In 2004, I chose Charmander as my starter Pokémon in the Game Boy Advance title FireRed and watched helplessly as he was immediately walloped by the first gym leader.
More than two decades later I felt the need to repay him with his own home in Pokémon Pokopia, even adding some toy block decorations as a housewarming gift. He excitedly jumped onto the small bed I built for him.
The latest Pokémon spinoff somehow outdoes its trademark cuteness while transforming what we’ve seen in the franchise’s previous games.
Pokopia is set in a world where humans have disappeared and Pokémon have retreated to their respective habitats. It’s up to us — a Ditto, known for its ability to transform — to breathe life back into the mostly unkept regions we wander across.
Ditto takes on the visage of its former trainer, who is also nowhere to be found at the start of the game, although players can customize it to look less like a purple blob and more like a gangly hominid. (I went for the drooping bald fade.)
The first few hours in Pokopia make clear it wants to emulate your favorite cozy games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
But Pokopia carves out its own identity as you rebuild a friendly community of Pokémon. By archiving and restoring, by excavating and tilling, I was able to slowly reintroduce many kinds of Pocket Monsters into the fold.
The common gameplay loop of catching and collecting Pokémon shifts to comforting them.
In older games, Pokémon were mostly tools with personality. Pokopia, however, taps notable spinoffs like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and even Pokémon Ranger to elevate Pocket Monsters, who may request a warm bed or a dimmer living space. Players can ask how the Pokémon are feeling and what they desire.
Cultivating the land plays an important role when navigating the new Habitat Dex.
Whenever I stumbled across a new natural habitat, I would get a notification that there were possible Pokémon to encounter in the space, and then I would make sure to clear debris and water the soil to help prompt a meeting. Certain Pokémon you meet have abilities (like Onix’s Bulldoze specialty) that are necessary for building new homes or clearing out plots of land.
The tenderness of Pokopia won’t be lost on fans of a franchise focused on relationship building and environmental preservation.
When Cubone jumped out of the tall grass to greet me, the Pokémon character lamented the fact that its mother would have loved its new living space. The lore of Cubone is couched in grief and yearning stemming from the loss of its mother, which makes for emotional storytelling here.
That’s what makes Pokopia so strikingly well made: It gives us the tools to shape and recontextualize Pokémon mythology. A familiar 30-year-old framework turns into a living, breathing communal space occupied by characters we only ever used for battling.
Led mostly through the story by Professor Tangrowth, players start to learn about the fate of the humans who populated the area before everything went awry. There are bits of lore to collect about famous towns, villains and gym leaders.
The power of the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware makes the areas you explore vast and surprisingly different from one another, and the number of Pokémon there are to encounter surprised me.
Players can easily sink hundreds of hours into Pokopia. There is plenty to admire and photograph, such as endearing idle animations and interactions between Pokémon.
Each interaction feels earned and in step with the general vibe of a Pokémon game.
Some Pokémon approach you with games to play, like a pop quiz. Every now and again I’d be approached by my neighbor Drilbur or Sliggoo who just “wanted to say thank you” and deliver a pile of sticks or a jar of honey.
Spinoff video games usually take up space in the margins, appealing to a niche audience with very specific interests. But Pokopia expertly emulates elements of a genre that has boomed in popularity, getting everything right without compromising on the franchise’s core tenet of cuteness.
Pokémon Pokopia is available on the Switch 2.
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