Pokémon Pokopia review: a tedious but always charming life sim

Pokémon Pokopia asks a simple, enticing question: what if we could start over and rebuild a habitable world from scratch? Developed by Omega Force, the game dresses that fantasy in blocky, Dragon Quest Builders–style mechanics and layers the familiar Pokémon ethos on top.

The result is a life sim that rewards patience — it’s slow and often tedious, but consistently charming. The story begins with a lone Ditto finding a desolate landscape and meeting a Tangrowth who charges it with restoring habitats for missing humans and wandering Pokémon.

Gameplay unspools with deliberate pacing: build homes, craft items, cook, set up barter systems and unlock HM-like moves that let you water ground, grow grass and break blocks. Progress comes mostly through fulfilling Pokémon requests, and summoning a creature often feels like solving a small puzzle about the perfect habitat rather than simply catching it.

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