:)
I wasn't sure about Pokopia at first. It looked neat, but I didn't really know if I wanted to drop an extra amount of money on a building game, especially on an unemployed income. However, after watching people play it, I was super on board.
Now we skip to now, I got that income back (which is really good cause this year is packed), and Pokopia is in my hands. Gotta say? Super worth it. Easily the best Pokemon product to come out in years.
So, technically, this isn't Animal Crossing/Minecraft Pokémon edition. This is Dragon Quest Builders Pokémon edition. That being said, I'm still gonna make the Minecraft comparisons because I really didn't play DQB2 much, I just wanted to acknowledge that I know the difference.
What I really love about Pokopia compared to Minecraft, is the general theme of restoration. This is present in the narrative but also the actual gameplay. It gives you these ruined cities, and basically asks you to make this broken world whole again. That fueled me with way more motivation to play than just an empty Minecraft world (which to be clear: is still good in some contexts, I just enjoy having that Goal). It's helpful to have a semi full canvas. I can be like "Ok I'm gonna clean up all this ash and junk, rebuild these buildings, but maybe I'll tear this part down for something a little original." It's really fun, and even refreshing to a certain point.
Then there's the "Animal Crossing". Though it isn't really Animal Crossing? I don't know. What other game has you provide a home for many characters and work to make them more happy? I know there's some. ANYWAYS! That's the other half of the game, which is great. Make environments to summon Pokémon (filling the Pokédex, that collection aspect), then make them happier and happier by giving them a place to live perfectly tailored to them.
These two bits are wonderful. I love restoring the old cities, I love building little places for the Pokémon to live. However, this is damaged by the other core bit of the game: timegating. I hate timegating. I've always hated timegating in anything. When I was revisiting Warlords of Draenor content in WoW, all I could think was "god I hated the timegating here". This game is timegated, which SUCKS. Wait until tomorrow to build this. Recipes are random, you only get a few a day. This is the obstacle that makes an otherwise perfect gameloop not perfect. Just let me put in the work if you want me to take a while and go slower; give me the OPTION to grind. Minecraft has "timegating" in a way, but at least I can put in the effort to go out into the world to find something.
I gotta say. The vibes of this game? Incredible. The story is you and this old Tangrowth restoring the world, wondering where all the humans and Pokémon went. As you go through the world, the quests show off the... innocence of Pokémon. Like, it really reminds you that these ARE just animals, even if they're on average smarter than our IRL animals. They don't really understand what a lot of this human stuff does. They're full of love and just want to make a good place for their friends. Even Professor Tangrowth is really just looked up to because he's been around for so long but he doesn't really know much and that's great! I absolutely love it.
But that's just on the surface. As you explore (which I have to say, exploring is great in this game, super rewarding), you discover old papers, logs, and notes from humans. Some are just newspapers or pictures, but you also run into specific notes from a hacker, an app developer, a professor, a grunt, and a trainer. You discover what actually happened to everyone and the world: the weather was getting so disastrous that people Literally couldn't survive, so they had to escape to space. They couldn't bring Pokémon, so they had to store them in the PC. But thanks to one smart hacker, they put in a program that would release the Pokémon when it was safe. You were released. You made the world better for Pokemon, freeing them into safety. You used this developed app to make the world better. You get help from the humans that had to leave you behind; the humans you're trying to make the world better for again. You even discover how the Professor was stuck alone for years and about the person that owned him, as well as your own trainer! It's outstanding.
Pokopia has such a somber vibe, in a way. The world is abandoned, destroyed. There was such a tragedy in the past. But again, there's that theme of restoration. You're bringing health back to the world; joy even. It doesn't shy away from serious topics, they are there (just not overly present. it's not blood and death, but it's not sunshine and rainbows), but it also tells you that there's light in the future. That's absolutely something I can get behind. I cried at that ending I swear to god.
Despite the setting of this game being Kanto, I don't feel the fatigue at all. I was really worried that this game was gonna be gen 1 heavy, and it wasn't at all. Incredible spacing of Pokémon from all across the games (what do you mean they picked Volcanion??? VOLCANION?????). The fact that the setting is this ruined Kanto also gives it this extra sauce that isn't "oh god we're just here AGAIN". It's enough original, enough old to give you a healthy enough dose of nostalgia to not be lethal. I want more like this if they're gonna keep doing more Kanto.
I didn't talk about this but can I just say I love the Pokémon dialogue in this game? Rolycoly has drastically gone up the favorites list
Anyways. Pokopia's great. I do think the timegating really puts a huge rock in it, it just feels too heavy, but other than that? This was a joy of a game and I'm fairly sure a surprise for everyone that picked it up. It MIGHT be GotY but this year has a lot coming up (I have a lot on my plate now oh god help me)
8.5/10. Amazing vibes, amazing writing, comfy gameplay. Just get rid of that timegating.