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Games

Lift Your Baby Gently in 'Pokémon Sun and Moon'

'Pokémon Sun and Moon' is the most affectionate game in the series.

When Pokémon Sun/Moon was released last Thursday, I was fairly sure that I knew what to expect on my social feeds. Namely, lots of talk about starters and early encounters, screenshots of Littens with names like Steve Meowstin battling helpless Alolan Rattata. What I wasn't expecting to see was a near-deluge of the same scene taken by dozens of different people.

A trainer holding their first Pokémon aloft, the caption "You lifted Popplio gently in your arms!"

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In Alola you don't simply choose your starter, you see. They have to choose you, too, and although there seems to be no actual way for this to fail it's still represented in a scene that feels both tense and personal. For a game ostensibly about making animals fight each other, it's a strikingly tender moment.

Pokémon Sun/Moon is easily the most TLC-heavy game in the series to date, so this swerve in the process of choosing a starter isn't coming out of nowhere. After a particularly rough battle you can set some time aside to brush the sand out of your Pokémon's fur, treat their status ailments with medicine, feed them candy-colored beans, or just give them a good scratch behind the ear.

There are also restaurants that serve food just for them, and a Pokémon masseuse that specializes in soothing their aches and pains. (Who the hell knows how anyone gives Magnemite a neck rub or whatever, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief there.)

Sun and Moon seems to have even more caring tone than X and Y did with the introduction of the Pokemon Amie system, so it's fitting that one of the first experiences that players have shared with each other is that one sweet scene which sets it right out of the gate.

Here's hoping that, inevitable battles and deeply haunting Pokédex descriptions aside, Pokémon Sun/Moon keeps that unabashed tenderness and sentimentality going throughout.