Gamers discover unused buddy system animation assets in "Pokémon Sun and Moon" files. This discovery created wonders to players if the feature will be available on Nintendo Switch.
"Pokémon Sun and Moon" have received an outstanding reception from fans despite of some drawbacks. Interestingly, there are gamers who resort to data mining, and some mining has exposed a well-developed feature that was completely unnoticed. Gamers discovered an unused buddy system for the game, including completed animations for Pokémon to walk alongside players in the games. On Twitter, several gamers have shared these animations online, along with their curiosity on why these were left out.
Sometimes developers craft features that they hope to include, but do not make the final cut. Every so often when that happens, though, such features are left incomplete, with only a ghost of an idea created but not applied.
It is, however, clear that a lot of work has gone into designing each Pokémon's individual animations. In "Pokémon Sun and Moon," the birds fly, the ghosts hover and Ditto glops along. Also, the Rock Pokémon Graveler curls up into a boulder and rolls. With so much work done into the animations, it is weird that they were not included.
Perhaps the feature was removed due to memory limitations where the game can struggle in places, especially on the older version, 3DS. However, the fact that the animations are not included in "Pokémon Sun and Moon" on Nintendo 3DS does not necessarily follow that players will never be able to play the games with the buddy system.
A current report hinted that Nintendo is planning to bring both titles to the upcoming Nintendo Switch. This will obviously be more powerful than any version of the Nintendo 3DS. Perhaps buddy Pokémon and animations were only ever developed to be used in "Pokémon Stars." This is the third version of Sun and Moon which Eurogamer disclosed last November, which is in development for Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo Switch version of "Pokémon Sun and Moon," codenamed "Pokémon Stars," that Stars was developed in parallel to Sun and Moon, and will share much of the same code. Reports point to advanced resolution assets and probably more Pokémon for players to collect. Hopefully, players can look forward to seeing the Pokémon buddy system in the games on Nintendo Switch.