• Smogon Premier League is here and the team collection is now available. Support your team!

Pokemon Pokopia

Magcargo said:
This is one of the few times I have been hyped for a Pokemon side-game.

I'll admit, I don't really give a fuck about "cozy games" like Animal crossing, but the concept being explored with a Ditto is pretty cool. In fact, the main character being a POKEMON - especially a versatile one like Ditto - and using that to do all kinds of wacky things to interact with the game world is I think why I so excited for this. It also helps that Ditto has that classic weird + cutesy charm inherent to a lot of Japanese mascots that makes it really endearing - another good example of this is Myaku Myaku from the recent Japanese World Expo event.

I suppose this game will draw ire from people because of the recent lawsuit Nintendo targeted Pocket Pair with - which is pretty shitty imo. That said, independent of that BS, I personally am fine when are used to explore other genres. I do worry though that Pokemon's version of a "cozy game" will simply outshine all the other competition given how much more popular and recognizable Pokemon's brand and characters are compared to something like Dragon Quest or even Animal Crossing itself (despite the sales of New Horizons & New Leaf, I think the average joe will be more likely to know Charizard or Pikachu compared to Tom Nook or Isabelle for example). It'll be interesting to see if the sales of this game will reinforce this worry.
Click to expand...
These all seem like unfounded worries. The stuff with Pocket Pair is its own thing. And while they're going for a cozy vibe here, it's just a completely different kettle of fish from how Animal Crossing functions; even zeroing in on the minecraft-a-like "builder" genre I don't think there's any worries about it being so wildly successful that it overshadows everything else. And even if it did it's kind of like...doesn't really matter that much? DQ Builders hasnt had a game since 2018, minecraft is still an unstoppable juggernaut, and all the other ones that like the cubes & build stylings tend to be indie games which have smaller scopes anyway.

Realistically it probably won't even be a super insane run away success.
 
Ah hm. I essentially like Minecraft/animal crossing/etc, and this is easily in that category, BUT new horizons gets new content on new year free they say, AND champions will come out in spring or what, AND I do other stuff even within games. For the price of 70 atm, might skip this sad to say. Just not really enough time to justify buying
 
Last edited:
- braixen unconfirmed as of yet
- treehouse showcasers did not torture any pokemon whatsoever

as of right now this game is gonna have to put in a LOT of work i'm afraid. even though it looks quite good, a lack of both braixen and the ability to abuse pokemon that i don't like is a big drawback
 
I'll hold my horses since reviews way too often end up missing the whole picture when it comes to games.

Not that I expect Pokopia to be bad, on the contrary I'm looking forward to it. But this game is so niche and specific that I will only trust the reviews once the game is actually out and I can see it played.
 
These reviews are genuinely unbelievable praise, especially for a franchise that's gotten very rightful and frequent criticism the last few years. Pokemon spinoffs have always been fine to bad and now it's hitting this hard!?

I am super curious what this game could be hiding to warrant all of this praise. I have bounced off of every social sim I've played as an adult other than Tomodachi Life. These reviews have me half ready to make an unexpected game pickup.
 
R_N said:
The people yearn for dragon quest builders they just needed a different IP attached
Click to expand...
you could drop the builders part and this would accurately describe pokemon as a whole

TheMantyke said:
I am super curious what this game could be hiding to warrant all of this praise. I have bounced off of every social sim I've played as an adult other than Tomodachi Life. These reviews have me half ready to make an unexpected game pickup.
Click to expand...
it is only really a social sim if you want it to be, a reviewer at video games chronicle said hes played it for nearly 200 hours without interacting with another person once
 
Anyone playing this yet? How yappy is it? I ask bc I didn't plan to buy but my son wants it.

But he wanted ZA and stopped playing due to all of the lengthy cut scenes. He can't read well yet.
 
I have played around 5 hours of it. I will start this review with, this is not my usual type of game. I am only playing it as a pokemon fan and I havent played the other games it is supposedly similar too.

The game is reasonably good. My expectations were low, so that probs helps.

Gameplay is pretty simple. You build habitats to lure new pokemon. New pokemon give you tasks to complete. Mostly fetch and retrieve tasks. The majority of these tasks explain the mechanics of the game. How to make things, how to use a new learnt ability etc. As you learn new abilities more things and areas become available.

Pokemon help you with certain tasks. You have to pick the right mon to follow you to the activity. Which can get tedious as you walk from area to area. The pokemon generally loiters in the area of discovery. Once you discover something to do, you have walk back to pokemon's discovery area to collect them and bring them back. Wish they had some mechanism to call mons to your current location.

The game is pretty linear so far. There is a main story line you follow. You can have multiple tasks open at a time. You can pick and choose the order you complete them in, but they are all leading to the same point of the main story line.

The biggest positives so far. It is exciting to discover new pokemons. Pokemon interact with each other, which is cute and funny.

The biggest negative for me. Some actions take time to complete, which is tied to the system clock. There is no in game time skip. There are some things that cant be completed until the next day. And the big pokemon look pretty awful in the world (no spoilers on who, but one looked god damn awful to me).

My initial thoughts, it will be a game you either love or hate. If you like the genre, it will be good. I personally am not itching to pick it up again, but it is interesting enough for me to play and finish.
 
This is wonderful. I can't believe, after spending so much, I actually think was worth it. as someone who has played LOTS of animal crossing and Minecraft, this is pretty easily better than both to me. Idk that I'll do much competitive anymore, esp. in champions before gen 10.

I have had like one issue, and it'll probably get fixed in time. Just set a foundation with improper space, but can't pick it up for some reason, nor break those types of blocks to MAKE space...
 
The entire system of removing and placing blocks & objects is, while not unique to this game, absolutely maddening.

I see a lot of haphazard edifices and it is just not worth the time to destroy and then rebuild them. Meanwhile it's obnoxious to miss where you're placing something so you have to pick it up, go back into the menu ,take it back out, aim properly this time and probably go into a different set of buttons to reorient it, then place it.

The aiming system in general is like...way too finnicky. It's very easy to over shoot or move when you didn't want to.
 
R_N said:
The entire system of removing and placing blocks & objects is, while not unique to this game, absolutely maddening.

I see a lot of haphazard edifices and it is just not worth the time to destroy and then rebuild them. Meanwhile it's obnoxious to miss where you're placing something so you have to pick it up, go back into the menu ,take it back out, aim properly this time and probably go into a different set of buttons to reorient it, then place it.

The aiming system in general is like...way too finnicky. It's very easy to over shoot or move when you didn't want to.
Click to expand...
Mouse mode works really well for this imo. Made adding / destroying blocks a cinch. There are some spots where its tough & I don't like that it remaps the buttons for jump / block placement, but it does the job well enough for this game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top