Pokemon Pokopia

The story begins in a desolate, abandoned town. Once a place where humans and Pokémon lived together, the town is now withered, devoid of life, with only a uniquely shaped Tangrowth living in solitude. The protagonist, Ditto, awakens from a long slumber transformed into human form, and the story begins with their encounter with this Tangrowth.

I'm not a die-hard fan of the main series games. Although I played titles on the NES or Game Boy back in the day, battle and collection mechanics were never really my cup of tea. Then this happened—Game Freak and Koei Tecmo teamed up to bring it to life.

I personally love sandbox simulation, cooperative building, and Animal Crossing-style games like Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders (hereafter DQB), and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If I had to rank them, Animal Crossing would take the top spot. Pokopia feels like it has taken the best lessons from all three: the massive Pokémon IP powers the social aspect of the game, the building mechanics straight out of DQB ensure that Pokémon are more than just decorative sprites trapped in Pokéballs, and the charming, healing color palette and art style push the game's appeal far beyond the usual fanbase.

In terms of gameplay, the developers set the story on a deserted planet with harsh, inhospitable conditions where the protagonist Ditto and Professor Tangrowth work step-by-step to rebuild and create habitats that attract Pokémon back. As more diverse Pokémon join in to help, you can build even more habitats. For example, getting Charmander to breathe fire, or Squirtle to summon rain. This satisfying gameplay loop provides such strong positive reinforcement that you look up and realize day has broken in the game (then you glance out the window and realize the sun is coming up in real life, too). It gives players the exact payoff they expect while fueling the drive to keep playing (though remember to balance gaming with rest, dittos!).

As for controls, before the DLC update, certain actions felt a bit awkward—such as appraising items one by one (did they take a page out of early Animal Crossing's book?) and having to revert from human form to perform specific actions. Fortunately, these have been ironed out and adjusted with recent updates.

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with this game. The attention to detail and technical performance have both improved, but I settled on an 8/10 rating (which is already a very high score). I'm optimistic that if a Pokopia 2 is made—or at least once all the DLCs are fully released—the score could bump up just a tiny bit more 🤏.