Pokémon Pokopia Review – Creative Concepts, Classic Charm

Pokémon spinoffs have plunged into a lot of different genres and styles of gameplay over the years, but the recently-released Pokémon Pokopia gloms onto several things at once, adding Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders, and Animal Crossing to the pot along with some new ideas and, of course, plenty of cute critters. It's one of those "Why didn’t they think of this before?" kind of ideas, but just because a game sounds promising on paper doesn't mean it works in execution.

Is Pokémon Pokopia a can't-miss cozy "Catch 'Em All" fest? Or is this latest Pokémon spinoff just a bit too pokey? Roll on to find out.

Pokémon Pokopia casts players as a lone Ditto, who, for reasons not entirely known, decides to take the form of a long-lost and largely forgotten trainer (you have some limited ability to customize your appearance). Soon thereafter, you stumble upon Professor Tangrowth, who seems to have been alone for some time -- not only are all the humans gone, but most Pokémon have let their connections fall by the wayside. You wander out into a ruined and largely desolate world with the vague goals of bringing Pokémon back together and maybe, just maybe, figuring out where the humans have disappeared to.

Pokopia takes place in a blocky Minecraft-esque world, albeit one with more structure than Mojang's open-ended voxel-based hit. In a clever twist on the usual Pokémon Catch 'Em All gameplay, Pokopia tasks you with creating habitats for specific critters to move into. Place four pieces of grass together to create a patch perfect for a Bulbasaur, or place that same patch of grass in the shade of a tree to attract a Heracross. Most habitats will attract multiple types of Pokémon, but you can also build more specific habitats -- a bench and a punching bag will attract a Hitmonchan, while a garbage can and trash bags will net you a Trubbish.  

You don't capture any of these new arrivals (remember, you're a Pokémon yourself); they simply move in, become your friend, and start interacting with one another. This approach to filling out your Pokédex works wonderfully, as it forces you to think about how you want to lure in different creatures while still maintaining that surprise factor that older entries in the franchise had. Some of the Pokémon you befriend have powers that you can learn -- the ability to plant grass, water plants, break blocks, etc. -- which changes how you can transform the environment and further expands the number of Pokémon you can befriend. It's a clever loop.

And there’s plenty more on top of that core loop. Individual Pokémon have various tasks to ask of you, which run a fairly wide gamut beyond the typical "bring me X number of item Y" requests. Meanwhile, various daily and location-specific challenges will reward you with Life Coins, which can be spent on items and crafting recipes in the store. Yes, there's crafting here, but I'm happy to report Pokopia blows Animal Crossing's approach away. Crafting recipes are easy to come by -- they can be purchased, found, received as gifts, or may simply pop up as you collect new things – and crafting materials are all around you. While I'm not the biggest decorator in the world, designing your dream home and terraforming the world feels like less of a random grind here than in Animal Crossing and many of its cozy game contemporaries.

Oh, and despite me dropping the word "cozy" several times in this review, this isn't purely a chill-out game. While there's no combat in Pokopia, there are central story quests that will give folks looking for structure something to chew on. These vary quite a bit, as you'll find yourself doing things like preparing a blowout Poké party or connecting an electrical grid in order to illuminate a region perpetually under the cover of clouds.

Sometimes the steps required to complete these campaign missions can be a bit unintuitive, but thankfully, Pokopia's menus make it easy enough to track what you need to do next. Some missions unfold a bit slower than they strictly need to, particularly given the game has a real-time clock that forces you to do things like wait for seeds to grow into a harvestable crop (this is one part of Animal Crossing that probably could have been left by the wayside). Despite this sometimes-sluggish pace, Pokopia's missions ought to be varied and unpredictable enough to keep all but the very most impatient engaged.

So yeah, Pokémon Pokopia works mechanically. The core loop is good. But what really pushes the game to that next level, what you might not have picked up from the game's PR and trailers, is how great the game's level design is. Pokopia is split into four main regions, each surprisingly large and composed of multiple secret-filled layers to explore. Take the "Rocky Ridges" region, for example: what initially seems to be a fairly standard rocky canyon area turns out to be littered with mysterious human ruins, deep lava-filled caves, and, if you delve far enough, an abandoned museum waiting to be revived. And yes, those familiar with the Kanto region will run across a number of block-ified, partially ruined landmarks along the way.

While Pokopia isn’t big on plot, it has an unusually well-developed backstory revealed through numerous in-game documents. This game goes surprisingly dark, as it gradually becomes apparent that you're playing amidst the remains of an ecological disaster, and the humans may not be coming back. To add a touch of pathos, the Pokémon (who can't read) don't know this and spend their days wondering where their old masters have gone as they awkwardly try to mimic human society based on half-forgotten memories. So, just a mild departure for this series!

This worldbuilding is brought to life via refreshingly high-quality localization that feels more like what you'd get from a first-party Nintendo project than your typical Pokémon spinoff. The game is a bit visually basic if you focus on the fine details, but it can be quite striking if you take a step back and focus on the wider world, and performance on the Switch 2 never falters, even with plenty of critters running about.

Ultimately, while I've quite enjoyed some of the core Pokémon RPGs in recent years, Pokopia really captures a vibe I haven't got from this franchise in some time. A feeling of freshness and excitement and a world that's constantly vying for your attention in a multitude of ways. Play sessions that stretch on for hours longer than you expected and don’t result in you advancing the core campaign at all because you kept getting distracted (in the best way). That magic you felt in the Game Boy era is back.

And you won't have to leave this enticing world any time soon. While you can probably complete Pokopia's core campaign in around 20 hours, for many, that will just be their starting point. In addition to the four main regions you'll explore during the campaign, Pokopia also gives you access to a full-on sandbox area to tinker with as you please, and, in a surprisingly technologically-savvy feature, a cloud-based sandbox you can host and share with online friends. You're free to pretty much reshape the entire world as you see fit, and hey, you still have a Pokédex to complete, so all the building blocks are there for a longtime obsession.

This review was based on a copy of Pokémon Pokopia provided by publisher Nintendo.

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