A buddy Pokemon feature has been found in the game files of Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, as reported by Kotaku.

Pokemon fan @KazoWAR has been posting the animations if GIF form on Twitter.

It’s not clear why the buddy feature never made it into the released game, but there has been suggestions older 3DS systems would struggle to maintain performance with the extra characters on screen.

CURSED BODY pic.twitter.com/4VpYuOrBTk

— 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

Another theory is the buddies are to be included in the rumoured Pokemon Stars for Nintendo Switch, a version developed in parallel to Sun and Moon.

Via Kotaku