Pokémon Pokopia Review – Laid Back Yet Addictive

Pokémon Pokopia Review

I’m an absolute sucker for a good life sim. I’m also a lifelong Pokémon fanatic. So, Pokémon Pokopia is laser-focused on me, specifically. And yet, I’m still not sure what to say about this game. I really enjoyed my time in this world, sure. But describing said time leaves me a little baffled. Look, people are going to make a lot of Animal Crossing comparisons when talking about this game. They are half-right at best. Picture Animal Crossing with environmental conservation, exploration, and storytelling as the focus. I know that doesn’t make any sense. Remember what I said about being baffled?

More than anything else, Pokopia is chill. It always feels like you’re hardly doing anything, and you’re very busy at the same time. But it’s also deeply satisfying. You play an extremely talented Ditto, trying to restore this island to its original condition. In doing so, maybe all the Pokémon and people will come back. That might seem like an impossibly lofty goal, but this is a very talented Ditto. You absorb the abilities of different key Pokémon, which allows you to bring back plant life, restore Pokémon habitats, and clean up the place.

Change The World

 

This game’s pacing is honestly brilliant. While most life sims keep things on a rigorous schedule, it’s only construction jobs that take any time here. Otherwise, you see the fruits of your labor immediately. So you can set a bunch of Pokémon to some complex building task, and then dive into a host of other jobs in the meantime. I was never bored, and I never spent any time just waiting around for a given job to complete. Huge construction projects can take an entire day, but this mostly kept me excited rather than impatient.

I mentioned environmental conservation before, and this is a major factor in Pokopia. But the game also keeps things fresh with every new area. You’re also restoring power, building houses, decorating said houses, and learning to cook. You’ve got a lot of agency over the world around you. You can reshape things to your exact specifications, with a few limitations. I’m deeply curious about what other players will do with this game once it’s out in the wild. I’m a very messy individual in a lot of ways. So my virtual worlds tend to reflect this. What happens when a more fastidious playerbase gets its hands on Pokopia?

Always So Much To Do

The gameplay loop feels smooth and seamless with few exceptions. You’re always finding new materials, building something, reshaping your environment, or finishing jobs. Everywhere you turn, there’s something else to scoop up, or some new area to explore. At the same time, you’re never in a hurry. If you like, you can spend hours perfectly crafting a set of roads or cleaning up every scrap of debris. The Pokémon themselves are always finding you tasks or handing you gifts. If you’re feeling especially cool and generous, you can make their habitats more comfortable. Or you can fill out the Pokedex, or build more of every possible habitat. Never at any point did I find myself lacking in things to do.

Since you’re always finding new items, it makes sense that you’d quickly get overwhelmed with new stuff. The trouble is, there’s not really a proper inventory management system in place. You routinely get upgrades to your personal inventory, so you’re less likely to run out of room, which is nice. But you’re constantly hopping from place to place, and each one has its own crafting requirements. So you end up with disparate storage spaces scattered everywhere. It gets hard to keep track of what supplies are where. I’d also love it if the map were more than a small image taking up a third of the start menu. Maybe something interactable that I could zoom in on? Something I could label? It’s a small problem that slowly gets bigger as you progress through the game.

Lost In The Loot

As a Pokémon, you can understand other Pokémon when they talk. This means a lot of charming, clever dialogue for a whole host of characters. Some of these creatures are absolute weirdos, which totally rules. You can offer them gifts, class up their habitats, and take them on errands, all of which open even more dialogue. They’re a major part of your playthrough time, so I was pleased to see their writing handled with some kind of care. The plot takes place in the background as well as up front, using a series of cryptic journal entries to fill you in. It’s all done with dextrous skill, keeping you hooked enough to keep plugging away.

You spend a lot of time in Pokopia just messing around, but it adds up to something satisfying. Making habitats, befriending Pokémon, exploring, and cleaning up the environment all feel like little tasks at first. But they slowly turn into something more significant. It’s a smooth process that feels perfectly natural. It really sneaks up on you. I wish the map and the inventory were more robust, to be sure. And maybe I felt adrift once in a while. But that core loop was so delightful, I didn’t mind all that much. If you’re looking for a Pokémon experience that feels a little different than the usual fare, Pokémon Pokopia might be perfect for you.

***A Nintendo Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher***