Review Game Review: Pokémon Pokopia

[Felly]

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Pokémon Pokopia is the latest installment in the Pokémon franchise, released on March 5, 2026. This game is very much Pokémon meets Minecraft and Animal Crossing. It’s a very cozy, fun game where you can interact with your favorite Pokémon and create a Pokémon world of your own.

The game, like most Pokémon games, gives you a brief tutorial mode to go over all the aspects of the game: building structures, using the moves you learn from your Pokémon friends, and overall helping you get acquainted with the game. For once, the tutorial is actually useful and much needed, unlike the usual “how to catch a Pokémon” tutorials in the main series games, but then again, I’ve been playing the Pokémon games since childhood. It’s not too long, and anything else you need to know is taught as it becomes relevant in the game with reminders easily accessible through the main menu.

You get to customize your human shaped Ditto from the start. The customization options, however, are lacking. I’d say they’re better than the usual options from Pokémon games at the start, but definitely not the best out there. As you progress through the game, you can unlock additional options, but I’ve even found those unappealing and have found myself sticking with the initial options I chose at the beginning of the game. I don’t think having Kalos fashion is necessary, but it’d be nice to have other options available to make your Ditto your own. I think it’d also be neat if the Pokémon themselves could have little accessories, almost like how you could do with Contests in the Hoenn and Sinnoh games.

Pokopia very much gives Secret Base vibes from the third generation games, Ruby and Sapphire. One of my favorite parts of those games was finding the perfect place for my Secret Base and then customizing it to be what I wanted it to be. This game is just like that, but on a much larger scale. Not only can I customize my own little house, but I can also customize entire towns where I can live with my Pokémon friends and make them my own as I rebuild a world for Pokémon (and hopefully humans too!). Every day, I’ve realized just how expansive this world is as I continue to explore and rebuild bit by bit.

Overall, I would rate Pokémon Pokopia 7.8/10 too much water an 8.5/10 not enough water. I jest about the water, of course, but if we’re being honest, there really isn’t enough water at the beginning of the game. Jokes and obvious reasons for not having enough water at the start aside, Pokopia is a very much needed fresh take on the series. It’s one of the few Pokémon games that have really sparked joy and excitement for me, which is more than what a lot of the newer releases have done for me. However, I’m a huge fan of being able to customize my characters to my liking, and not being able to really do that as much in this game (especially compared to other recent Pokémon releases) kinda bummed me out a little bit. I also had a small issue with running out of PP in the beginning and not being sure how to replenish it without the power of Google. I thankfully figured it out (eating berries does wonders!) and was able to progress the next day when I played again, but I feel like including something about how to regain PP early game would be important. But beyond that, there’s so much to do in the game: from befriending new Pokémon to rebuilding an entire Pokémon world. Think Animal Crossing, but on a much, much larger scale. The starting area is only the beginning, and it’s been so much fun befriending Pokémon and rebuilding a huge world that’s entirely your own with a Pokémon twist to it. It’s already an expansive game, and while there’s little things to improve upon, it truly is a wonderful game that I’d recommend, especially to fans of Animal Crossing or even Minecraft, or other similar games.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I'm pretty sure @xKall3n will get it soon.