Riding Pokemon...on Land

[Outkin]

I recently had a thought, we use pokemon to fly and to go across water.....but what about land? What do you think about having the option to ride your pokemon across the land? Is it a feasible enough idea to serve as a new feature in a pokemon game one day?

Discuss

 

[Oryx]

I know they do something like this in Ranger, which I really enjoyed, the ability to ride the Legendary Beasts across land. I think it would be difficult to implement in a game because of the animations (for Surf they just have a generic boat-like thing because they don't want to animate every single Pokemon that can learn it surfing), and I don't really see the point because of the bike. xD

In general though, I'm not sure most Pokemon would let you ride them even if you caught them. Like imagine catching a Gyarados. They're big enough to ride certainly, but do you think they would let you? Haha, I guess it's kind of like happiness level...if they trust you you might be able to train them to allow you to ride but if not it would be impossible.

 

[Sharpshooter★]

For example, even in the ranger games, you had to capture them (and make them your friends by default) so they could let you ride them
But even so, I think it only worked well in that game because it were just that three
Each one had a different ability and together tehy fit nicely
But not everyone in a game would be able to catch a legendary ... and there's the bike/ running shoes making this point a bit moot

 

[Drunken_Pikachu]

I agree that would be a good idea for a game, but wouldn't that remove the reason for running shoes?

Also there are tons of mini pokemon that are not used for riding, so that means only a certain amount of pokemon are used for riding limiting the player.

 

[voicerocker]

It's an interesting thought, but it wouldn't serve much purpose in the main series because we have Running Shoes and Bikes.

 

[Oryx]

Guys, let's try to expand this beyond the games and into the series in general. Try to keep in mind things like:

How would you get a Pokemon to allow you to ride it?
Why is this less prevalent than surfing in the series?
Is it insulting to ride a creature with a similar intelligence level to humans?

 

[Outkin]

Thanks for doing that, been a bit busy this morning >_<

I figure you should only be allowed on some pokemon for obvious reasons, you'd either have to have it know a certain move, or have something like...a saddle say, so you can't do it instantly. I'm going to guess it isn't done as much because most people were relying on bikes and public transport more, and anything greater could be flown too. I don't think it's a problem riding them even though they're as smart as us, we already ride them in the air and sea, and they let us do so because they love/trust us.

 

[Legobricks]

In general though, I'm not sure most Pokemon would let you ride them even if you caught them.

When one surfs and flies one is presumably riding that monster, and it is not suggested to be aggrivated by such use; why would it be different for land travellers?

Why is this less prevalent than surfing in the series?

Humans already have legs, but not wings nor fins.
I would think a bicycle was decided upon for fast land travel due to a cyclist being compact enough to be depicted consistently with the size of the rest of the original games' character sprites, and since a character on a monster would be difficult to animate with so few pixels. In essence, if I'm right, it's the same reason Mario looks how he does.

Is it insulting to ride a creature with a similar intelligence level to humans?

To suggest it would be insulting strikes me as a fallacy: We humans of the real world ride lesser animals, and so associate riding with lesser animals; only because of this we would assume that it is below an intelligent creature to allow riders to mount it.
Regardless, I personally doubt most monsters are intelligent at all unless otherwise specified to be, in which case it would be left to individual (or species — see Lapras) disposition.

 

[Sharpshooter★]

How would you get a Pokemon to allow you to ride it?

The same way you get to surf on one, or fly on one
Befriending it and proving yourself. If you have a big bond witht hat said Pokemon he wouldn't necessarily mind.

Why is this less prevalent than surfing in the series?

Because surfing is necessary to get across some obstacles and water pokemon enjoy swimming, and a bit of extra weight won't really bother them

Is it insulting to ride a creature with a similar intelligence level to humans?

I don't think so, because only a few are actually smart in a way similar to humans.
Plus, there are pokemon Like Ponyta and Rapidash that seem very adept for riding (and it even happened at the animé once)

 

[Yoshikko]

I never really thought about it, but the reason that it seems unnecessary is because we have bikes for instant travel, but not boats or airplanes so we use Pokémon for that. There is not really any means for instant travel on the sea or sky besides Pokémon. I think it'd be really cool though. I don't think Pokémon would mind either, in the first season opening you see someone riding an Arcanine and that happens more throughout the anime.

 

[Hann]

Why is this less prevalent than surfing in the series?

I believe because you're capable of walking much longer than swimming. You can't set up camp in the middle of the sea when you're swimming (and even if you could you'd probably have to deal with hypothermia). Swimming seems and probably is much more taxing than walking. I think riding a Pokémon instead of walking has a rather negative connotation, and presumably would be seen as being lazy. Crossing the sea while swimming sounds much more impressive than surfing. I view surfing as the usual way to cross the ocean and walking or cycling as the usual means to travel on land.

How would you get a Pokemon to allow you to ride it?

I imagine with a lot of trust and probably with at least max. happiness game-wise. Even then I imagine it'd be extremely difficult to ride a Pokémon, seeing as they all have different natures and personalities too. There are other problems too, as seen with Ponyta-Rapidash. In their basic info is mentioned that while they let humans ride them, they can burn them with the flames on their back when they get angered. If I'm correct Lara Laramie rode her Ponyta in EP033 'The Flame Pokémon-athon' and I think this problem was explained there.

To suggest it would be insulting is quite a fallacy. We humans of the real world ride lesser animals, and so associate riding with lesser animals; only because of this we would assume that it is below an intelligent creature to allow riders to mount it.
Regardless, I personally doubt most monsters are intelligent at all unless otherwise specified to be, in which case it is down to individual (or species — see Lapras) disposition.

The matter of intelligence is highly debatable I think. An animal has to be intelligent enough, so to speak, to let humans ride it. However, animals by itself don't need humans to 'function'. A horse doesn't need a human on its back to know how to run, walk (and whatever other things it is that horses do), but I do believe they can't see in depth very well and need a jockey to direct their jump or they misjudge it (Please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know that much about horses).

 

[Oryx]

When one surfs and flies one is presumably riding that monster, and it is not suggested to be aggrivated by such use; why would it be different for land travellers?



Humans already have legs, but not wings nor fins.



To suggest it would be insulting strikes me as a fallacy: We humans of the real world ride lesser animals, and so associate riding with lesser animals; only because of this we would assume that it is below an intelligent creature to allow riders to mount it.
Regardless, I personally doubt most monsters are intelligent at all unless otherwise specified to be, in which case it would be left to individual (or species — see Lapras) disposition.

I get the intelligence thing from games such as Mystery Dungeon, as well as the anime where most Pokemon that are anything more than background are seen as understanding humans, at least from what I've seen. Take even from the beginning of the series, where Charmander explained to Pikachu that it was waiting for its trainer to come pick it up, and Pikachu managed to convey this in a way that humans could understand. Squirtle manages to make a sophisticated threat of Ash before it was captured (giving a time, a requirement, and a punishment). Things like that imply that they have near-human intelligence, as they can do things like that. Pokemon in the manga are pretty intelligent as well.

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't appreciate being used by a friend as transportation whenever the friend chose to. While in the game it's true that any Pokemon that learns Surf has to carry you, this isn't a forum about the games so you have to take into account much more than what they do in the games to make them playable and not too complicated.

 

[psyanic]

I almost think that even though Pokemon are about the same intelligence as humans, they have a different mindset when they live and different instincts. They don't think the way we do, even though we have the same mental capacity. Like an Alakazam wouldn't want an iPod to listen to music, while we probably do. So I think they'd be okay giving rides to humans, at least some Pokemon. Obviously, you can't ride a Pikachu or something, but probably a Rapidash or a Dodrio. Then again, people have rode those before in the anime. In some cases, it would be insulting to ride a Pokemon if it's nonsensical. Say, riding a Tauros is more accepted than riding a Sentret (if you can get on anyway).

And this is a lot less prevalent than surfing because you don't have to ride a Pokemon to walk everywhere; you have a bike and your own two feet. I'd imagine you probably could swim like every other human being you see in the ocean, but it would be useful to have a surfing Pokemon for longer distances and deeper waters where it's too risky to swim out in the open, let it be riptide or a storm.

 

[PlatinumDude]

To get a Pokemon to let you ride it, you have to earn its trust. I think riding Pokemon on land is less prevalent than Surfing because most people like to take their journey slow and easy by simply walking. And no, I don't think it's insulting to ride a creature with intelligence equal to a human's if you've really earned its trust.

 

[cappayne]

Think about the episode in the anime where Ash competes in that race with Rapidash. It wasn't his own but he built a trust with it and the Rapidash no longer burned him when he rode it. I think to ride a Pokemon in the game it would have to make sense for that species of Pokemon. For example, Tauros and Rapidash resemble animals that humans would (and do) ride in the real world. Most Pokemon that use Fly in the games make sense as well (such as Charizard). Surf is a bit confusing, because you have really small Pokemon using it. But to ride on land, I think the speed of the Pokemon (either Speed stat or Pokeathlon speed stat) should determine how fast it travels, and the type of Pokemon it is should determine how likely you are to ride it, or if you need to gain more happiness/trust with it. A Pokemon like Tauros or Arcanine should be easier to ride, but a Blastoise? Golem? Poliwhirl? Those are less straight-forward and would require more trust.

 

[Lucariland]

I think they could have took the time to implement the animations, it would been awesome. and maybe set the difference on speed. If you had a Rapidash, it could been faster than.. maybe a Nidoking. I think this would have been genius, and the game would have been a bigger sucsess! my opinion ^^

 

[Killjoy]

I think it would be cool if you had specific areas that you couldn't cross without ridding a Pokémon, like surf, but on land.

Like say, a big desert area; like ridding one of those birds from Final Fantasy

I don't play final fantasy, and I forget what these guys are called lol but I can image it.

 

[Treecko]

I think it would be cool if you had specific areas that you couldn't cross without ridding a Pokémon, like surf, but on land.

Like say, a big desert area; like ridding one of those birds from Final Fantasy

I don't play final fantasy, and I forget what these guys are called lol but I can image it.

They're called Chocobos.

And as for riding Pokemon I think there isn't alot Pokemon that could be rideable though it's would be pretty fun.

To get a Pokemon to ride, you need it gain trust, maybe they could a system similar to the HM system where only specific badges would allow Pokemon over a certain levels to be ride-able. Like getting the second badge will allow Pokemon over lets say level 20 to be ride-able. It's less prevalent than surfing because walking and surfing is easier, and usually more employable. I would think it's insulting, there's various episodes of the anime where Ash and other character have ridden Pokemon and the Pokemon didn't feel un-obliged to do it.

 

[Lava_Princess]

I think it would definitely be cool to ride a Pokemon. I mean, imagine being able to leap up the ridges instead of going around them. Hot damn that would make getting to Viridian City so much easier.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Finally a chance to use one of my favorite quotes in regards to a Pokemon topic!

"Riding a Pokemon? Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?"

I know I would. I would prefer motorized transportation over using Pokemon any day of the week. And that's not a moral issue with me. I don't care about the whole "riding an intelligent creature" argument since it's something I wouldn't be caught dead doing. What I do care about is how comfortable and safe my mode of transportation is. I would imagine that riding a Pokemon would be similar to riding on top of a washing machine... you'd feel every little bump and jolt and get badly shaken up. And with Pokemon, there's all sorts of dangers. Suppose the Pokemon gets spooked, throws you off, then tramples all over you. I don't imagine that would be pleasant. With riding a Pokemon, there are no air bags, seat belts, crumple zones, or side guard beams should there be a Pokemon-on-Pokemon collision.

And anyway, last time I checked, Pokemon didn't come equipped with automatic climate control, powerful stereo systems with MP3 compatibility, or plush power seats.

tl;dr: Cars > Bikes > Walking > Pokemon.