For years, Pokemon fans have begged developers Game Freak to let monsters follow the player around in the overworld, as Heart Gold and Soul Silver once did. Well, it looks like that feature is actually contained within the files of Pokemon Sun and Moon.
Hacker @KazoWAR discovered the latest Pokemon games hide something very interesting:
All the Pokemon have low polygon models and walking animations? hmm… ?
— KazoWAR (@KazoWAR) December 5, 2016
I checked a few Pokemon and they all seem to have it. all the animations work for both versions, even battle and amie/refresh animations pic.twitter.com/0lUBZ7hcsS
— KazoWAR (@KazoWAR) December 5, 2016
Since this discovery, other fans have dived into the files and have extracted the in-game models using an open source 3DS file viewer called Ohana. Just as KazoWAR said, they have found that each and every monster has walking, resting and running animations, in addition to “low poly” models that would be the most useful in the overworld. Meaning: It sure as heck looks like Game Freak programmed the ability to walk with your monsters on the wider map.
This is what the feature would have looked like, courtesy of YouTuber @SleepyJirachi. Press the play button to see the animations:
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 6, 2016
He’s gunna hug ya pic.twitter.com/i3TiUj7dga
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 6, 2016
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 6, 2016
(Naruto Intensifies) pic.twitter.com/HNG3E7uVea
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 6, 2016
omg lmao pic.twitter.com/i0RSqh7ioz
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 6, 2016
All of the starters walk / run pic.twitter.com/CKl25D6yBl
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 5, 2016
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 5, 2016
Was hoping Buzzwole would walk funny with four legs. Now I’m dissapointed. pic.twitter.com/Wwu336C7bw
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 5, 2016
om nom nom pic.twitter.com/6RbtYWSs49
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 5, 2016
“There’s a ton of work put into these,” SleepyJirachy said. Sure enough, there are all sorts of unique animations, depending on the shape, size and specification of the creatures. “Some mons even have transition animations… this is a gold mine and I’ve no idea why it would be completely finished without being in the game.”
There are two possibilities here. The first one is that this is simply a cut feature; maybe Game Freak ran out of time to fully implement follower Pokemon into the games.
The second, more intriguing theory: This is a feature we’re going to see in Pokemon Stars, which is reported to be the third version of the latest generation. Traditionally, the third version of any given generation comes with a slew of new features meant to entice people to play through a game they have largely already experienced before. Players poking around with the files note that these animations seem fleshed out and nearly done, making their exclusion in Sun and Moon a bit of a mystery. It’s a lot of work to scrap and then not use at some point. But maybe I’m just mad I can’t see Magikarp uselessly flopping after my character:
Magikarp just flops pic.twitter.com/B5CKwlB4bo
— Sleepy (@SleepyJirachi) December 6, 2016
“I’d imagine they cut it because of lag reasons maybe?” SleepyJirachi mused. “Could be coming for the NX version perhaps.”
In the mean time, I guess we can all just boot up Pokemon GO and equip a buddy to sate us from the inability to do so in the main games.
Comments
6 responses to “Pokemon Sun And Moon Players Find Cut Walking Feature That Fans Have Wanted For Years”
I’ve been wanting a article about Pokémon sun/moon recently so I could say what I found in Pokémon sun (the version I am playing). My Litten evolved to the 3rd form and when ever it uses flamethrower the game animates the effect coming from a certain part of Incineroar body (that’s very suss …. If you get my drift… think Duffman from the Simpsons and what he does with his hips, is where the flamethrower effect comes from)
His belt??
A bit lower then that …
Hahah wow.
yeap, that’s the one, it looks like the belt but it happens fast it could be seen as lower then that.
Lower poly models wouldn’t if been THAT much work, and the animations would have been in the works long before design had finished on the game, it’s no surprise all this would be finished without the feature making it into the game, it both likely to have been cut and appearing in the 3rd version