Pokémon Pokopia review: grief, rebuilding, and cozy systems

Twenty One Pilots’ song "Drag Path" frames the feeling at the heart of Pokémon Pokopia: physical traces and emotional residue left behind when a life is gone. The game turns that idea into its premise, presenting a desolate Kanto full of broken landmarks and Pokémon who wake each day remembering the humans they once lived beside.

Playing as Ditto, you sometimes mimic a trainer as a literal plea for reunion, and small character details — like Professor Tangrowth’s glasses or Chef Dente stashing cookware in her fur — keep that memory alive. By removing humans from the equation, Pokopia strips the series down to one of its most earnest examinations of the world’s ethics and attachments: Pokémon love and mourn humanity as equals.

Restored towns and repaired landmarks become exercises in hope, and the quiet moments — finding a diary entry or a magazine clipping — slowly reveal what happened and snag the player’s attention in a way the game’s brighter colors and absurdist humor also support.

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