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Pokemon Pokopia was announced earlier this year and whilst it came out of the blue, I was eager to get my hands on it full well knowing that blending Pokemon with an Animal Crossing styled gameplay (two of the biggest games of the last few decades) was bound to be a huge success, and after playing it, I’m even more convinced.
I recently had the chance to play the game right from the start and essentially, you’re set in a vast open world where all of the Pokemon have disappeared except for Professor Tangrowth who guides you through the journey and your character who is a Ditto that can cleverly perform tasks that bring Pokemon back into the world and then is able to mimic their abilities.
It doesn’t take long for exactly that to happen, with Squirtle being the first Pokemon that you encounter who teaches you Water Gun which basically allows you to start reviving grass and other plants which have died off due to no creatures being within the area.
The most clever thing about Pokopia is the fact that it will feel incredibly familiar to Animal Crossing players in its farming sim nature, but it brings in Pokemon in a way that feels incredibly natural in the sense that your tools from Animal Crossing are mostly all here, but they’re disguised as Pokemon moves that can be used by eating up PP.
Very quickly, more Pokemon appear such as Bulbasaur who teaches you Leafage that allows you to copy over grass to other areas, so you can already see how Water Gun and Leafage would combine in order to create and help plants and bushes thrive, and then Leavage allow those to spread.
Not every Pokemon has a move that you can learn, with the likes of Charmander who is also one of the first Pokemon to join your adventure but rather than teach you a move, he can use his fire to light campfires, and it definitely appears that other Pokemon will join you as well with a full Pokedex to fill.
One of my favourite parts of the demo was discovering that you can literally turn into Dragonite and Lapras, the former who can let you fly around, and Lapras who can transform you in water so that not only you can swim faster, but that you don’t drown, and no doubt there will be some other exciting Pokemon transformations too.
Really though that’s just the beginning of the game, with a number of tasks set out by Professor Tangrowth in order to progress to different areas, and the ability to craft items such as Punching Bag that will lure other Pokemon to keep learning moves, with little sparkles that appear on the overworld that will give you hints in what you have to create or certain formations of grass you have to harvest in order for a Pokemon to appear.
There’s also a big emphasis on building relationships with Pokemon and keeping them happy as well through raising their comfort levels, with each Pokemon needing certain things for your relationship to stay strong which makes this world feel living and breathing, and I think will have the ability to learn more about Pokemon in ways that other games haven’t provided.
One key difference between Pokopia and Animal Crossing is the sense that Pokopia doesn’t run on a real-time system, which is personally an issue that I had with Animal Crossing because I just didn’t love having to wait for the next day to progress, or missing days which would then make me feel like I fell behind.
Whilst I was just scratching the surface in what was possible, I do think there will be a huge community sense with this game with crafting and decorating also seemingly playing a big part beyond just recruiting Pokemon to build your world up, and harvesting foods also playing a big part in the game as well, but how these will actually impact gameplay later on remains to be seen.
You can play the game with four other people co-op and this seemingly will exist as a separate world where you can all use your Pokemon abilities, craft and build together, and I can really see this appealing to a younger generation too, as it was absolutely giving Minecraft in the best possible way, and a way that Animal Crossing was never able to achieve in its multiplayer yet.
All-in-all, I’m really, really excited for Pokemon Pokopia. I think it’s going to appeal to Animal Crossing and Pokemon fans seperately, and for those that happen to enjoy both, you’re in for an absolute treat of a game when it launches on March 5th. You can pre-order it from Amazon for $85 with free shipping HERE.
