Pokémon Pokopia: Discovering a New You

This copy of Pokémon Pokopia was provided to Source Gaming by Nintendo for review purposes.

Originally, my plan to discuss Pokémon Pokopia was to record gameplay and then create a sort of journal, sharing my ventures bi-weekly or monthly. I even began streaming it a bit on our Twitch channel, as I found myself heavily invested in constructing a bridge between two cliffs that felt ripe for the opportunity. Unfortunately, I forgot to archive it on our Source Live Gaming channel. It’s lost. Thankfully, much of my Pokopia venture is captured with the in-game camera and the Nintendo Switch 2’s capture feature.

I wouldn’t want to showcase every bit of how, why, and exactly where my photographed findings are from. Some of it won’t even look the same as another player’s, given that we all have different ways of processing how to navigate a life-sim game, and the direction in which its crafting mechanics influence us. For instance, next to my first bridge, I created a path of planks along its mountainside, as it made traversal easier and reminded me of the paths, routes, and caves in mainline Pokémon games. However, my first bridge isn’t quite finished. While I’ve closed the gap with stone blocks, I haven’t yet discovered road pavement blocks, meaning the road isn’t done. However, I still liven up other parts of my new home with smaller goals, such as setting up convenient resting areas and tiny gardens. Enough prolonging, let’s peel back the layer of what Pokémon Pokopia is before we continue.

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In an unexpected collaboration, Pokémon Pokopia is a spin-off developed by both GAME FREAK and KOEI TECMO, where the player takes the role of a Pokémon. However, rather than “choosing” yourself and venturing through dungeons, Pokopia sets the player in the role of a Ditto within a desolate region to restore and explore. With the help of a Tangrowth, Professor Tangrowth, as a guide, the two work together to do small tasks, such as watering dry soil and planting flowers, to eventually group efforts, such as fully rebuilding devastated Pokémon Centers. However, even these go a long way in bringing this new abandoned land to life. Arranging grass, flowers, trees, rocks, water, and more will restore habitats and encourage Pokémon to return to the land, similar to a random wild encounter! There are instances where the player can find a “trace of Pokémon” around the land or in the water. These serve as instructional guides for the Habitat Dex, informing what arrangements will introduce specific Pokémon. However, I often went with what came naturally: arranging flowers in pleasant patterns near trees, rocks, and alongside bodies of water. This method of beautifying the land also uncovers many habitats and Pokémon, creating a constant and encouraging sense of progress.

Additionally, while there is a story to follow, players can also take as much time as they want and just let the days go by, enjoying the leisure of spending time with befriended Pokémon. Talk to them, and they’ll say how they’re feeling, if they’d like a home or something to play with. Alternatively, you can give them items not as gifts, but in a trade; Scyther’s happy to cut dozens of logs into lumber for crafting. However, the most meaningful way to interact with them is by observing. I often found myself standing atop hills, watching all of the friends I’ve met interact with one another. Lazing around in their beds at night, Heracross and Pinsir getting into friendly arguments as Bulbasaur watches, Dartrix and Machop walking around crops, and so much more. Viewing Pokémon within Pokopia is a treat, as the more saturated color schemes and added animations really bring everyone to life. Seeing how they interact with the world inspired me to create ways to integrate their needs into my vision for the region.

: Image: Source Gaming.

: Image: Source Gaming.

: Image: Source Gaming.

Which is about the instance where Pokémon Pokopia sat as not just another life-sim sandbox game, but also as a perspective of life itself. When it comes to titles like Animal Crossing and Minecraft, both of which many see as inspirations for this title, I always find the limitation of those titles to be how you interact with the world, in what it directly establishes for you. With Animal Crossing being a leisurely life-simulator, I always found it quite disappointing after a time, as there isn’t anything that encouraged me to continue playing past a certain point. It’s disappointing to feel that even with so many objects I could interact with in real life. With Minecraft, what really motivates me is playing with other people. While the various scenes that can be generated in a new world can encourage exploration, it only lasts for so long alone. With friends, that can last for months, cohabiting with each other in a village, and seeing their sense of life or progression that differs wholly from my own. However, once we all decide that our goal is to defeat the Ender Dragon, well, the game loses motivation for an “afterwards.” I think both of those titles still succeed in other aspects better than Pokopia, especially in their direction of world design. While Minecraft’s level of visual depth and fidelity can always be altered with shaders, the consistency of each block and its crunchy textures feels infinitely homogenized, even if snow sits next to sand. Even with architectures of varied styles placed on top of Animal Crossing’s scrolling islands, the formation of the land in combination with details of ruffled grass or curved mountain sides presents an organic representation of nature. Pokopia features textures that are pleasant to look at on the surface, but the connection of different block types presents unavoidable visual fissures that distract from the desire for seamless construction. However, where Pokémon Pokopia really grabs me is in its narrative premise.

To peel back some of the ambiguity of what Pokémon Pokopia is: it is a game where the player, as a Ditto, takes the role of its Trainer after they and every other human have seemingly left the Earth due to a natural disaster. With that in mind, the role that most Pokémon fans are familiar with, that of being a Trainer and taking care of Pokémon, is currently missing. However, through Ditto and the memories of other Pokémon, what we are is retained and reenacted. Thus, the idea is that you, the player, are not you, the trainer. Rather, you, the player, are a Ditto taking the visage of you, the trainer. Since the Ditto is you, the player, and your own Pokémon, masking as you, the trainer. You are not you, but instead a you trying to be you. But what would you have done? As someone who has been a Pokémon Trainer for over two decades, no matter what happened, I would’ve stood by my Ditto and the rest of my Pokémon’s side. However, as that wasn’t the case, that wasn’t my choice, the me that is intended to be that trainer is not me. Rather, it’s time to forge a new self by becoming Ditto. Which is perfect timing, given this is my first new Pokémon game as a woman. Thus, with new steps into life, this is the first new game asking me what I want to do with the world. Naturally, this isn’t the first time the idea has been posed to me.

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Almost two years ago, in November and December of 2024, I interacted with two pieces of work that altered the gears in which I view the future of life: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, a manga by Hitoshi Ashinano, and SQUARE ENIX’s NieR: Automata. Although both pieces focus on the concept of androids on a failing Earth, with and without humans, respectively, they both go about it in entirely different ways. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou focuses on the life of Alpha, an android that runs an out-of-the-way cafe that belonged to her creator. However, in their absence, she not only lives out her days waiting for their return but also spends them with those she comes to love, such as an old couple, their grandchildren, and a few others. In its pacing, rather than focusing on what could be done to save this far-gone world, it’s about discovering beauty in what’s left of it and its resources. On the other hand, NieR: Automata is about an ongoing war between the YorHa, androids devoted to the mankind that created them, and the machines invading Earth. In its pacing and narrative structure, Automata also finds a lot of sentimental leisure and equal importance in what both sides of the war strive for: a way of life that replicates those that once were here. Hopefully, if victory persists, two androids could shop at a department store for t-shirts.

Thus, this is where I think that Pokémon Pokopia slots itself into this current trinity of games about human life, while not being human. As a manga, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou only allowed me to follow alongside Alpha in her journey in creating memories within the life that the Earth has left to last. As an outwardly dreary narrative-heavy JRPG, NieR: Automata carried me through numerous battles of ideals for the hope of mankind’s glory and longevity, while hoping to live like them once the war is over. Pokémon Pokopia, set in a human-missing world, is about taking action for the Earth’s preservation. Restoring it to what it once was, but within my own vision. As the players, you and I, despite being in the role of a Ditto, are still the ones in control; it’s still a world of our own making. A world that we can retain in hopes that those left beyond us can still appreciate it and find their own worth of life.

: Image: Seven Seas Entertainment, Hitoshi Ashinano.

: Image: Phanah Daiyaluun / PhantomZ2.

: Image: Source Gaming.

Receiving the opportunity to live and interact with works like this, it can really make one think about not just their sense of self but placement and interaction with the world. The way to speak and consider others, cooperate to reach a level of mutual happiness or simple understanding. Not that playing a game or reading a book is teaching a teenager or adult how to be sympathetic or empathetic, but rather making them reconsider if they’re content with how they’ve exercised it so far. The interactions that I’ve had with others, both people and art, have shaped my current perspective on Pokémon Pokopia. That does mean that I can’t expect everyone or even a handful of people to share my same mindset on it. Despite that, I do hope that those who haven’t yet purchased Pokémon Pokopia give it the chance that it very well deserves. It will not only provide a new way to interact with Pokémon as living creatures with their own sense of mind and personality, like us, but it will also have the opportunity to exercise the creativity that lies within everyone and anyone.