Riding: What are they going to do with it?

[Phoenixon]

In X and Y, they introduced the idea of Riding Pokemon.
I remember the hype and speculation that happened when it was first officially revealed.
Sadly, the idea was executed pretty badly (IMO) and did not fulfill its full potential.

So, do you guys think this feature will return? The way it was in X Y? Or will they change it?
Or will this be exclusive to X Y for now?

I remember years ago, there was the idea of riding your OWN Pokemon, and doing things with them. I wrote a long post on this before, but there's no way I can find that now, so I'll just try to restate what I had thought of before:
-HMs should be removed. Instead, Pokemon will have Field Moves like in the Ranger games
-You would be able to ride SOME of your own Pokemon, if that is part of their field move
-Pokemon can have multiple field moves, depending on (previously) what HMs they could learn
-Some field moves can only be used while riding a pokemon (e.g. surf)
-Different Pokemon can ride at different speeds, depending on their speed
-Flying with Pokemon will be a thing... Not like the ordinary fly we have, but like Latios/Latios flying in ORAS. But for more Pokemon.
This way, we can link multiple features together, making the game simpler.

I think doing the above actually makes Riding Pokemon an awesome, lasting idea. Otherwise, I don't want to see what we got in X and Y come back. Thoughts?

 

[PinkIceFox]

If they keep the concept, and allow you to ride certain pokemon (ones that are big enough to make sense as something you can ride on the back of)... let me ride a Scolipede. I want my poisonous bug mount!

Nothing would make me happier at this point involving riding pokemon.

 

[Bolt Strike]

It's probably a Kalos specific feature, I don't expect to see it. In fact, I think vehicles may replace rideable Pokemon.

 

[godiego]

i like the idea of cars and such....i'm just not sure if i'd like the actual implementation of them as a thing for the PC.

 

[Cute Charm]

Yeah. I'd be into them keeping it if they expanded on the concept and allowed you to ride your pokemon anywhere and not just in certain spots.

I can see it as a skill you unlock by going through training. Like have a former racer NPC that wants to pass their skills on to the next person they see fit. The only downside is you have to have one of like 11 able to be ridden pokemon (Skiddo, Gogoat, Ryhorn, Mamoswine, Donphan, Ponyta, Rapidash, Blitzle, Zebstrika, Dodrio, and Lapras (water only, no HM needed).) in your party and I see something like that becoming the next Amity Square discourse.

I'd also like to see it replace bikes if they decide to keep the roller skates. The bike was kind of useless in XY due to wearing the skates all the time. Or better yet, replace the skates with riding pokemon and keep the bike. At least you can turn off the bike and enter buildings like normal without hitting walls.

 

[Lufenium]

It felt like a very novel idea that was more for fun than any practicality, so I could possibly see it was a Kalos-only feature.

Although remembering the route where you had to ride Mamoswine through the snow was pretty cool. I wouldn't be dissapointed if it did re-appear in some way.

 

[Esserise]

It's probably too French for Hawaii, just like changing your clothes


In all seriousness, I liked it well enough where it was used. I wouldn't mind it if it came back, but... I probably wouldn't even notice it if it didn't. If it were to return, though, I would like to have a wider variety of Pokémon to ride on.

On a similar note, I wonder if the in-battle natural objects will come back. They obviously weren't a huge thing, but I still liked them, and I don't see why they had to be excluded from ORAS.

 

[Rick]

Much like HG/SS were the only games having following pokemon (to a big extent), I'm pretty sure riding pokemon will be exclusive for Kalos. Even there it wasn't a big part of the games.

 

[Kirby4ever]

Much like HG/SS were the only games having following pokemon (to a big extent), I'm pretty sure riding pokemon will be exclusive for Kalos. Even there it wasn't a big part of the games.

In Pokemon Yellow, you had Pikachu follow you around.

 

[Rick]

Yes, but what I meant with "to a big extent" was that HG/SS were the only ones where you could have any pokemon following you, instead of just one or a handful of them. But even in XY and ORAS, they didn't give too much importance to the riding feature anyways. It was just a novelty like the Amity Square.

 

[Cute Charm]

Why does everybody still want pokemon to follow you around? Personally, I thought it was cute at first but then it got tiresome real fast and I just wished it could have been shut off. Riding pokemon has more functionality, it's cute, and it can also be ignored if you don't want to use it or need a break from it. Following pokemon was just there to be cute and there really wasn't any functionality behind it.

Besides, as it stands right now there's going to be over 800+ pokemon and that's also 800+ pokemon they have to model for the overworld instead of the usual handful of random pokemon that show up as NPC's pets and legendary encounters. It would just bog down the game even more than it will probably be bogged down. I just really hate to see these games be more laggy then XY were.

 

[sc190191]

That would take way too much work on their part to make anything rideable. Theres a reason the fly animation is a fake bird. If they put that much time into the game it wouldn't come out until 2018. With almost double as many Pokemon as existed in HGSS and with significantly more detailed game play it would be nearly impossible, and then asking for them to be further animated to be ridden or fly around would be even more difficult. Sure it would be cool, but it would come with issues too. You would need to have a large bird with you in order to fly, because it really wouldn't make sense for a pidgey to fly anymore and if you needed to ride on certain Pokemon for things it would still be as annoying as having an HM Pokemon if you didn't have large Pokemon on your team, because even typically fully evolved Pokemon are often not large enough to "ride". I do agree that it would be cool to have HM moves not take up part of the moveset though.

 

[Rick]

They already have those models in Super Mystery Dungeon. They could just use those for the main series and save a lot of time, though they would still need to do the models for the new ones coming with Sun & Moon. Only problem is to know if it's too much stuff for a handheld game.

 

[Falconwing]

I'd be down for just getting to actually have races. Pokemon jockeying has been a thing since season 1 of the anime and got many references in XY, but no actual event. The closest was the pokeathlon in HGSS. It would be fun sidegame activity if they included it in SM

 

[Like_Fahrenheit]

I forgot about that Rhyhorn business with your mother in XY. I was hoping we'd get more of that. Maybe in SM we'll have racing water Pokemon (if it's a tropical region).

 

[Dorothy]

I'd be down for just getting to actually have races. Pokemon jockeying has been a thing since season 1 of the anime and got many references in XY, but no actual event. The closest was the pokeathlon in HGSS. It would be fun sidegame activity if they included it in SM

It could be pretty cool, but they'd have to put some effort into it to differentiate it from Dash or really any racing game for me to get invested in it.

 

[Falconwing]

I forgot about that Rhyhorn business with your mother in XY. I was hoping we'd get more of that. Maybe in SM we'll have racing water Pokemon (if it's a tropical region).

The Tour de Altimar was a great idea in the movies and I was crushed it wasn't actually included in Hoenn.

 

[Mitchman]

Considering how soaring was an extension of riding, I think it will come back. Same thing with the extended surf abilities with certain Pokemon. I think its going to come back along with the vehicles for gettinng around.

 

[ShadOBabe]

Gosh I hope we get to the point where we can ride around on our own Pokemon. I've been dreaming of riding around on a Rapidash since I was a child in the 90s.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

When it comes to riding Pokemon, one thing I have always wanted is to actually see myself riding the Pokemon I am using when I am using Surf. I would love to see myself actually on top of my Floatzel or my Blastoise and not on some ambiguous black blob. Now this was changed in Gen 6 with specific water types, but only Lapras in X/Y and Sharpedo, Wailmer, and Kyogre in OR/AS, so I would love to see it applied to almost all water types, especially Floatzel because it's another Pokemon associated a lot with the Surf move, considering it's actually based on a river raft.

The same applies to Pokemon that can fly, for the same reason.