I am going to start this post by shouting out my awesome husband. When I saw Pokopia announced, I knew it was a game I’d want to play, but I did not want to buy a Switch 2 just for that. My husband, however, thought I should, so he surprised me with the new console and game! It has become my obsession and I have not been playing any other games. It’s the perfect mix of Pokemon and Animal Crossing and I’m doing my best to take my time and just enjoy the process.

There is SO much Pokopia hype online and SO many people have beat the game and built elaborate cities and environments for their Pokemon. Then there’s people like me, who kind of have some stuff built up, but largely it’s an unorganized mess of random blocks and just trying to make my Pokemon happy enough to increase the environment level and move the story along. If you’ve been following any of the content out there, you probably know most of the mechanics and features of the game, so I think I’ll just talk about whatever decides to randomly flow from my hands.

The world is built by blocks similar to Minecraft. Some are easy to break and move. Others require power-ups that you collect as you progress the story. You can get abilities from Pokemon you meet and cook meals that strengthen your moves. If you start trying to break blocks and make them all uniform, you won’t do anything else, so do your best to overlook the chaos and just start finding more Pokemon.

Pokemon are found through building environments. In some cases, a Pokemon can be found through more than one type. In other cases, you need to pay attention to the background of the habitat information – the Pokemon will only show up if you build in that specific zone. Some of the environments require elaborate equipment or electricity to power them. You can get it through windmills, furnaces, and water wheels, but if I’m being honest, I don’t really get the mechanics of actually running power around besides through those ugly utility poles. I’ve finally unlocked wireless generators through leveling up the environment, so I’m trying to do that and will incorporate more power into my world once I figure that out.

I think something that is cool is that this game has many “favorites” in the world, but there are a lot of Pokemon you don’t really see come alive in any other games. There are many I wouldn’t expect to get screen time, and there are some I wish that didn’t. Like Timburr is fine, I guess, but his evolutions are so ugly, lol. From what I’ve seen, there are hundreds of Pokemon in the game and there are multiple worlds you can find them in. I think I have over half of the Pokemon now? And I’m just starting to really “try” – I’ve mostly just half-ass created environments to improve the ranking.

I like being able to make homes for the Pokemon. You can build homes brick-by-brick, but depending on what you’re building, it can be a lot of resources and a lot of time. The pre-built structures you can buy and construct them with materials. They always come out nice, have plenty of space (excluding those dens), and work perfectly. I’ve been opting to do that more because my builds have been pretty basic. I don’t know if it is because I don’t have a lot of recipes unlocked or if I haven’t invested a lot of time in acquiring materials, but I feel like they leave a lot to be desired (at this state in my game). The other thing is, it would be a lot more work to move them if you don’t like the location. Pre-built options can be relocated with a kit. Block builds require breaking the whole thing down piece by piece. I know you can build amazing things – I’ve seen it online, but I’m not dumping that much time in the game right now and I don’t have a vision for my final look.

I think the biggest issue I have, and that most people have, is the inventory system. Ripping the environment apart loads your inventory with a ton of blocks and while there are ways to get rid of them, it is kind of tedious. You’ll also need lots of storage boxes for things you find or make and they are not connected in any way. That means you may spend a lot of time traveling between zones and running between boxes to figure out where you left that particular thing.

Something I’ve started doing is dumping things I don’t want on dream islands I visit. You can visit one a day and every time you visit, it’s something different. So if you destroy things, take things, or drop things, they’ll all be gone the next day and reset as if nothing happens. You never know what you’ll find so it’s worth exploring deeply. I have found furniture items, window panes, and building blocks I like to use in my builds back home. You can also find legendary Pokemon hiding in the depths of caves. They can be brought back home to live on your island which is a fun thing to uncover.

I don’t want to make this post a how-to or explanation of mechanics because I think there is a TON of that out there. Mostly, I just want to say, this game is a lot of fun! I love seeing Pokemon interact with each other and seeing their personalities. I like finding secrets in the world and just randomly deciding on whatever activity I feel like doing in the moment. The game is as fast or as slow as you’d like to make it, but my advice is to take it slow because it is SO overwhelming. The feeling you get walking into a new zone, seeing how big it is, and how much of a mess you need to clean up will be a lot, but each area is so different, you’ll probably gravitate to one over the others. There is so much to do and not a lot of direction. If you try to rush through things, you’ll burn out and it won’t be enjoyable. Just play!

Pokopia is a great escape from the craziness of the world. Are you playing? Any questions I can answer? Let me know in the comments!