Pokémon Sun And Moon Review: 6 Ups And 3 Downs

6. Getting To Interact With Your Pokémon

This is corny, I'll grant you, but introducing a feature where by you actually have to pay your Pokémon attention outside of battle is a really, really nice touch. Using the touchscreen, players can tend to and clean their Pokemon after battles (literally toweling them down if they're dirty, blowdrying them if they've been hit with water attacks etc), feed them special beans to keep their energy up, and pat them to let them know they're doing a good job.

After investing so much in your teams in years gone by, it always feels a little flat that the most you'll ever interact with them is issuing one of four commands in a battle. Having one follow you around in the Gold/Silver remakes was nice, as were the pageants, but you never quite felt a sense of interaction with them. Knowing that your starter particularly likes a rub under its chin adds an unquantifiable personal touch to things.

What's most impressive here though is that this isn't merely a cosmetic feature. Having a team who are well fed and happy will positively impact their ability in battle; healing themselves of status ailments, scoring critical hits more frequently and, best of all, stopping themselves from going to 0HP. After 20 years of experimentation the game has finally captured that anime quality of the strongest Pokémon being those with the strongest bond to their trainers.