A Parent’s Guide to Pokémon Pokopia
Pokémon Pokopia At a Glance
- Pokémon Pokopia is rated E (Everyone) with Interactive Elements for Users Interact and In-Game Purchases.
- Pokémon Pokopia on the Nintendo Switch 2 console for $69.99.
- Pokémon Pokopia is a “life simulation” game set in the Pokémon universe where players will explore their surroundings, harvest materials, and (most importantly) befriend Pokémon to unravel mysteries.
As ESRB’s resident Pokémon Master, I’m ready for Pokémon Pokopia. This Pokémon spinoff (distinct from the many others like pinball, turn-based tactics games, dungeon crawlers, and more) brings the series into the simulation genre. Rather than stepping into the shoes of a Pokémon trainer, players will instead embody a Ditto on a mission to attract wild Pokémon back to a deserted region.
While still Pokémon, Pokopia plays nothing like the core games. Read on for more information to help you decide if Pokémon Pokopia is appropriate for your family.
Is Pokémon Pokopia Appropriate for Kids?
Pokémon Pokopia is rated E for Everyone, with no Content Descriptors. However, there are Interactive Elements assigned, including Users Interact (meaning players can communicate through the game) and In-Game Purchases (meaning users can use real money to purchase virtual currency that can be used to purchase in-game content).
According to ESRB’s Rating Summary Pokémon Pokopia “is a simulation game in which players assume the role of a Pokémon that works to transform a desolate world into a thriving habitat. As players interact with characters, they can collect resources, fulfill requests, and build various landscapes.”
Keep in mind that ESRB ratings are intended to help you decide if a game is appropriate for your kids from a content perspective. In other words, Pokémon Pokopia is likely appropriate for your family given its E for Everyone rating, but some younger players may struggle to manage some of the more complex gameplay systems by themselves. Having said that, if you decide that Pokémon Pokopia is appropriate for your kids, it’s a great opportunity to play together regardless of age!
Where Can I Play Pokémon Pokopia and How Much Does It Cost?
Pokémon Pokopia is available for the Nintendo Switch 2 and retails for $69.99 physically and digitally. As mentioned, the ESRB rating also includes the Interactive Element for In-Game Purchases. This means that there may be additional options to spend real-world currency on in game content (items, DLC, etc.).
Make sure you check that you’ve set parental controls to manage spending on the console!
What is Pokémon Pokopia About?
In Pokémon Pokopia, the player awakens in the gooey pseudopods of a Ditto, a Pokémon with the ability to transform into any other Pokémon. This Ditto, however, has apparently been napping for a long, long, long time. Its trainer is nowhere to be seen, and its surroundings are unrecognizable.
The game begins with Ditto transforming into its best approximation of its trainer to ask around if anyone has seen them. This also acts as a sort of character customization for the player – allowing you and your kids to pick hair, clothes, and other visual elements of Ditto’s trainer.
If you’re familiar with Ditto, you may know that its transformations are… not always exact. For example, here’s my Ditto, which I created to approximate yours truly (it’s flawless!):
Ditto soon discovers that the they have woken up in a dilapidated Kanto region (the explorable continent from the original Pokémon games). It is completely devoid of all life… save for one Pokémon: Professor Tangrowth. The Professor informs Ditto that the humans are long gone (though they don’t know why) and the Pokémon that once packed the region’s tall grass and caves have gone into hiding.
Luckily, Professor Tangrowth has some thoughts on Ditto can attract other Pokémon to the region and hopefully unravel the mystery of what exactly happened!
How Does Pokémon Pokopia Play?
In Pokémon Pokopia, you and your family will explore, harvest resources from your surroundings, create habitats for Pokémon, and build structures. In this “life simulation” game, your major goal is to attract as many new Pokémon as possible, keep them happy, and level up the environment to expand your array of craftable structures, items, decorations, and more.
All of these mechanics build on each other to allow you and your family with (quite literally) hundreds of options to customize each environment throughout the game.
The general loop will go like this:
Discover Clues to New Habitats
Ditto will find clues around the environment or via the in-game Pokédex that outline habitats that will attract new Pokémon. This can be something like cultivating patches of tall grass in a certain way, crafting/placing items or in a specified pattern, building structures near bodies of water, and more. Some habitats can be significantly more complicated than others but may attract rare Pokémon with valuable skills.
Meet a New Pokémon
If you nail the habitat requirements, you’ll attract a new Pokémon resident to the area! Hooray! Some of your Pokémon residents will teach Ditto a new move, while others may will open up new avenues to interact with and mold the environment. For example, your Ditto will learn Water Gun from a Squirtle to water plants and hydrate soil. Meanwhile, you’ll need a Timburr (or another Pokémon with a “build” skill) to build houses and other structures.
Some Pokémon will even teach Ditto an entirely new transformation.
Use What You’ve Learned
Moves, skills, and transformations offer new ways for Ditto to traverse and manipulate the environment. Eventually, you and your family will use these skills and moves in concert to build homes, infrastructure, and more. Eventually, all these systems intersect and layer, allowing you and your family to think outside of the box and use your collective imagination to mold the region as you see fit.
Be a Good Friend and Level Up Your Environment
The Pokémon that move into your region also have “requests.” Pokémon will ask Ditto to help them out with something, be it a new piece of furniture for their habitat, or an entirely new habitat altogether! My Charmander buddy asked for a literal new house. In this market, Charmander?!
Anywho… Satisfying the request will increase the Pokémon’s comfort, and in turn raise the Environment Level.
As the Environment Level of the area increases Ditto and your family will unlock new customization options, recipes, items, and more. Which can all be purchased in the in-game shop.
For the record, this shop uses in-game currency earned from challenges (collecting a number of a specific resource, finding a number of unique Pokémon, etc.). During my play time I did not see any option to make a purchase with real world currency.
Single Player and Multiplayer
Pokémon Pokopia can be played both in single player and multiplayer. Up to four players can collaborate on an island at one time, so if you have the number of devices to support that, it could be a fun, age-appropriate experience for an entire family. Otherwise, you and your kids can join a shared, online territory with friends and family members. This is a more open-ended experience, with no real objectives other than whatever your kids’ imagination dreams up.
It also takes advantage of Nintendo’s GameShare, which allows one player to share a game with friends and family without needing more than one copy of a game. If you live in a house with multiple Nintendo Switch consoles, you and your family can all play together wirelessly. To be clear, a Nintendo Switch 2 is needed to “host” the game, but with GameShare it can be streamed to a Nintendo Switch console as well.
Despite the inclusion of both local and online multiplayer, your kids cannot communicate with others directly when playing the game online. Even so, I always recommend activating parental controls around communication as a backup. And remember… discuss with your children how to safely use platforms like Discord if they plan to chat with their friends off platform.
Making Sure Your Kids’ Video Game Expeditions are Safe and Appropriate
I always like to say that checking the ESRB rating before buying or downloading a game is a perfect first step. While many parents may get exactly what they need from a rating to decide, some parents may want more information. If you’re still on the fence, there are likely dozens of previews, reviews, trailers, and gameplay videos available for most titles that can give you a more in-depth look at the moment-to-moment gameplay. Some games even have demos that you can try out yourself!
When it comes down to it, there’s no better way to keep an eye on your kids’ games than staying involved! ESRB’s Family Gaming Guide has tips to help you start and maintain an ongoing conversation about what your kids are playing and why they love it. Keeping it judgement-free will also help your kids understand that you’re on their side, and they can come to you if they ever have any questions or concerns about something they’ve experienced while playing… be it alone or online with others.
From there, you can also establish some commonsense household rules around video games to outline things like spending and play time limits. To back up those rules, virtually every video game device also has parental controls to help you manage what your kids play, when and for how long, with whom, and whether they can spend money on in-game purchases or new games. Visit ParentalTools.org for step-by-step parental controls guides.
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