of clambering to get up into it. Then the height wouldn't really be of any use except perhaps to give a better view over Lapras' head. And then with it being set back so far you'd not have a very stable time if you wanted to turn sharply. It'd make more sense for the saddle to sit squarely on the middle of the back

Aaand that's also a good point! I think shells of animals can still be damaged -you're not supposed to mess around with a turtle's shell too much, for example-so you wouldn't want to risk pressing into it to much, but I definitely agree with the rest of your points!

 

[Beth Pavell]

I think shells of animals can still be damaged -you're not supposed to mess around with a turtle's shell too much, for example-so you wouldn't want to risk pressing into it to much,

Yes, admittedly, that's true. Turtles (And tortoises, etc) have living shells - a tortoise shell is living bone with a covering of tough skin, essentially. I suppose it could be that a Lapras shell is designed more for support than protection, so perhaps it wouldn't be healthy to have too much pressure put on it. If a single human presents that much discomfort then I would suggest that's quite a weak spot for a pokémon to have

 

[SpikOriundo]

Calling those projections on the shell "spikes" is something of an exaggeration

I completely agree with you on that - the truth is that I forgot a better word for that :V

 

[Kisu]

I think the harnesses looked weird in game but it always freaked me out in the past imagining flying off on a Dragonite just holding on to it.

I think it looks good while flying or surfing,but kinda weird on a stoutland.

But it'd have to hurt stoutland just to grab it by the hair

 

[NoirCore]

It'd be about the same as trying to complete a pokedex,if you don't wanna evolve the pokemon your using catch 2 to evolve one or trade for it

And why is that good? Why should we have to get specific Pokemon for Pokeride with the incentive of "completing the Pokedex"? The grinding part to evolve it into a specific Pokemon sounds even less enticing and more like an unnecessary hassle.

 

[dragon_nataku]

I still think using one's own Pokemon for PokeRide is good, but again I think they should expand the options. So "Tauros Charge" could be "[any Pokemon that is quadruped and capable of carrying a human on their back] Charge." I used "Arcanine Charge" as an example before only cause that's the only Pokemon I could recall ever seeing (albeit in the anime) carrying a human on its back. Now that I think about it, Rapidash (yes I know, not Alolan Pokemon) can too.

So what I think is a good compromise is, like in S/M, you get the ability to use certain Rides at certain points in the story, but that person also tells you which of your current Pokemon are capable of being that type of Ride, or if one of their evolutions is capable of it (so like, Stoutland obviously does Stoutland search but if you have a Lillipup they tell you that it can use Search when it evolves into Stoutland, or Arcanine could also be able to use Search, etc). They can also make sure that there's at least one species of Pokemon, if not more, that can be caught before that point that either it or its evos can use that Ride ability, so you're not like automatically locked out of using that Ride for too much time if you didn't catch that species before.

They could also have an extra place in the Pokemon Center (hey, Pokemarts are inside the PokeCens now too instead of being their own building like before, so why not) where you can bring a species that is capable of learning that Ride ability and register them there to your pager. That way you can actually call your own Pokemon to ride, thus not requiring having them in your party to use them, but they're still YOUR Pokemon that you raised.

I think this is a good compromise. Plus, if they increase the number of species that can learn a Ride ability then that gives you your choice of Ride Pokemon instead of forcing you to raise/grind/whatever a Pokemon you don't really want to use.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

^ I think that's a pretty nice idea!

 

[Silverwynde]

I wonder if they'll increase the options for each rideable Pokemon. Maybe let you use other Flying-types for Glide like Golurk, a robot for soaring!

Or Bouffalant instead of Tauros. A little more variety would be nice.

I second this. Let me ride on a Golurk, please. I've been doing it for years and prefer Golurk as my Flyer.

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?

It needs tweaking, to be quite honest.

Why the heck am I flying on a Charizard? They aren't that blasted big--5′ 7″--and it doesn't make since to have that as your Flyer while it isn't in the Dex. I'd rather use my own Pokemon to be honest; I've worked with them and I trust them. But that's just me.

I like the idea I just think they need to iron some things out. Give me some variety, please. I'd appreciate that.