Pokémon Pokopia

Pokémon Pokopia is perhaps the most explicit ‘environmental’ game in the franchise’s history, which makes it an interesting case study. Developed by Game Freak and Omega Force it pivots from the series’ traditional gameplay loop based on catching and battling Pokémon to a gameplay paradigm and corresponding story focused on restoration and rewilding. It has also received the most widespread praise of any game in the franchise for a long time, positively surprising many Pokémon fans and regular games, thereby addressing an unusually large and diverse audience.

Players play as a Ditto Pokémon that has transformed into a human shape to rebuild a world devastated by natural disasters and human abandonment. Thus, ‘rewilding’ arguably functions as the main progression mechanic in the game. In most Pokémon games, players find Pokémon in the wild but in Pokopia, there is no “wilderness” left at the start but players must first create it. The game consequently uses a Habitat Dex rather than a traditional Pokédex as in-game encyclopedia. For example, to attract a Bulbasaur, players can’t just walk into the woods but must first clear debris, till the soil, and plant specific patches of tall grass. Only once the environment level of that habitat reaches a certain threshold will the Pokémon ‘reappear’ in the world. Thus, it arguably draws on and defamiliarizes the franchise’s iconic gameplay to foster environmental awareness, teaching players species density is often tied to habitat health and complexity.

A second point that evokes ‘ecogame’ mechanics is the use of interspecies symbiosis instead of traditional tools like axes or shovels. While this is consistent with earlier games, the player’s Ditto ‘learns’ these moves by befriending new species. For example, to maintain a garden, they can draw on other Pokémon like Squirtle or Bulbasaur to water plants and stimulate grass growth. This invokes the notion of mutualism, i.e. mutual benefits rather than exploitation of other species, which is common in many ecogames.

The entire game is structured around four main regions – similar to biomes in other games – that in this case represent different ecological crises. For example, in the beach region, the water is initially polluted and not suitable for life. Players must build filtration systems and plant sea-grass to lower the toxicity levels. The visual transition of the water from a murky purple to a clear blue rewards players for practising environmental stewardship, suggesting that showing that the Ditto/human protagonist can reverse ecological collapse.

One of the most interesting ‘ecogame’ elements in Pokopia is how it handles Pokémon that function as ‘objects’ (like Rotom, Klefki, or Trubbish). While the more traditional ‘natural’ Pokémon help with restoring environments, electric-type Pokémon are required to restore power to abandoned structures like the ruined Pokémon Centers (again invoking and defamiliarizing iconic elements of earlier games and possibly triggering emotional reactions like nostalgia, ecological melancholy or even solastalgia, given that to fans these icons may feel like a lost ‘home’). By making these Pokémon associated with ‘industry’ essential to the restoration of the world, the game arguably implies that ‘nature’ and ‘technology’ are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Instead, it promotes circularity given that the remnants of human industry like scrap metal can be integrated back into a healthy, living system.

To conclude, by requiring players to build the world they want to live in, Pokopia arguably moves away from the ‘consumerist’ gameplay that characterized the franchise and simultaneously uses but also partly subverts the franchise’s roots in a unique way to make its point. At the same time, the ‘cozy’ visual style and gameplay elements may overwhelm some of the critical potential inherent in the aforementioned design choices. In that sense, it fits into the ‘cozy apocalypse’ subgenre that recently emerged in literature, manga, anime and games ¹.