I was expecting another gentle life, but Pokopia surprised me by doing what New Horizons never did. The levels of excitement generated by Pokémon Pokopia felt very reminiscent of that Animal Crossing: New Horizons produced back in 2020, when suddenly many of my non-gamer friends reached out to inform me that they now owned a Nintendo Switch again.
I’ve spent an absurd amount of my life in a cozy game world where your main responsibility is to decide where the couch should go. On the face of it, both games foster a longing for the slower paces and gentler progressions that, for many, are lost in their daily lives. However, the more time I spend with Pokopia, the more I realize that despite the many comparisons online, they don’t really feel the same when playing.
Pokémon Pokopia Review
Pokémon Pokopia is an amazing experience that is hard to put down.
Ironically, my biggest complaint has nothing to do with the game’s general loop or decoration schemes, but everything to do with the personalities of your roommates, or in the case of New Horizons, the lack thereof.
The Problem with Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Don’t get me wrong, New Horizons did a lot of things right — it managed to take a lot of us in the closing stages, after all — but as a long-time fan of the series who spent countless hours with its predecessors, there was one detail that stopped me in my tracks. The characters within the game felt completely devoid of the characters they once were.
Staying true to previous entries in the series, New Horizons keeps the human plot intact. There are eight types, each shaping the way villagers talk, behave and what their favorite activities are. On paper, nothing is missing, but when I played the game, I noticed a big difference that greatly affected how I enjoyed New Horizons.
The characters within the game felt completely devoid of the characters they once were.
The old Animal Crossing games had a lot of bite. The villagers were shocked and sometimes very quarrelsome, some of them questioning my clothes or my choices in ordinary life. Some can be unpleasantly rude, which often leads to conversations that, while very out-of-pocket, are also deeply memorable. I want the virtual world I’m building to feel a little less predictable, and I really want my people to have feelings that don’t just flatter me..
The Game That Has Helped Millions of People Feel Alone
Back in 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a place of help for millions of players.
But really, it’s not just about them being sassy for the sake of it. What made previous Animal Crossing games special was the fact that it would take real effort to get certain personality types to warm to me. Friendships did not happen by chance, and some personality types were more stubborn than others. The feeling of gradually conquering a citizen who has snuck up on him is incomparable, and is preceded by many awkward conversations and gifts that miss the mark.
What makes Pokémon Pokopia Shine
On the other hand, Pokopia succeeds well in making the people in its world feel alive. So far, I don’t get the sense that their dialogue is drawn from a limited pool of safe, reusable lines. This is a big difference that felt obvious from the start, especially since the Pokémon are not only talking to me, but also talking to each other.
And wow, does it make a difference. They react, interrupt and sometimes even contradict each other. In fact, filling out the data in the Pokedex is a very rewarding task in itself, but doing so and knowing that my in-game world would feel a little more hectic when new Pokémon entered filled my heart with great joy.
10 Crazy Secrets You Might Miss In Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen
Your childhood journey was full of things you never noticed.
I search Bellsprout will be a little shy and startled when it finds Oddish eating dirt. I search Charmander to be high, clumsy and a little unaware of how exciting. And definitely search front seat every time Heracross and Pinsir trash each other before a fight.
I search Bellsprout will be a little shy and startled when it finds Oddish eating dirt.
Somehow, I was surprised by how much joy it kept adding to my whole experience. It turns out, I actually don’t mind building the right settlements and constantly dragging on the map to fulfill special requests almost as much when the general interactions are fun and the world exists outside of me instead of responding to what I put in.
Pokopia Delivers That New Horizons Only Teased
Aside from the lack of meaningful relationships with our people, one thing that bothered me the most when I first started playing New Horizons was how little there was to do in those early days. After the initial setup, progress was slowed to a crawl. And the experience is even worse if, like me, you are a night owl and prefer to play at night, since most of the game is tied to the actual cycle of the day and night life.
In fact, memories of that ended my expectations of Pokopia. I went into the game with the thought that it would maintain a rhythm of daily brief logins and light maintenance. I was very surprised when, after my first 10 minutes of daily play – saying hello to Pokémon, checking the daily quests, checking the daily store – there was still an actual game waiting to be played.
In spirit, Pokopia feels close to Dragon Quest Builders, with its structure revolving around exploration, crafting and strong objective-driven progression, but it’s easy to see why many of us naturally compare it to Animal Crossing. Between the comfort and the soft color palette, it seems similar, but once you spend real time with it, you will notice that the design philosophy is very different.
Ultimately, Animal Crossing: New Horizons asked me to exist in its world, but Pokémon Pokopia always gave me reasons to engage with it. And I think it will be a long time, as we are already set to get our first special event soon.
Pokémon Pokopia: You Can Recreate the Pokémon Center
Time to rebuild.
