Available on: Switch 2
Played on: Switch 2
I’m very particular about the life sim and crafting genres, which is to say, I’m not normally a big fan. Daily timers stress me out, inventory management gets tedious, and I’m terrible at designing buildings and advanced infrastructure.
Leave it to a Pokémon game to solve many of my genre woes.
Pokémon Pokopia is a shockingly fantastic new-yet-familiar experience that expertly combines all the best elements of Minecraft and Animal Crossing, with the incredibly charming and colorful world of Pokémon.
Read on for our co-op review of Pokémon Pokopia!
Gotta House ’em All
In a mysterious world without humans, a lone Ditto searches for answers. And lots of Pokémon!
Together with a friendly and wise Tangrowth, we explore new regions, restoring the ruined buildings and facilities, and most importantly, bring back all the missing Pokémon by constructing their habitats.
The transforming Pokémon as a humanoid player character is one of the many clever design choices that make Pokopia immediately successful. Instead of having to equip the standard tools of a life or farm sim, our body is the tool. But to unlock the important abilities to water crops, plant grass, or crush blocks, we first need to find and befriend the appropriate Pokémon.
In the main RPGs, Pokémon are tied to various regions, routes, and areas, but in Pokopia, Pokémon can appear once their specific habitat has been properly constructed. A habitat can be as simple as four tall grass adjacent to each other, or as complex as several rare and specific furniture items, powered electronics, or specific ratio of water to nearby items.
A single habitat could potentially summon different kinds of Pokémon, making it all the more exciting when we see who arrives sometime later.
But filling our world with habitats and Pokémon is only part of the action. After all, a simple patch of grass isn’t a great home for most Pokémon. Even the Grass types need a little enrichment, relaxation, and decoration — just like zoo animals.
Zoo animals that can fully talk, because we’re a Ditto!
Making our charming Pokémon friends happy raises the region’s Environment Level, which in turn unlocks new content. I loved this simple progression system, directly rewarding me for making the world a better place for me and my friends.
PokéCorp of Engineers
While the life sim genre is cozy, it can often be overwhelming. Pokopia helps alleviate these issues with a steady onboarding of new abilities, new Pokémon (hello, adorable Kanto starters!), and new gameplay concepts.
The main story and progression is guided by major Requests that usually involve Professor Tangrowth, whose enthusiasm and sense of wonder remains delightful throughout the campaign.
Each new region features a broken, ruined Pokémon Center that must be rebuilt, which requires having a certain number of Pokémon with specific abilities, as well as enough of that region’s resources.
On top of that, each region has another ongoing task requiring multiple steps, such as brightening the beach area with powered streetlamps, or throwing a party using our new cooking skills. These main quests gradually teach us abilities, building skills, and new gameplay concepts at our own pace.
Though as a consequence, I didn’t learn how to cook until over dozen hours into the game, when I finally ventured into Rocky Ridge!
But my favorite player-friendly element are pre-fab house kits, and the half-constructed buildings.
I’m admittedly not a great builder or designer. I was delighted to find that the ruined, post-human world of Pokopia is littered with half-built structures, roadways, waterfalls, minecart tracks, and other features I could modify or reverse engineer.
I especially loved seeing how buildings made out of pure blocks and roof tiles were constructed, which helped immensely in my own builds (or, simply finishing the building itself as a helpful boost to housing).
Even better: the pre-fab house kits are a gift when I don’t have the patience for meticulous block-building. Instead, I can delegate Pokémon to build the house, using some resources, just like the Pokémon Centers. Plus, the houses come in different themes, and sizes.
Pokopia also gets massive points for knowing its audience and its source material, and basing its regional areas on entire towns from across classic Pokémon RPG towns.
Transform and Roll Out
Unlike most life sims with farming, Pokopia doesn’t really have an economy for growing and selling goods. Instead, we earn our way by constantly completing challenges. Challenges are stuff we’re doing anyway, such as building habitats and attracting Pokémon, gathering resources, and refining materials.
Completed challenges reward Life Coins, which are then spent at the Pokémon PC Shop (in another smart move, the PCs are accessible before the actual building is restored). The PC Shop includes new recipes, furniture and decorations, and permanent upgrades, including some rather generous inventory space increases.
| Cooperative Multiplayer & GameShare |
| Pokopia supports four player local and online cooperative multiplayer, as well as GameShare support, with some important limitations. While playing multiplayer, players are only visitors, and can’t use their moves or items. One of the regions in the game, Palette Town, is designed for multiplayer. In that region, players can fully interact, use moves and items, and build together. Any items that other players pick up are given back to the host player when they leave. With GameShare, only the host player needs to own a copy of the game to invite others. Even more impressive, GameShare extends to players who only have the original Switch, with the host player reducing their resolution to support them. |
With economy decoupled from farming or selling, I’m free to pursue my task of raising the Environment Level and restoring, building, and decorating each area, while still unlocking new stuff.
By completing the primary tasks and getting the Environment Level high enough, I unlock more areas. There’s a solid amount of content in Pokopia, though missing a proper snowy/icy area and Ice Type Pokémon. Each region is perfectly sized to allow a huge amount of customization, without being so overwhelming that I give up before I start.
Though, the starter area, Withered Wasteland, is by far the weakest in its design and aesthetic. All the more reason to move on to other areas, and unlock new stuff.
The Rating
Pokémon Pokopia is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. See our Game Picker entry for more details.
The Takeaway
Pokémon Pokopia doesn’t reinvent the genre; it stands proudly on the shoulders of the Minecrafts, Harvest Moons, and Animal Crossings that came before it. Everything about the game, from the meaty map designs, to the cute Pokémon dialogue, to the Environment progression, is perfectly paced for both busy adults and obsessive kids. Pokémon Pokopia is a special game, reigniting and re-appreciating the earnest world of Pokémon, and will easily go down as one of the Switch 2’s best system-sellers.
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