MASSIVE SPOILER WARNINGS FOR POKOPIA. IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED IT, SKIP THIS POST
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It’s strange how much of a wildcard in the series Pokopia is. I unfortunately have not been able to play it, I don’t own a Switch 2, but I’ve watched several playthroughs of the game and I must say it’s perhaps the most interesting entry in the spin-offs of Pokemon I’ve witnessed, perhaps even more interesting than the main games.
For those not in the know, and don’t mind the spoilers, Pokopia is a post-apocalyptic game set in an environmentally devastated and destroyed Kanto region after humans caused enough damage to the land that natural disasters ripped it to shreds, causing humanity to abandon the planet and leaving the Pokemon to fend for themselves. For the timeframe you are playing in it’s several hundred years after humanity left and the once vibrant Pokemon world is a dead, rubble-filled wasteland that you are tasked with restoring.
It’s a shocking revelation to find out that this is a world that humans left behind, never mind the fact that it’s the Kanto region, the most well known part of the Pokemon series. Coming across the ruined remains of Pallet Town and it being completely unrecognizable is… sad. Even more shocking is the way in which it characterises the Pokemon characters you meet, how they remain chipper even in this devastated world and eagerly await the return of humanity, despite it being quite clear it’s unlikely they will come back and even so, do we really want them to come back? They clearly caused all this devastation, and then they shot away to space leaving their friends and the natural wildlife behind to fix what they broke. It’s bold for Nintendo to finally make a game, a Pokemon game especially, that just portrays humanity as being assholes.
It’s where many get a melancholic feeling when playing this game. They’re of course familiar with the land of Kanto, but to see it all destroyed and have haunting, soft remixes of familiar area songs playing in the background as you explore it just gives you the feeling of exploring something well past its prime, looking onto a dead world that you feel awful about, but with a tinge of hope that something new can be built here. In many ways, the scenario described here is a very scarily realistic portrayal of what our current day world is looking like. With prices going up, ecological disaster on the horizon and war looming we exist in a world of uncertain times, and even more so the biggest voices in the race for saving humanity also want to jet off to space to get off this damned rock, leaving all our animal friends behind to deal with the consequences. I feel sad even typing this, knowing that Pokopia, for as absurd as it may seem on the outset, is a scarily accurate mirror reflection of what may become of our Earth. Perhaps then this may signal a call to arms for many, to fix what can be fixed, and even if it can’t, at least we can just look to be kind to our animal friends, for one day they will pay for our sins.
A lot to say about a game I haven’t personally played! What do you think about this though? Do you also feel melancholic and somewhat wistful whilst playing Pokopia? This is easily the most interesting entry in the series for a long time, and it’s given me a lot to think about. That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.