is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
Though catching monsters and making them fight have always been core elements of the Pokémon brand, spinoffs like the Pokémon Snap and Detective Pikachu series have stood out by approaching the franchise from different angles. In different (and often small) ways, recent mainline Pokémon titles like Sword / Shield, Scarlet / Violet, and Legends: Z-A have acknowledged that there are some players who would much rather spend their time hanging out and taking pictures with their monster friends.
That leisurely approach to enjoying the Pokémon world doesn’t exactly gel with the main games’ focus on becoming a competitive champion, but it is exactly the sort of mindset you should have when you start playing Pokémon Pokopia for the Nintendo Switch 2. Co-developed by The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, and Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force division, Pokopia feels like Nintendo taking another stab at everything that makes Animal Crossing so enjoyable while experimenting with features from other crafting-forward games, like Minecraft.
Pokopia uses conventions from the core Pokémon series to make its spin on classic life simulation game mechanics like building and nurturing relationships feel distinct. It’s a fun, cute game that plays just differently enough from Animal Crossing to say that Pokopia isn’t simply a Pokémon-themed New Horizons. But what delighted me most when I recently spent some hands-on time with the game was how — when you look past its bright, island-y vibes — Pokopia’s story seems to be teasing something dark and ominous about the Pokémon world.
In Pokopia, you play as an unusual Ditto that has somehow ended up on an island after getting separated from its trainer. This Ditto isn’t great at transforming into other pokémon, and it doesn’t remember what happened to its partner. But after finding its lost trainer’s pokédex, the Ditto uses its powers to assume their form (the game’s character customization options are surprisingly robust), and it starts to explore the land around it.
When I first started playing, I knew that Pokopia was focused on a Ditto in human drag making friends with other pokémon, like Professor Tangrowth, and creating unique habitats to attract more monsters. But I was surprised and intrigued when the grass-type professor explained that it hadn’t seen another living human or pokémon out in “the desolate world” for a very long time.
After teasing me with the mystery of what happened to everyone, Pokopia dropped me right into a simple bit of gameplay involving a dehydrated Squirtle that covered the basics of how things work on the island. By meeting certain pokémon with special moves like Water Gun, Ditto can copy them and use their powers to affect terrain in the game. When selected, each move — which can only be used a certain number of times before you have to eat to recharge your Power Points — displays a grid of squares letting you know the areas it will affect when used.
Previous Next
1 / 3 Image: The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, Koei Tecmo Games
... continue reading