Pokemon Legends: Z-A Could Feature Improved Riding Mechanics

Summary

Ride Pokemon could return in Pokemon Legends: Z-A with improved animations for boarding and disembarking.
Previous games featured ride Pokemon like Tauros and Stoutland with unique abilities for exploration.
Ride Pokemon have proven essential for navigating open-world environments in recent games, with the potential for new types in future installments.

Ride Pokemon have become an increasingly vital mechanic within the newer, open-world Pokemon titles, and a new mechanic patented by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company suggests not only that ride Pokemon will make a return in next year's Pokemon Legends: Z-A, but also that the feature will see a bit of a glow-up. Though the presumably open-world setting of Pokemon Legends: Z-A left many fans assuming that the game will feature ride Pokemon in some form, many in the community remain curious to see how the usual variety of ride Pokemon will fit into a game that will allegedly take place entirely within the urban landscape of Lumiose City.

While the general concept of riding upon certain Pokemon has persisted in some form since some of the earliest Pokemon titles, the idea really began to be fleshed out as a game mechanic in the Gen 7 games with Pokemon Sun and Moon. Players were allowed to travel around the Alola region on the backs of several different Pokemon, including Tauros, Stoutland, Lapras, Sharpedo, and Machamp, with Charizard additionally allowing for fast traveling to any previously-visited location in the region. Each of these ride Pokemon offered a unique ability too, with Stoutland able to sniff out hidden items and Machamp having the ability to push giant boulders, for example.

Though the Gen 8 games skipped over the addition of ride Pokemon and instead saw the return of the more classic bicycle, ride Pokemon have nonetheless played a crucial part in the more recent titles. It looks as though this feature is set to re-appear in Pokemon Legends: Z-A when it releases next year thanks to information gleamed from a recently disclosed patent. This document, almost certainly related to a future Pokemon title due to the patent being filed by The Pokemon Company, seems to describe an improvement in animation fluidity when boarding and disembarking ride Pokemon. Specifically, it seems to refer to the idea of player characters automatically disembarking from aerial ride Pokemon when reaching the ground, and having them transition into a normal movement state, perhaps through an animation.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Could Once Again Shake Up The Ride Pokemon Formula

This ultimately seems a bit odd considering that titles such as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet already allow players to transition seamlessly from traveling through the air to the ground, but regardless, it would appear to confirm that ride Pokemon are set to return in a future title. It's likely that Game Freak recognizes room for improvement in this area, and is investing resources to improve related animations. It could also suggest a completely new type of ride Pokemon.

Whatever the case, the function of ride Pokemon in Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet is essential in that it allows players to more easily navigate the open-world environments by climbing and flying. If Pokemon Legends: Z-A is really set to take place exclusively within Lumiose City, it does raise the question of how the mechanics of ride Pokemon might adapt, as it will certainly offer a different kind of environment.

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