Pokémon Pokopia: Hands-on Preview
I have a confession to make, one that might seem odd considering I spend a huge amount of my time writing about and playing video games. That is, I have never really played a Pokémon game. Sure, I’ve dabbled from time to time and even attempted to join the hype at the peak of the Pokémon Go era, but for whatever reason, I’ve never sunk any serious time into the franchise. So what happens when someone like me, who doesn’t know their Pikachus from their Mewtwos, previews a Pokémon spin-off about building the perfect Pokémon Utopia? Well, surprisingly, they have a charmingly good time.
After watching a trailer or two, I felt like I would be sitting down to try my hand at something akin to Stardew Valley, but the experience was much closer to Animal Crossing or Dragon Quest Builders. Apparently, some sort of calamity has occured and the world is now barren. Both humans and Pokémon have dissapeared and no one really knows why. This is where the game starts, with players taking control of a particular Pokémon that can imitate other Pokémon. You then begin the long quest to bring the world back to life and a living, breathing population of Pokémon and (hopefully) humans along with it.
At its core, Pokopia is basically a classic survival game. Gather resources, build structures, survive longer. Obviously, though, this idea has been tailored to suit the subject matter, so instead of hunting for food, you are building habitats that encourage Pokémon to return, learning about the history of the world and discovering old technology that will help you meet your goals. In the initial stages that I got to experience, I spent most of my time learning about different habitats, then using natural resources to build them and hopefully encourage some Poke-friends to join me in my budding Utopia.
It is all very simple to grasp, but there is a surprising amount of depth on offer, even in the early stages. Each Pokémon requires a different habitat, but it also needs additional comforts, such as food and bedding, to be happy and productive. The game then becomes a bit of a balance between trying to lure new residents, while at the same time keeping the existing ones happy. There is an almost zen-like feeling to these activities, taking part in what should be mundane things like collecting resources or planting seeds. I am sure Animal Crossing fans out there know what I am talking about when I say that sometimes chores can be enjoyable, especially if you dress them up in cute Pokémon clothes.
I also got to experience some of the multiplayer, which, by the nature of these sorts of demos, involved four of us wandering around having little idea what was going on. It was, however, easy to see the potential of four players working together to achieve their goal of Poke-paradise, so I suspect that fans of the game will find a lot to love here. The catch is that the host is the one who gets all the benefits as players are invited to their island, so any progress made only stays with the host. Not an issue if you are playing a regular game with a solid group of friends, but certainly not conducive to playing with randoms.
The thing that surprised me the most, though, was that I, the Poke-ignoramus, had a good time. The fact that it is both a genre of game I usually don’t get into and that I know nothing about Pokémon should mean that I bounced off this quicker than an adult trying their luck at FlipOut, but instead I found myself captured by its charms. While I still don’t think the game is for me, it is certainly going to be for a large group of players, and I can see it going on to be a massive time sink for those it clicks with. Pokémon Pokopia is no doubt packed with charm, simple to engage with and offers a surprising amount of depth, so I expect this to be another hit for the Pokémon Company when it lands on the 5th of March.
