It’s been a little over a week since Pokémon Pokopia launched, and I felt that now was a good time to sit down and reflect on my journey with the game so far. However, I was also inspired by Westen over at Big Nerd Gaming and their recent post about Pokémon Pokopia too. So let’s dive into some of my initial thoughts and opinions from Pokémon Pokopia.
Now, Pokémon Pokopía is the recently released cosy life simulation game from Game Freak and Koei Tecmo Omega Force. A collaborative spin off game in its own right that takes inspiration from the likes of Minecraft, Animal Crossing and, naturally, the Dragon Quest Builders games, to name a few. It is currently, at the time of writing, the highest-rated Pokémon game ever on Metacritic and has received numerous highly rated reviews across the board.
However, it’s not just the reviews that are the be all and end all of how the game is. Many people who have also picked up Pokémon Pokopia have been sharing their thoughts and screenshots from the game, showcasing how much fun they are having with this cosier side of Pokémon.
Exploration & Getting Lost
Forget the story side of the game for a moment, as soon as I could, I was off on my own little side quest. Gathering resources, exploring the wider first area and discovering things a little bit earlier than planned. Okay, I was turned away from them initially until my trainer level was higher, but that’s not the point I was exploring them as soon as I could.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting each area to be as large as it is. While I’m still mainly focusing on the core starting area, I have unlocked two more areas and somewhat explored them. You can certainly see that each different town is its own in its own right however, I could also see the inspiration from notable places within the Pokémon franchise. Even when collecting various logs and collectibles such as the CDs, you can tell that this takes inspiration from so many places within Pokémon, and it’s lovely to see. However, I’m going off topic slightly now.
However, upon exploring the different areas, you can see how much potential it has. Whether you keep the area close to how you found it or decide to terraform and make it completely new is up to you there are still a number of opportunities to make it your own. I only really realised this when I’d gotten myself up on top of one of the clifftops after going on a slight side quest while already on a side quest.
While I still have a lot to do to bring a new lease of life into each of the areas, my focus for now remains in the starting area for a little longer before I progress into two of the areas I’ve recently unlocked and that one area you can travel to near the broken cycling road! If you know, you know!
Inventory Management
I’m terrible at inventory management in general in any game. Despite this, I’ve found the inventory management to be a blessing and a curse so far in Pokopia.
What I do like is that you can upgrade your bag space quite early on in the game a couple of times. If my memory serves me correctly, I did this through purchasing some upgrades via the Pokémon Center PC. Now this did throw me off initially, as I had clearly forgotten that I had all of this extra space when I was channelling my inner Team Rocket and taking objects from places to furnish my own buildings and habitats. I was wondering why I was able to pick up so many different objects.
Despite this, my general and overall management of my inventory and my overflow has ended up in numerous storage chests dotted around the world. This is okay, more so if I’m working in that immediate area however, it has become a struggle when trying to recall what is in which chest and where. I’ve been trying to work smarter by placing them next to workbenches where possible or by a habitat instead. This is somewhat working but ultimately a work in progress for me.
Who’s That Pokémon?
Apart from the Pokopia variant Pokémon that were showcased ahead of the game launching and your starter Pokémon, it has been great fun wondering which Pokémon will be joining your tribe next. Although you don’t catch them in the traditional way, the habitats you create can help influence who is likely to join you next.
I think the way you can create a number of different habitats for Pokémon is good fun. I’ve found myself stumbling across creating a few of the earlier and easier ones somewhat by accident but then trying to focus on crafting specific ones when needed.
It’s always a surprise who joins you next however, it can be a little frustrating if you need a specific Pokémon which has a certain skill set. This comes down more so to optimising who can help build the various buildings and trying to have multiple builds going on at any one time. I guess you could say I’m making it work for now, but I expect as I play more and explore more, I’ll have more Pokémon that I can use to help me on my journey of rebuilding each location.
On the other hand, I do need to highlight that I love how each Pokémon is its own. With its own personality, behaviours, expressions of emotion and ultimately just relatable and I love it! It certainly makes for some rather cute and funny moments, especially between other Pokémon too!
The Story Itself
The storyline for Pokémon Pokopia so far has been what I expected from a game like this. It keeps it interesting with simple quests to start with, fulfilling individual Pokémon’s requests and slowly building up and opening up the rest of the world. For me, there’ve been a few moments of frustration however, they’ve been more momentary than longer term frustrations, though.
Again, I am still quite early on in the story itself because of my self created side quests I’ve been taking on. I am interested to see exactly how the storyline plays out as I continue to play. I have a few suspicions as to how it does, but I’ll have to wait and see if they are true or not. I’m also not necessarily rushing through the story, as I want to pace myself, build what I can now to help aid my environment levels, and make sure my current roster of Pokémon are happy.
First Impressions So Far
While I’m only about thirteen hours into the game myself, I’ve been enjoying what I’ve played so far. A few minor frustrations but nothing that overshadows my core experience. Even though I find myself just going along at my own pace in the game and switching between building, finding Pokémon, exploring and completing the story side of the game, there’s always something to do at the moment.
I know I still have a great deal to discover in general in Pokopia but it’s one of those games that I know will be a slow burn for me in a way, and I’m not opposed to it.
Pokémon Pokopia feels reminiscent of the days when Animal Crossing New Horizons first released around six years ago. The community feeling, everyone talking and sharing things happening in their game, and even going to the extent of seeing the game selling out physically in various places across the world. It’s a weird kind of feeling in a way, but I also love seeing so many people are either jumping into the game as a seasoned Pokémon player or someone who is diving into the world of Pokémon for the very first time.
However, it’s more than that, and while the game might not be for everyone, there’s no denying that the teams behind Pokémon Pokopia have made a hugely successful game, and I’m excited to see how the game continues going forward. There certainly is more to the game than meets the eye, and I feel that we weren’t shown it ahead of the launch so that we could discover it ourselves for the first time.
Before I round off this post, here’s a quick gallery of some of the random silly little moments I’ve come across in my own game so far.
That’s it for my first impressions of Pokémon Pokopia so far. Is this a game that you are currently playing or thinking of picking up yourself? Let me know in the comments below!
leekscosycorner 