Pokémon Pokopia review: a big, wholesome sim with bouncy, bright ideas

Pokémon Pokopia is entirely brilliant. You’ll have expectations. You’ll want a cosy, wholesome adventure, with Pokémon given a chance to shine. Pokopia brushes all of those expectations aside with a confident wave, arriving as an expansive, ambitious life-adventure simulator that’s absolutely packed with bright ideas, and the execution to match.

This is a big and gorgeous spin-off game that makes the most of its core concept, offering a transportive experience that lets you live in a Pokémon post-apocalypse that grows ever-more-bright, the longer you invest in its world.

Pokémon Pokopia features rich gameplay, with lots to do

What works so well about Pokopia is how it introduces players to its world.

You begin the game as a Ditto who awakens in a post-apocalyptic world, where the ground is barren and relatively bare of Pokémon. Exploring, you quickly encounter Professor Tangrowth, an intelligent variant of Tangrowth who wanders this mysterious land, lamenting a lost history.

By chance, you stumble across a Squirtle, and manage to replicate its Water Gun ability. From there, you can begin to revive the land, one block at a time – eventually corralling new Pokémon to your cause, such as a Bulbasaur, which lends you the ability to grow plants, and a Scyther, which lets you gather new resources.

It’s a cascade of abilities, all of which allow you to become a one-Ditto terraforming machine, as you plant and water crops, break up and establish new ground, and craft items that makes your new home into a cosy land, teeming with life.

Each Pokémon you meet is a bright-eyed new friend, with ideas about how to expand your land, and how to make it cosier and more comfortable for everyone. As you create your dream home, you’ll get an array of quests from these Pokémon, each more ambitious from the last.

It takes you from development to development, with surprisingly strong story elements lending a sense of purpose to each foray. While the game is a lot like Animal Crossing, and a lot like Minecraft, it’s also elevated by an overarching sense of narrative and mystery.

Pokémon all have their own personalities, and their own wants and needs informed by those personalities. A scared or curious Pokémon might ask you to investigate a nearby location. Another might request a certain item, or a home dwelling, or just more responsibility.

It means there’s always something to do in Pokopia, and always reasons to forge ahead.

Pokopia eventually sprawls into an enormous world

Pokopia is so much more vast than first appearances suggest. When you enter its first open space, the game lulls you into thinking this is it. That you have an enormous sandbox world to play in, with various secrets hiding in caves, and across established terrain. It’s a big space, and you’re immediately overwhelmed by quests.

But that’s not it at all.

Completing requests from the various Pokémon you encounter, you’ll eventually create a thriving environment, filled with happy faces. You can take as much time, or as little time, as you like, basking in the glow and forward-march of progress.

Then, Pokémon Pokopia reveals a secret: there are lots of new worlds to discover and beautify, hiding behind upgrade requirements. Once you fulfil the desires of the Pokémon in one plane, you’ll have the choice to enter the next, with each new area filled with a host of happy little Pokémon, eager and keen to contribute to building a new paradise.

There are multiple massive open worlds to discover in Pokopia, each defined by their own set of challenges. You’ll be working to make it rain in the Withered Wasteland, and to light up the sky in Bleak Beach. In one location, you’ll work to repair a noble boat. In another, you’ll be repairing railroads and caverns.

Each twist in your purpose gives the next area its own sense of charm and challenge. You’re encouraged onwards because you need to know what’s around the corner – what new Pokémon you might encounter, what new items you’ll gain, and what you’ll be able to build.

The more you progress, the prettier your towns will get, and the more you can see and do.

A perfect balance to push you onwards

Pokémon Pokopia manages what many life simulation games don’t, in its lush balance between challenge and encouraging, cosy gameplay. There are set tasks here to complete, with many requiring you to undertake a series of activities: collecting items, befriending Pokémon, building complex structures.

The game makes building and collecting relatively friction-free, with a series of systems that allows you to speed up your progress, making use of your Pokémon pals, and the unique abilities of your Ditto. The game has just the right amount of challenge in its mix of gameplay, and just the right amount of freedom to play as you wish.

With the dangling carrot of new Pokémon to encounter, new items, and new lands, you’ll find yourself forging on at a rapid pace, always keen to see what’s next, and always eager to puzzle through the latest challenge.

Pokopia also knows when to hold back, and when to set players free. At first, you’re gated by abilities. You can’t swim, and you can’t smash through tough terrain. Slowly, you earn these extra skills, in a way that allows you to explore more widely, in organic fashion. When you feel ready to spread your wings, Pokopia gives you those options.

And if you’re keen to stay on the ground, there’s plenty of beauty and satisfaction in sticking around, and decorating your own slice of paradise, for as long as you wish.

I’m happier for having played Pokopia. The joy it imbues lasts, in a glow of peace and calm. Even with some busywork to make your dream lands a reality, Pokopia is a bright, shiny experience that leaves you longing to keep returning to its shores.

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