Summary
Pokemonis a great series for those who still haven’t quite sorted out their cute aggression. For one side, you get the adorable little Pokemon themselves to collect and hang out with. On the other, you also get to watch them beat each other up.
Of course, there’s more to it than that. Over the years, the Pokemon games have begun offering more and more ways to actually bond with your team of cute little creatures when they’re not annihilating each other for your amusement. But which ones are the best for making you feel close to your Pokemon?
Methods of Bonding
Letting your lead Pokemon follow you (after reaching Amity Square).
On the more basic end of the spectrum is Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. The original Diamond and Pearlon the Nintendo DSweren’t exactly among the most popular entries at the time, but they still gained enough fans to warrant a cute little chibi remake on the Switch, a treatment that many other games frankly deserve as well.
With this remake came some quality-of-life improvements, which include the ability to have one of your Pokemon follow you around on the field outside of battles. It doesn’t really have much of a gameplay effect, and you have to reach Hearthome City’s Amity Square before you can even do it, but even such a small thing goes a long way in developing a connection between you and your little fuzzy violence buddies.
Letting your lead Pokemon follow you from the start, and basic interactions.
Ironically, the idea of having Pokemon follow you around was arguably done better well before Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. In Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver, you can do this right from the start, ultimately letting you set any Pokemon you catch as your follower, building your relationship with each step. As a bonus, you could continue building that bond outside the game using the Pokewalker pedometer that came with it.
The obvious plus here is that it’s just so cool to see whichever Pokemon you’ve slotted into your top spot hanging around with you. Pokemon Yellow did this first, though it only let you do so with Pikachu. But the basic interactions you’re able to have with your partner remain intact, and now you can enjoy it with any of them. Go on. Pet Gyarados.
Pikachu or Eevee follow you, and you can give them accessories. You can also ride a good number of Pokemon.
In the spirit of Pokemon Yellow, the more casual-focused Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! basically designed the whole experience around having one specific Pokemon hanging out with you at all times. It also had two versions, adding that all-too-important aspect of meaningless debate among fans (even thoughEevee is clearly the cutest).
But aside from that, and the simplified Pokemon Go-style gameplay, the Let’s Go games also iterated on the follow mechanic in debatably brilliant ways. Only Pikachu or Eevee can follow you, depending on your version. But you can ride a shockingly good chunk of Pokemon in the game, whether you’re surfing, flying, or rock climbing. Nobody will claim clinging to Snorlax’s belly is the ideal means of transportation, but come on, you would if you could.
Camping, playing with them, and cooking curry together.
Before Pokemon Sword & Shield, there had already been several titles that added a mechanic specifically for bonding with your Pokemon. This generation took the idea and added a little extra. Not only could you play with your team at camp, but you could also make curry to share with them for dinner. Now enjoy the gasps of a million veterinarians.
There’s something wonderful about sharing a meal with your Pokemon that adds a real personal touch to the whole experience. Plus, the animation when you try your curry remains one of the cutest things the Pokemon series has ever concocted.
Having a picnic together, giving them a bath, and making sandwiches together.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet offers its own enjoyable spin on the camping and preparing food systems from the previous generation. Instead of camping, now you get to set up a picnic where you can play with your Pokemon and even give them baths for some bonuses.
Instead of curry, you makekind of enormous sub sandwicheswith whatever unhinged flavor combinations you like, you rogue. However you handle things, getting to take a breather with your team goes a long way in making them feel like a real family.
Pokemon-Amie, which lets you pet your Pokemon with the touch screen, feed them, play with them, and make funny faces with the camera.
Pokemon X & Y deserve some massive praise for a few reasons. For one, they’re the first mainline 3D Pokemon games, fulfilling the long-time fantasy of children and former children everywhere. But Game Freak didn’t just sit on the 3D button and call it a day. It also went above and beyond with the introduction of Pokemon-Amie.
With Pokemon-Amie, you can get up close and personal with any member of your Pokemon squad. Give them some nice scritches, feed them Poke Puffs, and play with them, all using the 3DS touch screen for that personal flair. Another feature involves using the camera to mimic the faces and poses your Pokemon perform. This all improves the Pokemon’s stats and gives gameplay bonuses, but admit it, you’re here for the scritches.
The highly-anticipated remakes Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire kept Pokemon-Amie around from X & Y, and bless them for doing so. It’s fully intact and exactly like you remember from the games where it originated, because if it ain’t broke, youhaven’t caught a Snorlax.
Like X & Y, certain gameplay bonuses that stem from improving your Pokemon’s affection through Amie include a higher critical hit chance and the ability to dodge attacks occasionally. They can also start withstanding strong attacks that could have defeated them outright. The first time you see the game say “Your Pokemon toughed it out so you wouldn’t feel sad,” you’ll start to believe in magic.
Pokemon Refresh, an evolution of Pokemon-Amie which adds an in-depth cleaning system to help with status effects.
Pokemon Sun & Moon took a much more linear path than fans were used to from the exploration-based series, but it also brought on an evolution of the beloved Pokemon-Amie system simply called Pokemon Refresh.
It combined the best parts of Amie with a cleaning mechanic that Scarlet & Violet would bring back in a more simplified form. Refresh felt like a natural addition, letting you know after battles when one of your Pokemon could really use a break. It’s yet another tiny addition that goes a long way in making the game experience feel uniquely yours.
The eventual follow-ups to Sun & Moon, helpfully named Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, knew they had to keep Pokemon Refresh around. Never mind that they aren’t technically sequels, but more enhanced retellings of the previous games, you’re here for the Pokemon petting.
Refresh remains as great as it always was in Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, made better simply by the game being more expansive and thus, allowing more time for bonding. The way certain attacks inflict certain effects that must be dealt with in Refresh is still a brilliant touch, and one that could really use a comeback for the series.
