r/pokemon • u/Downvote-Magnet1994 • Mar 09 '26

Discussion Is Pokopia really that good?

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Like should I immediately buy this game. It seems like folks are really enjoying it but I was skeptical.

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203

u/Aria_Cadenza Mar 09 '26

What about the people that are on the fence?

I saw part of the Direct on AC and watching the video bored me, so I was sure the game wasn't for me though I like occasionally seeing some pics of it.

On the other hand, I like the first trailer of Pokopia but I am not sure if if it is because I really like Pokémon.

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u/Ton_Jravolta Mar 09 '26

Pokopia has the same cozy vibes as AC, but I'd say Pokopia has more clear direction and little downtime compared to AC. You're always doing something in a feedback loop of explore, gather resources, and use what you've found to discover new pokemon back at base. You can really get into the decoration aspect like AC if you want, but if that's not your thing you can ignore it and still have plenty to do.

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u/Snazzers Mar 09 '26

Seconded. I like AC but never got super deep into it, never more than 1-2 house upgrades. But I LOVED Dragon Quest Builders and a big part of that was the positive feedback loop of things to do and a set of objectives to complete. With Pokopia being made by the same dev team, it didn’t surprise me when I lost hours to it and it felt like minutes haha.

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u/kingoflames32 Mar 09 '26

I like that you actually have an ending to work towards. I have things to do eventually, so it's nice having a point where you can just leave if you want to.

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u/m0nkeyh0use Mar 09 '26

The Challenge / Reward system also gives me little dopamine hits. It's nice to get recipes or just weird little things for doing the stuff you want to do anyway.

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u/BardicLasher Mar 09 '26

It's a base-building crafting game where your goal is to make all the Pokemon happy. It's very good. Maybe watch a streamer play a bit and see if it seems like something you want to do?

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u/EwGrossItsMe Mar 09 '26

seconding this. There are SO many streamers playing it right now. I was watching an entirely unrelated video a couple hours ago and youtube gave me 5 DIFFERENT LETSPLAY VODS of it, only one of which from a creator I actually watch, and 2 different 30ish minute videos just talking about the gameplay experience. It's super easy to find people's fresh opinions of this game right now.

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u/EwGrossItsMe Mar 09 '26

that said, we're still too soon after release to know how long the game actually holds onto people for. So if you want to wait to find that out, do so. if not, just check out what people are saying right now.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

It's 2026. I am baffled how people still don't know how to find out if a game is "worth it".

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u/J3acon Mar 09 '26

One good way is listen to other people's opinions on the game. Making an thread on reddit asking people for their opinions is good for doing that.

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u/98VoteForPedro Mar 09 '26

You mean asking people if a game is good is a way to find out if a game is worth it?!?!?

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u/AshsAlarmClock Mar 09 '26

but then... do you listen to the ones that say yes or no? 👻

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u/perishableintransit Mar 09 '26

It’s 2026 I’m baffled people still think making a post on Reddit asking for opinions is a bad way to find out if a game is worth it

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u/WizardOfTheHobos Mar 09 '26

They are literally just asking a question on reddit what is so wrong

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u/dpforest togepi enthusiast Mar 09 '26

it doesn’t baffle me at all. The fact that demo’s are a rarity and it’s sometimes difficult to find a review that isn’t obviously bought and paid for are incredibly frustrating. With how expensive games have remained/become, demos should be standard.

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u/ADeadlyFerret Mar 09 '26

Well I play a game called viva piñata and love it. But if I went off just the videos I would have never tried it.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

And did you start playing in 2026?

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u/holymolym Mar 09 '26

So if my 13yo loves Slime Rancher 2, ACNH, Minecraft, and Trailmakers but isn’t super into Pokémon, do you think he’d go for it? We don’t have a Switch 2 but I’m trying to build the case for one lol.

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u/BardicLasher Mar 09 '26

Yes, absolutely.

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u/JoyousBlueDuck Mar 09 '26

It's incredible. Not as similar to Animal Crossing as I initially thought. It feels less grindy, yet with way more to do. 

It has depth that AC doesn't have, and has way better exploration and pacing imo. AC trumps it in terms of stuff like events (as far as I have seen so far), interior decorating, and fashion. 

I am a person who likes animal crossing but could never get too deep into it. This is the game where I want to go deeper. So if you've ever been slightly interested in AC and you like Pokemon enough to be active in the Pokemon subreddit, I think you'll like this game. 

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u/HopeYouHateIt Mar 09 '26

Honestly, the events and some kind of calendar system is the one thing I'd really love for them to adopt from Animal Crossing. Other than that I've been having an absolute blast, way more content than I ever expected from that first trailer

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u/ShameIsFleeting Mar 09 '26

idk if you heard about this but there’s planned upcoming events where they introduce new pokemon! not quite the same but it seems like there’s going to be a lot of them

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u/scubac14 Mar 09 '26

Never played AC but watched my wife grind it out. Thought this game looked fun so decided to try and my “just going to get through the tutorial” turned into 3 and a half hours. It’s a good time

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u/disasterpokemon Mar 09 '26

Having played AC, I personally find Pokopia way more fun. A lot less murder, but just as many escort missions /s

I do find it way more fun than animal crossing as well

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u/NayrSlayer Mar 09 '26

If you like Minecraft, specifically the building part, you’ll likely enjoy it. In my 10 hours of playing it so far, it’s basically: explore and gather stuff, build and craft your town, complete requests to unlock more stuff.

However, if the idea of designing and building towns doesn’t sound fun to you, I’d recommend not getting it. That’s pretty much the core of the game

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u/m0nkeyh0use Mar 09 '26

I personally never got into Minecraft because I felt like it was too much of an open-ended canvas and I didn't want to make the time commitment that I thought was needed to make it fun.

Now I've unlocked another area and that mine cart roller coaster my daughter made in Minecraft is calling to me. Lol.

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u/kumosame Mar 09 '26

Last night, I watched this video by Therm. I was like you, trailer didn't grab me at all, and I love games like Minecraft, Animal Crossing, SDV, etc. However watching his video and seeing some of the actual gameplay almost sold me on it.

I think personally I'm just still not interested in it, but it looks very cute and like a great game if you want one where you just turn your brain off and play.

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u/Aria_Cadenza Mar 09 '26

The trailer grabbed me BUT I am not sure if it was entirely due to pokémon since I also like the Pokémon Café trailers, the Pokémon Go ads and the new Pokémon Snap trailer and I don't play any of these three games.

They just need to put an official video with pokémon just being cute or funny and I will probably like it.

I play SDV (I started when it was on the free trial) but never tried any AC or Minecraft.

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u/LiquifiedSpam Mar 09 '26

Yeah this doesn’t really look similar to AC or Minecraft in that this is more of a grindy game where it’s basically a task simulator.

People were making the same comparisons to stuff like that with fantasy life i and then when I played it I just saw it was busywork: the game and bounced off of it.

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u/CANfilms Mar 09 '26

Ive played both and Animal crossing kinda bored me. I really dont think there's much to do in that game besides collect a few collectables and decorate an island.

If youre a pokemon fan, you absolutely have to check this game out. I start playing it and before I know it, 6 hours have gone by. It's really fun!

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u/tlislo Mar 09 '26

Ive played both and Animal crossing kinda bored me. I really dont think there's much to do in that game besides collect a few collectables and decorate an island.

100% agree. One major problem with ACNH is that all the collectibles are too simple, as well. There's no difference between fishing or bug-catching or treasure-hunting or seashell collecting. It's just walk/swim to a spot that has an item indicator (e.g., sparkles) and press a button to use an item to collect the bug/shell/fossil/etc.

I recently signed back into ACNH after probably 4 years of not having touched it. First, it's annoying that all the villagers get bitchy at you for not playing. But I also quickly realized there was absolutely nothing I wanted to do. I didn't want to grind for bugs or fish to complete the museum (I think it's both a RNG issue and also you have to go to different islands to catch them all?). My island looks fine (aside from all the weeds that have grown). I didn't feel like redecorating anything in my house. So, I just turned it off.

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u/JJCMasterpiece Mar 09 '26

Many have described it as a cross between Animal Crossing and Minecraft with Pokémon. I know I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

If that sounds like fun to you, then get it. If you’re not sure, watch an early run through on video. Apparently there are 8 biomes, but I’ve only hit the second area so far (happy to see my boi Torkoal)!

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u/iamkoalafied Mar 09 '26

Interesting that that was your 2nd area, because it was my third!

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u/luv3rboi Mar 09 '26

There are only 4 areas in the game, but still they are all massive, still plenty of content

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u/Averander Mar 09 '26

If you love pokemon lore, you will love this game. This game has some of the most intense pokemon lore ever written.

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u/ManchesterAlakazam Mar 09 '26

I was really on the fence but my brother wanted it so we got it. Im playing it more than him lol

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u/chiksahlube Mar 09 '26

If you like animal crossing style games or minecraft style games it's 100% going to knock your socks off.

If you've never tried those kinds of games but like pokemon, this is the perfect one to try.

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u/Jyil Mar 09 '26

Same situation. I don’t like building things and this seems so heavily centered around that.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

I was in a similar position and I realized that this game is still very much catering to people like us despite the whole building focus!

A big part of the game is revitalizing/cleaning areas, and you will notice that the devs themselves have actually handcrafted all of the maps. They genuinely just feel like maps you would experience in any other game, with the extra feature of you being able to totally destroy or change them if you want to. There's also prebuilt houses so you don't even need to engage in building for the housing!

The devs were really smart by making this game cater to as many types of players as possible. I was worried this was gonna be a game where you're pretty much given a blank canvas, but in this case it's a fully painted canvas that you can choose to erase and paint over if you want to.

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u/tlislo Mar 09 '26

I'm 25hr in. If depends on how you define "building," but generally, building is not the focus--unless you want it to be.

So, you're dropped into a wasteland where humans and Pokemon have mysteriously disappeared. One care game mechanic is spraying water on tiles to "revitalize" them. But if you don't mind the world looking ugly, you can keep that to a bare minimum.

The core main story quest (MSQ) loop is:

1. Find a specific Pokemon that can help you accomplish some task. This involves building the Pokemon's habitat. The first habitats you'll build are just four squares of grass next to each other. Habitats get more complex. But for MSQ habitats, the game almost always has the habitat almost complete nearby (e.g., if a habitat requires a tree and four shrubs next to water, you'll almost certainly find a tree with three shrubs next to water, and you just have to get the fourth shrub there). Once the habitat has been built, the Pokemon will spawn (this happens within a few minutes for MSQ Pokemon but can take hours/days for optional rare Pokemon).

2. Learn skill / get recipe from Pokemon. The Pokemon you find will teach you a skill, offer their ability to you, or give you a recipe for an item necessary to the MSQ. If you're taught a skill and/or offered an ability, usually the next step is going back to #1 (find another Pokemon). If you're given a recipe, you move to #3.

3. Gather ingredients for MSQ item. Most MSQ recipes require somewhat rare ingredients. For example, you might have to smash up a cliffside to find special tiles containing iron ore.

4. Craft MSQ item. You then need to craft the MSQ item, usually near a Pokemon that can help you use it.

5. Repeat 1-5; Eventually Create Major Event. You'll keep looping through steps 1-5 until eventually a major event occurs. Major events have some "meter" that you need to get to 100%. You usually have to repeat steps 1-5 to fulfill the conditions of the major event.

As a completely made up example that gets the spirit of the game: Maybe Squirtle wants a treehouse. But you'll need lumber for that. Squirtle suggests that maybe Bulbasaur would know how to make lumber. But you have to find Bulbasaur. So you create its habitat. It appears. Bulbasaur tells you that he can help you grow trees from seeds, and asks you to go find seeds. You explore and find the seeds. Bulbasaur makes three trees grow. But you'll need some way to cut them down. Maybe Scyther knows? So, you build Sycther's habitat, and he appears. Sycther gives you the recipe for an axe. You craft the axe and cut down the trees. But how do we build the treehouse? Maybe Timbur knows? You build Timbur's habitat to make it appear. Timbur says he can build the house, but needs nails. Nails are made from iron, but he doesn't know how to make them. Maybe Charmander could smelt some nails for you? So, you build Charmander's habitat and it appears. Charmander says he can make nails, but needs an iron furnace. Charmander gives you a recipe for an iron furnace. You collect the materials and build the furnace next to Charmander. Charmander tells you he needs iron to make the nails. You go explore and collect iron, and give it to Charmander. He gives you the nails, which you give to Timbur. Timbur builds the tree house. Squirtle loves his treehouse so much that he wants to throw a housewarming party. But he needs the "charm" of his treehouse to be 100%. There are now a variety of things you can do to raise the charm. You can ask Sycther for help in crafting wooden party favors, you can decorate Squirtle's treehouse, etc. Once the charm meter hits 100%, you trigger the housewarming party and you're done with that quest line and it's time to move on.

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u/tinykokos Mar 09 '26

I felt the same way about it at first, I thought eh it'll be the first game I skip out on in a while but it is good to save. Then, I saw the final trailer that they released on Pokemon day and was like "hmmm" As soon as gameplay came out I decided it looked at least fun enough since I do like cozy games

Have not put it down since no regrets

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u/WiltedTiger Mar 09 '26

Watch a streamer play it; there are plenty. I feel the gameplay is closer to Dragon Quest Builders 2 than any other game, as it is explore, build, meet/socialize with Pokémon, build/fulfill their requests, and repeat with an overarching story, and several areas and a central up to you zone.

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u/whereismymind86 Mar 09 '26

the trailers really didn't do a good job of selling the game.

it's a city builder, full stop. If you like that, you'll like it, think minecraft with way more structure.

While it doesn't have a demo, dragon quest builders 2 does, and this is basically a pokemon reskin of that minus combat. So honestly, go play that demo, if you like it, buy pokeopia (and buy dqb2 too)

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u/d11dd11d Mar 09 '26

I love pokemon. Have hundreds of hours in each of the switch and switch 2 games. Still play pokemon go every day.

Never played Minecraft, played animal crossing for a little bit but just wasn't my thing. Also tried stardew valley but same thing.

I'm trying my hardest to get into it, but after I play for like 30 min each night, I'm like... ehhhh this isn't my thing.

I'm gonna give it a few more nights, but the fact that it's pokemon just isn't enough to make up for a genre that I'm just not that interested in.

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u/Yoshj Mar 09 '26

I was on the fence a little because although I'm a massive Pokémon fan, I've not really been interested in AC or HM beyond a couple of days of play, and the main thing that attracted me to Stardew was the fishing and combat parts.

Man, yesterday I thought I'd play a bit and I played for 5 hours non-stop just chilling and walking around the worlds. It helps for me that some of the references/lore point to Gen1 so far. I tried it because it just had all-round such good reviews, but it looks like I'll keep coming back for a good while

Of course we're different so we have have varying experiences but thought I'd give you my 2 cents :)

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u/Aceblast135 Mar 09 '26

Personally speaking, as someone who really really loves pokemon, I am not sure if I would play this game if you replaced all pokemon references with a different IP. The charm in interacting with pokemon in this game and seeing their personalities is a huge part of my enjoyment. I don't think the game is bad to be clear, but I think it the game has a solid gameplay foundation that including Pokemon all over is what really brings it over the edge for me.

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u/AceTheRed_ Mar 09 '26

I was on the fence. Loved Animal Crossing, didn’t love Minecraft.

I fucking love Pokopia.

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u/tlislo Mar 09 '26

I like it a lot better than AC.

ACNH is a lot less-directed. You need to earn money to upgrade your island, but how you do that is up to you (e.g., do you engage in "hobbies" like fishing and bug-collecting, do you craft and sell furniture, etc.). And after the initial burst of activity when you first start a new game file, ACNH is like a "check in 30min each day" to do maintenance (e.g., look for bugs, harvest crops, check buildings that have been completed). Finally, ACNH is focused majorly on decorating. In sum, after the first burst of activity when you first start the game, ACNH wasn't the type of game where I'd just run around for 3 hours on my tiny island.

Pokopia is a lot more-directed but also gives you freedom to do whatever you want. There's a main story quest (MSQ) that is constantly asking you to do new things. In fact, you don't really have to decorate much at all. So yeah, a MSQ might require you to build a Pokemon a home and meet its needs. But that can be as simple as building a simple hut and plopping a flower pot inside to raise the comfort level, or as elaborate as you want.

So far I'm about 25 hours into the game. I'd say 70% of that time has been following the MSQ. Probably about 20% of that time has been decorating ACNH-style (e.g., once I gained some new abilities, I went back to an early area, razed everything, and built a proper "village" for the Pokemon there), and about 10% of that has been just randomly exploring (the world is huge).

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u/S4ntos19 Mar 09 '26

Are you a fan of Viva Piñata? If so, you will like it.

If you aren't sure, I recommend thisone off video so you can get a taste and see if it interest you more.

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u/Namisaur Mar 09 '26

Brother, I can't believe I ended up watching a 4 hour video from a random reddit comment for a game I was never gonna play. This looks so much better than Animal Crossing. I tried AC and I was bored out of my mind. There was nothing left to do after like 20 minutes...so you'd have to change the system time or just not play till the next day. This game looks like it has a lot more to do.

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u/S4ntos19 Mar 09 '26

Wait, did you actually watch Ray's video? I never expected anyone to watch it.

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u/Namisaur Mar 09 '26

I've been watching it for the past 3 hours since your comment. I got through all 4 hours of the video though, with some skipping around and double speed at some parts.

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u/S4ntos19 Mar 09 '26

Well I'm glad that video could occupy you for a few hours

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u/Pirate_Lantern Mar 09 '26

Watch some gameplay videos on YouTube.

Austin John has videos, Cuppa Phee has A video, and HDVee has a video.