Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have never been shy about experimenting with the Pokemon brand. While the core games have rarely strayed from their established formula, Pokemon spin-off games have given us everything from a trading card RPG to digital pinball games to fighting games to a game where players can literally talk to Pikachu with a microphone accessory. Considering how many genres Pokemon has dipped its toes in, it’s surprising that Pokemon Pokopia is the franchise’s first crack at a cozy life-sim in the vein of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. But even though the main character in Pokopia is a Ditto, it doesn’t feel like a copycat of the games that inspired it, and instead, it can stand all among them as one of the best cozy life-sim games on the market.
Pokemon Pokopia players take on the role of a Ditto that has decided to take the shape of a human (to mixed results, in typical Ditto fashion) as they explore a wasteland, seemingly devoid of life. They come across Professor Tangrowth, who gives Ditto a mission to rebuild the wasteland in an effort to attract Pokemon and humans back to the region.
Pokopia is Like Animal Crossing, But With Pokemon
What proceeds is typical cozy game fare, but with a Pokemon-twist. Various Pokemon from all generations of the games take the place of Animal Crossing villagers, with players able to draw new Pokemon to their islands by building special habitats. Some of the Pokemon are integral to progressing Pokopia‘s story, while others are optional, but still play an important role in filling out the island and making it feel more alive. Like in the main games, discovering a rare Pokemon in Pokopia is a thrill, and it’s easy to lose hours simply building habitats and trying to complete the Pokedex.
The Pokemon in Pokopia serve a greater purpose than the NPCs in many other cozy games. Many of the Pokopia Pokemon have special skills that players can utilize, like Scyther’s ability to turn logs into lumber, which in turn can be used to build houses and helpful items. Other Pokemon can be asked to follow Ditto around to complete tasks, with Charmander able to light fires and Piplup able to soften toxic gunk so it can then be washed away with Ditto’s Water Gun ability. Some Pokemon can teach Ditto HMs that give it more options when exploring the island. For example, Hitmonchan can teach Ditto Rock Smash, which lets players destroy objects in a manner not unlike Minecraft.
While Pokopia is very much Animal Crossing-coded with its adorable characters, the oftentimes cute or hilarious dialogue the Pokemon spout, and the general tone of the game, it also takes clear inspiration from Minecraft. The world design sticks closely to the Minecraft aesthetic, with blocky terrain and the ability to manipulate it. Players can build all kinds of structures in Pokopia by smashing and rearranging blocks — another activity that it’s easy to sink hours into without even realizing it.
Pokopia features a bright, colorful, and simplistic art style that looks great, but it is not exactly a graphical powerhouse for the Switch 2. Still, it runs like butter and the draw distance is surprisingly strong. I was able to see the specific action my multiplayer partner was performing from nearly halfway across the map.
Like other games in the genre, Pokopia gives players the tools to play however they want, but for those that prefer more structure to their games, it also provides concrete objectives to tackle. Pokopia‘s Pokemon regularly have requests that players can fulfill that help them get more resources or teach them something about the game, like the Trubbish mission that explains how to convert trash into iron ore or the Smeargle mission that teaches players how to paint objects. Players also have an overall goal to raise the environment level of the various areas they visit by improving each Pokemon’s habitat as much as possible.
One of the main goals in each area of Pokopia is to rebuild the Pokemon Center, which is accomplished by completing various requests for the Pokemon that live in that area, collecting the necessary materials, and recruiting the required Pokemon to get the job done. Progressing the story this way raises Ditto’s Trainer level and in turn makes it possible to go through gates to reach new areas with their own Pokemon, biomes, and secrets to discover. Sectioning off the world creates a sense of progression that other games like this don’t have, and it makes it even harder to put Pokopia down. Pokopia‘s structure ensures that there is always something worthwhile to do in the game.
Pokopia is Fantastic, But It’s Not Perfect
Still, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when I started opening gates to new areas and realized that I was ultimately going to be rebuilding Pokemon Centers every time. There are other repetitive tasks and objectives in Pokopia that can make the game tedious at times, but going through the slightly more boring parts of the game is still worth it for the rewards on the other side.
Pokopia is also missing certain quality-of-life features that would have helped it reach even greater heights. Pokopia players can only craft using items they have in their inventory or are in storage boxes that are immediately adjacent to the workbench, as opposed to a universal storage system that is used by other games in the genre. Being unable to zoom in on the map is also annoying, and then there’s building houses in Pokopia, which could benefit big time from being streamlined. As it stands, larger projects require players to round up each individual Pokemon and walk them to the build site, as opposed to simply calling them all there from a menu. This is especially annoying when the number of Pokemon required to build something exceeds the max number of Pokemon that can follow Ditto around at any given time.
Other than those minor gripes, Pokopia is the ideal cozy game experience. It sucks players in and gives them compelling reasons to dedicate hours upon hours of their lives rebuilding islands and discovering new Pokemon. It also has surprisingly interesting lore, plus plenty of fun nods to the main series games, from Gym leaders being referenced to treasures that can be found hidden underground.
Pokopia Multiplayer is Ridiculously Fun
Pokopia would be an easy recommendation to genre fans and Pokemon fans alike if it were strictly a single-player experience, but what makes it an absolute must-buy for Switch 2 owners is the multiplayer. Pokopia multiplayer is available in a few different flavors, and they are all a lot of fun.
Pokopia players are free to visit each other’s worlds, interacting with the Pokemon there and potentially opening the door to getting those Pokemon to appear in their own worlds. The main story areas in the game can’t be manipulated while visiting friends’ islands, but there are certain areas where Pokopia players are free to change the terrain and do whatever they want. Still, the best way to play Pokopia multiplayer is through the Cloud Islands.
Cloud Islands are persistent worlds, not unlike the ones found in Minecraft, where Pokopia players can work together with their friends to find Pokemon, build all kinds of creations, and basically play the game without having to stick within the framework of the main story. This is where Pokopia multiplayer really shines, and the fact that it supports both local and online multiplayer (not always a given for a Nintendo game) is icing on the cake.
With fun multiplayer and an addicting story mode that is virtually impossible to put down once you get going, Pokopia has absolutely nailed the concept of combining the world of Pokemon with the life-sim genre. It’s as good as the best life-sims, and a must-buy for Switch 2 owners. And if you don’t have a Switch 2 yet, Pokopia is one of the best reasons to go out and buy the console ASAP.
Pokemon Pokopia is out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2.
