I’m what you would call a lapsed Pokémon fan. I was 10 when Pokémon Red and Blue first hit the U.S., and I was absolutely obsessed with the franchise during that magical first generation as a kid who also wanted to be the very best. However, I fell off the franchise hard during Gen 2 (partially because my GBA with my in-progress copy of Gold was stolen) and never fully got back into it, save for sporadic check-ins like the 2016 Pokémon Go craze. Still, I’ve retained a soft spot for the franchise despite watching it grow from afar and have waited for it to offer something more interesting and, frankly, weirder than the standard RPGs to draw me back in.
When I first laid eyes on Pokémon Pokopia and its derpy-faced Ditto protagonist, I was charmed from the get-go. I enjoyed what I played of the Dragon Quest Builders games and had fun with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so a Pokémon-themed amalgamation of those experiences sounded super appealing. Plus, again, the premise of a Ditto masquerading as a barely passable human is delightfully stupid. I’m still very early in the game, but I’m drawn to its low-key post-apocalyptic world (humanity is dead missing!), and I can already feel its cozy hooks digging into me as my to-do list starts to populate. Plus, with the real world seemingly falling apart in various ways, it feels good to put a different one back together. The lesson: be the Ditto that copies the person you want to see in this world.
For more on Pokémon Pokopia, you can read Brian Shea’s full review right here or watch the video review below.