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0 You’ve seen all the hype on social media about this new game that’s a mix of Animal Crossing and Pokémon. I’m here to tell you that whilst that may be true to some extent, Pokopia is a totally different animal. It is only available on the Switch 2 so I honestly feel bad for your wallet! YOU NEED THIS GAME
Important Request – Get a Switch 2
Now I know what you’re thinking. This is all just hyperbole to get you to purchase a new Switch 2 game. Now, don’t get me wrong, I fell in love with Pokopia from the moment I saw its first announcement trailer. Did I count down the day until release? Yes. Did I spend every night praying to the review key Gods? No, actually, I didn’t.
So what exactly makes Pokopia worth your time? We’ll I’m going to cover as much as possible without ruining any story progression, especially for those that are still undecided on whether to pick this phenomenal game up.
Gameplay
I don’t think this is a shock to anyone, but you play as Ditto. A loveable Pokémon that can mimic another ‘mons looks, and in some instances, skills. Now remember the last bit, as it comes in handy down the line. You start off the game with a little character creation screen. You mimic what you believe your trainer looked like, however, there is no trainer in sight. In fact there are no humans in sight. You stumble across Professor Tangrowth who acts as your guide throughout Pokopia. Hold on because you’re journey is about to start.
Your first task as you venture into Pokopia is to deal with a Squirtle. Don’t worry, you don’t have to battle it, or anything like that. Purely revive it. This is where your character comes into its own. You can transform and use certain Pokémon’s abilities, and Squirtle’s Water Gun is your first one. You pretty much spit over Squirtle, and he miraculously gets better. Throughout your journey through Pokopia, you will gain a number of other abilities. Rock Blast is one of my favourites, being able to level a mountain as long as you’re patient enough. Or I dunno, upgrade your ability somehow.
One neat feature of the game is the multiplayer. You can visit each others islands, or if you fancy it, create a cloud island for you both to look after. This allows you to jump on whenever you want to start catching Pokémon with your friends. Where everything counts, just remember to replace those materials you use when your friends are offline.
Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
What would a Pokémon be without a whole list of friends to come along for the journey? To get more ‘mons along for the ride, you need to create habitats. These all vary in complexity as well as size. These habitats then tempt Pokémon to appear in your game. These range from four blocks of grass, all the way through to garbage cans. These all have a chance of bringing rare Pokémon as well as basic Pokémon. I’ll be honest this is my favourite part of the game. I’ve spent a lot of time, purely moving through the story missions just to allow me to bring back more rare Pokémon.
There is so much to do and there are so many ways to play Pokopia. You could level the entire land to create your own utopia, or you can aim to build houses for all your Pokémon one at a time. The secondary option is the way I chose to play. As you explore around the different areas, and yes, you can unlock other areas, your Trainer Ranking improves which enables you to unlock more areas. Whilst you are on your travels you will find glowing blocks, break these and then you’ll be greeted with a rare item. These can be special fossils, or even remnants of a world gone by. My favourite one is the belt; apparently, you can put this in a frame in your house. You can also watch out for sparkling water ripples. These often have some nice little rewards.
It’s really hard to talk about this game without giving too much away. There is so much to do, and throughout my gameplay time, I am still finding new things about the game. Although my highlight has to be finding myself a Charizard. Or could be the nice house with all the Kanto Starters living in harmony? Or maybe finding my first Snorlax. Maybe how much Volbeat likes to talk about butts? Honestly, so many great moments in this game.
Graphics & Audio
The soundtrack in Pokopia is so chill, I could just fire up the game and listen to the music while doing other things. You can craft a CD player and change the music to one of the many CD’s that you can pick up throughout the game. If you don’t know what a CD is, then let me explain: it’s a round plastic thing that holds music information. Aside from that, your Pokémon all make cute little noises, some art instantly recognisable, and some are just noise. Each, however, is cute AF. It’s especially cute when they start singing. Honestly, some melt-your-heart Disney magic is going on there.
Graphically, Pokopia is great. It’s colourful, the characters are perfectly rendered, and the environments are beautiful. Honestly, I don’t know if there is any negatives to this game. Actually, there is a negative, you are going to spend so many hours playing this game. Yet even after this reivew I cant wait to get back on the game.
Longevity
If you want to just fly through the main story missions and get to its conclusion, you are looking at around 30-35 hours. Personally, though, I like to take my time with games like this and I can see me spending waaaay more hours than is suggested. I could spend a whole evening just creating habitats to tempt Pokémon into my world. Especially across the different areas unlocked. My one biggest tip, though, is to take your time with this game; you don’t want to miss a thing.
Final Thoughts
As with pretty much all the other Pokopia reviews out there, I am loving this game. There is so much to do and spend time doing, crafting items for all the Pokémon as per their requests or even just decorating your own home. You will not be bored playing through Pokopia.
So don’t delay, if you haven’t picked up Pokopia yet, then what are you waiting for? It feels like the complete game.
Pokopia recieves the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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