It’s the 30th anniversary of Pokémon this year, and while there are probably big RPG announcements on the way, the first major game we know is coming this year is something a little bit different. Pokémon Pokopia is an Animal Crossing-style life sim in which you help rehabilitate a desolate town into a habitat livable for Pokémon. It seems to be Pokémon’s play at the “cozy” genre, but it may have some dark undertones based on what we’ve seen. Here’s everything we know so far.
The premise
Pokopia stars a Ditto who transforms into a human, whose form you will be able to customize. It is heavily implied that this human form is meant to embody Ditto’s trainer, who is missing as of the beginning of the game.
They meet a graying Tangrowth called Professor Tangrowth, with whom they decide to help rebuild a desecrated town into a livable space, complete with specialized habitats to attract new Pokémon residents. Along the way, Ditto will learn new abilities that will help it cultivate its growing town, using water attacks to water plants and fire ones to cook and burn objects. Ditto can also transform into other Pokémon for traversal’s sake, turning into a Lapras to swim between areas, for instance, or a Dragonite to fly across great distances.
As you build your plot of land back up, Pokémon will flock to it and soon you’ll have a little community of critters. They’ll come to you with requests for how to make the town better, and that will attract more Pokémon to your space. The more people that show up, the more you’ll need to build homes and other buildings to fill up the town, such as houses, Pokémon Centers, and other utilities.
New Pokémon
While there haven’t been any new Pokémon species announced for Pokopia, a few returning monsters have named variants. Peakychu is a pale-white Pikachu that has an almost ghostly aura about her. Professor Tangrowth has white vines on the top of its head as if it’s an older grass-type Pokémon, and it also wears glasses and a broken Technical Machine on its head to look like a human doctor. Mosslax is a Snorlax that has been asleep for so long it’s been wrapped in vegetation. And lastly, Smearguru is a Smeargle covered in plant splotches. As best as we can tell, these are just named characters and are still considered members of the same existing species. I would be surprised if any of them showed up in the RPGs as usable party members, though.
Is it post-apocalyptic?
There’s a running theory that Pokopia might be set in some kind of dark, post-apocalyptic future version of the Kanto region from Pokémon Red and Blue. Professor Tangrowth says he hasn’t seen humans in a while, and some of the areas we’ve seen do seem to resemble areas from the original games. Also, each of the “new” Pokémon has some element to them that is giving post-apocalypse. Mosslax has been sleeping so long that nature is reclaiming it, Peakychu is either dead or dying, and Smearguru has seemingly been painting so much that it hasn’t had a proper shower in a while. Will the game actually explore this, or will it just be a haunting truth in the background of an otherwise cozy game? We’re not sure yet.
Multiplayer
Pokopia will include a cooperative multiplayer mode for up to four players, either by connecting online with multiple game owners, or using GameShare to play with a second player who doesn’t own the game. When using GameShare, the second player can play on the original Switch system, but the game will only be natively playable on Switch 2.
It’s a game-key card
Unfortunately, Pokopia’s physical copies will include a game-key card, which means the cartridge you put in your system won’t actually contain the game data. Instead, it will just act as a key to tell your Switch 2 to download the game onto your system through the eShop.
But when is it coming out?
Pokémon Pokopia is coming to Switch 2 on March 5.
