Pokopia Might Be Too Cosy For Its Own Good

Pokemon Pokopia is great fun. I had a blast with it during the preview stage, and upon picking up the full game last week, I’ve spent far too much of my free time befriending wild creatures before taking on the role of a trusty shapeshifting landscaper. This post-apocalyptic world needs some serious TLC, and I have all the tools to make it shine.

Koei Tecmo and Game Freak have developed a wonderfully satisfying formula that takes the elements from beloved titles like Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders, and Minecraft, just before putting its own unique spin on the cosy genre. I’ll admit that replacing a generic range of NPCs with familiar Pokemon is a seriously effective strategy, especially when each one is outfitted with specific wants and needs we must try to meet.

The early hours of a whirlwind of satisfying tutorials and piecemeal exploration that draw you into an ever-expanding suite of mechanics that I can’t wait to experiment further with. But it’s hard to deny that the open world and its many adorable occupants are lacking some much-needed friction. Each one of them is too nice for their own good.

I Wish The Pokemon In Pokopia Would Be Mean To Me

Every single Pokemon you discover in Pokopia will not hesitate to become your best friend. After discovering you aren’t a human, but instead of a fellow Pokemon simply pretending to be one, you are put on a neverending list of besties, whether you are talking to a lowly Pichu or a Legendary creature straight out of the ocean. They’re all extremely nice and will wait until the end of time for you to fulfill their myriad requests. While there are gameplay benefits to making habitats as comfy as possible or completing side missions for specific Pokemon, I’m yet to encounter any barriers to progress for doing anything else.

It’s normal for several Pokemon to run up to you each day simply telling you how awesome you are before handing over a pointless gift like a pile of rocks or a rotting stick. I appreciate the effort, but its neverending stream of saccharine interactions makes the world of Pokopia feel like it has no stakes. That everything about it is designed to continuously reward us and make us feel good for the slightest of achievements. I understand this is the purpose of cosy games for a lot of people, but many in the genre and those Pokopia takes evident inspiration from shine because of this conflict.

Take Viva Pinata, which is one of the sweetest and most adorable games in existence. Your entire goal is to make a cute garden and fill it with fictional creatures named after sweets. It’s agonisingly cute, brought to life by excellent visuals, catchy music, and NPCs that lean even further into this sickeningly sweet fantasy.

But Rare also wasn’t afraid to give this world and its occupants an attitude. Players frequently had to deal with obstacles like Sour Pinatas that would waltz into your garden to kill plants and make your pinatas sick by leaving a bunch of poisonous sweets behind. You had to deal with or things were going to remain difficult, but it never felt so overwhelming that it took away from the cute parts of the experience.

An evil mastermind called Professor Pester and his cavalcade of Ruffians would also walk into your garden and straight up murder your most expensive Pinata before bailing with its chocolatey insides in two. It sucked in the moment, but it also made you determined to take revenge by completing the quests required to eradicate them for good. After several hours with Pokopia, I’ve yet to encounter an obstacle of this magnitude, or any character willing to view my existence with even the slightest hint of antagonism.

Pokopia Is In Dire Need Of Some Serious Stakes

It would have been amazing if a select group of Pokemon had set up a rival settlement and wanted to restore this broken world, just like I was, but with a different ideology driving them forward. You could have given them unique names and outfits so they resembled a faction like Team Rocket while simultaneously spicing up dialogue so it wasn’t the same blend of ‘Oh my god Ditto you are the coolest person ever, and I love you, so here’s a bit of wood I found on the floor.’

Given that Pokopia takes place within a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been eradicated, there is plenty of room for more sombre events to take place. Notes and other discoveries across the open world are written in a melancholic fashion, proving that this game does have what it takes to explore different emotional tones that can make players feel uncomfortable, or at the very least challenge them emotionally.

The main quest is compelling enough for now as I keep rebuilding major structures and begin to move into new biomes, but there is friction missing in the main narrative that Pokopia is failing to introduce. It wouldn’t harm its cosy identity. If anything, it would make me love those elements even more, because I have to fight to keep them intact. Imagine if the Pokemon you created habitats for weren’t immediate besties, but remained contentious despite being residents in your little township and had the potential to create compelling interactions that felt both unique and rewarding.

Maybe these qualities will surface as I move beyond the opening handful of areas, either that or Pokopia is fully committed to being the least offensive cosy game possible at every turn. I don’t want a Team Rocket operative to rush in and kidnap my occupants, but it would be nice for things to be a little spiky. To give me cause to worry or think strategically about the world, I am cultivated beyond potential aesthetics. Other games in the genre have managed that and are much better because of it, so why not this one?

Pokemon Pokopia

Systems

3.0/5

Released

March 5, 2026

ESRB

Everyone / Users Interact, In-Game Purchases

Publisher(s)

Nintendo, The Pokemon Company

•