Pokemon Pokopia channels the spirit of Animal Crossing with fruit trees, a tranquil atmosphere, and talking creatures. It scratches the familiar “cozy game” itch that Animal Crossing: New Horizons did with its homebuilding, crafting, and focus on giving players complete agency over a vast and vibrant land. From tree and river placement to what creatures are permitted to inhabit your own personal paradise, these games share quite a lot in common–even if Pokopia’s ability to “catch ‘em all,” albeit with habitats instead of Poke Balls, shakes the formula up a bit. But, despite how similar these series are, they diverge in one key category: capitalism. While the Animal Crossing series features a progression system fueled by money, Pokopia doesn’t.
By definition, capitalism is a survival-of-the-fittest system wherein private property owners are free to run their operations however they deem fit in effort to accrue personal wealth; to see this system in action, you need look no further than Animal Crossing. All Animal Crossing games start similarly: You move to a new home sold to you by sole property owner Tom Nook, who becomes your benevolent landlord and debt collector. He also usually owns the only store in town, which conveniently means he dictates the influx of supply and demand and the value of all things. Therefore, to pay off your housing loan to Tom Nook, you are forced to sell things to … Tom Nook. You can pay that debt on your home as slowly as you want, as you never need to upgrade your home unless you want to, but the debt still remains. Though, to Nook’s credit, he also doesn’t charge interest or increase the price of anything for the sake of it.
In that sense, Animal Crossing is capitalism without the negative consequences. Still, you can’t play without thinking about money. You can play for the sake of collecting and decorating, but that customization also has a cost. Want to buy furniture? That costs money. So does upgrading your home or building a bridge.
On the other hand, Pokopia has limited currency and focuses on exchange and mutual benefit rather than personal financial gain. You can claim coins from PCs after completing challenges like building roads, growing plants, and discovering new Pokemon, but these challenges are simple enough that you could complete them just by playing the game and still place emphasis on improving your community rather than your own position. You can then use the coins you get from the PC to buy new furniture recipes or items. However, how helpful the items actually are depends on luck, and they aren’t usually necessary to progress the story. When you need to procure a story-relevant item, one of your helpful Pokemon neighbors generally gives you the recipe for it free of charge.
Moreover, PCs are a human invention–more specifically, a symbol of Pokopia’s society before its collapse. The name Pokopia combines the words “Pokemon” and “utopia,” a kind of idealized society where Pokemon run the world instead of humans. The humans, like us, created and valued currency. Now that the humans are gone, Pokemon trade items and do favors for each other instead of using actual money, but the PC is a reminder of the way things used to be.
It’s worldbuilding with an added glimpse at what separation from capitalistic society could be. In this way, Pokopia encourages progression and collections without a financial incentive. I didn’t collect fruit to sell it. Instead, I ate it for energy, fed it to my neighbors, or asked a skilled Pokemon to help me turn it into paint. For the most part, I didn’t feel a need to scavenge every item I saw and just took what I needed. I actually wish I could sell some of my surplus items because I have enough sand in my pockets to build a new beach. I quickly learned that in Pokopia, everyone takes only what they need and contributes what they can.
In Animal Crossing, however, every item has a price. Even though you’ll want at least one Red Snapper for your museum, you’ll probably want a couple more to sell back to Tom Nook. In fact, one of the most popular “get rich quick” strategies is to gamble on the “stalk market,” which consists of buying and selling turnips. Turnips are the only items in Animal Crossing that change value. It’s not unusual for players to buy tens of turnips at a time, in hopes that they can turn them for a high profit just by selling them back to Nook at inflated prices. In New Horizons, many players even search online for islands buying turnips at high prices to ensure they get a big return on their purchases.
Does money ruin everything and is capitalism wrong? Not exactly. Many cozy games besides Animal Crossing–games like Stardew Valley and other lifestyle sims–have money built into their core, and I’d argue that a currency-based progression system is often fun. It’s just something that stood out to me, especially when Pokopia and Animal Crossing are so closely compared.
