Pokopia

I've played only a handful of Pokemon games, back in the day playing Blue, Red, Yellow, Silver and Gold and in recent years playing Pokemon Go and Arceus.  This one I had interest in when seeing the gameplay trailers for it as I have been wanting to play Animal Crossing but don't want to just start a new island in New Horizons.  I also have debated getting into Minecraft just to play it in recent years but never did as it felt like it would be something I would enjoy creating but wouldn't like much more than that as its vibe isn't really something I care for with its aesthetic.  But Pokopia is closer to what I like with Nintendo games with its smoother art style and the story is one I think is interesting to explore with finding out what happened to all the humans and essentially playing in this post-apocalyptic landscape where all there is are theories as to what happened.  Starting off there's so much to do but even just watering stuff and watching it grow back, it’s so pleasing on a deep level both aesthetically and spiritually in a way. It’s weird. That’s what makes it better than Animal Crossing in my opinion. You don’t just get an island to mess with. You get an island in ruin to fix and instead of neighbors you make habitats for Pokemon but you get to choose to add things to their habitats which adds more to the game and feels better than just talking to them. It’s like you’re building a habitat and bringing this island back to life.

I have been playing this game since the week after it launched, usually during lunch breaks from work each day and have gotten around 200 hours into it.  When I was first playing in the first area, The Withered Wastelands, I was doing all I can there, treating it like the only area you have to play in, even though I knew from stuff I saw online on the little I caught since I tried avoiding stuff due to spoilers.  Eventually a friend told me that it's recommended to move on to the other areas as the quality of life improvements with new abilities you get are massive and make the customization in the game so much better and easier.  And he could not have been more right.  Just the amount of time saved with every new feature found in each area feels like exponential improvements.  But time and time again I would put my mind to completing something with the areas, only to find if I pushed onto the next area I would get something that would have made what I did in the previous area take half the time if not even less than that to do what I did.  

A thought that crossed my mind was questioning what my drive was for continuing Pokopia.  I ask this because of my experience with the last Pokemon game I played, Pokemon Legends Arceus.  I got that one because it essentially the pokemon game I always wanted to play since I was kid, where it's 3D and you interact with the Pokemon naturally in the world, instead of waiting for random encounters with Pokemon from walking in tall grass or a cave or in the water, you traverse a land and you see the Pokemon there and can walk up to any which one you wish to interact with.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially at first playing it but what ended up happening is I learned how to get my favorite Pokemon and build my dream team of the original ghost pokemon of Ghastly, Haunter and Gengar and then I got Umbreon.  Once I finished this, I lost interest in continuing the game.  At first I told myself I was going to continue playing it someday but 4 years later I still haven't played it again.  So now I wondered that since I do have a drive to find those pokemon in Pokopia, with having found Ghastly, Haunter, and Umbreon, would I stop playing Pokopia once I find Gengar?  Well I found Gengar a week later and have been playing it even more now, because of the plans I have for the homes I want to build for those pokemon.  That in itself is another reason, if not the main reason that's been driving me to continue playing Pokopia for a while, even before this thought about finding Gengar.

This reason I mention is my love of architecture in games like this, that give you that option.  Growing up, one of the series I played quite a bit was The Sims.  Mostly for making new homes and the architecture aspect of it, with and without money cheats.  One of the things I really enjoy in games is the act of getting a home, even if all that can be done is decorate it.  It's one of the things I enjoyed in Breath of the Wild and more so in Tears of the Kingdom.  Even though the latter had very limited architecture choices you can make, the fact that you can still essentially build your own house is something I enjoyed a lot with it.  But with Pokopia, it started with my aspirations to build one of my favorite architectures in all of gaming, the Spencer Mansion from the first Resident Evil game.  I didn't know at first where but knew I wanted to at least attempt it.  But then I found Pallet Town.  As suggested by its name, it's a blank slate for making your own custom area instead of fixing up one that you find with the other four areas in the game.  On a side note, it's crazy that saying four areas sounds like the game doesn't have much but a sentiment that I've heard before with this game that I couldn't agree with more is that, each of these towns in Pokopia could be its own game and still be a great amazing game and that's what makes Pokopia so great.  If the game was just the Withering Wasteland, I still would have played for at least 50 if not 100 hours as I played around 50 hours there before finally going on to the next area and still at that point I had more to explore with the Withering Wasteland. 

But now most of my time in the game will definitely be spent with this new area which I renamed to Racoon Region.  Not just for the desire to build the Spencer Mansion but also the desire and ambition to make the whole region with different structures including the Racoon City Police Department and another island that looks like the perfect space for becoming Rockfort Island from Code Veronica, or as of next year will just be Veronica, to which I plan on not starting that one until the remake of RE Veronica is released next year so I can build it based on the remake's construction of the palace and Ashford residence.  I look forward to the expansions and whatever is going to be coming out for the game over the years and come back to it from time to time.