In Pokemon Pokopia, the players get control of a Ditto, a pokemon that is known for its Shape shifting abilities. The Ditto wakes up by voice and then takes the form of its trainer(how you want it to look.) The Ditto then escapes from its Pokeball and it sees that theres nothing outhere except from a Tangrowth. The Tangrowth is surprised to see a human but it soons learn that its a Ditto. The Tangrowth shows that the grass and trees of the area are dried and most of the life seems gone.
Nor humans nor pokemon have been spotted. As the two looked around, a Squirtle was struggling as it needed water. Ditto used his transforming ability and used water gun on Squirtle. Tangrowth then suggested using the water gun in order to restore the dry land. Uppon doing that, the party realised that the more they restore the land more and more pokemon come back. This gives Tangrowth hope, that if Pokemon are returning, then there is a possibility that humans can also come back. With every ally gained, new
abilities are gained and more knowledge regarding the lands restoration is gained.
Eventually the Tangrowth and Ditto make their way in near by areas to help them restored. Their journey also brought them across a strange building which seems to have some weird requests that the Ditto and Tangrowth are happy to see through. Ofcourse the game story has a deeper story running in the background regarding the world. Through the story and mostly whilst exploring the player will come across newspapers, photos, messages left on tablets, letters and others that form a clean picture regarding the story.
What happened to the humans?
Why were Ditto and Tangrowth the only available Pokemon?
Whats the deal with the weird Tower?
Why do Pokemon randomly come back?
Find out in Pokemon Pokopia!
Spoilers on The games Stroy(click with caution)
This is a quick interpretation based on the collectables i found. Ofcouse details and parts are cut or not mentioned at all. Heres an Abridge narrative:
The story takes place in the future where the world was in crisis. Weird phenomena caused the humans to conclude to the idea that they ll evacuate Earth and move to Space.The scientist began the human Evacuation project in secrecy. At the same time, some developer came up with the Pokelife application(the App Ditto is using). An App installed in Pokedex that would help people build habitants for the Pokemon to live happy and hopefully will stop the disaster. The idea had people volunteering to sustain Earth
but time was just not on their side and thus they were also evacuated. When the Human Evacuation program became known, the team informed Civilians to place their Pokemon inside a Giant Computer System/server, to keep them safe from harm. A team of humans would come back to Earth once in a while to prevent the computer from ever shutting. A "clever" Tangela with curioscity to humans owned by the scientist whose notes we follow was the only one to escape being shifted into the computer. The scientist was searching fot it but
his time on Earth came to an end and thus the Tangrowth.
During all this, a Hacker found his way into the goverments secret(prior to its announcement) however he got caught. Instead of a penalty, his computer skills were usefull and he was given an active role in the plan. Ofcourse he didnt like the idea of Pokemon being permanently inside the computer and thus inserted a code that would allowed all Pokemon to Escape given that the humans no longer keep the servers running, that the living condition were good and Pokemon
had their prefer Habitants(thus why Pokemon appear in the wild.). Ditto is a pokemon that can adjust in any cituation and thus its one of the first Pokemon to escape out of the program. When rebuilding the pokecenter, we get to know that our trainer loved us and once the evacuation project became public, he chose to take us to all the areas we ve been during our adventure before the inevitable goodbye. The weird tower on the other hand was revealed to be plans of Team Rocket under a new leadership. Their goal was to make their own
rocket and escape together as a group. Ofcourse, the person making these notes left to many information out in the public and the people stopped Team Rocket before their plan was finalized. The structure building remained abandoned however, an unexpected Pokemon(our Ditto) will unknowingly continue its work.
Honeslty i love how dark and depressing the story was. I respect Nintendo for keeping the mystery throughout the main plot whilst painting the player the full picture of what happened to this world through its collectables. I was going out of my way to try and collect all of the archives through the lands and dream islands in order to keep the answers to my questions comming. Players who wont do that, will get an idea about it but key details will stay out. For example, the players Trainer's story is given with every Pokecenter built which is part of the story. You build it, walk in and there it is. However, the Team Rocket information, the Hacker, the Proffessor and the Poketlife Dev information can only be found by searching. And these are the ones that fully paint the picture. I would ve liked a few cutscenes here and there but thats not something that ruined my experience in any way. Overall, it was a well crafted story whose main plot keeps the mystery around and cleverly uses its collectibles to answer the players questions.
Despite the dark apocalyptic story, the gameplay shows a completely different picture. Pretty much Game Freak saw the success of games like Minecraft and Animal crossing and also heard people liking the idea of monsters
helping the heroes from Palword and thought why not do it with Pokemon. So they teamed up with Omega Force who already worked on something similar before, Dragon Quest: Builders. So pretty much Pokemon Pokopia is a
Life simulation game and an adventure type as well. The player gets control of Ditto, a pokemon with that can take the form of a human but still uses its Pokemon like abilities. As you awaken, the game allows you to take the form of
your former trainer. the Character Customization has a decent variaty of "free" options for coloring and clothing(hair, top, bottom, shoes and backpack). More clothes become available the more the player explores the land. These
options can customize the haircuts and the outfits to much iconic characters like getting Misty's haircut or Brock's clothes.
Once you customize your hero, the player meets Tangrowth that shows the player the state of the world. An abandoned dry land without sights of any life. Imidietly after we see a Squirtle desperate to get some water. Ditto transform itself
into Squirtle and uses his watergun in order to splash him. Thats when proffesor Tangrowth gets an idea. Use our new water power to splash the dry lands. And so we do. The more the player restores the land more and more pokemon become
available and some of them also help us with their abilities. For example, Bulbasaur teaches us to use Vines in order to grow grass. Witnessing our powers, Tangrowth asks us to help it restore the entire land.
After a certain point, many pokemon teach the fundamentals to the player and then we re free to do whatever we want. We can move around the world, use Water Gun, to restore dry lands, water the plants and clean teh ground. We can use
Vine in order to grow grass, use Rock Smash to break items/ blocks, Cut to cut down Grass, wood, trees etc, Rototiller, to help prepare the land to grow seeds(Vegetables). More techniques become avaible the more
you proceed with the story and the more side content you do. For example, when you reach the second land techniques like Transform allow you to take the form of various items around the world to camouflage. Surf becomes available
that will help you swim in water instead of dying, WaterFall will allow you to climb the water upwards. Some of the community favorites is transforming into Graveler, a pokemon with roll out which will help you move very
fast and can also combined with rocksmash to break more blocks faster. A Dragonite transformation allow your character to glide long distances before landing on the ground. Last but not least is Magnet Rise, a transformation that
not only allows you to fly freely, it can pick up items and it can place multiple blocks in one go, making building faster and manuver easier. This form is an endgame one and thus its busted.
Ofcourse this abilities are up to the player to use however they like. The player can move and sprint and pretty much gather the things they need. For example, the player should get berries off the trees. The player can interact with it
and then pick them up individually or use its mouth to suck everything around. Eating food is important as it restores PP points which allow you to use your abilities. Once you reach a certain area, Cooking becomes available. Pretty
much the player can use the berries and the cooking ingredients gathered from the grown seeds and use certain cooking tools to make big meals like hamburgers, bread, salads etc which power up the Ditto abilities giving them a bigger boost. EVery item
the Ditto gathers it stores into the players Inventory which they can access at any point anytime. However just like most games, the ammount of items collected is limited and thus the player should craft boxes to use them as Storage.
Ditto has its trainers Pokedex which has Poketlife installed in it. Poketlife is an app that shows Ditto the preferred habitats of each Pokemon. Once the player creates that area, theres a high chance that that pokemon will appear at some point.
For example, if you place the Pikachu sofa and a pikachu doll on the ground, an inhabitat will be created which will eventually summon Mimikyu. Once the Pokemon arrives, it will make that area its house and the pokedex will reveal information about the Pokemon.
Its description, its role and preferences. In the future, the player can move that pokemon in a different location. Once a pokemon is summoned, it will wonder around the land and will always be near its home. The player can see its comfort level and make
sure it gives it what it needs, house decorations, toys and food. The pokemon can also help the player with their abilities. For example, Bulbasaur can use grow which will speed up the plants growing progress, Scyther can use cut and provide Ditto with wooden planks
when its provided with Lobs, Charmander can use fire, which can be used to make Bricks from clay, put a campfire on fire and to provide fire for the oven. An important role is the builder, a pokemon with the ability to build can help you restore buildings
and build new ones given that the player provided it with a terrain, the tools and a team to guide. If a pokemon with an established habitant is nowhere near the area, the player can find it by using Pokemon with Fly, Search or by using a honey at their area to summon
them with its sweet scent.
The purpose of the player, is to make sure it raises the comfort level of each playable area. To do that, the player has to make the area a factional habitant by bringing as many new Pokemon as possible. Then once enough habitants made their way to the area, the
player can check their comfort level and provide them with the necessary items. Once an area reach comfort level 3, the pokecenter kit will become available that will allow the player to build it. The player can use the fanctional PC of each area to see the comfort level of
the town as well as a detail overview of which pokemon's comfort level is low. From the computer, they can purchase items from the store. The store includes a one of a time item, recipes that allow the player to craft items and items that change daily. Aside from the store the player
can see missions that need to be cleared. Theres daily missions like "give a pokemon a present", and there are general missions like build habitants in an area, harvest vegetables etc. With each comfort level increase, new missions become available. The rewards of the missions are
coins which the player can spent on the store.
Crafting is essential in order to create items. The player has a set ammount of items to craft and they gain new recipes the more they proceed through the story, some can be found in the store(and in the daily offers) and the more they explore the area. Once a recipe is obtained,
the item will become available in the work bench. If the item lacks color, it means the player is missing some of the ingredients. If the item appears normaly the player click it and even select the quantity given they have enough materials. The item crafted will then be placed in the
players inventory for the player to choose it and place it to their desired location. The direction that the item will be facing can also be chosen by the player. Items can be picked up and place in the inventory with a tap of the button where as blocks will recuire the player to smash
them with Rock smash in order to be able to pick them up.
Some items and specifically some furniture items are obtained through other means. A common way of finding items is by walking around and find it lying it there. You can use the pick up button and Ditto will store that item in his backpack no matter how bizzare it seems. For example Ditto
can pick an entire Vending machine and place it in his backpack. Another way of finding items is by interacting with Pokeballs that are scattered around with random item. Speaking of Random, around the world you ll see shiny blocks and shiny spots in the water. Interacting with it and
breaking the blocks will drop an item,relic or Fossil. Proffessor Tangrowth can identify these items for you(or use the Pokecenter in Pallet Town.). Another way to get rare items(or items with different color palletes) is by trading with Vespiquen or Gimmighoul. Vespiquen can
trade you up to 4 known items each day with you offering three honey jars per item. You get to know what item that is, but you wont know its pattern. Eg It will show resort bed however it may be colored with a strawberry pattern. Gimmighoul on the other hand, will trade you random items which you wont know
what it is until the trade is made. Gimmighoul will accepr Relics(which is a good way to get rid off Dublicates, triplicates etc) and Legendary Pokemon Feathers. These Feathers drop by Lugia and Hooh who fly above you a couple of times within a day. Additionally with the each POkecenter and eventually Poketmarket
build, Pokemon who specialise in Trade can walk inside and open a store that sells 6 random items. Each store in each city has different items. Last but not least items can be foubd in Dream Islands.
Dream Islands is the best way to get resources. You can visit only one dream island each day however you can keep visiting that same island throughout the day. To access a dream island you need two key things. First you need to befriend Drifloon who will visit your land on his own early on and the second
is a Pokedoll. In each of the main areas theres atleast a doll available however you can always find some in the shiny blocks and in pokeballs. Keep in mind each Doll represents a specific island with specific resources representing the area they were found. Everyday the islands are radomized, have different pokeball items
and other. Within these islands you can find habitant information and a potential Legendary encounter.
The dolls offer:
This is a very relaxing Pokemon game where you simply lay back and you play at your own pace. There are people who will rush the story to get power ups and powerfull form(Magnemite) but for me it was a relaxing gateway. I spent about 60 hours before proceeding to the final land. Its quite relaxing and fun to build your own thing or
providing your pokemon with tools for them to create an item. Exploring was always fun as i wanted to find all the fossils, relic and Mew puzzle pieces. In fact i had Mew way before i finished the story which to some is like end game thing. I was happy to provide Pokemon with the things they needed like toys, food and decoration.
Unfortunately Starmie is not in the game so i had to find other pokemon to befriend. As mentioned the exploration also rewarded me with alot of lore items which helped me uderstand how terrible the situation in Kanto was. Also something about loging in after hours or the next day and see a pokemon comming to the habitant you created
was very satisfying. The items, crafting materials and options allow you to create an infinite ammount of items. I ve seen people making the Kanto map from the games, other made the starting area from games like Dungeons and other made locations from other anime like Demon slayer, Mashle etc.
The game has not end aside from finishing the "plot". What i mean by this is that before the credits roll, proffessor Tangrowth encourage you to continue build the land. Even if you manage to find all 300 pokemon of Pokopia you can always keeo building different structures. Pallet town is pretty much your own land. You can rename it to
a different name if you want but for the sake of the review i ll be reffering to it as Pallet. This giant Sandbox allows you to build whatever you want. The game has Multiplayer. Pretty much you can invite people to your game by sharing your world code. Your friend can then come to your world, he can interact with the Pokemon however they cannot
build or break anything. This is because they re in a permanent Spectator Mode. However the players who re visitng, can give Starpieces(which are crafted by using 99Stardust found in Dream islands) to the pokemon to help them spawn back to their own games. Additionally with interactions the player gets to know their prefer habitant. Further more
by using the pokedex, they can take pictures of items they dont have and use the 3D printer found within a PokeCenter to print that item for them. Spectator Mode is disabled when teh friend or you visit the other players Pallet town. Here the visitor is free to build stuff, break and interact with the world as normal. However everytime collected will remain in Pallet town
meanning the friend cannot take the items back with them. This is a nice way to build and adventure with your friend. Cloud Island is another way to play in Multiplayer. Cloud island is like Pallet town where people can join and built. Unlike Pallet town, anyone with the code can join at any moment. Its like a private server for a friend group to play without
the other player needing to be online. You can invite as many people as you like however only 4 people can be active at a time.
When it comes down to collectables, i would say it depends on what you value as a collectable yourself. For example, someone might consider the Pokemon as a form of collectable meanning they have to find all 300. Others will say the resources are a form of collectable. Each block, table, bed etc. For me, i consider the lore elements as a form of collectable.
As mentioned they can be found around and they share stories about the world prior and during the natural disater. Some stories like the Hacker's story expands to multiple files. Another collectable is the 27 stone tablets needed to summon Mew. These tablets must be placed on a secret basement. Another form of collectable is the Relics and the Fossils. These
are found in the shiny rocks. I personally placed all of them inside the museum of Rocky Ridges as it felt appropriate.
Honestly this was such a magical game visually. In a magical way it combines the blocky lands of Minecraft with the chibish style of Animal crossing with a unique color and pattern of the Pokemon games. There is a huge variety of items that give you the freedom to make whatever you want. There are presets but theres also freedom to design. As mentioned online you can find
people who build Hogwarts, the infinite Castle, a Luna park, the whole Kanto region and more. It has vibrant colors and beutiful designs. It never loses the identity of Pokemon. Aside from that its very nice to see the Pokemon i the wild. You will see them interact with each other, sleeping on the benches, swimming in the water and even play tag. Some of them will even request
your Ditto to join in minigames such as "look this way", Quiz questions, Jump the robe and hide and seek. The game follows real time, so durind the day your game is bright, during sunset theres one in the game and during night the game gets dark. Your Ditto can also have different outfits, colors and haircuts.
The audio department is also very good. The game audio is design to escort the chill gameplay. if you played any of the pokemon games, there will be OSTs that were slightly altered but are very familiar. Its like minecrafts which blends in the background and leaves the magic take it away. The sound effects are also worth commending on such as your footsteps, pokemon interacting with
the grass, water, flowers etc. You can hear the pokemon battle cries in the backround as well and also everytime you interact with them. You can find audio Cds which you can play with the radio item or with DJ Rottom. Theres a total of 43 Cds with iconic soundtracks spanning through the Pokemon franchise. From team rockets OST, to certain cities, to routes and even trainers
and trainer battles.
Overall, Pokemon Pokopia is a fantastic game and an easy recomendation. It manages to tell a dark apocalyptic story in a very creative way. We play as a Ditto who woke up in an apocalyptic world where theres no humans and barely any Pokemon. With
the guidance of Proffessor Tangrowth we begin restoring the lands with the hope that our impact will bring not only the Pokemon back but also the human race. The mystery of the story is handled well during the main campaign and
it gets deeper the more the player explores the land and collects certain collectables.
The gameplay does not reflect the story at all as its a life simulation. Pretty much you build different habitants and different houses in order to bring Pokemon back. Some pokemon teach Ditto new abilities whilst others are using
their abilities to help Ditto. Some provide electricity, other use their flames and other provide items or use certain tools. The player is free to build whatever they desire. The game offers alot of building blocks and resources to create
your wildest imaginations.
Visually the game has a nice design that doesnt differentiate from the Pokemon IP. Its nice to have the pokemon walk around and interact and with the power of Switch 2 you can see multiple ones running and playing in the background without losing
any frames. Ofcourse not all can be in the same area at the same time, for example you cant have all 300 in one room, some will despawn, however the game made a clever usage of its items to solve the issue. The Audio blends nicely with the gameplay
and enchances its magic. Theres plenty of iconic OSTs in the background and once again the collectables can enchance this experience.
The game doesnt end with the ending of its main campaign in fact i would argue that thats when it actually begins. The player is free to build whatever they want whereever they want. With Multiplayer available friends can join together in Pallet town and
buld together or they can create a Cloud island where they can create their own server for multiple people to join and build. This alone is enough to keep friends occuppied. Theres also minigames that players can create and play using their Ditto's powers
Theres not really much negatives about the game. Ofcourse you can makecom the argument that Pokemon are missing. As mentioned as of now (April 2025)theres only 300 out of the 1028 Pokemon. Meaning that a Pokemon you might like might not be included such as my Starmie.
Personally i never felt negatively about the limit of the Pokemon as within 70+ hours im still missing alot and i truly believe that the devs can add more as the game continues to grow. Another argument voiced online is that unlike dragon Quest builders 2, the game
lacks combat. A fair argument but yet again i never felt the need for combat in Pokopia. My personal nitpick is that certain items or their recipes are hard to find and printing them from the store is not an option as sometimes the quantity might be far to big.
