Pokemon Patent Shows Pokemon Legends: Z-A Is Bringing Back a Fan-Favorite Feature

Since the game’s announcement, very little information has been revealed regarding Pokemon Legends: Z-A. That said, one particular detail seems to have been gleaned from a patent filed by The Pokemon Company and Nintendo. The patent does not explicitly mention Pokemon Legends: Z-A, but does indicate that Ride Pokemon will be returning in an upcoming game. The patent mentions “smoothly switching a plurality of boarding target objects” and gives examples on land, sea, and air. Since Legends: Z-A is the only currently announced Pokemon game for a Nintendo platform, it’s likely connected. 

There’s a lot of legal jargon to parse in the patent, making it a bit hard to discern. At one point, it’s mentioned that “while the player character is aboard the ground boarding target object or the water boarding target object cause the player character to perform a jump action based on a second operation input; and if the first operation input is provided during the jump action, cause the player character to board the air boarding target object and bring the player character into a state where the player character can move in the air.” What that means isn’t totally clear, but that sounds like the player will be able to leap from one Ride Pokemon to the next using button input and timing. Basically, it sounds like the system is being given an overhaul that would make swapping between Ride Pokemon slightly more involved, and maybe more fun as a result. 

In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, there were select Pokemon that players could ride on, which were summoned using the Celestica Flute. These Pokemon essentially replaced the Bike and various HMs. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fine tuned this a bit, replacing the various Ride Pokemon with the game’s corresponding Legendary Pokemon. Depending on whether players purchased Pokemon Scarlet or Pokemon Violet, they would use Koraidon or Miraidon to traverse Paldea. We don’t know if Pokemon Legends: Z-A will similarly feature a single Pokemon that is used for all travel purposes, but the patent language makes it sound like the game will go back to featuring a group of Pokemon that all perform various roles. 

Pokemon Legends: Z-A is based on Pokemon X and Y, the first mainline Pokemon game released on 3DS. That game offered some locations where players could ride Pokemon, but this was limited to specific areas. One such Pokemon was Gogoat, which could be ridden in Lumiose City. Lumiose City happens to be the location in which Pokemon Legends: Z-A takes place, so it’s possible Gogoat could be one of multiple Pokemon players will use to get around the city. 

For now, Pokemon fans will have to wait and see what gets revealed in the coming months. At this time, we have no idea when Pokemon Legends: Z-A will actually be released, outside of a vague 2025 release window. Hopefully we’ll learn a lot more about the game (including a narrower time frame) sometime in the coming months. 

Are you looking forward to the next Pokemon game? What are you hoping to see from Pokemon Legends: Z-A? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: Game Rant]