Being a Fan of Pokémon is a trust fall. This time, Nintendo caught us

Pokopia is a massive world with secrets behind every rock and lore under every bed of flowers. Genuine in its approach and the cause of many late-night laughing fits, Pokopia made me feel at home in the modern-day nostalgia. The balance of addictive gameplay in tandem with how the story flowed created a world that old and new fans of Pokémon can unite in. Running through the fields with Leafon, escaping into a world of dreams with Drifloom, and even playing hide-and-seek with Oddish. Pokopia mixed key ingredients that made the game attractive to not only new Pokémon collectors, but Pokémon masters who have been fans of the series since the 90s. Now, while Pokopia is entrancing, it still has bumps and quality-of-life hiccups that make it feel less than smooth at times. From item organization to the time it takes to complete tasks, such as building houses and Pokecenters.  Pokopia, in its entirety, is built on the growth of nostalgia over the years of Pokémon's existence. We’re consistently redefining Pokémon as an entity in the gaming space and how it's embedded itself into the culture of our world. Pokémon has been around for quite some time. It’s always been consistently growing and maintaining a malleable nature throughout the different generations, and hiccups along the way.

After 30 years, Pokémon is still evolving: Being a fan of Pokémon throughout the years is like participating in a trust fall, except this time, Nintendo caught us. Sometimes, you just have to know that a company understands how to best approach not just the fans, but the sanctity of the product they are creating as a whole, from the card game to the video games. Pokopia is fascinating in that it gives us not only an Animal Crossing-style game with the Pokémon DNA, but it also creates something special for the millennial generation who grew up on Pokémon. A nice balancing act of nostalgia and what we love about modern-day gaming. Pokopia pulled me in with its simplicity and purpose. This installment in the universe of the Pokémon games has a story rooted in a motive to heal the world and create a safer place for humans to come back to. The story wasn’t confusing, convoluted, or weird to understand; it worked on the simple premise that coming together and working to heal something is the overall goal. Combining the lore and history of Pokémon with the overall comfort that cozy games like Animal Crossing provide is what makes this title a special experience. Throughout my time playing Pokopia, I was shown Pokémon in a different, quirky way. The dialogue was something unique, strange, and sometimes incredibly chaotic. The Pokémon in this game were created with a vibrant, and I’ll be honest, sometimes strange air to how they acted and interacted with Ditto. There is a lot of reused pieces of dialogue, turns of phrase, and very Gen Z speech patterns that left me, a millennial, in gales of laughter.

The Cultural Shift of Pokémon:

The cultural phenomenon that is Pokémon is something to behold. From 1996 to now, 30 years later, Pokémon is still just as popular and just as culturally relevant as ever. What alerted me to the major cultural staying power of Pokémon was the fact that, much like Ditto, Pokémon shift, evolve, and adapt to their surrounding. A culturally important example of this is how the Pokémon themselves sound like how Gen Z speaks. This is how Pokémon has been able to maintain its relevancy for the past thirty years. Its malleable nature, and maintaining to keep up with new generations. Has Game Freak made its mistakes? Absolutely.  Their recent instalment of Scarlet and Violet in 2022 was one of the worst and most dull experiences I have ever had with a Pokémon game. When I started to play Pokémon Legends Z-A, I noticed not only a massive shift in the way the game played, but a shift in tone and characters.

When it comes to Pokopia, it’s a linear style game that has been approached in a way that someone who is in their teens, to someone who is in their fifties, would enjoy this game. It's a special mixture of knowing the audience you sell to and what's popular in the current cycle of games. Noticing this and picking things from the games that are popular and making it your own creation is one of the reasons why Pokopia has seen so much success. The cozy nature and the personalization from the homes you build, and decorating each ecosystem, are just small pieces of a giant puzzle that fit so elegantly together.

Simplicity, joy, and a little Uncanny Valley:

Some nights I would play this game until four in the morning, and when I wasn’t playing it, I was wondering how the Pokémon were in each habitat I helped bring back to life.  It’s a harkening back to what Tomogotchi and Neopets used to be. Except the Pokémon in Pokopia won’t leave you if you forget to make them a habitat. I massively enjoyed my time with Pokopia and all it had to offer. I love that Pallet Town is a Tabula Rasa of sorts, where you can do anything you want with it, and name it anything you want! The special part about Pallet Town is that's where I met Eevee, and where all evolutions can be acquired. Exploring this game while progressing with the main storyline is a must. There is so much to uncover, for example, a puzzle to unlock Mew! Take your time with Pokopia, it's worth it with how much is in this game! Playing as an uncanny valley Ditto was off-putting at first. Seeing the weird smile on a re-creation of what a human is supposed to look like was comical and weird. I got used to it after a while, but Ditto in human form has become the very things nightmares are made of. Being able to utilize Leafage, Water Gun, and even Surf was fun and unique in its presentation and application in-game. Every ability Ditto learns is useful and can be applied in areas where you possibly could access earlier in the game. My biggest hope for Pokopia is that it has the same staying power for people as Animal Crossing: New Horizons did. Now, I realize that New Horizons has a strong bond with a lot of us because of its impact during COVID, where we all were, in a sense, saved and given a getaway car from the horrors of what was happening. Pokopia came at a time when we didn't need the getaway car; instead, we just needed to come back home and rest our bones in a story we've known for years, and feel comfortable existing in. Making things Harder Without Even Realizing it: Quality of life, and having certain things made simpler in terms of creating something/how organization is constructed, is incredibly important in cozy games. In Pokopia, I would consistently find myself needing to place things in storage. The storage might be full, or I might not have enough room, needing to create a storage box. I will then proceed to drop the items on the ground, and will finally be able to make a storage container. After making the storage container, I can put the random things away that I don't need on my person until later. A long way of explaining, the storage in this game could have been executed better. I would have loved to have had a storage hub or been able to collect infinite amounts of each item. Now, while yes, this is a small nitpick, there are ways around this. When going into each region, you will be able to get an upgrade to have more room in your pack. This upgrade is called packing tips. And as you unlock more regions, you get to have more space added to your inventory. Even with this, you will still need storage boxes, so I would highly recommend organizing each storage box as a specific type. So, for example, you can create a storage box in Bleak Beach that has only terraformed ground for reconstructing your region, or another box in Sparkling Skylands where its only items for crafting. There are a lot of things to make the process easier and less of a slog when it comes to item management. Now, when it comes to making houses, Pokecenters, and larger buildings, this is where I have the biggest issue with the game. Most, if not all, buildings you craft, except for a few homes for yourself or your Pokémon, take a full day to complete. This part was the most non-relaxing aspect of the game. This is most likely added because the game is telling you, "HEY smell the damn roses and don't rush the experience!" However, when I was playing this game, I was also doing a full walkthrough of it for IGN, SO I couldn't necessarily stop and watch Dragonite fly for a few hours. I can see both sides of it, while also being extremely annoyed that this was even a mechanic that was implemented in the first place.

Making the World a Better Place: Do I recommend Pokopia? Yes, yes I do, with every fiber and part of my being. This game had a simple message that we leave the world or a person better than how we found them. Pokopia took a world in disarray, carved out a home for the lost, and made each Pokémon and each region better than it started. From finding secrets, to terraforming, to the small details of the sun setting in the distance. Pokopia is one of those games that, when I played it, I felt like I was home.