On Friday night, my boyfriend and I relaxed on the couch, enjoying a quiet evening together. We watched a baseball game, and he played my guitar while I eagerly started the new game, “Pokémon Pokopia,” a unique cozy life simulator from the Pokémon franchise.
As I played, I shared my experience, detailing how I built habitats to make my Pokémon friends more comfortable, a main goal in the game.
I told my boyfriend about a challenge in the game: “Onix is trapped in a cave, and I can’t break through. So, Squirtle suggested we throw a party to make it rain and soften the rocks. But we don’t know how to celebrate, so we need Professor Tangrowth’s help.”
Eventually, I was excited to awaken Kyogre by making it rain. However, when Charmander, who calls me “bestie,” realized the rain put out its tail flame, I had to build a shelter with Timburr and Hitmonchan.
Before I knew it, it was 11:30 PM, and I noticed the baseball game ending. To my surprise, my boyfriend had fallen asleep beside me. I was so engrossed in the game, focusing on building habitats, that I didn’t see he was asleep. The whole time I narrated my progress on restoring a seaside habitat for Magikarp, completely unaware of his dozing.
I felt embarrassed but convinced myself it was only because “Pokopia” is such an engaging game, not because I was inattentive. That poor Onix looked so helpless; I was captivated by the adventure.
“Pokopia” is like a blend of “Animal Crossing,” “Stardew Valley,” and “Minecraft,” set in the Pokémon Kanto region, now an apocalyptic wasteland. Despite the bleak setting, the game remains cozy.
I’m not the only one obsessed with “Pokopia.” Its popularity even led Amazon to raise the price of physical copies by $10, now $80, although it’s also available digitally. It’s the first Switch 2 exclusive creating enough excitement for people to upgrade their consoles.
Recent main series Pokémon games, like “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Pokémon Violet,” received mixed reviews due to bugs and a rushed open world. Even as a loyal Pokémon fan, they didn’t hold my attention once the main story was over. However, “Pokopia” far exceeded expectations with its expansive, thoughtfully designed world.
The game features four main regions and a sandbox version of Palette Town for group play. I’ve played around twenty hours since its release less than a week ago and am not yet halfway through the story. It feels wonderfully endless. I wouldn’t mind paying for more regions in a DLC, despite the game’s $70 price.
Few games have captured my focus like this. It’s reminiscent of when “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” launched, though thankfully, we are not under pandemic lockdown.
Since “Animal Crossing” was released, much has changed and stayed the same. We have vaccines, but Donald Trump is president again, federal agents target civil rights rallies, and extreme weather is frequent. It’s still a challenging world.
“Pokopia” offers both escapism and grounding in reality, unlike “Animal Crossing’s” pure fantasy. In post-apocalyptic Kanto, you play as a Ditto transformed to look like its missing trainer. All humans are gone, and you appear with Professor Tangrowth, who hasn’t seen anyone in years.
It’s unclear how Kanto became a wasteland, but as your Ditto explores ruins and restores habitats, clues reveal there was a climate event, and humans disappeared. Pikachu, now “Peakychu,” can’t produce electricity, and Snorlax sleeps alone in a cave, becoming moss-covered.
The mystery adds excitement and foreboding. A note in an old Poké Mart comments on the shutdown of music streaming due to server fees and the return to CDs, a nod to our great-great-grandparents’ time.
Nintendo humorously critiques music streaming, but the server cost note feels real. With AI tools demanding computing power, nearly 3,000 energy-intensive US data centers are under construction, adding to over 4,000 existing ones. The tech industry faces a RAM shortage causing new MacBook Pros to cost up to $400 more.
Nintendo seems to comment on world issues. While “Animal Crossing” is pure escapism, “Pokopia” lets players feel they’re rehabilitating a broken world. Restoring ruined Vermillion City with Pokémon to rediscover electricity and light up the sky is incredibly fulfilling.