Pokémon Pokopia | Postgame Show | The Poképals

[00:00:00] Hello Poképals and regular pals that clicked on this episode. This is your full spoiler warning for this episode about Pokémon Pokopia. Yes, full spoilers for this Pokémon spin-off life simulation game. There's a plot and an ending and all that stuff and we're gonna talk about all those things.

[00:00:26] So this is your last warning to go play that game if you want to experience all these things fresh. Okay, here we go. And then Corvo said, you go girl, which I thought was strange because I felt I presented as male this whole time. Poké France is weird, you guys.

[00:00:48] I mean, you want to talk about Poké France being weird? We've been sitting on this bench for days, man, but making dimension never gives us what we want. We have to bend over backwards. We sung so many praises about Legends ZA and this is what we get? This asset flip? Oh wait, there's a new rift over there. It seems kind of blocky. Maybe it's like a knackly or something in there. Oh, we're getting sucked in. Oh boy!

[00:01:15] What? Now warping in to find time.

[00:01:38] Well, that was a little silly, but yep, it's the Pokopia show and there is not gonna be Mega Dimensions. Nope. So we might as well jump into this. What was Pokopia? They just announced that out of nowhere at the September 2025 Nintendo Direct.

[00:01:57] I mean, I think that's like Nintendo shtick. They like to just shadow drop stuff, right? But prior to that, for a whole decade, I was kind of joking that weird Pokémon games were dead. Like, my go-to as old as 2015 having the three free-to-play games and then they've done live service games for days. Of course, Pokémon Go is 10 years old or about to be 10 years old.

[00:02:21] But like, to me, the only exceptions were Poké Tournament and New Pokémon Snap. Like, everything else was pretty live service-y in the like. But they stuck in Detective Pikachu Returns, which I still haven't played yet. I don't know. It's fine. Yeah, guys at home, this took a while and that's because we retooled this thing several times. This was supposed to be a Mega Dimension show for a few minutes.

[00:02:49] Then we were going to talk about the present. I forget it. It's Pokopia now. You know why? This thing sold 2 million copies in 4 days. Physical copies in 4 days. You know, the evil Game Key cards, mind you, were out of stock online for the better part of a week. I thought Game Key cards were anti-consumer! Why did they buy it anyway?

[00:03:15] I don't even know why these were Game Key cards. I guess it has to do with Omega Force, you know, Koei Tecmo. They also made Dragon Quest Builders 2 in particular, making this game. Well, Game Freak publishes this in Japan. Although, in my research, I just realized that's usually the case for all the Pokerman games. They usually publish all these Pokémon games over there. But I think they're really just testing a thing with this memory crisis we're in the middle of over there, if we're being real.

[00:03:45] The base game is only 10 gigs. They could have stuffed this onto a card. This isn't like Final Fantasy VII Remake where it's like, okay, we need to give you a game card for this. Can you imagine the card that you need for that? That would be kind of... Or the compression and or the card. But the real secret is that's not going to matter because you're just going to leave it in your Switch 2 anyway, right? It really hasn't left too much with all the things it wants you to do.

[00:04:13] And, well, I mean, I've removed it a few times because, you know, if you listen to regular Fine Time, I play other games, you guys. But... No! There's no way. No. Some of them are even other game key cards. Nail me to the cross. But, you know, these things happen. Yeah. So I guess, yeah, the recurring joke is that this is just Dragon Quest Builders 3.

[00:04:41] Like, have you guys actually played a lot of Dragon Quest Builders? Because I did, like, bits and pieces of 1 and 2. I played all the way through 1 on Switch. And I played through, I guess, maybe half on 2. I've been... I wanted to go back in and see how it performs on Switch. Which I really wanted to before this show to see if it improved anything with the Switch 2 superpowers. Because... Superpowered boost mode! Boost power!

[00:05:09] As we discovered on the big deal, there's certain games like Fire Emblem Warriors 3 Hopes, where that's practically a Switch 2 game. They had no business being on Switch 1. So... These things do exist. I just didn't get a chance to look at it for this game. I wish I had a few seconds, but... Time constraints and the sort. Right.

[00:05:38] Yeah, and... I haven't gotten any experience doing Dragon Quest Builders before, so I was going in not really understanding some of the building blocks that might have come into some of this. But given what I'm seeing here, I mean, I might need to take a look at some of that, because... I don't know. Well, we'll get to that. But, yeah, things are looking pretty good here. It definitely is an endearing game in its own right, regardless, like... Again, you can see the DNA, but it really does hold on its own.

[00:06:06] The common YouTuber joke was that, yeah, it is just Dragon Quest Builders 3, but I genuinely do believe that it's a Pokemon game through and through. It's kind of like how Pokemon Mystery Dungeon borrows the homework of Sheeran the Wanderer, but it isn't just a reskin. It really has its own heart. But, yeah, really, we delayed this show. The delay was part of our secret plan. We really wanted to encompass as much of this game as possible. It really deserves it.

[00:06:36] It was also part of our plan to eat Mega Dimension. Yeah, the fact is you're not really going to find everything anyway, because even if this is all you did since this came out, and I just told you, this isn't all I did since this came out. You're not gonna. The game's too big. It's like trying to say you're going to do everything in Animal Crossing. One, that's impossible. Two, that's stupid to say, because that's not that kind of game. Wait, Steve! But you've had six years.

[00:07:05] You don't have every Nook Mile goal? It's not like I played every year and left at least three years laps and only played for a few weeks since the Switch 2 version came out. That wouldn't be things that happened, no. Fair enough, yeah. But really, just no matter how you look at it, there is a lot of depth to this. And what's nice is you don't have to go all the way into the deep end to enjoy the game, period.

[00:07:32] But it is there if you're feeling adventurous and you feel like you just want to get that ultimate cozy living space going on. Oh, there's coziness, all right. Coziness and a little bit of craziness. Coziness. So, what do we do in Pokemon Pocopia?

[00:07:57] We're just trying to make the world a better place by building habitats and making everybody happy, happy, happy. Wait, that's Chimpy Robot. I guess what happy is enough. I thought that was Ren and Stimpy. Well, that was happy, happy, joy, joy. Oh, okay. Okay, got it. Same difference. Yeah, same difference. But it's a good time to bring up that there is no combat in this game. You start off as ditto with an identity crisis. I mean, more than half the time, they think they're Kirby.

[00:08:26] You hold down the Y button and then they're sucking shit out there. They just stole that. But that's fine. That's fun. And you meet Professor Tangrowth and so many other Pokemon in this game. So many Pokemon, you guys. We'll get there. And the conflict deals from dealing with the mystery and calamities, dealing with what the heck happened to the world around you. What happened? Where are the people? We can worry about some of that later if we poke around enough.

[00:08:55] But there's a lot of things that are our best right fucking now, which means none of these problems are hordes of rampaging thugs of drowsy or whatever. And that's fine, really. Not like Dragon Quest Builders where you're building a settlement and monsters are raiding it overnight. And that's fine. Yeah, you really can't die. If you're underwater for too long, you'll conveniently teleport back.

[00:09:21] Or if you're reckless and hop onto some lava, you'll also just warp out. But you really just come back unscathed seconds later. They don't really have too much of a punishment for those sort of things. Yeah. And as far as what actually happened, there's a lot of little tidbits here and there. Just a fun little diary entry here. A little official record or ad here that kind of lets you piece together what could have happened.

[00:09:48] But for the most part, you're really just focused on finding all your buddies and making life just a little bit more pleasant. And the human element of it all is just kind of a distant background hum. It's all pretty low stress overall, even with the potential stakes involved. Yeah, it's really interesting. It's like weirdly unsettling despite the coziness. I think that's like the really striking part about it. I think that comes together in the music too.

[00:10:14] Like at first it sounds like okay-ish, but then you start hearing the music come in of where all these places are supposed to be. And it's like, oh yeah, that's right. This was, this was a sell it on for a while. That's right. Yes. Oops. And it's gone now. Once upon a time. We don't know how long ago. Yeah, we don't know.

[00:10:40] But we're going to keep building and fulfilling quests and find more of these places. And in that way, like we warned up front, there's a game for us to finish in the same way that Dragon Quest Builders does for people who want that. It's not like you, if you want this thing to end, it can end. And, you know, at least for people like me who want to, you know, hit credits and chronicle these things. Check out my backlog today, everybody. Oh, the insert.

[00:11:10] Yeah, the insert. The biomes are cool. They're also kind of fucked up. Like Bleak Beach has random shower rooms that are like dilapidated, but they're shower rooms for some reason. I'm not really sure what they're doing there, what their history is. Where else is Psyduck going to live? The same end. The SS end. Yeah, it's funny. Just falling apart over there.

[00:11:38] Psyduck wants to live near a shower for some reason. I don't particularly know why. But when you set it all up, they do have their spaced out Psyduck-y dialogue. It's pretty funny. Yeah, I don't know what's going on, though. It's just missing those modern conveniences. It just isn't the same without running water and just getting that fresh every day kind of deal. Yes. There's also another place you get to is called Rocky Ridges.

[00:12:05] Apparently, there is some giant eruption because there's just like a billion blocks of volcanic ash everywhere. So much. And you've got to dig like really deep in there. And it's like, oh, hey, I know this building. I know this. I know what this building layout is. Huh. But there's a whole lot of other little cases like that where it's like, whoa, okay, something happened here. Some cases are a little more extreme than others, though.

[00:12:33] And that building is really messed up. Like, everything is completely strewn about, too. But, yeah, like there's some interesting fan servers there that I really didn't expect. And speaking of things I didn't quite expect, there are some wacky techno floating island fantasies that they tapped into for sparkling skylands. Of course, that's my shtick. I used to paint floating islands. Dre would often joke they're just botan kytos references.

[00:13:01] Or, I mean, I drew inspiration from like Secret of Mana and stuff. But the point being is that, like, there's like these random islands. They're just like completely surreal. But they're just like chilly here. I'm just like, what happened to this area, man? Well, that's the one that got twisted up the most. I mean, in the Rocky Ridges, that's the Pewter Mount Moon area. Okay, I guess that was an active volcano the whole time it erupted. And, okay, that's what happened to Pewter.

[00:13:28] But clearly something happened to Sparkling Skylands, Celadon, Saffron up there before the game happened. Because with all those visuals going on there. Because that was already dealing in compacted junk and things already before we got there. I ended up making that look like an artist's shantytown. No offense to Vin. By the time I was done.

[00:13:52] I'm like, I got all these painted blocks over here for different houses filling in. I'm like, yeah, this is, if these were people, this would be bad. I gotta tell you what, that garbage is pretty. It's really colorful for some reason. Like, why is this garbage so technicolored? Yeah, I couldn't even actually put together, those were garbage blocks at first. I thought it was just like some funky art design. But it's like, no, actually this is all like compressed garbage and paper.

[00:14:20] And like, I guess they were building those for some reason. Yeah, I guess, man. I guess. Now you can appropriate it for your own houses, I guess. Woo! You live in literal trash. As you're playing the game, I really like the traversal. Sounds a little weird nowadays. But Pokemon games used to always feature hidden moves, HMs. And you use them for traversal purposes. But now they're just kind of like here. And they're really busted.

[00:14:46] Like, you have, for some reason, as Ditto, you have access to like a whole like wheel full of moves. So it's like, you can just do them willy nilly whenever you want. Like, cut. Or it's just a thing that you can do. Rock Smash is just a thing that you can do upon many, many other things. And the joke in my head is that I thought the partner Pokemon and Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee were busted. I think there's more busted than that. See, they actually do explain this in the game.

[00:15:14] Because when you pick up certain notes, you find some from Ditto's trainer. It's like, oh, Ditto's not that great at transforming. And they're incredibly shy. And blah, blah, blah. So this is like Ditto growing into themselves a bit, too. Where it's like, oh, for lack of better term, balls against the wall here. We gotta do the right thing here. And learn everything all at once. Even if it looks, even if it's growing punching bags out of my hands right this fucking second. The punch walls.

[00:15:44] The costumes are so fun, too. They really look the part. I like when they do strength. They get this giant purple ass like hand. And they just like shove it. I thought the hand in like Golden and Soul was goofy as hell. But now this is like, do we? Yeah. But all the transformations have their place. You're alternating between all of them. You're not literally just rock smashing all day. You're alternating between that and Surf and Cut and Leafage.

[00:16:14] And all these things have their place. I think that's really cool. And Surf is funny because you look like Lapras. You got real cheap at the 99 cent store. Discount Lapras! Everyone loves much of Lapras. But the other thing is, if you do just try to limit yourself, you're really going to be not doing the best thing you can do in some cases. You got to branch out a little bit because it's like, OK, I want to build a nice habitat that's got this little row of hedges here.

[00:16:41] Now, I could just go and find one and hack it down and plant the seeds and get someone to grow the seeds and water the seeds. Or I could just, you know, transplant it directly there and save myself all that time, all that stress. I mean, you got to use all your tools or else, you know, you're going to end up leaving a few things on the table. Yeah. Is it Rototiller? I think it is. You just like pick up whatever plant. Yeah. It's just like, got to carefully take these flowers out. And they're over here now. Boom. Easy.

[00:17:11] Or you pocket them too. You know who teaches you that move? Gen 5 favorite. Drillber. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Still busted to this day, from my understanding. Probably always will be. But there's, you know, that limit in, well, it's not really a huge limit. You know, you got PP. Gotta keep the gauge up or you can't use the moves anymore.

[00:17:33] It gets a bit more annoying when you learn upgraded versions of certain moves and you gotta cook with food from Chef Greedent. They sort of teach you how to move and then you can bring other Pokemon to help you. They don't make any of that clear, especially. Bring a grass Pokemon to make shredded salad. Why? Anyway. It's a little finicky. It's not unmanageable. If you bring a few hamburger steaks we made with beans to punch more rocks, it's fine. Did you think that was weird, by the way?

[00:18:03] Hamburger steaks made of beans? I thought that was a little strange, but maybe. I don't know. I got my vegetarian sister trying to tell me that these impossible burgers are still edible. Mmm. I guess we're just making veggie burgers out of that. Oh, it's like those bean sausages we got in sleep or something like that. Oh, yeah, sure. Something along those lines. Yes. The good news is, though, Ditto's actually pretty efficient.

[00:18:29] You can get a lot of water guns out of them or just get a lot of rolling around if you're doing a few other certain traversal moves. And, like, you can go a while before you need to recharge. And if you do run out, it's like, okay, there's a few trees around here. They got some berries and you can get a little stash going and just keep going out and about for a while. Yeah, there's really a lot. Like, at first, they just give you the little lepa berries or whatever, and that does the job well enough at first.

[00:18:58] But, yeah, they really give you, like, more dishes that to really, like, keep you going for longer. And you can stockpile a whole bunch of them. So, at some point, it just becomes more of a formality. It's not really, like, a burden or a hassle, like, too much once you get going. But at first, yeah, it's, like, a little weird, I guess. But, like, at some point, I'm just carrying, like, soup for days. I just have salad and soup and all these things all at the same time just in my convenient storage or whatever.

[00:19:27] Gotta carry around that bread. Yes, the bread. So I can cut more stuff. It makes perfect sense. Yes. Gotta have your five-course meal to just have every single skill maximized. How else are you gonna do it? Yes. Yes. But, yeah, they did make a pretty fun little plot out of that, too, insofar as, like, just leveling for moves. I thought that was pretty cute. Fine time.

[00:19:55] I gotta get this off my chest real quick. So a lot of people have compared this game to Animal Crossing, but I think that comparison only goes so far. Yes, it's a cozy-ish game. You're living alongside a bunch of Pokemon, and the stakes are relatively low. But I think in the grand scheme of things, this plays pretty differently. You're not really spelunking. You're not really building, like, tall heights so much in Animal Crossing.

[00:20:22] And, like, that game leads more into the decoration element. And this game doesn't really have a calendar, so it's not really timed with real-life events. Like, it doesn't have Toy Day or Festival or anything like that, right? So it doesn't really parallel our daily lives. So in a manner of speaking, it feels kind of different. You say that now, but when we get that unscheduled, unscheduled, scheduled event, when all the Oricorio come in and start dancing around, we'll have to come on and issue a correction.

[00:20:54] Well, you're saying Delaware is going to have an event in December? Oh, man. Hey. These events. We'll get there. Who's counting? Who's counting? The one thing I did think was pretty analogous to New Horizons was looting the shit out of Rando Island. You're just, like, chomping down at everything and punching everything and bringing that stuff back. You can get, like, a lot of stuff off of that. You can just—I just picked up all this industrial equipment, like, pretty early on.

[00:21:24] It's like, okay, I'll just go ahead and set up my own little construction site here, I guess. Or get—I'll get 50 blocks of limestone. Sure, give it all to me. Yes, make some glass. But I also love to get find Rando abandoned houses and just, like, jack all them shits. It's like, you're, like, lockers and tables. It's like, okay, no one's stopping me. What's the difference, right? There will be no Pokemon orphanage for the children this fall.

[00:21:53] Who's counting? But, yeah, like, in terms of decoration, there are some decoration opportunities. I do kind of feel like maybe the furniture is, like, ever so slightly basic. There is a—there are some, like, funky things. I did, like, the fake-ass DDR, like, music note floors. I do also like how you can, like—you can paint things different colors. So there's a wide variety of customization options and possibilities for that. And, like, the Chansey Utopiary, that's a pretty cool plant.

[00:22:23] But I think the blocks are, like, to stand out more than anything else. Yeah, we talked about that before. That's just another Dragon Quest builder thing where—sorry, I didn't realize you didn't play this game. But one thing that did blow my mind about the original was you find the ruins of the original Tantagel Castle as interpreted by blocks and tiles and things in the game. And it's pretty great.

[00:22:52] And you can rent—you could leave it as is, or you can take that apart brick by brick and reassemble it somewhere else, too, if you're that much of a lunatic. But, you know, here we have a bunch, too. We've already brought up a few. There's the SSN, the What's Left of the Pewter Museum. And then even towards the end of the game where you and Tickmaster have to reinterpret the sylph building. It's all blocks. Blocks all the way down. And that sylph building is crammed full of stuff, too.

[00:23:20] They really go into the whole bit, like each floor does its own thing. This is like the playroom floor or whatever. And it's actually pretty ornate, considering. Like, the configurations are impressive, even if individually those elements are pretty basic. But the possibilities thereof are actually pretty impressive. And it's a 60-frame rate game. This game is a bit more sparse looking in individual shots. But it's meant to handle a lot more objects on screen and multiple Pokemon at once.

[00:23:50] Like, the draw distance is crazy! You guys can see so far into the distance. The draw distance is nuts. There's a quest involving these slates that I finished yesterday that I never would have been able to finish. If I wasn't able to see shiny things out of the blocks from all the way over there, I'm like, okay, I guess we can stop whatever we're doing and run all the way over there and hope it's not another lost artifact for Professor Tangrow to look at. It's like, ah, these are shiny dark glasses.

[00:24:19] Dude, I love exploring. I love punching all them blocks for the fine loot. That was so cool. Like, imagine trying to find loot like that in Scarlet and Violet on the original Switch. Like, you wouldn't be able to see shit! No! It's this night and day difference. Although, I'm going to have to have words with Professor Tangrow that I get, like, my fourth funky diffuser in a row. I got a few things a few times. I got a rainbow of many of your lamps. Yes!

[00:24:49] I love the lamps! I have a bunch. I don't know if I have all of them, but I have a whole lot. But speaking of night and day, there's a real, also like Animal Crossing, there's a real 24-hour day-night cycle, and I needed a minute to get used to that, too. Because when I first started playing the game for real, I was hopping to bed at nighttime, hoping to turn on daytime because Dragon Quest Builder's brain was on. No, you turn on daytime by playing at daytime.

[00:25:20] Okay. But I mean, other than that, yeah, I kept seeing all the, oh, it's Pokemon, but Animal Crossing comparisons, too. But I mean, yeah, it's 24 hours, and you build communities with the pocket monsters and villages with furniture, but it's not really the same. You don't even get thanked with clothes. You gotta find those with other entries found throughout the game, too.

[00:25:50] Like, you find an entry, and then it's like, oh, I could be Brock. And then the girl Ditto puts on the vest and walks up to her friends. Look, guys, it's not a drying pad. It's a frying pad. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And then they look at you like, I don't get it. What are you talking about, Ditto? Yeah, with all of the differences we've talked about, like the comparisons mostly are pretty minor at the end.

[00:26:20] Like if you really want, you can get sort of an element of I'm going to make this village up. I'm going to bring all my favorite buddies in and I don't need to worry about them being in boxes or anything like that. But there's also just a whole lot more just wholesale construction. If you really want to build that giant tower of your dreams, you can build that. It takes a little more effort to get it going, but the possibilities really do get pretty out there.

[00:26:46] Yeah, and those possibilities like keep on coming up. I'm still logging in every single day. It's been like over, you know, two months. I'm still finding new recipes every single time I like pop the game open on the Daily Dream Island. There's all sorts of things that you can locate, whether it's like a new decorative pattern. Those patterns get really ornate and crazy, by the way.

[00:27:14] Like a new costume, as you mentioned, a new sort of like human log and even like special encounters. Those are really surprising to me when I saw my first legendary. I was like, what are you doing here, man? Like, whoa, like what? Yeah, the other cool thing is there's a whole lot you can just kind of set and forget. Just have it running like clockwork in the background while you're going about your real time in the real world day. And then eventually you can get all the rewards out of that. You've got gardens that are growing your produce.

[00:27:44] You've got smithing going where you're smelting all of your metals into ingots and other things. And there's even just actually building your buildings. Some of those can take, you know, a few hours. Some of them can take a whole day. So you can have a lot of things running around. And even though it can be a bit to keep track of, the more little more places you get to explore, the more specialists you get to help out. It's really cool to see just how much the system can run on its own for a bit without even there.

[00:28:13] And even also like to further elaborate on the shop stuff, the way they dole out points is pretty fair. I never really thought I was like writing out of points. But you can't just like buy things willy nilly because there's just so many things to buy. But in the event that you do run out of points, you could accumulate them naturally just by playing the game. And that's pretty cool. Yeah, I just found the way the economy works for lack of a better term in Procopy to be very interesting.

[00:28:42] The way they just understand the value of things. Because a lot of them have trading as a skill and they'll just occasionally open shop at a counter or a Pokemon you rebuilt. And you don't have the money. The money just pops out of the computer sometimes and you can only use it there. You have to trade. You barter with things and those have point values that they all assign. And they're not necessarily what people would come up with.

[00:29:10] Like they're going to value food and other curios more than what we would consider to be resources. Like a handful of chairs for 10 lumberies. Okay. Sure. I guess that's fair. And then there's Vespiquen with her giant furniture collection that she'll just give you for three tubs of honey a day. And then Gimme Ghoul. Oh, I got a whole thing about him in a bit. Well, we'll get there. I promise. Yeah.

[00:29:42] And it's funny you mentioned honey because that kind of became my go-to trading item because people, the Pokemon love that stuff. Like they give you top dollar. It's like worth its weight in gold practically. But it's like, okay, I'll get this fancy-pancy gold ingot. Here's all my honey. Thank you. Have a nice day. But what's neat is that even as you clear out the environment and you're getting all of your ingredients to build whatever you want, you don't really have the feeling with the economy that you're truly going to run out of anything.

[00:30:11] Whether it's a little gift from your buddy who is doing all these other little things as well and you're giving them a nice place to live in return. And just the point trades you can get from the PCs that you find, you're never really hard up on resources. Or you've got some ways to replenish pretty much no matter what. And the aforementioned Dream Islands too. Yes.

[00:30:33] And it's interesting that we actually played this a little differently because I actually relied upon iron ingots as trading material. And if I felt especially generous, I would just even drop down a single gold ingot to be super baller. Super baller for a poke dollar. I mean, a rare poke ingot. Oh, I guess I've been very morbid in my past week or so playing because I've been as I've been realized I've been assembling more fossils.

[00:31:03] I've been realizing I don't really need them so much anymore. So I've been exchanging bones for things. No one's reviving them in the Peter Museum that we launched underground in the volcano. No, that's Mount Moon. I gotta, if Burkrow or Hoot Hoot or Hitmonchan want to sell me some things and they're going to take Bastiodon's torso for it.

[00:31:31] I mean, who am I to say no? Well, you already have a Bastiodon. So I guess you're covered now, weren't you? Oh my God.

[00:31:48] All right. We warned you up front, but this is where the really real spoiler shenanigans starts.

[00:32:18] So man, I wouldn't call them new Pokemon, but we had some variants that we mostly knew about coming in. They actually really revealed a bunch, like five of them even. And so like, I was trying to guess when they would appear, but unbeknownst to me, a bunch of them just like showed up on bleak beach, like surprise. They're all like, I think there's like three of them just show up. And I was like, okay.

[00:32:48] But the one they didn't show before the game came out, the one they held to their chest was a Tinkmaster, the variant of Tinkaton, which that there's such an incredibly cool form. Like they have a bunch of like tools on their back and, or no, the tools on their hammer. And it's just the silhouette is really cool. And I think all these Pocopia forms, if you want to call them that, they didn't miss with any of them.

[00:33:12] And you can really look forward to those Moslax and Pikachu plushes this summer. Yeah. My fat behind is going to want a Moslax t-shirt eventually. And probably the plush too. Yes. Yes. Going to the Pokemon center this summer. Yeah. They had a lot of fun with these. Like I was the resident Tinkaton enjoyer way back in the Scarlet and Violet podcast. And yeah, I've got to agree.

[00:33:40] Probably my favorite of those designs that popped up there. You get a few others in there. Like you've got the, you've got DJ Rotom doing his cool thing. Got a lot of really fun little moments in that whole section there. Yes. And there's also Smear Guru who we run into, who is basically your go-to paint in person and a tortured artist extraordinaire. Only I know how to make paint. Yeah. Dude, it's such a parody of like the art dilemma. And it's just like, oh my goodness.

[00:34:10] And honestly, the design is like rainbow, like paint splotches to the point where I'm like, man, like this feels like it's just such a natural, like extension of the existing material. Like it's, it almost makes me wonder why that wasn't like a thing to begin with, but like, it's just, they're just so cool. The game in general makes really interesting picks as well. At first at the very beginning of the game, I thought it was maybe a little too Kanto centric. And I was like, oh, cause you know, I, I'm a little suspicious about that kind of nostalgia bait.

[00:34:38] But as, as the game like progresses, like they really lean to the whole 30 years of history. Like all, like all nine generations are represented in some way. And there are also some surprises too. Like each of the biomes has like a major legendary that, that pops up and all those picks are really, really neat. And I guess they kind of press the Mewtwo button after all.

[00:35:01] I like the way they press the Mewtwo button though, because I think it just adds to the whole mystique of the storytelling though. Usually when he's in a game, he's this ominous figure waiting for you somewhere or roaming the countryside here. He's in a master ball tucked away on top of the self building. And despite that history of roaming about or whatever, he also has no idea what happened to the humans or how he landed up there in particular.

[00:35:28] And if the smartest man-made Pokemon out there doesn't know what the heck happened, you can forget about other made Pokemon like Porygon knowing. And he lives on the internet. Thank you for handing me garbage. Me make iron ore. Inquiring Jeeves, what happened to humans? I don't know. Jeeves is not exactly around in this sort of wacky ass era, I guess.

[00:35:59] Or Wikipedia for that matter. Maybe. Yeah. They did have some fun with the legendaries too. Like a couple of them were like, oh, I miss those guys. Whatever happened to those humans anyway? And then like Volcanion's like, man, humans kind of suck. And Ditto is not happy with that either. But then the funny thing is like Mewtwo mentions like, oh, if I hope they haven't messed around with science again. And it's like, yeah, buddy, you probably know. Shoot.

[00:36:27] They may have meditated on that question in their capsule, but perhaps. Even there weren't like that many new forms. The really big surprise is like this entire world, right? As we've kind of discussed, everything we've come to know and love is like super messed up. They allude to this world-rending cataclysm. But they're kind of ambiguous in a way unless you dive into the logs where they're kind of hitting some kind of fucked up stuff.

[00:36:57] Yeah, I tried flipping through the ones I found so far. And there's ones that a hacker leaves behind that it feels like weather anomaly set about by climate change. Pokemon related? Maybe not. I mean, they brought up the Weather Institute enough times. Man, that's not related to what we're up to right in the real world, are we? I don't know. It cuts too close. It cuts too close. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that log. There's a log that said meteorological anomalies.

[00:37:27] And I'm like, uh-oh. And it keeps on going. And there's also a speculation that global food and energy sources may become insufficient. Double uh-oh. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh shit. We're actually just here. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. And then, like, as an extra little cherry on top, it sounds like the humans decided,

[00:37:50] well, let's put all the Pokemon in this little massive storage system to keep everybody safe in there until we can come back. And then, apparently, they built in a failsafe where if the power starts failing for any reason, we're just going to start letting them out one by one. And apparently, that's where we come in. So, that's also bad implications. But, no, totally, we're just going to make a fun little happy Pokemon village and everything. Don't worry about that, folks.

[00:38:17] They got to make the best of your circumstances as messed up as they may seem. Pokemon Home failed. It needed more subscriptions to stay afloat in the post-apocalypse. But, yes, subscriptions are no. Eventually, we do have to come to some sort of conclusion.

[00:38:41] Because we were literally, or metaphoric, well, both things really, building to some sort of conclusion. Huh? Huh? Okay, these are the jokes, guys. You actually literally, you know, the funny thing is that you really, it really is like the anime moment near the end. It's like you enlist the help of everyone. Everyone's specialties come together to help you, like, build this thing. So, I thought that was kind of fun.

[00:39:09] It's like, it's sort of a climax in its own right. But after you do that, you're told to go check on something that's been there the whole time. And it's basically a leftover remnant of Team Rocket. And the game doesn't actually hit you in over the head with the ending. It's sort of like building towards this finale of sorts. It's not like you're literally crossing, like, Victory Road or, like, there's some big tournament or, like, whatever.

[00:39:36] But in a manner of speaking, you fulfill these goals over time. And for each set of goals, you get batches, which is kind of a fun little Kanto red and blue reference. And the batches actually have really hysterical descriptions and uses. Like, they're knockoff AF. I did two of those as soon as I found the thing. And then I forgot about it. Then I realized I couldn't do the third one.

[00:40:04] I'm like, well, I'm sure this will come up later or not. And then I forgot to do it until I had to do it. And as a result, my eight badges are all over the place. I could not tell you where my badges are right now. So I made sure to hold on to them shits because I knew I would forget. Like, like, like, like, like if DLC is coming and they're like, yeah, just present me with your eight badges. I'm like, oh, I am fucked. I don't think you permanently lose them, though, right? They might just be.

[00:40:33] I mean, maybe you can. No, they're just in they're just in scattered boxes across the world because I'm not good at a little to the left like other people. At least they're in boxes. I've got to be. And you just dropped it somewhere on the map and good luck finding that again. Yeah. That would just that would just be what I did with a bunch of CDs. At least I dropped those off next to DJ Rotop. Because how many copies of Pewter City do I need?

[00:41:04] Eight of them. Anyway. Yeah. After you finish the final step, the all eight of these steps, there's a there's this literal boom hours. And then there's like this bittersweet moment up in the stars. It's basically hinting at how like, well, humanity isn't really around. But everyone on the surface hopes that they can come back.

[00:41:31] But it doesn't particularly seem like they have the ability or the fuel to do so. So that's kind of a little. Oh, man, dude. They make you include this photo. And so that's part of like the final send off. And I pretty much cried and laughed out loud. I just threw in a random Spirgadito photo. And so it scrolls up.

[00:41:58] And it bursts into this histrionic mixture of like laughter and sadness. It's kind of kind of gnarly. I have this okay photo in the rocky area, but it's photo bombed on the left by Chef Greedon's ass. So I'm sure they're like looking at it like, hey, this would be a great photo if like this one fifth of the picture wasn't there. Show the stars your ass.

[00:42:28] Yeah, I ended up getting a nice little try to get a group photo going in the Skylands after we built one of these really big buildings. So it was fun there. But but it is a really touching moment to see that come into play or like how come they did ask for that? Oh, oh, oh. But it's it's a great, wonderful capstone on what you've potentially been working on the whole time. Like the whole point was to get the human's attention.

[00:42:54] And even though there's no way they can know for sure, like it seems like the kind of the biggest thing that they've got for that. And it's pretty bold of them to commit to. We never really see a fully visible human the entire game. You maybe will see like bits and pieces in photos or other logs you find. But it's still, you know, it's very much about the Pokemon. And, you know, maybe, you know, depending on what you're doing this for, maybe we don't need that. Maybe we can get on fine on whatever remains.

[00:43:22] I think it would have been really cheesy to a degree if they did come back. I think it's kind of good that they did what they did. I don't know if it necessarily would have been quite as impactful. I mean, it would have been impactful in a sort of reunion sort of heartwarming way. But I don't particularly think like it was necessary to do that. This is a this ending is pretty is pretty sound. It really resonated with me.

[00:43:51] I would have been absolutely the cheesiest thing in the world if they're like, and all of a sudden the humans came back and then everyone got a big hug, especially Ditto, who needed it most of all. The end. The the the the the trainer and the the cosplaying Ditto all together at long last. Well, I have I have another goofy idea, but we'll save that for the end.

[00:44:23] There's a lot that we liked about this game. I really like the performance. It's really 60 frames throughout. If you're rock smashing or rolling out, it'll it'll like stutter like a tiny, tiny bit, maybe. But like it's also strangely amusing to me that this game uses the Katana engine. It's also used by Neo. It's also used by Harrow Warriors, Age of Imprisonment and Atelier Yumiya.

[00:44:51] And it's kind of gnarly to me that like an Atelier game shares DNA with a Pokemon game. But that's just a Koi Tecmo at work. And, you know, Koi Tecmo is just killing it sales wise nowadays. This is just like a really performant engine. Hey, if you got something that works, use it. You got Capcom using the RE engine for everything that like why the fuck not? Something works. Just use it. They should.

[00:45:17] But speaking of whether it works or not, can you imagine how this would work on the original Switch? Yes, I can. Because as we brought up at the top, I played Dragon Quest Builders and two on the platform in particular. And oh boy, I mean, it runs fine. But if it's got a lot of things going on at once, holy shit. I've heard two especially sufferers at times.

[00:45:45] There's a lot of things that things are asked of of two that I think even PS4 would have had problems with. Yes. And like I said, I wish I had time to comparison shop on Switch, but, you know, I just don't have time. You know, maybe if we slip money into the OnlyFans, you know, then I'd have time. Wait, what? You play all their games for Pokemon? In Dragon Quest Builders?

[00:46:17] Oh, I don't even want to think about the original Switch trying to run this. Like, it's honestly impressive. It runs that nicely. Would you consider, okay, just how much is it tracking here? All the Pokemon are doing stuff when you're not there. Every single block on the entire field is being tracked. Everything you've dropped everywhere. Everything Pokemon are leaving out and behind. Like, this would just annihilate the original Switch. That thing could get melted in an instant. Yeah. Can you imagine the fan? I think even the fan runs on Scarlet Violet.

[00:46:47] So, if you put this, it's like, draw distance? What? It'll just like cut out the entire like anything except for what's directly in front of you. So, if you're up tight in the sky like on that tower, you're probably not seeing anything past what's in your immediate field of vision. If I had to guess, that draw distance would have been really, really funny. But it would be kind of sad.

[00:47:12] Well, you know, there's that pocket of people that always crop up in that, you know, the early new systems lifetime. Well, I guess not so much these days, but here at least was like, they should have put this on Switch 1. No. No, they shouldn't have. Having played this? No, you really don't. But it looks like it could have. No. No.

[00:47:38] Speaking of handling things, the game just handles the Pokemon's pathfinding really well. It's a breath of fresh air after Mega Dimension, which kind of had the most potato pathfinding I've really seen in recent memory. In that DLC, if you told the Raichu to Thunderbolt something, they would just run up against the stones. It's like, do the goddamn Thunderbolt. I need to get through.

[00:48:04] No, I'm just going to run over to this other corner of the map that's nowhere near for no reason. Sure. It was specifically. Raichu, no. Mega Dimension, why? But in Pocopia, if someone's in your party, they do a pretty good job of following you. You have to literally jump across to the other side of a river, and then the game will throw up a warning. Or you have to go to some really, really impassable spot.

[00:48:32] But yeah, they actually know how to follow you in this game. Which is really weird, because there's a few parts in the story where they want you to escort some slower Pokemon to where the Pokemon Center is supposed to go. And those were interesting in that they didn't necessarily want to always follow the nice path you made for them. Sure. Like they would start complaining and start heading back when their little footsies hurt.

[00:49:00] Thankfully, you could just tell them to like, hey, come on, just suck it up and keep going if things are pretty much okay. But the things Torkoal chose to do instead of walk on the path I made could have been a video in itself. Sure, sure. That's true. Well, Torkoal was in particular the case because it's like, I built these stone steps for you. Why are you jumping over everything? You're going to get yourself tired out.

[00:49:29] I'm going to go back. Yeah, that's true. The subquests were kind of prickly. That is true. True. But yeah, other than that, at first I was iffy on like, how far can I go ahead before they won't follow? But after a while, like even if you get a bunch of folks following you at once, then it's good about them actually reaching you. And it'll even give you a message if it's like someone's having trouble reaching you and there's probably a good reason for it. The rules is a reason. Yeah.

[00:49:58] Another thing that we liked is just how the Pokemon have personality. It's really the first time since Pokemon Mystery Dungeon they've gotten to speak, at least as far as I'm aware anyway. And I can't think of another case. That sounds about right. I mean, and I guess it's Animal Crossing like in that they have personalities that start to overlap after a while. But I mean, that's fine too.

[00:50:22] If you look through the look through the Matrix, you'll see like repeated lines after a certain point. But there are quite a few distinct personalities. And they really figures that once they finally get the talk, they actually get the shine. Wow. Oh my God. Did you guys have any favorites? I like Mos Lex fashioning himself into the local sage just on the sole purpose of, well, people used to bring me food.

[00:50:50] So I guess that means I was pretty important once. I also liked Mimikyu trying to get one over on Ditto just because it's like, well, I set up the Pikachu couch and doll in Pikachu's house. I'm like, yeah, okay. Then it moved in there like, look at me. I'm a Pikachu. I'm going to move in here. And like, you're not falling for this, are you? No, I'm not. They try so many times.

[00:51:19] They, you know, you know, they can try as much as they want and we can respect them for it. Yeah. It's actually becomes like a running gag. A lot of the more sneaky trickstery ones, like try to scare Ditto and they're just like, wow, that just doesn't work on you. Yeah. There's no reaction. And, and speaking of some other more like subdued things, I, I loved some of the Pokemon, like a Metang that just have this really flat robotic delivery. They're like, oh, and iron table.

[00:51:49] I am so happy. Yay. And you can imagine it too. I really liked if you get them to join, if you try to have them join your party, they'll just say like departure. And I'm like departure. It's like, okay, I guess you're a robot now. Departure. We are going. The easy answer for me is bro machoke.

[00:52:14] I thought it was also really funny how Graveler just doesn't really want to work out with them, but they worked out. They worked that misunderstanding out. I'd like to affectionately mention a psycho vile plume. They joke about eating you. And I thought it was really sweet. How long my reap ask you to scratch your back? Pretty, pretty, pretty, please. That was kind of cute and endearing. I ended up sticking my vile plume and blossom in the same house in the wastelands.

[00:52:44] Because I'm a psychopath. Nothing's gone wrong yet. I have level 10 happiness there. Everything's fine. We'll see if it lasts. Fine time. Dude, everything is so happy. Ultimately, despite the premise and despite the backstory, does the Pokemon dialogue verge on being too positive?

[00:53:11] Or is it actually sort of a dose of positivity that we actually need nowadays? I mean, honestly, I gotta say, I mean, I hate to use anime as a primary source, but they established fairly early on that without human intervention, most Pokemon are pretty much going to vibe with each other as best as they can. As long as there isn't an outright resource dispute.

[00:53:34] And that makes all of what's going on in Pocopia fit, even if it's oversimplified in the quasi dystopian storytelling. But I get what you're saying, too, because, you know, I didn't have Charizard moving until I finished the story. And he just chose in to move into a patch of grass by the water. And he was thrilled as shit to have a place to live. And then he's like, I'm great. And then it's like too much water.

[00:54:01] I'm like, okay, I could just, I could just take you to the volcano. No one said you had to be here. I know you flew from wherever I'm sure, but I guess it's a good time to bring up that. It's really no big deal at all to just escort anybody anywhere, wherever you want, without much trouble. You don't have to like, think about it too much. It's like, hey, follow me. And they'll just follow you everywhere across the biomes. And it's great that way.

[00:54:29] But they are really, really trusting. And I think that's endearing in its own way. I think it's really funny how you can make like the most sparse dinky little house on the face of the planet. And they'll be like, this is a mighty fine domicile. And I'm like, domicile? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Enjoy. I guess even there's four Pokemon cramming into this dinky little house. But I'm doing my best.

[00:54:56] I had a similar situation with Cinderace. They just randomly moved into like this patch by the water. And I was like, what are you doing here, man? Like whatever floats your boat. I don't know why you moved here, but whatever floats your boat. Yeah. I mean, ultimately I'm fine with there being things like are just a little bit easy going and happy, especially with the whole backdrop of the setting and everything. Although you could do what I do and make a terrible mistake.

[00:55:23] I was going up to Mareep's place and be like, okay, time to collect my daily fluff that I get. But then I took the ball of yarn instead and destroyed the habitat right in front of them. Cue like little thunk piano sting. And Mareep immediately getting a grumbly little icon above their head. Where's my home? I had a home a minute ago. Where did it go? Object permanence. What's that? Where did it go?

[00:55:51] Even if you put it back, they'll still be upset. They'll be like, where did it go? It's right in front of you. God damn it. But they get over it pretty quickly. As long as you don't put things back where they belong. But it's like, yeah, that's about the grumblies they're going to get. And that's fine. Yes. Yeah. You know, honestly, I really enjoy the dialogue and the vibes of this game. Even if it is like borderline, like hyper positive. They like to get up in your face and talk to you.

[00:56:19] I love how they like chat with each other and like do little cute little chases around town. And yeah, I just like just vibing with them. I like the one. Yeah. Especially the ones that you ask to do stuff. The fire Pokemon, I'll make bricks from clay. Like, you know, even the small ones, you know, when they're done, the small ones, even they'll just run up to you with their stubby little baby legs like Torchic or Growlithe. They're like, I made the clay. Thanks, guy. Thank you.

[00:56:51] It's pretty impressive how much they'll actually travel about when you're not around. Like, okay, I've got all my buddies out by the Pokemon Center at Rocky Ridges. Cricketune lives around there. And then I look around like, wait, where'd they go? And Cricketune's just chilling over in the hot springs way over on another part of the map with just buddies like Graveler and Torchall. And it's just, yeah, they just go and do stuff like that sometimes. They do. Which can be a little bit of a pain if you want to actually try to find them. But there's ways to work with that.

[00:57:20] And usually it's just a little bit of search and does the trick. Yeah. I don't think it's generally too bad to find anybody. I mean, at first it's a little weird, but yeah, you have tools. The other thing that's really great is just the sheer modularity of this game really is just pretty amazing. Like, it'll do a great job of saying, hey, here's this habitat. It's almost done. If only there were a nice little patch of grass right here to complete it. Or you could just say, nah, I'm doing my own thing.

[00:57:50] I'm going to just build this giant patch over here. I'm going to move everything completely on opposite sides of the map. And it'll let you do that. You can just move and reclocate about anything you want to do your own personalized setup and not just give what the game kind of easily guides you towards. Yeah. And like, even if you want to try to get someplace you maybe aren't supposed to be yet, like you can really get a lot of rearranging done.

[00:58:17] I just built these gigantic, like 40 block sand bridges across Bleak Beach to try and get to that ship without needing to surf. And the game doesn't really try to stop you or anything. Yes, I did the same thing, actually. And yeah, there are definitely some cases where I just built really long bridges. The game doesn't stop you from doing that. So you might as well. You have so many resources at your disposal that you may as well.

[00:58:41] And I really enjoyed the wide variety of, as you say, like suggestions for what to do. Like the game will periodically have little sparkles and they'll say like, well, you found a new habitat. So like, and it tracks it for you. So like there's all sorts of like possibilities. And even though like you have a lot of freedom, it's also like if you want some guidance, there's plenty of that too. I really like some of these goofy habitats that they introduced later on the game.

[00:59:10] There's one that's that again, the drop the DDR reference. There's four music mats in front of a TV. So I mean, you draw the lines, you connect the dots, right? So, but yeah, I really like seeing all these different possibilities. I think there's like a miniature arcade as well with like a cabinet and like a punching bag. I thought that was kind of fun too. There's one I just got right before recording. That's two arcade machines and two benches.

[00:59:39] I don't know who pops out of there, but it's like, okay, just build that in the park. Well, it'll pop out eventually. I'm like, okay, I guess I'll more things for me to look forward to later. I mean, that seems accurate. It's money. It's poor God. I don't know, but. So someone's going to want their own little bespoke arcade set up. With a bench. Two benches.

[01:00:02] And the other nice thing is that like, depending on what you want to explore first, you can do a lot of stuff like out of the intended order. And sometimes the Pokemon even acknowledge it. Like on the beach, I was, I found out about the utility poles pretty early on and I just started daisy chaining a whole bunch of things together for fun. And then later when you're trying to brighten up the beach, Meowth's like, hey, I know how we can get the beach all nice and shiny. You see those streetlights? Wait, they're already lit up. Dang. Did you already think of that?

[01:00:32] Yes. So they got little fun things. They anticipate people are going to do stuff, you know, their own way and, you know, they're prepped for it too. Yeah. There's a constant sense of discovery and they actually reward you for that. Right. Which feels really nice. Even if this is something simple, you can just like rock smash as far as you want. It's like, well, how far into the earth can I rock smash? And as the answer turns out, it's pretty far down.

[01:00:58] And the sense of discovery continues when you get the access to positioning liquids so you can make like bodies of water and stuff like that. So I'm like, well, how does it work if I just do waterfalls and how do I direct the flow? And what if I have magma touching water and all this rigmarole? Like, I thought that kind of stuff was really organic and really fun. Speaking of things that are just like organic and fun. One of my favorite features is just the way that it handles photos.

[01:01:28] There's, of course, there's also, there's a dedicated photo mode. But what I really enjoyed was how it sort of is implemented into the game. There's an in-game album, which is separate from the Switch's album, which I thought was a little weird at first. But as it turns out, every photo you take can be like applied to like a monitor or like a TV. So I totally just have like a monitor with like Sprigadito in my room. Just in your room, not every monitor in the game? Every monitor in the game, there's one in my town.

[01:01:58] There's one everywhere. Spriggy everywhere. You get a Spriggy, you get a kitty. There's kitties everywhere. And the game will actually pick two photos at random every single time you reach the title screen. So I think that's like really, really cute too. Yeah, that I enjoyed. It's just, I always, I'm the bad photo gamer that always forgets that these things exist. It's like, oh yeah, there's a camera in here.

[01:02:23] And I've gotten used to taking captures whenever I want. But it's like, oh, you want me to just take pictures? And that's not the primary goal. Oops. It's not Pokemon Snap, but you can't snap pictures of objects in reference mode and 3D print that shit. That's pretty convenient. I think it's so busted. It's like, oh, I don't have access to this planter. Yoink! You can just 3D print a planter apparently, I guess.

[01:02:55] They figured that out, but not how to save themselves from whatever happened. Oops. Oops. They're kind of with it. Yeah, you even get a chance to do these little photo ops that show up now and again too. So it is kind of encouraging you to bust out the camera even before you start getting into send and cherish photos out. And you can do a lot of fun little emotes and other fun things. Some of that's for, you know, other modes and the like. But you can just have some fun poses with your buddies and all. Yeah.

[01:03:24] And again, they reward you. You do get photo frames and stuff like that if you do find the right photo ops. So, I mean, like there's a little cute stuff like that. It just happens naturally. So, I mean, it's just little discoveries like that, right? They're really, really cool. And speaking of discoveries, I really enjoyed like the music discs in this game. Whenever you find a music disc, there's a wide variety of tracks. Like it's really surprising what they pull from the series history.

[01:03:53] But what is really, really cool is that if a song has multiple versions, it will actually let you access all the different versions of that song. You can get that chiptune Game Boy music. You can get that crunchy Game Boy Advance audio. Or you get the tricked up Switch music. And I think that's just really cool that they have all those options in there. And another thing is just the way they handle like the Pokemon cries.

[01:04:22] I'm one of those rare cases where like the Game Boy cries feel a little weird and dated nowadays. Like I know they're endearing for some people, but I'm not. How dare you? Oh my God! You're going to kick me off the Pokeballs for talking smack about Game Boy cries. But this game kind of remixes them. Like they have different lengths, different pitches. So they kind of almost feel like Animal Crossing, like Animalese in a way. It's not just the straight up just cry. I think they kind of shake it up.

[01:04:51] The other cool thing is even outside of all the discs, which have, you know, the classic tunes you've come to love. There's even just the music by itself in the game is nice. It's got this nice little moody atmosphere while you're going around and trying to figure out who's where and what's out there. And occasionally you'll have a little, oh, I know that little musical jingle there. But it doesn't rely on those. It's just different enough to stand on its own too.

[01:05:16] Those phrases get more apparent or louder or whatever you want to call it when you raise the level of each area too. So when things are more coming together, it's like, oh, I said this earlier. Like, yep, this is where we were. Like, I remember 30 years ago in 1998. 1998. I had my whole life ahead of me back then. I had hair back then. 30 years of Pokemon right here.

[01:05:47] And that's why Pocopi is the real 30th anniversary game. Who said that? It really is. It truly is. And how?

[01:06:20] Guys, would you believe it if we told you we had some minor things to complain about along the way? Because we do. Just a couple. No, I know. But it's, I don't know. I just feel like people are like, oh, Steve is too easy on the Nintendo games. He just likes them all. Like, well, I like many things about them, but they're never mind. You don't think every single Mario and Luigi is like God's gift to man?

[01:06:50] I thought the last one was good and everyone wants to nail me on the cross for it. Anyway. Yeah, there's minor things. At the very beginning, it's a little weird how you have to designate a house in every biomoral so you can't fast travel to it. So, like, you don't necessarily have, like, houses built in every single zone, nor do you have, like, the flags to designate them as a house. So it feels a little strange at first, right?

[01:07:17] Yeah, because early on, it may not seem like, oh, well, it's not that bad. I just got to put a little kit down and build it. But then you realize, oh, wait, I don't actually have anyone here to build it with. So I either got to try to drag them from elsewhere or I just got to try to find some folks here. And until then, you're still going back and forth. So and then even when you do get started, it will take, you know, a little bit of time to get that actually built.

[01:07:40] So it can be a little bit of just, you know, getting started with that can be a little bit of a pain. Like, I don't mind. I didn't mind hauling ass, but it definitely was a bit of a bit of a process at first. Speaking of things being a bit of a process, do you guys feel the item management is too much of a pain in the ass? Because I kind of like how you can, like, hold the button down to do a fast sword.

[01:08:07] But I have so many boxes in so many biomes and I tried to color code them. But even that doesn't seem like it's enough sometimes. You go through the whole game without finding any sort of cloud storage, for lack of a better term. And Steve, why would you want that? Because Dragon Quest Builders, which we keep bringing up, does give you that as a matter of course.

[01:08:32] And that you can, like, open your box or even open your inventory and just shift through all your shit. And, like, find things you stuff in a box eventually. As cumbersome as that is. And I don't know. Which means, yes. I built a lot of fucking boxes with a lot of stuff in there. And I'm not that good color. I should have thought about that, color coordinating and having extra paint all over the place. But, no, not me.

[01:09:00] That's why my badges are all over the place and across the biomes. So I might be screwed when the DLC comes out, like I said before. But I would have settled for, like, some sort of connected box system for, like, when I'm just crafted. Like, okay, here's all the things in your boxes you can work with. Just for the sake of that. But no such luck. If they were connected, I think that would have helped to a degree. Maybe our asses are too spoiled from Animal Crossing New Horizons.

[01:09:27] Which seems to always expand the item count in, like, the infinite thingamabob. Not the actual infinite. But, like, the thousands worth of storage in the cloud or whatever, right? But I think early on, like, things get kind of weird going from biome to biome. Like, I designated Withered Wasteland as my base. But then, like, we move on to, like, those other biomes. I'm like, I don't want to move all my shit over, man. That's kind of annoying. But, of course, my ass loves, like, the floating island. So I settled on Skylands as sort of, like, my main base.

[01:09:56] But then, like, there's, like, an additional sort of, like, sandbox space afterwards. So after that. So I had to move my shit again. So it seems like you can't really win, per se. So it's just, and even in that sandbox area, like, I have, like, another area full of boxes. So I don't have to keep moving my shit back and forth. So it's like, I can't win, right? It's just kind of, like, my stuff is, like, everywhere. And it's not really that big of a deal.

[01:10:20] But, again, like, if you want, like, to track down some kit or, like, some, you know, ingredient, like, you kind of want to consolidate. Yeah. Count Me In is also just build a stack full of boxes right next to whatever I set as my home base. And also, I may have forgotten about some of those bag upgrades throughout the game, too. Like, once I got those, it's like, okay, this is a little more manageable. But, yeah, I was definitely feeling the strain.

[01:10:46] And you just really need to have a good system like that or else you're easily going to get everything all scattered around or maybe doubling up on some things you don't need. So that's one thing that can be an issue. To your credit, they don't really tell you when you've unlocked a new one. You have to, like, go down to each biome shop and scroll down. So, like, my crazy ass was doing that. But, like, if you didn't know to do that, like, yeah, you're probably not really going to know.

[01:11:14] But, yeah, stuff is weirdly buried like that. Well, they do tell you, but not very well. Like, you level up in a biome and then you go into the shop. Hey, new stuff open. Ding, ding, ding, ding. It's really fast. Yeah, it just happens. Yeah. So you kind of still have to be aware of it to, like, a degree. So, like, it's just so easy to scroll through. Another thing that's really stood out to me was the way they implement berries. Because essentially it's just, like, Animal Crossing fruit.

[01:11:42] You only have access to, like, a very, like, narrow set. So I played the whole ass game only having, like, two berries. So, like, the game shows, like, by the way, here's all the colors that you can access. And you can't access shit. So I was just making everything red, rose, and pink. Because those are the only berries that I have. And so, like, eventually there's ways to kind of get around it. But, like, for the most part, like, I thought I was going crazy. I'm like, I don't have access to any of these colors. Like, what? I don't know if you guys have that situation.

[01:12:12] I found the Chesto berries at some point tucked away in the bleak beach. And then after a while, I wasn't finding, like, lumberies were popping up for trade. But, yeah, I mean, making paint is a pain in the behind and an inventory hog. So I really wasn't doing so much of that unless it was part of my daily dailies. Yeah. Paint stuff. I'm like, oh, great. Yeah. Time to occupy more space.

[01:12:42] Yeah. Eventually you can, like, find berries in shops or, like, eventually you can buy some of the paint. But, like, you're going to have to, like, get, like, some sort of seeds eventually. And it's just at first it's kind of like, oh. Yeah. I only ever really had the two berries. And I think Chesto was the other one I found. But, like, there's a handful out there. And you got to do a little mix and match if you want all the colors of the rainbow at your disposal. Yeah. Just like in real life. Just like in real life. Oh.

[01:13:15] Does real life have relics and ripples? Because I thought also, like, that was, like, a little weird. If you find these sparkling ripples, you'll get recipes, which I felt was, like, look, they're not going to be crafting in their houses like an Animal Crossing. But, like, getting recipes for ripples, like, that doesn't really make, like, the most intuitive sense. It feels, like, a little weird. I don't know. I'm always happier to find those than two tomatoes. In the water.

[01:13:45] Yeah. It makes perfect sense. I don't know. A lot of things in this game are just weird. And then they, you know, I mean, I guess it makes sense. But, I mean, Pokemon mostly just hand you food and things as rewards. Like, hey, it's great to see you. They hand you a stick. Thanks. Thanks. I'll put it. I don't have one from you.

[01:14:12] And you put it with, like, the other 200 sticks you have. You just always sort it in. It's, like, stacks. Yeah. I mean, if you want stuff from other Pokemon in this game, you gotta hang out with Gimmigool, whose living area I made into an appropriate-looking junk pile of things he's asked for from the time that I found him. Because, I don't know. It just feels right to get different stuff from the compulsive hoarder than it does from everyone else.

[01:14:41] And that way it fits. It's, like, hey, hey, hey, hey. You got them weird feathers? What about them weird knicks? I like them dark glasses. And them sticky bobs. And them rocket emblems. They're hoarding so many things. But I actually really loved seeing that they actually take these feathers that are dropped by Ho'o and Lugia.

[01:15:11] Just, like, what do I do with these things? But, like, actually, like, the stuff that they give you is pretty cool. I really enjoy chatting with that silly little goober Gimmigool. Where'd you get this stuff? Don't ask so many questions. It may or may not be from that messed up museum. But don't worry about it. Man, there's a lot of odds and ends that we should probably address.

[01:15:42] And the first one is there's so many possibilities for builds. Do you guys mess with any? Or do you have plans to build anything? You know, I keep looking every time I go into a thing. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to rebuild Satan. And I never do. Like, I, like, pack away at some vines or whatever. And I'm like, I don't have time for any of this. You know. It's big. It's a huge boat. I'll, like, patch away holes at the bottom.

[01:16:12] And, like, I'll make it look a little better each time I'm around. Especially since Happini or Audino are setting up shop on top of Dex. I'm like, okay, since I'm visiting up there anyway, I'll do a little more each time. And make it look a little less jank. But it's like, I'm never going to finish. Like, I'd love to finish. I'd love to rebuild that. But, like, no. I'm not that ambitious. It's a lot of space, to be fair. Yeah.

[01:16:39] Just even building up a few of those plots where it's clear they want you to build a nice house right here. Like, even just filling up that can take its own time. I guess at one point with that designated sandbox space, I want to put together sort of an extended living space for Evie and all their cute little buddies. I still got to find those elegant treats for my precious Espeon, though. I do have a little rainbow exterior for those good friends. They're just kind of chilling. I need a rainbow one up some more, though.

[01:17:08] I started this rainbow conservatory. It's really interesting picking out blocks. I love the different, like, shapes and colors that the blocks have. There's little touches. There's the age stone walls. And there's even, like, the upper middle lower sections for certain types. Or even, like, the freaky weirdo walls. I guess you could use, like, a curry print wall for, like, a restaurant or something like that. But I'm actually working on that right now. And having, like, the diagonal sloped roof parts and a bunch of glass wall pieces.

[01:17:37] And I'm, like, super stoked to work on that some more. I may have just built that over, like, a sizable portion of, like, the sandbox island. So don't look too deeply at the interior there. But I've also considered building out a giant sprigadito. I have even, like, glanced at the nanoblocks build to see if I can take some inspiration from that. But I don't quite have a giant cat hovering over my town just yet.

[01:18:05] But really, honestly, I spent all my creative juices building out the triangle for this podcast graphic. You're welcome, by the way. Hey, I liked it. I appreciate your time. Thank you. You spent a lot of time doing that. The things, the builds that people do. I don't know if you took it down. I don't know how much longer everyone's staring at that thing. Like, you got bubbles here looking up in between games of Jump. I'm like, man, how long are we looking at these triangles for?

[01:18:34] I'm never taking that shit down. They're going to look at the hovering-ass fight-time triangles like they're UFOs for eternity. I'm never getting rid of it. Oh, my gosh. The game has, like, this cloud island feature where you can visit islands. Did you guys get the chance to try this out?

[01:19:02] I finally dragged my ass to look at a few yesterday. I looked. First off, I needed. It took me a second because it told me they were all offline. And then I looked up at what was wrong. Like, no, you don't enter them in on the computer. You buy those goggles you ignored in the shop the whole game. And you enter it in on there, you dumbass. It's a little confusing. It's a little weird. And then I'm like, oh, now I can go on the islands. And I went on the Berry Island. And then I went to Ikea Island. And that was nice.

[01:19:31] All the trees and the furniture that's obviously not from Ikea because I looked at it and it didn't fall down. Who said that? I actually like Ikea. I like Ikea, too. But, you know, you got to pick and cheers with them. It's a job done. But, yeah, I get what you mean. I really enjoyed that island, by the way. I like how forested it was. It actually is really, really elegantly made. I thought that collaboration is pretty unexpected.

[01:20:01] And from my understanding, there's actually literally like a Moslax, like standees and like Ikea in Japan and stuff like that. I'm just like, man, that's that's cool. Apparently, I went to Japan at the wrong time. I was going to say, if I was working in Ikea, Japan over there, I might be risking my job to take one of those home. I don't know. Just like a selfie. Just do a thumbs up next to do a ditto-esque or a thumbs up next to like one of the Moslax standees. Yeah. Look, wish you were here.

[01:20:32] Man. Yeah. I love how high you can build. Do you guys think there's a block limit? Because I actually don't think there's a block limit. I haven't tried building that high, but the last thing you get does let you pretty much go wherever the heck you want. And I kept going up. Yep. And up. And up. And up. And up. And it didn't stop me from going up until I ran out of PP.

[01:21:00] So. I'm just saying it didn't stop me. Like if you run to the edge of a biome, it does the Breath of the Wild thing. Like, oh, this is the edge. Better turn around. It doesn't. There's no upper limit. In the biomes that it tells you about. Yeah. I think like eventually it looks like it kind of looks like it stops, but it doesn't tell you. Yes. I mean, like, I don't know if that was just me. Maybe I just imagine it stopping. Maybe so high up. We can't even tell. I don't even know.

[01:21:29] But some real big rigs over the road racing nonsense with that. Yeah. Just keep on going until you memory overflow the game. Yeah. I mean, if that keeps expanding. I mean, I don't know. I think the Switch 2 and the Katana engine can take it. But it's performant, I guess. Right. Man. I accidentally discovered mouse controls 60 hours into the game.

[01:21:57] I was just playing with the Joy-Cons detached. And I'm like, oh, I don't. Did we know about those? I don't think so. Does it even mention it? Because it mentions it once you go in the mouse mode. But I was playing with a pro controller for the first 60 hours. Yeah. I've only been doing that, too. So I didn't get a chance to discover. I mean, they made a point of telling us that for the Switch 2 Animal Crossing update. Like, have mouse mode in your house. I'm like, okay, that tracks.

[01:22:25] But I don't remember this at all for the upcoming Kokopia stuff. I don't think so. I don't think so. But it's really handy. You can basically rock smash things that are away from you. So if there's a straight block above you or something, you can just point it and just break it. Or you can just spit out blocks over there. So I think that's really cool. The one thing that's a little gnarly, though, is that they play musical chairs with the layout. So that, like, the jump button changes. So that's, like, a little weird. But yeah, give it a shot. It's actually really cool.

[01:22:56] I don't know if this is a hot take. But I think this is the best Switch 2 exclusive until Splatoon Raiders and Yoshi come to take its crown. But I think it's, by and large, the most recommendable Pokemon game to anyone in general. And I just think, like, insofar as, like, the buzz that I hear, I think people really, like, want to play this game. But they may or may not have the hardware for it. But, like, I think it does justify it. You might want to buy a Switch 2 soon, though.

[01:23:26] It might be going up in price. Oh, God. Man, we keep making this podcast around here. Oh, man. Oh, geez. But I keep thinking, like, man, I liked other games very, like Metroid Prime. Oh, that's on Switch. Donkey Kong Bonanza? That's a bit controversial. It's fine. Maybe it is Pocopia. But, yeah, as far as recommendable Pokemon goes, I mean, this just hits a lot of really nice notes. It's all these charming critters we've come to know and love.

[01:23:54] And it does a good job of just ramping things up bit by bit, even if you haven't played a game kind of like this before. So, you know, definitely recommend for that. Yeah, definitely agreed. Can we actually claim this is the best Pokemon spinoff of all time? It's the best one in a minute. In a minute. It's definitely the one that took me the most by surprise. I mean, I thought this looked kind of neat, but I ended up getting sucked in a whole lot more than I would have imagined. And I love it. It's so full of surprise.

[01:24:24] And the real reason why it's the best spinoff is because it has toilets. Because no other Pokemon game has toilets from my under, from my recollection. And I'm just kidding. But I think like, yeah, all the other prior spinoffs, like they kind of specialize in a certain experience. And they deliver on that experience really well. Like Pokemon Snap, new Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Tournament, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. They really deliver on their premise.

[01:24:49] And as we all know, the mobile games hyper-specialize on their one idea as well. As they got you their way into your soul heart. But I would dare say this game transcends its premise. I was walking down to a Pokemon Go meetup the weekend after this game came out. And the whole time I was walking down, I'm like, oh man, dude. Like all these mobile games, just number go up. But Pocopia isn't just about the number going up. It really is about like the cohesive feel and whole of the game.

[01:25:18] And it really is empowering. And you can do so much. And like, it just feels like a really cohesive, like, and dare say, I dare say, transcendent experience. I really think it's such a recommendable game. Yeah, I think it is. It's just, I don't know. I always feel like it's hard to shake off that stink of, ew, Pokemon, even though it's 30 years old. And everyone should know what it is by now. Like, it's not a fad. I mean, I know we all saw those articles in the year 2000 saying, well, the fad is dead.

[01:25:47] And even though it made more money than Newsweek ever did. But anyway. Fine time. The game keeps on trucking along. It has events. There's ongoing events that are continuing as we speak. I feel like the cadence might be like a little weird. A hop it happened right when the game came out, but then there was a bit of a lull.

[01:26:13] But then we got like Bulbasaur jump rope extravaganza and then Sableye practically back to back. And so it's really cool to like see that like the game is getting its support, so to speak. Right. But the one thing is that maybe like the event structure is like a little basic. Like you're really just farming for resources and it just seems like a limited time grind in a way. And so it sort of almost feels like time gated, like items and furniture items.

[01:26:41] And maybe that's like a little strange, I guess. Honestly, I think it's fine. It's kind of a little bit like what Kirby Air Riders is doing where sometimes there's an event and it's just more racing. Yeah. Just to remind everyone that, hey, there's a game you can play and sometimes it's with other people. They probably felt like playing it a little safe after new Pokemon Snap only sold a few million copies instead of 25 million copies.

[01:27:09] So in that way, I think this way is okay. We can dip out. We could take a break from playing Procopia for a bit. And, you know, later on use the Nintendo Today app. You know, that thing that Kevin says is a waste of time to be reminded when a new friend or event is coming. Spend a few more days in Procopia and then move on to something else again.

[01:27:33] Or, you know, maybe they liked reception so much of this game that we have DLC coming and holy shit. Do you actually think do you think that's a possibility? You think there might be like an expansion? I don't know. This thing was hot. I don't know. We could crack a Koei Tecmo joke somewhere in here regarding expansions and DX versions and empires and whatever you want to call it. Right. But who's to say, right?

[01:28:00] What I will say is that I really like, I think the theming of these events is pretty cool. I liked how this Hop-Up event was like picnic themed and like the Sableye one is kind of like Spelunker central. But again, they don't really have like real life like comparisons, so to speak. But I think the loot is really cool. I like them flower garlands, of course.

[01:28:21] How could I have only really messed around long enough to get build the yellow flower bed so I can get you them guys to move in the trio to move in? I'm like, come on, guys, move in. Yes. Move in. And I just I did the jump rope business, got my fancy little trophy and everything, but haven't gone super hot on the others yet. The jump rope event is weird because you don't have to find Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur will find you in whatever biome you're in. Constantly.

[01:28:51] I happen to save last in the Rocky Ridge biome. And my house is right next to the Pokemon Center, which is right next to the minecarts. And he's like, hey, there's a Pokemon in town. And Bulbasaur is like, hey, I'm running a jump rope event, you guys. And there's like these there's like burly macho walking around all these fire like, oh, man, Bulbasaur. This is not a place for you. What are you doing? Your house isn't wither wastelands.

[01:29:20] What are you doing here, man? We built a place. We made a place for you. It's all the way in the other bio. What are you doing? What are you doing, man? Yeah. You want to play jump rope? Like, OK, we'll do jump rope. And then I'm building a house later on for. Yeah, this was in the middle of me building the house for Charizard and Cinderace. I'm like Bulbasaur is following me into the volcano. Hey, you want to do jump rope again? No, not right this second. What are you doing in here? Bulbasaur. No. Bulbasaur. No.

[01:29:49] It actually took a little bit to get that trophy. It wasn't like too bad. They kind of troll you. Took a few tries, but prominently displaying that one. Man, regarding what's next for weird Pokemon. So weird Pokemon games are apparently not dead after all, but it feels like it'd be extremely difficult to top this game. Like, I feel like it's just a miracle that this even happened. I don't know whether they could do.

[01:30:17] I would imagine something's coming up between now and Pokemon winds and waves. That's a long ass time between now and indeterminate month in 2027. But we've been barraged with so much stuff. Maybe Dimension came out like not that long ago, but in 2026, we've already had like the Switch versions of FireRed, LeafGreen, then Pocopia, then Pokemon XD on Nintendo Classics, then Champions. And it's just so much to do.

[01:30:47] Plus all the mobile game things. If you're crazy like me, but God, I don't know. There's just so much to take on. I wonder what's next. I really do. Look, I mean, I know I need to suck up and just play Detective Pikachu Returns. I mean, fairly recently we played Paranormous on our show, and I know that developer, Zine, Gene, I know they do Manna these days. You should be able to, I know you can probably pronounce whatever developer that name is better,

[01:31:15] but they could probably make a better point and click mystery game if they had their druthers, but I'm not holding my breath. I've never pronounced it. I've seen it on the title screen of Trials of Mana Remake. So instead, I need Kori Takmo to keep hugging and making up and make Conquest 2 for me already. Someone should have brought this up in passing, I feel like. Man, Conquest 2. I know I keep bringing this up, but I need this to happen.

[01:31:43] But at the same time, one of the last Pokemon I got last night in Trash TV, I think, was this Habitat, where it's two garbage bags and a television. You want to know who popped out of there? A very amnesiac Dust Noir. He had no idea how he got there. He didn't know what he was doing there or what he should be doing. I don't know.

[01:32:10] Maybe he suddenly he remembers he needs to go find some time gears. I don't know. Maybe it turns out Pocopia is the secret prequel to the Pokemon Mystery of Time and Darkness remakes. I don't know. You know, the running joke is that I keep wishing for that on every single Pokemon Presents, but over time, I'm like, I don't know if that Time, Dark, and Sky remake DX is happening. I almost joke that it's going to be a thing.

[01:32:41] I feel like they've been sitting on it this whole time. You think they actually have? Oh, yeah. Maybe. Maybe so. Man. Gosh. I think anything Conquest related would be really cool. It feels like the winning formula is to have developers that are experienced in their subgenre to make a spinoff. Like Pokken Tournament clearly taps into Bandai Namco's Tekken history, Mystery Dungeon, of course.

[01:33:07] And then now Omega Force is working on Pocopia leveraging their Dranquist Builders history. So, heck. And then also like Pokemon Picross, Jupiter, of course, has made a gazillion million Picross games. So, I just kind of wonder if there's like another developer that could really, you know, throw their hat into the ring. Jupiter's been busy with all the retro-y Picross games. Do you think they'll slip in like the real one in now?

[01:33:35] Pokemon Picross, like on Switch and Switch 2 now? That would be good. I mean, there's so many more like Pokemon available now. I don't see why they couldn't do like an enhanced version. Especially since like the 3DS game was like microtransactioned to hell and back. Or you could just give us $30 and unlock the whole game. Imagine that shit. Oh my god.

[01:34:00] There's a certain Koi Tecmo part of fanboy part of me that wonders if like Gus could do something. Maybe like Nurse Joy could like maintain like a Pokemon center. Or maybe you get to be like a gym leader and like work in your town or something. And I understand like Gus style, Atelier style crafting might overlap with Pocopia. But I just kind of wonder about the possibilities.

[01:34:23] And I got to bring this up to Ampy who's the fellow rhythm enthusiast in town. Like do you think there's something there? I mean, they've got more than enough material to work with there. Or I'd love to see it happen. But, well, I don't know. Are they going to just try to work off something similar that already exists? Are they going to try to do their own little system? There's a lot of possibilities out there. I'd want to see it.

[01:34:50] But, I mean, at this point, I guess more things are possible than there were. So we can hope for the best in the meantime. Keep watching out for those directs. And maybe one will surprise us. Yeah. You just never know. I think that's the wonderful part about all of this. Like you just don't know. So I anticipate that we will all be surprised in a really excellent kind of way. So I look forward to it.

[01:35:16] And no matter what those games might be next, I am sure we will cover them here on this show. You can follow us on Blue Sky at Fine Time. We will have links and socials in the description of this show. And all those other nice little things there. So I'm sure we'll hear from you and see you all soon enough. Happy Pokeversary. Is that what we're calling it? Pokeversary?

[01:35:46] 30th Pokeversary. Absolutely. Happy 32 Pokemon. Keep on building. We'll catch you next time. This has been Fine Time.