FNGC Reviews: Pokemon Pokopia (ft. Trina of the Gamerheads Podcast)

[00:00:43] What's up everybody and welcome to the Friday Night Gamecast. You're joining us for another FNGC Review where we look at one game and take a deep dive into all its moving parts. This week I'm incredibly excited to announce a new cast member to the show. She's a games journalist and news coordinator at the Gamerheads Podcast and the host of Hey Kiddo, Whispers from the Void. Trina, Trina, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm good. How are you?

[00:01:07] I'm doing so good. I'm doing so good. Trina, this is really exciting. We're talking about a really awesome game today and I really can't wait to get into it with you. This is your first time on the show. I'm really happy to have you here. I got the chance to meet you and Roger at PAX. We didn't go last year but we definitely met the year before. So Will and I definitely was it was great to connect with you there and really happy to have you on the show today.

[00:01:33] For the folks that might not be familiar with your show or your body of work, can you just run us through what you do and what you enjoy talking about? Yeah. So with Gamerheads Podcast, we do a lot of indie-focused games and also it's a mix of podcasts and written reviews on our website. We've also been kind of dabbling into the YouTube content lately, getting just quick little things out there.

[00:02:02] We're about indie games and just all things games. And then Hey Kiddo, Whispers from the Void is one of our newer podcasts under the Gamerheads family and it is a Warframe-focused podcast where we also talk about Soulframe from time to time. But very DE, Digital Extremes focused because we really enjoyed that game and we were kind of talking about it a lot on the Gamerheads Podcast.

[00:02:30] And so we're like, why don't we just kind of spin off and make our own? And we've been really enjoying it and it's been a ton of fun. So that's exciting. Will and I had, we went to go see the Digital Extremes showcase. They usually show up. They have like a presence at PAX East. At least I feel like they're, they've gone a few times and I really, really enjoyed.

[00:02:48] I think we saw the, I guess this is in 2025 when they revealed it was like the Ben Starr expansion where it was like, I think it was like Soulframe Zero or 1999, something, something like that.

[00:03:00] Yeah. So that was a really good time. And it was interesting hearing like the developers kind of talk about their process and what they were working on in the studio and stuff. So that was cool. So awesome. Definitely. I will make Whispers, Hey Kiddo, Whispers from the Void, a part of my daily podcast repertoire. But yeah, thanks for that.

[00:03:21] Today, we are going to go ahead and review Pokemon Pocopia. This is really exciting. This is something that I've been waiting on for quite a while. Will, my co-host for the show, he's not a Pokemon gamer. He'll play it, right? Like he's, he's not against it or anything, but this is definitely a Switch 2 exclusive, which kind of limits the pool of people. I get to kind of get on the show and talk to you about this. So I'm really grateful that Trina, you were able to hop on and talk through this with me. Of course.

[00:03:51] Yeah. So Pokemon Pocopia was developed by Koei Tecmo Omega Force, which is a subsidiary group inside of Koei Tecmo. And it was co-developed alongside Game Freak. And it was published by the Pokemon Company and Nintendo, of course.

[00:04:06] The director oriel team is Shigeru Omori and Takoto Edigawa. Shigeru Omori, of course, is notable for his work on Ruby and Sapphire. And he's also like a principal lead director developer on pretty much most of the mainline Pokemon entries. And he definitely collaborated very closely with the Omega Force team when making Pokemon Pocopia.

[00:04:27] It released on March 5th, 2026 for the Nintendo Switch 2, as exclusive as I had previously mentioned. So to start off the show, I always like to, you know, depending on like the game we're talking about, run down just with the history of folks in the franchise and see like, you know, what's your experience in this case, Trina, with the Pokemon franchise as a whole, as well as like, what's your experience with like life sims and like builder crafter games?

[00:04:55] Trina Yeah. So I obviously haven't been on the show before, but I'm kind of a newer gamer, I guess. I didn't really grow up gaming like we had a Wii and we had a PlayStation 2, but that was like my brothers and like, I didn't game a whole lot growing up. So like, early on Pokemon stuff, or even life sim stuff, I didn't play any of that. So it really wasn't until I became like out of high school and into college where I started like gaming.

[00:05:24] Trina And actually one of the first games that really got me into gaming is called Oxygen Not Included, which is like a simulation crafting kind of game. You have these little duplicates and you have to like have them survive in space. And there's a lot of stuff that goes into it with oxygen and gases and things like that. Trina It was very up my alley, needless to say. And so that was kind of the start of my gaming side of things in terms of like sims.

[00:05:54] Trina I think I played maybe sims itself, maybe at my friend's house growing up, but like not a whole lot of that either. I did really play a lot of Animal Crossing during the pandemic and very much into that. So I could see a lot of references to Pocopia and Animal Crossing. And even sometimes like Stardew Valley.

[00:06:20] Trina Oh yeah. Trina Because I played Pokemon Go and Pokemon TCG Pocket have kind of been like my, they're mobile games, right? They're easy to kind of open up and play.

[00:06:40] Trina I think back when I was streaming a lot, someone got me Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield. I don't remember which one for my Switch. And I don't think I ever ended up playing it. Trina It's fine. You don't have to. It's like they're definitively like the worst in the series. So it's good now. Trina Yeah, I have it in the other room. So maybe one day I'll play it. But yeah, I just I never really got into like Pokemon. But I like have a good general knowledge of Pokemon.

[00:07:08] Trina Like when I was playing Pocopia, and we'll talk about it later. Like it was pretty easy for me to like know, like, you know, Squirtle is water and things like that. Trina Just because I have general knowledge. Trina Yeah, that's really cool. So so definitely like, not as much of like on the Pokemon side for your history, but more like you've played some of the builder crafter life sins, all that stuff. So no, that's really cool.

[00:07:33] Trina I would say that I we might be a little bit flipped in that regard. I've played a lot of Pokemon. Obviously, I would say I it's hard to say because like, I really difficult for me to remember that far back. But I think one of the very first, like games that I had that was mine was the Pokemon Blue on the Game Boy Color.

[00:07:54] Trina And that was I think like a like a sixth or seventh birthday, something like that. And yeah, I have really fond memories of like for the very first time operating like my Game Boy Color plugging it in, and like not understanding what overriding save meant.

[00:08:09] Trina And so like, I was just playing from the beginning over and over and over again, and just like wandering around Pallet Town until I clicked the button and realized, oh, this lets me go forward. So yeah, no, it was definitely a really like I have a lot of nostalgia for Gen one. Pocopia is significant because it's like kind of heavy on a lot of Gen one Pokemon. But yeah, I've played a lot of the different, you know, mainline series of Pokemon games haven't done any like the mystery dungeon.

[00:08:35] Trina I think I messed around with like, I've played stadium and Pokemon champions here and there. But like, there's a lot of other ones out there that I, you know, definitely have not played. I've probably you know, now that I'm on it, I've skipped more of like the mainline generations that I've played because I played one two and three, which is up through Ruby and Sapphire. And then four through seven, I just I didn't have a DS like my last Game Boy at a certain point was the Game Boy SP as a kid.

[00:09:06] And then I just skipped the entire DS generation in favor of like having the PlayStation 2 or the 360. Because you know, when you're you don't have that much resources to go around, you can't have all the stuff when you're a kid. And so yeah, I kind of came back into Pokemon during the switch and hop back on for Sword and Shield, which was a disaster. But I actually, you know, greatly enjoyed Scarlet and Violet. That was a really good time. And I've dabbled with playing like I think it was Pokemon White in the white black generation.

[00:09:33] And then I've also like messed around on a friend's copy of like brilliant diamond, brilliant diamond shining pearl for the remake of that generation. But haven't ever played the original. So never touched X and Y haven't properly finished, you know, diamond pearl black and white and definite.

[00:09:51] I own a copy of Pokemon Moon for the sun and moon generation, but haven't touched it. That one's pretty mixed. If I if I remember correctly, people kind of the critical reception for that. And you know, people didn't really feel super up to it. But I love Pokemon. I'll always play them. I always enjoy them. I always go back to them. And that's probably the reason why I jumped into this game.

[00:10:12] Also, thanks to friend of the show Jared from Play Along podcast. He's like a Pokemon aficionado and my little friend group. And he definitely kind of hyped this up where I was like, yeah, I think I'm gonna buy this game. But for in terms of like builders and life sims, I definitely am missing out a lot. Like I've messed around with Stardew Valley, for sure. You mentioned that earlier. Haven't ever gotten too deep into that game because it's so daunting. There's so many different tasks and mechanics for that.

[00:10:40] But similar to you, I think almost like everybody during the pandemic, I fell really deep into Animal Crossing New Horizons. And that was kind of like a, you know, couples thing that I was playing with my ex at the time. And so yeah, that was definitely a really, really good time playing that and but I've never really been a Sims guy never really jumped into stuff like City Skylines or like really deep intensive like builder crafters.

[00:11:07] But I have known to like, you know, mess around with the Simulator. I really like House Flipper, House Flipper 2 specifically, I got that. And that's mainly just because I you know, it's just fun to kind of pretend to be a real estate mogul. But yeah, I also missed out on the Dragon Quest Builders franchise, which is what this development team did prior to doing Pocopia. And it's where a lot of that energy carried through when they're making this game. So yeah, definitely that's that's my history with it. And yeah, excited to get into it.

[00:11:37] So the question that we have today is, you know, what is Pokemon Pocopia? So in terms of the story setup, it's kind of really this game, I'm going to repeat myself so many times, Trina, because this game has pleasantly surprised me on so many levels. Like each time I play it, I like find myself in the rhythm and I find myself being like, how did they make this after struggling for so long to make it like a halfway decent modern Pokemon game?

[00:12:04] And all it all it took was just Koei Tecmo to come in and help them, which is really great. But so the story of this game kind of just set it up is it takes place in a post apocalyptic version of the Pokemon world. And you are playing as a Ditto who finds itself in a world that's abandoned by humans, as well as being uninhabitable to Pokemon. So you kind of wake up and then you find your old trainers Pokedex.

[00:12:32] And you kind of look at a picture and that's like the character creator moment where you can craft your own Ditto. And then it assumes the cursed version of what a human is supposed to be. It's like, it's like, what is a human assuming like you've never seen a human before? And so that's what Ditto looks like in the game, which is really cute. And so you kind of become that and you walk around a little bit and then you meet a Tangrowth who's going by Professor Tangrowth.

[00:12:56] And now Professor Tangrowth is studying the environment in that the world is taking place in currently. And they're desperately trying to solve the mystery of where do the Pokemon go? Where do the humans go? How do we get them to come back? So you're kind of tasked to like work together with Professor Tangrowth to travel through the different regions of the world in order to kind of revitalize the land to bring back the Pokemon with hope that once the Pokemon return, the humans will as well.

[00:13:25] So really compelling setup. Did you did you feel the same way there? Yeah, I at first because I wasn't like, big into Pokemon, it took me just a tiny bit to like really get into the story. But once I was like, Oh, I know what we're doing. Like, this is really cool. I just like didn't want to put it down.

[00:13:45] Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. Because like, I was curious as to like where they were going to go with this if they were even going to try and tell a story at all, because I assumed that it was just the fun was going to be in the crafting in the gameplay, which it is, for the most part, but they do a really excellent job of onboarding the player into kind of understanding where this world is.

[00:14:04] And I think that one of the things that pulled me through personally in this game is that there's a lot of mystery. There's a lot of like unknowns that you're working with, like, why are you a ditto? Why are you in this weird world that's like, not I mean, like, it's in this block shaped world that's reminiscent of a lot of like the Minecraft. And you know, that's kind of one of the interesting comparisons. And I think it was a, like a tactical comparison from the visual art style where they're like, Oh, kids like Minecraft, they'll play this game.

[00:14:31] And I think that was really successful for them, because I think this game performed really well commercially. But yeah, no, it was definitely like an interesting thing for me as someone who does know Pokemon or coming from that, like level of experience. I was like, Okay, this is, this is really interesting. They're kind of throwing us into a situation we've never been post apocalyptic Pokemon. That sounds really cool. Like just that just that sentence itself. So yeah, I was really happy to get into it. But let's go ahead and take a quick music break.

[00:15:00] And when we come back, we're going to go ahead and talk about gameplay mechanics of Pocopia.

[00:15:58] So the gameplay mechanics of Pokemon Pocopia are, I don't want to say they're like minimally involved, because they kind of get pretty advanced pretty quickly, in terms of what the game is asking you to do. I never felt lost. I never felt like I was it was like daunting. And I think the game does a really excellent job of like kind of drip feeding you small

[00:16:21] tasks that let you kind of think bigger and be like, okay, well, if I do these three things, then I can do this. Did you feel that same way? Yeah, I like, just the other day, I was trying to get like onyx like out of the little cave. And it's like, Okay, well, I got to go do this and get like slow poked in order to make it rain. But then there was like more to it. And like, it just made the story just more well rounded. I feel like when they were including all these extra tasks.

[00:16:51] And first, I was a little annoyed. I'm like, I just want to get onyx out like, quit sending me on side quests. But I enjoyed it. Because then I got to meet like more Pokemon and, you know, move squirtles home and things like that. So I liked the extra tasks and stuff that they gave us. Yeah, it's definitely like there are tasks layered within tasks. And it's really kind of built upon like the core mechanic of the game. So like, obviously, with this being a building crafting sim, you know, you're going to be building and crafting like off rip, right?

[00:17:21] You know, of course, you know, in this world, you start off in the initial biome, called, I think it's called withered wasteland is the name of it. And you have to essentially like for every biome, there are four in total. And in every biome, you have like, two predominant tasks that are like kind of the focus. There's one core task, which is like, okay, restore the Pokemon center. And to restore the Pokemon center, you have to get enough Pokemon a and then be you have to get enough

[00:17:50] of the resources in the area, which require you to do like a number of different tasks in order to kind of just assemble that. And then there's like an additional like primary core quest in each region, which is a Pokemon specific quest like, and in this case, like I think in the very first one, it's like famous because it's the I think it's like the Bulbasaur meme where it's like, let's get humid. And that was all over blue sky and Twitter for a little bit there. And that was a really cute

[00:18:20] like thing. And then just kind of like trying to make it wet, trying to make it rain and that whole task leading into getting onyx out of the cave and all that stuff. And so those are kind of the examples in the initial area where it's like, they're giving you kind of a lot to work with all at the same time. And it's also one of those where you are progressively scaled through trying to acquire new skills, new skills in order to interact with the environment to do what you need to do.

[00:18:49] And Trina, you'll find this as you progress a little bit deeper into the game as well. But whenever so part of like the biggest most important task is just getting as many Pokemon into your environment and into your area as possible at any given time. And then once you have that established, you'll be able to do so much more.

[00:19:09] And the main way to get Pokemon is through the system that they called habitats. So it's habitat restoration. Did you like the habitat restoration at all? Like, was that something that you were like, kind of like, this makes sense? Yeah, it was it was pretty easy. You pretty much just look at the little picture that they give you. I was like, oh, okay, I'll just put some flowers here and a log seat here. Perfect. Now I've got a Pokemon like it's pretty straightforward.

[00:19:34] It's really straightforward. And I also got a shout out to the team because like the UI on the picture because it's in any other game, it would be like, okay, here's the picture of the habitat. It's like you got the tree and the four grass or something like that. But you can zoom into the picture and it literally will tell you individually every single element that you need to have grouped together in that in those little squares and that grid pattern to actually make it work, which is super helpful, especially because the habitats, they start simply right.

[00:20:03] They're designed to lure and attract Pokemon and different Pokemon will come to different ones. There are the basic nature ones, which are probably the most common and you can get most of the Pokemon through those basic nature ones. And then there are like very specific ones that will lure like very, if like, if you're a Pokedex hunter, you'll probably need to create like very specific habitats to get certain types of Pokemon in there. And then I played around with that. I usually did the basic ones as well as I was going through it.

[00:20:32] But yeah, no, there's definitely, I think the habitat system is really, really perfect because not only does it like onboard you into understanding kind of like the gameplay loop, which is primarily you get the Pokemon, you get the skills, you mess with the environment, you make it more habitable and comfortable for the people, for the Pokemon that are living there.

[00:20:53] But it also kind of like serves as this like interesting dual process where you are building these habitats and then like you grit the Pokemon there. And this is where I'm probably going to touch on this, but like when you're making these habitats for the Pokemon, they're like really grateful and they talk to you. This is something that I probably didn't mention earlier, but like the Pokemon talk to you and you understand them because you're a ditto.

[00:21:20] So it's like in the writing for the Pokemon, first of all, is really good. Sometimes it's really funny. Sometimes it's really sweet, heartwarming. Sometimes it's kind of sad. And it's like, that was one of the things for me. I don't know if you agree with this, but it was so surprising because I was going through this game and I expected Pokemon level writing, which for the record, Trina, not good. Generally, not playing the old games. I mean, like sometimes they have like interesting stuff there, but like by and large, Pokemon like writing isn't good.

[00:21:50] Like at the tail end of Scarlet and Violet, they started doing really cool stuff with the story and the writing. And I was like, why did you save this? But like, it's never, it's never been a franchise that's known for like, you know, emotive or impactful writing. Like there were times where I was playing this game where it was like something silly, like Charmander came waddling up to me and he was like, hey, ditto. Like, I really love spending time with you. You're like my friend now. Like, here's a berry. And I was like, okay, like, why am I crying a little bit right now?

[00:22:19] Like, this is so sweet. So it was definitely like really heartwarming. And I think that was like a really important process to the step because I think it just like further incentivized you to be like, these are my friends. And I really want to help my friends. Yeah, definitely. I think like, even they'll like run up to you and they're like, hey, hey. And I was like, oh, what do you need? Like, I'll talk to you.

[00:22:44] And it's just like so cute. And they're like, either like thanking you or just being like super sweet or like even like giving you a tip or something like too. And I'm like, oh, I should talk to you guys more often, which I felt like was kind of like a good way to keep that gameplay loop of actually talking to all the Pokemon consistently going.

[00:23:05] 100%. It's like they they'll give you like resources, they'll give you stuff that you need, or they'll give you quests that like kind of force you to explore the region. And this is something that, you know, I feel like we can jump into now since we're already here in terms of like the the region, the level crafting and building. When I play this game, I think like my headspace is that I always and this is how I play a lot of games.

[00:23:30] I'm I I'm a I'm an RTS player. Like I've played a lot of command and conquer in my methodology when I'm exploring areas. OK, you got to create your base and then you can figure out where to go. And that's what I applied to Pocopia. So I always stayed in like one spot typically until I felt like super comfortable. And then I was like, OK, now I'm going to run around and figure it out. Did you did you play it that same way?

[00:23:52] Um, a little bit, but I kind of have like and I notice this when I play games, like I'll kind of make a little base, but then I'll see like, oh, shiny. Let me go see what that is. And so then I'll go explore a little bit. Um, but then usually like I'll be like, oh, wait, I got to get back to like what I was doing. So like I'll leave it like half explore and then come back and be like, oh, another shiny thing. So I get distracted very easily.

[00:24:18] So I think it's I probably spent a lot of time in the first area just because I was exploring rather than actually moving through the story. But no, totally understandable. And I did the same. I kind of did the same thing. I'm always there's like there's like always a dozen things on the screen that you can interact with, like whether it's getting honey out of a flower patch or like interacting with a like a grass clump to get a new Pokemon or something. There's always something new that you can go do.

[00:24:45] And then like there's always like a progressive scaling point system that you always get. So, yeah, I think it's it's definitely one of those where and I think you'll find this as well. I'm so I'm like right around if not over 50 hours. The Nintendo needs to figure out what they're doing with the gameplay clock because like none of the clocks like for any of the systems are good. But like they never give you like an accurate picture of like how much you've played this game. Xbox. I will take it back. Xbox always gives you a good accurate picture. Nintendo does not.

[00:25:14] But I am around 50 hours in the game. And what I will say is that like Withered Wasteland is really cool because like you find that like have you gotten to the part where you find that like blocked off area and like it's got the it's got the little like farming patch with the patch of land. Yeah. Have you gotten there? Okay. Some beans the other day. Yeah. You got to get some beans. Yeah. You got to get some beans. And I think it's like a specific patch.

[00:25:40] If you like fill it up with veggies, it'll attract one of those digger Pokemon. And it'll give you did you get the skill to like make those from. Okay. So you already got that part. Cool. No, that's amazing. So yeah, definitely. That's one. That's another piece that we didn't even talk about that. Like, of course, like getting the Pokemon is part of the process, but there's always like one, if not two very specific Pokemon that will give you your special ability, your loadout for like the crap and travel crafting.

[00:26:10] You know, thing that you have to do as Ditto. And it's really cool because like as Ditto, it makes perfect sense. Like, I don't think they could have picked any other Pokemon to do this game because like Ditto is like the one, right? So it's interesting how they did it. So there are like, you know, in terms of your wheel that you can do, you have planting, watering, you can cut, you can smash. Flying is like a tertiary ability. You can also learn surf where you turn into a Lapras and you surf. There's spoilers.

[00:26:38] There's a different region where, you know, there's a lot of water. So it's the watery region. And then like you learn fly from like a from a Dragonite when you get into the Sparkling Skylands. And that was a really, really cool moment. But yeah, there's you can also camouflage, which is really interesting. I got the camouflage ability and I never quite figured out why Ditto has camouflage.

[00:27:02] Because like there's no like you don't really need to hide from anything unless it's like something where you have to like play with the Pokemon or if you hide the Pokemon will do something that they won't normally do when you're around. It's really interesting. I wonder is there maybe like a hide and seek game? Because like Bulbasaur has like you could play jump rope with him. So I wonder maybe if there's a Pokemon game where you can play hide and seek or something. There probably is. There probably is. I was so busy running around doing my tasks as Ditto. I didn't even think.

[00:27:31] I didn't even like I feel like I might have realized that at some point, but I didn't even realize that you could do a jump rope with Bulbasaur. That's really cool. Yeah. I played a couple of times and then I got frustrated because I was struggling to jump. So classic. That's classic. Yeah. So it's interesting. There's also like Pokemon will play like a trivia game with you as well and ask you things like, oh, what's this Pokemon's favorite fruit? And I never know the answer. I'm just guessing like half the time.

[00:28:00] So hopefully I did pretty well there. But one of the things about like the kind of the functional system of like the different abilities that Ditto has is like they're kind of tied to the kind of it's basically just an energy system. Right. So you have a certain amount of energy and that's based off of they call it PP, which is exactly the same as the mainline games where it's, you know, the PowerPoints where, you know, you have a certain amount of moves you can do before you're exhausted.

[00:28:27] And to refill that meter, you either I think you either sleep or you go and you eat like a lepa berry for sure. And the lepa berries will replenish. Actually, pro tip as you get deeper in the game, just eat carrots. Just get as many carrots as you can. And that will like do a lot more than the actual berries. So, yeah, definitely a cool system that they have there. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:50] One thing I will also say is the habitats are kind of like the starting point for the areas as you're playing this game. As a person who, you know, has put probably too many hours into Pokemon Pocopia as it is, I would say that housing is kind of the name of the game. Figuring out a housing situation is definitely the key to getting to the place where you can, you know, be ready to like actually get to that next step and kind of progress.

[00:29:21] I kind of hacked my way into the housing because I didn't want to like because I've done a lot of time traveling in this game. I don't know if you've played around with that at all just so you could like don't have to wait. No, you just you do the normal thing. You just let it let it go. Okay. Yeah, I've I've definitely I did a lot of time travel just to be like, okay, I started this building project. I want it done so I can do the next thing. So I've I've done a lot of that.

[00:29:46] I might have like accidentally time traveled because my switch was like still in like France time zone. Oh, yeah. Yes. You're going through time zones. Yeah. And I didn't reconnect to my internet here because I had gotten new internet right before I left. And I was like, well, why is it like 645? It's like only 10 here right now. So yeah, I like finally reconnected it. So I might have accidentally like time travel, but it's fine. Okay.

[00:30:16] Okay. No, that's perfect. That's perfect. No, that's amazing. I definitely I cheese the game a little bit in that. But I also I saw a thing online. I've seen a lot of videos of this game, like especially when it first came out. People are amazing, Trina. I don't know if you've seen what some of the other folks like online have done. Some of like the builds and stuff, you mean? Yeah. They're so cool. Like people have recreated like the actual like Pokemon towns and like completely built

[00:30:45] it out in these 3D environments. And it's just it's impeccable. And they really do give you so much to like make the environments in the towns feel actually realized and lived in in terms of just those small like pieces of furniture or decor that you can put around the town, like in inside interiors as well. I've seen like people recreate malls. I've seen people do like just like apartment buildings, like all sorts of things.

[00:31:10] But in order to like get because the key is that like to get the Pokemon, you have to empty the habitats they like came up in. Right. Yeah. And so what I did is I built kind of like pseudo public housing where it was like I put on a like a 10 by 10 or maybe like 20 by 20 grid blocks of like stone on the ground. And then I just created like four different apartment units in that stone. You put a door on them.

[00:31:40] You put a bed inside each different like unit. And then like you decorate it. You put a toy in there and like decorate it a little bit. And it becomes a home that they'll live in. And you can put four Pokemon each in those. So you have like 16 Pokemon you can do in there. And you can make even bigger ones. Right. So, yeah. Is it is a little cramped? Yes, it's definitely a little cramped. But it definitely works in terms of getting the Pokemon out of their habitats and into a space where you don't have to like wait for a housing build.

[00:32:10] So my plan is I'm probably going to keep playing this game. I will say I'm going to keep playing this game just because it's fun and it's enjoyable. But once that's done, I'm probably going to go back and like actually build real houses for my Pokemon so they can, you know, enjoy a nice home. All that fun stuff. Speaking of the things that you've seen online, have you seen the hate towards Mr. Mime? No. No. What is this?

[00:32:35] There's like so much hate towards him and they're like digging really far down into the ground. Like I don't know if there's a limit, but like and they're like making a jail cell for him and like putting him in the jail cell. I'm like, what is the hate towards Mr. Mime? I don't get it. I think he's just cursed. I think he's just cursed. He's too close to human, but he's not human. And so it's yeah, he's a little freak. He's a little he's a little freaky. So I don't blame them for hating on him, but he can just just put him off into the corner

[00:33:05] of the map. Give him his own house. Just let him just let him just chill out there by himself. He doesn't have to be a part of the community. We don't need to put him deep down in the earth in a jail cell. Yeah, we don't need to put him in a jail cell. That's crazy. I think I also saw in terms of the builds online, I saw somebody create like a like a Disney castle that was off of a cliff to like I think it was like maybe like a beauty. That'd be cool. Or something that yeah, you can do. There's so much. And the crazy thing is, is that people did this within, I don't know, like like a month

[00:33:34] of this game being out, which is just insane to me because I'm 50 hours in and I'm not even done with a core primary content. I made it right to the end. Um, I got through all of the four primary biomes and I'm at the end now where I'm doing the team initiation challenge. And that's like, it's something you find at the very beginning. There's this thing called, it looks like a lighthouse and it's a team initiate and it like they start asking you for like veggies and certain stuff in there to try and help you out.

[00:34:02] So I'm, I'm trying to figure out, you know, I, I know what it does ultimately at the end of the game, but, uh, it's definitely a cool little mystery and I'm like right there at that final step. So I got a couple, a couple of things to do, uh, to cross that off my list. But yeah. I like how the professor Tangrowth was like, yeah, just come check on this whenever, like it's not a big deal. And I was like, oh, okay. So this is definitely side quest content. It's a big deal. Actually, it's the final test.

[00:34:31] It's like the final test of the game. Uh, funny enough. And like, the weird thing is, is that as you get farther into team initiation, they start asking for like some pretty advanced, not advanced, but like pretty involved materials that like take a good amount of effort to get. And you have to have like, you know, certain things to create. Uh, so definitely a, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's a slow, slow going process, but yeah, no, this is, this is really cool. One thing that I forgot to mention, um, in each area, you know, one, it's, it was one of the things that was attached.

[00:35:00] So like part of the thing when you start off in each area is that you see a destroyed Pokemon center, you know, after the post apocalypse or whatever, and you're required to rebuild it. Each Pokemon center has a PC that's attached to it. And it's part of like the gameplay flow of this game where it's like every day you log in, you check into the PC and you can get a little stamp. I don't know what the stamps do other than like, just like, I don't think they give you currency.

[00:35:27] Um, because something when I logged in this morning about life coins, that might be it. That could potentially be it. On Fridays, you can turn them in. That's what it says. See, that's probably what I just haven't done because I'll get like close to three or four stamps and then I'll like put the game down for a couple of days and not actually turn it in. So I think I'll probably do it this time and I'll probably get some more, more of the points. But, uh, but yeah, inside of the PC, there are two different, you know, components to it.

[00:35:54] There's like the challenges, which is something I mentioned earlier where it's, it's like very simple. It's like they give you, uh, points in like little coins that are for completing the different challenges throughout the world, which is like, pick up a leaf, pick up sticks, pick up a iron ore, you know, whatever the case may be. And, you know, collect Pokemon, create habitats that give you all of these points, you know, points for that. And then you can use those points to go and buy things that Ditto doesn't have access to you yet.

[00:36:23] Whether it's like, you know, bottled water or you can even buy like access to the biome, uh, you know, description. So you can make the biomes without having to naturally discover them, which is pretty, it's like a way to like kind of quick hack your way into just getting as many Pokemon as fast as possible. So I thought it was pretty cool. Um, and it definitely like there were times where I, I was like confused of, oh, is this something I can craft or do I have to go buy this? Um, I feel like there's not always, I think it's just, it's one of those things that's

[00:36:53] muscle memory in the game where it's like, you have to kind of feel into it that like, oh, I've unlocked this recipe. I know because he has a pretty limited repertoire of things he can make at the very beginning that the Ditto that you play. Um, and I feel like I bought more than not. Did you feel the same way on that? Um, yeah, I did buy a lot of stuff. Part of it was like, because I put the game down in between all my trips over the past couple months. Yeah.

[00:37:20] And then I picked it back up and like, even like this week, I was like, how do I get rope? Like, I'm trying to figure out how to get rope. And my friend's like, well, you can like buy it from the store. It's like on the ground. I'm like, it's in either places. How do I get rope? Yeah. So yeah, I definitely bought stuff. But, um, like, I think it was partially because I wasn't consistently playing the game. Right. No, for sure. And that's something that's like, I experienced the same thing again, like, because I'm putting

[00:37:49] the game down for a few months and go dabble with other things that are coming out. Pragmat, 007, whatever the case may be, uh, jumping into newer things. I, it's definitely one of those games where you, if you're playing consistently, the flow is easy, but getting back on board, it's like, you kind of, it takes a little bit to kind of lock back into that system. So totally understandable. One final thing I will say about like, it's kind of, this is, this is attached to maybe just the mechanics, but also just the world itself that I really want to give praise for this game.

[00:38:19] And one of the reasons why I think this is definitively, in my opinion, I'm saying this right now, one of the best Pokemon games, um, is because like, there's no Pokemon don't fight. And I think Pokemon has like drawn a lot of flack in history because it's basically a dog fighting simulator, which is not ideal. Right. And the Pokemon company like is adamant about, Oh, they're not weapons. They're not, you know, you're not pitting them against each other. They're your friends, but we all know what Pokemon is and they don't change the formula at all.

[00:38:48] And so I think it's one of the really cool things about it is that like, this is something that the Pokemon company has always claimed about the franchise is that they're your friends. And this, I think is the very first game where they realized that other than potentially Pokemon snap. Right. But even then it's like, there's like a wall between you and like actually living with the Pokemon. Whereas this there, it's like so much more intimate and like friendly. And I think that that's one of the like design philosophies that I think make this game so

[00:39:17] successful is like that friendly nature of the Pokemon. And the fact that like, they really are something that like, they are, they are like creatures that you want to help and you're incentivized in so many ways to help them. And I think that's really cool. Yeah. I think they took kind of a little bit of like the animal crossing formula in terms of like the villagers and how they like, try to talk to you and come up to you and like be your friend. Yeah. And like built on that for Pocopia.

[00:39:45] Cause like the animal crossing conversations are like, okay, but they repeat themselves a lot. Whereas like in Pocopia, I never felt like I was like getting the same responses from them over and over. And like they'd be cracking jokes and just being really sweet or giving you things. And it's definitely just really built upon, which made it more feel like you were their friend and you wanted to help them. Right. Yeah. 100%. I couldn't agree with you more.

[00:40:13] You're, you're so right about that animal crossing. It's like, yeah, the same, they have like a four canned responses whenever the villagers come up and talk to you. And then, and then it's always like the, I always love the animal crossing where it's like a new villager comes to your island and they're like a frog. And I see people are like, ew, no, get out, get out. And they like force them out or whatever. I don't know how it works, but thankfully that's not the way it is at all. And you're right. It's definitely like, there's so much variety.

[00:40:40] Like I didn't expect the amount of variety in terms of like the responses in the writing. And most of it is a lot of the same stuff. I'm not going to say it's like as deep or immersive as like a Baldur's Gate three in terms of like variable responses, but definitely there's a lot of like things to unpack with these different creatures in like the different areas as well, because they're all like regional and context specific, which is just so cool at the end of the day.

[00:41:06] But I did want to talk about like the different worlds or the different biomes for this game. So this is like, so for the case of being spoiler free for the people who haven't played, Trina, you've already been spoiled. I'm sorry. Rest in peace. You're going to, you're going to find out some more about this stuff. But yeah, so there are four primary regions for the sake of our listeners though. We'll call it the garden grass region, which is just withering wasteland.

[00:41:32] And then we have a water region, which is some bleak beach, the mountain region, which is rocky ridges. And then the sky region, which is sparkling skylands. Um, all I'll say this, all four of these areas are based off of an actual place. Um, and, uh, but I'll leave it at that. I won't actually like spoil it because it's really a super pleasant surprise. And we'll, so we'll, we'll unpack that a little bit further, uh, in the spoiler section of the show today.

[00:41:59] Um, but I talked about this a little bit earlier, but something that I do want to kind of circle back around on and reiterate. And I think that you've probably seen this specifically in the withering wasteland, but these regions are really intricately crafted. That's like, I think one of the most interesting parts about this game is exploring the areas and like unlocking a part and like unlocking a piece of the area where I'm like, oh my God, this has been back here the entire time.

[00:42:29] It's like, I, cause I know that you, you said that you found the like access point to the beach where it's like, it's got the, the, it looks like a rock slide happened and it covered up houses and that sort of thing. And like, you can do some more stuff over there. Um, but even behind that, there's an entirely other town that's like locked, like not there, but it's kind of like a perpendicular to where that area is. Have you discovered that at all? Not yet. No. Okay. All right.

[00:42:56] So we're, we're, we're, it's a little bit spoilery, but, uh, definitely it's like one of those moments where in the world where I'm like, I'm just going around, I'm just looking for sticks and trees to chop down so I can get lumber. And I'm hopping up as little ditto and he hops up on like a mountain. And then I look over and then there's this entire like new area that is like full of houses in full of like trees and all of that. I mean, usually they're pretty empty because whatever you don't like kind of cultivate

[00:43:24] as ditto doesn't have anything in it, but it's one of those where it's like, you could just break down a wall and then all of a sudden it's like this vast expanse. So it's one of the things that I think is the strongest part about this game is that the environmental design has like layers upon layers of secrets, which is really, really engaging. And as somebody who's like a little tentative to go and explore until I'm ready, it incentivized me each time to be like, okay, let me go find out what's over here.

[00:43:53] Let me go find out what's over here. And I'll say this, I'm pretty sure that I haven't even seen like maybe I've seen like half three fourths of it in the time that I've put in and being in all four regions, even in the last region, the sky region, they have sky islands and I've been to like maybe three. There's probably five that are there in total and I haven't explored all of them yet. So definitely really, really cool aspects to that in terms of just unlocking that there.

[00:44:23] Are you excited? Is that something that really like calls to you as a player in these games? Yeah, I am excited. I did find, I don't, it's like off to the side, but it was like a very clean looking bridge to somewhere and I tried to go and it was like, you can't go there yet. And I was like, oh no. I know what you're talking about. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's so interesting. And I was like, oh, well, I need to keep played so I can get there. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah.

[00:44:52] And there's things like I started scratching my head at a certain point as I was like, as I started realizing that this isn't just a, you know, a created world. That's like a, like basically an own original world. That's an offshoot of the actual Pokemon franchise. Once I realized that these regions were actually based on something, I was like, like started scratching my head. I was like, okay, so like what actually did happen to the humans? Where did they go? Why did the Pokemon not stay?

[00:45:20] Because even if the humans left, it doesn't make sense because Pokemon were here before the humans. So why wouldn't they just kind of like adapt to the environment? So really interesting things kind of unfold as you get a little bit deeper onto the game. And yeah, again, I touched already on like the writing, how heartwarming it is. And just in terms of just interacting the world, something that I will say in terms of the art style, this is a very unique art style. Is there anything you could compare this to?

[00:45:49] I struggled thinking of how to describe this to the listeners. I will say it does have a lot of similarities to Animal Crossing. Okay, I agree. It's a lot of like even like UI things as like your menu is like where all your items are being held. Like it's very similar to like the little backpack you have in Animal Crossing. Yeah, you're not wrong. Yeah.

[00:46:14] So I think they pull a lot of Animal Crossing assets, I feel like, but it's slightly different. Yeah. But then they kind of built upon that. But yeah, I don't really know how else to describe it other than very similar to Animal Crossing. No, for sure. And I think you're totally right. It's not, it's definitely not pixel art style. It's definitely soft. It's not cel-shaded either, but it's kind of like this soft rounded kind of just like very much.

[00:46:41] Yeah, it's in that cutesy Animal Crossing cartoonish art style while bush just with like the soft shading and shadowing on the 3D elements there. It's not, this is not like a very visually intensive game. They do have a good draw distance. I mean, Switch 2 really is performing greatly. I can't imagine this would work super well in Switch 1 just because of how it works as a game. But yeah, definitely like huge shout out to the UI elements.

[00:47:07] That was a good pull there because it's very easy to navigate in this game and do all that stuff. Have you struggled at all with like the system? That's something that I always kind of think about when I play games like crafters is that like I don't want it to be too hard for me to do what I need to do and I need a good management system. Did you feel like the chests and like the crafting thing, did you struggle with like carrying capacity at all? Um, I am struggling a little bit right now.

[00:47:35] Um, but it's a little bit because I don't really know what I need on my person and like what I can like put into the chest. And I keep finding like the little relic things and little seedy things and I'm like, okay, well, I got to take these back eventually. And it's like, it's a little bit of like, how far do I go explore before I'm like, okay, I should like go back or I should just throw this thing on the ground and I'll come back for it later. I don't know.

[00:48:04] Thank God that Ditto doesn't get over encumbered because if he did, I just, I would, I would quit the game. I couldn't do over encumbrance, but no, you're so right. One tip that I will give you as well as the listeners is that in that first area, all you need are like the basics, like you need like lumber, rocks, leaves, twine, maybe fluff. It's even like, it's even hard to like think about like what's only accessible in that area. But one thing that I will say also as well is that when you're thinking about like as

[00:48:32] you progress through the game more is the crafting stations. If you put two chests next to the crafting stations as well, if you need to build something and you have like materials inside those chests, they automatically open. So not only your inventory, but the chests are accessible as well. What I'll say is that as you progress through each region, when you complete different like side quests and stuff, you'll get the points from that.

[00:48:59] And then each region has a special, like if you go to the shop, it has a special item that will increase your inventory. So it'll increase that, that load. So it's just more about like, you know, wherever you want to go next, whether it's Rocky Ridges, Rocky Ridges or Bleak Beach, whatever the case may be in terms of like how you want to progress there. And so, yeah, you'll definitely be able to kind of jump on. And I'm at the point now where it's like my inventory, it takes forever to get full anyway. But also like don't ever get scared of just dropping stuff on the ground because things

[00:49:28] don't disappear in this game. That's something I was really surprised by where it's like if I smashed a wall, it just like would stay there for a while. And I thought I was like, yeah, it's definitely like coming back. And if I needed like iron ore, it was always still there. Or if I needed like gold ore. However, there's definitely as you progress through the game, if you like want to build houses, something that we didn't touch on that was like a really cool aspect is that some of the resources are like because they don't go away.

[00:49:57] They're finite in the worlds themselves. But what you can do there and their solution to this is and I feel like they did something similar in Ammo Crossing where if you get on the plane, you can go to like your friend's islands or you can go to other people's islands in this game, they have like a drift loon, which is a Pokemon and it's like a little ghost Pokemon that looks like a like a floating jellyfish guy.

[00:50:22] And if you give drift loon a I think it's like if you give him a plushie hill or you just talk to him. He'll send you. I think because I have like an Eevee doll. Yes, that's right. That's right. Yeah, you show them the doll and then they'll send you to like an alternate world or it's like it's like a dreamland or something like that. And when you go there, you have like every I think it's like it's I'm pretty sure they

[00:50:51] just kind of alternate which type of environments that you're in or maybe it's based off of where you came from. But whenever you go to these other dream worlds, they have a name for them specifically. I'm blinking on it right now, but you'll be able to like pick up as many resources as you need and you can like destroy the whole place, collect everything and then leave. And then you have whatever you need that you kind of collected there in order to come back as well. And I thought that was a really cool addition.

[00:51:18] For sure, because especially if they're kind of finite like resources, like I found one little area of like copper ore. I'm like, huh, I haven't really seen copper ore. Yeah, yeah, definitely. The copper ore, Rocky Ridges is the region where copper ore is going to be really easy to get on just it's just in the soil or it's just in the ground on the outside. So if that's something you're going to, you'll have like all of that you need kind of like there.

[00:51:45] The gold ore is really what kind of is annoying to get to. And there's like very other like specific types of like, you know, secret ore and like, you know, glass fragments and all other things that kind of are a little bit hard to get a hold of. But yeah, I think that the hack to it is definitely the Drifloon dream lens that you can kind of go off to. So that's really cool. For sure. Well, let's go ahead and take another music break. And when we come back, we're going to jump into our spoiler inclusive narrative thoughts of Pokemon Pocopia.

[00:52:15] If you've made it this far and you don't want to be spoiled on what happens in this game. Thanks for listening. But you can go ahead and click to the end credits now. But we'll see you on the other side.

[00:53:08] Okay, so we are in our spoiler inclusive narrative thoughts of Pocopia. We've gone pretty fast. This game is it's pretty straightforward. And that's one of the things that I was thinking about for the review of this game. I was like, oh, like how much is there to talk about Pocopia? But as I was going through it, I was like, I realized that this game is pretty heavily involved. But it's but it's really, really cool. I definitely want to start with you first because I feel like I'm going to yap a little too much about how cool this is.

[00:53:36] I know that you you've watched some of your friends play and you've you've looked up some of the spoilers in this world. Did did this do it for you as someone who's kind of like an outsider of the Pokemon franchise? Did this work for you in terms of the twist? I think so. I I guess maybe I don't know the twist. You're making me feel like I'm second guessing myself. Oh, no, no, no.

[00:54:00] But like just in terms of the story itself and like how it kind of pulled me in and like we kind of mentioned this before to like you kind of really want to know like what happened to, you know, the humans and why did the Pokemon kind of all disappear as well? And I feel like I'm just kind of starting to get into some of the like with the team initiation challenge thing.

[00:54:30] Yeah. So, you know, it's team rocket, right? Yeah. Yeah. I do know that part. But yeah, it's just like. I don't know, it's there's so much to get to that point, I feel like, but it's it's been very, I don't really know how to describe this. I don't know.

[00:54:55] Um, I think because they, they really pull you along each step of the way. Right. And like, yeah, as you find our Pokemon and everything, it definitely wants makes you want to get to that point to find that the piece of the story. No, 100%. It definitely pulls you through. And I think like one of the cool things about this game is that they do the thing that a

[00:55:21] lot of other RPGs do where you're picking up lore entries like they do it all the time in Elder Scrolls or like, you know, other I think Fallout does this a lot, like pretty much any RPG. Um, they kind of, they bit a little bit of that action and put it here into Pocopia where you're in this, you're in this post-apocalyptic world and you're traveling around as ditto. You're working with Professor Tangrowth to revitalize the land, you know, kind of bring the regions back to a place where Pokemon want to live there once again.

[00:55:47] And as you go through, it's like, you see the wreckage of these human houses and a lot of the human houses, you'll find like notes from professors of these old towns and you'll find different like log entries. Like there's the one running joke where it's like, you're picking up log entries from a team rocket grunt who's like, oh, I got to do this stuff for my boss because, oh, I love my boss and we're, we're part of the team. He's part of the gang. So we gotta, we gotta work together to make this happen.

[00:56:14] And there's this really cool kind of progressive thread that ties through the game where it's like, you're talking, it's like, it kind of captures the loss of what happened to this world. And as I went through this game, of course, like you go through and you realize that there are like the different regions are representative of actual cities in the Pokemon world and specifically Kanto, right?

[00:56:39] So Withered Wasteland is actually Fuchsia City, which was one of the beginner cities in the Gen 1. And then you go on and you realize that the bleak beach area is Vermillion. Rocky Ridges is Pewter City and Mountain Moon. And Sparkling Skylines is based on like a fusion of Celadon City and Saffron City, which is really, really cool. And so like, it's one of those grounded moments where you realize like, oh my God, I can't believe this is where I am.

[00:57:04] Because Withered Wasteland is very generic until you kind of discover some of the secrets. Like it's a very generic, you're like, okay, this is in the Pokemon world. It's got a center, but you don't really, it doesn't really give you any like hints as to like where you actually are, like what you're doing here. So you're kind of like, oh, this is just a world, right? And for me, the second region that I went to was Bleak Beach. And you can go either to Rocky Ridges or Bleak Beach because it's all kind of like a circle tied together.

[00:57:34] But for this one, I went to Bleak Beach first. And it was part of the task where it's one of the region specific tasks where you're trying to bring light back into the town because you get there and it's super foreboding. It's like all overcast clouds. There's no light whatsoever. All the electricity is turned off. So it's like super dark. And the music is really representative of that. And so when you get there as Ditto, you're like, okay, we got to fix this.

[00:58:03] And in the darkness, you build the habitats, you get the Pokemon together. And then you meet a Pikachu called Peaky Choo, who's like, he's got his, he like lost his electricity. And he has the even specific quest where if you find other, if you find like a Pichu and a Raichu, they'll work together to bring his electricity back. It's really cool. It's really sweet too. But off in the distance asked, and there's also a Snorlax quest called Mosslax.

[00:58:30] And you do this little side quest and you bring him like stuff that you need. And he basically wake him up, blah, blah, blah. It goes on. And then you meet a legendary Pokemon and you're like, oh my God, this is so cool. And it's a, I'm probably gonna mispronounce it. I can't remember the name, but it's like the dog Pokemon. That's like a ride. It's not Rhydon, but Rhydon is a different Pokemon. But it's like a Rhychow or something, a Rhychow where it's, he looks like a saber-toothed tiger and he's like an electric type legendary.

[00:58:59] And he shoots up into the air and he clears the clouds and the clouds come back. I come out of that whole scenario, that little environment. And I look off in the distance and I see SS Anne in the distance. And it's like, if anybody has played Gen 1, they know how iconic SS Anne is to like the whole franchise. And I like, it literally slammed home. I was like, I'm in Canto right now. This is crazy. Like what is going on?

[00:59:25] And so that was definitely like an aha moment for me where I was like, this is really, really cool and really, really special. And I know that hangs on a lot of nostalgia. So I've tried to like keep it in my mind. I was like, am I just being nostalgia baited as every other millennial or is this actually cool? I don't know. Yeah. I think like for someone who doesn't have a lot of Pokemon experience, I don't know if I like, as I move into the other areas, if I would have even noticed. Yeah.

[00:59:54] I just feel like, oh, we're in the Pokemon world. But so. You're like, oh, this is a boat, right? Yeah. I think they wanted to kind of play into both people, like new people into the Pokemon franchise and the older people that have been playing for years and years, right? Yeah. Definitely. Pull on that nostalgia and kind of give them that cool little tidbit. Whereas someone new is just like, oh, this is so cool. And they may not know until they like look into it later. Like, oh, this is Canto. Yeah, exactly.

[01:00:25] Exactly. And I think this, I mean, I even had to look up, I was like, okay, well, like what are the names of these towns again? Like I was trying to remember. So it was definitely fun to kind of like figure out like and attach which each of them are. It was one of the cute things too about this world is that I had mentioned this earlier, how you're finding these logs and these notes from other people, scientists, professors, and all of them kind of concern like the final events of what's happened.

[01:00:50] It's kind of like, you know, the contextual elements of like finding the skeleton in the bathroom after an atomic bomb went off. But like, they're all like talking about like the final events. And a lot of them are like the team rocket grunt. He's like, oh, I got to get these materials to the boss. And they follow the storyline of like one of the reveals you find out is that all of the humans went into outer space. So the things, the environment started happening. This game is like low key and environmentalism.

[01:01:19] Like it's got a like direct analog to like environmental disaster and kind of the environmentalism like philosophy of what's happening in the world right now. And it's like the world has become inhospitable. We have to flee to space. But there's this line of like actual tragedy that's attached to that because in the Pokemon world, humans and Pokemon have co-mingled for so long that they've had this like perfect, like symbiotic relationship, you know, technically according to the lore.

[01:01:49] And a lot of the tragedy kind of involves like the humans being really sad that they have to leave their Pokemon on the planet, which is really kind of it's, you know, it's interesting how that that comes to be. There was like one that I read just recently. I think it was like last night or earlier this morning where it was like a professor or it was a Pokemon trainer had to leave and they had a like a Tangela.

[01:02:16] And this might have been like what Tangela, like this might be referencing Professor Tang growth, but there was a Tangela that he tried to bring with him onto the ship. And as he was boarding, the Tangela ran away and it ran back. And he was like, I think it was trying to go back to the home. But he was the note was like, I'm devastated because I've been with that Tangela since I was a child. And it's been my friend my entire life. And I don't understand why it left, but I'm devastated that I can't like bring it with me.

[01:02:45] And there's this there's this line of tragedy that has no right to be in this game where it's like genuine emotive and emotional writing that I just thought it just makes it so good. This game is sitting at like a 91 on Open Critic. And the deeper that I get into this game, the more I realize like it 100% is worth it. A hundred percent. Hi. Hello. Hi, Freya. You couldn't say hello to Trina. Yeah, we're talking about Pokemon right now.

[01:03:12] Anyway, so that's a little bit of like where I'm at with that. But like, so the thing about this game is, of course, like you realize the humans, like the environments started going through catastrophe in all of the different regions, whether it was like a like a volcano volcanic eruption, flooding, overcast skies to block out the sun, whatever the case may be. And the humans left and they left the Pokemon behind. But they didn't just leave the Pokemon behind.

[01:03:42] They created a special system that the Pokemon could live in and that would only allow them to come out once the land was like in a specific place for them to be habitable. Or it was basically like a system that they put them inside of a computer. And once certain like conditions were triggered, it would release the Pokemon progressively. And it turns out that like the ditto was the condition.

[01:04:08] And as you're going through the land and releasing the Pokemon, like they've come out. And so kind of like the spoiler kind of just to the end of the story is that you go through the team initiation challenge. And, you know, once the system starts to fail because of like whatever region, they basically celebrate once the challenge happens. But in that celebration, Ditto and Professor Tangrowth inadvertently set off this emergency

[01:04:37] evacuation protocol, which reveals that like the structure that is the team initiation challenge is a rocket ship and it launches them into outer space. And so you basically go into outer space to go and then it eventually travels through that distance and it meets a human, which is implied to be Ditto's trainer, their original trainer. Who recovers them inside, who recovers like the items inside that Ditto had sent off.

[01:05:05] And eventually I think it's like an indicator that like the humans are ready to come back into Earth. So it's really, really cool. I yeah, I think it's, it's really, it's beautiful. I guess like is, was that different from what you had like previously known about like what the story was? I think just the last little bit about the team initiation challenge. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I just, it's like not the biggest reveal.

[01:05:31] I thought initially as I was playing through the game that we were living inside like a simulation. I thought that that was my, that was my image. Like Ditto was like, it would have made me upset because like, why am I working so hard to like fix the environment of like a simulated world? Yeah. But then it made sense that like you're actually in the real world and that like the Pokemon that you're getting or you're pulling them out of like this system that was set up to protect them.

[01:05:58] Um, but yeah, there, you definitely like meet a Mewtwo at one point in the sparkling skylands. And he's like, and he, he's kind of like grumpy and he's mad, but he's like, oh, well, good thing. The humans aren't here. Um, there's unique writing for like pretty much every single one of the legendaries. Um, but yeah, so that, that was the really cool, cool aspect of, of that. There's also like a slight spoilers in terms of, um, different things that you can do in

[01:06:25] this game that kind of to the extent of, uh, one of the things you kind of realize, and I'm sure you've seen this as well, but, uh, Ho-Oh and Latia, I think that's the name of the flying legendary birds from Gen 3. Don't get me wrong, but you see the, the golden one and then the blue and white one in the sky before, um, and they drop feathers that you can pick up. Apparently there are certain things that I think it's like, once you get a biome to level

[01:06:52] 10 or the comfort level of any area to level 10, they'll come down and talk to them, talk to you, and then you can add them to your Bokadex. They become your friend. Um, so yeah, that's a, that's a cool little secret spoiler there too. Um, but that's as much as I know in terms of what's going on in this, in this world, but yeah, still really, really good. Um, I had a, had a blast with this game and I, I really genuinely for anybody who, you

[01:07:20] know, wants to play it, I'd say like definitely jump in, don't think twice about it, but we'll go ahead and get into final thoughts now in terms of, you know, where we are with Pokemon Pocopia, Trina. First of all, just like in your time that you spent in so far, which is a great amount of time, uh, in terms of understanding what this game is, who would you recommend this game to? Um, and you know, like, would you say that this is definitely like, how would you review this? Would you put a score on this for the Gamer Heads podcast?

[01:07:51] Yeah. Um, so we do like a ABCD, uh, score. I would say this is probably, I'm going to give it an A minus. Okay. A minus. Okay. Cool. Mostly the little bit of the, um, bit off is because I probably because you can't just put the game down and come back very easily. I think that's my main thing. And we've talked about this earlier.

[01:08:17] Um, like there's like, if you're continually playing it, it's, it's pretty easy, right? Muscle memory, you know, where things are and all that. But when you come back to the game after not playing it for a couple of weeks, like things like not knowing where rope is or, um, even like what, uh, recipes you like know how to make, like you have to physically go to the workstation and be like, oh yeah, I know how to make all of these things.

[01:08:44] Well, how do I get this flower vase that I need for this habitat? Right. So like some of those things are a little bit more challenging and that I would say would be the only thing, like it's, it's not easy to come back to. Um, you can get into it again for sure, which I obviously did, but it was just little pieces of it that I feel like could have been improved on just a little bit, but, um, yeah.

[01:09:08] So score wise, I think it's great in terms of like, uh, who should play this game? I think this game could go for anyone really. Yeah. Like anyone that has Pokemon knowledge and is nostalgic about Pokemon. Um, you really get to get to know the Pokemon better, uh, and get to use their abilities.

[01:09:32] Like I just remember I met a magic carp and, um, he taught me how to flop. Oh yeah. And I was like, why would, why the heck would I need to know how to flop? Like, and then it just turned out to be jump. And I was like, oh, okay. I know it was just so silly, but it like really immersed you into the Pokemon space. Um, for someone who doesn't know Pokemon very well, uh, obviously that's a little funny bit,

[01:09:59] but, um, like someone who loves Stardew or someone that loves Animal Crossing, especially Animal Crossing, the UI is so very similar. It's so easy to pick up that way. Um, it's just like the crafting part of it. Like, yes, you have to craft, but it's not like you're forced to craft all the time. You can go explore and you can talk to people and, um, you can do very minimal amount of crafting.

[01:10:26] I feel like, and just explore and dig around and dig through the mountains as much as you can. Um, so I feel like this really could go for anyone. Um, there's not really like a player base that I can think of that wouldn't enjoy this game, which is why I think it scores so high. I think that's the only downfall is it's only on switch two, right? 100%. And that was going to be, uh, what I was going to kind of jump into with mine. It was, it was that everything on, on your side? I think so. Yeah. Okay, cool.

[01:10:56] I can only agree with you. I only echo everything you said in terms of like, we don't typically put, you know, scores on it, but I just want it in context of like how you typically review. Uh, I did. I definitely would say this is a must, must play a must recommend for any Nintendo fan and any Pokemon fan without a doubt. Um, I'd say that like the barrier of entry is the switch too. Um, and that's really, that's really unfortunate because games and consoles are more expensive than they have ever been, uh, right now.

[01:11:25] And so it's, I understand it's really hard for people to, you know, kind of justify the expense. I would say that if like Nintendo or the switch is your primary gaming platform, I think the switch two is more than worth it in terms of the, the value as well as like the performance. That you get out of it. And I think that the exclusives that they have, I mean, we got Pokemon wins, wins and waves is coming up next year. So maybe that'll be another one that you jump into Trina, but, uh, we, there definitely have like certain games that are coming through that are going to be really, really good.

[01:11:56] And, uh, I think Pocopia is certainly a system seller in an incentivization to kind of jump in and just adopt the switch too. Thankfully it's always backwards compatible with any of your switch one games as well. Um, but yeah, in terms of the game itself, uh, I think I agree with the elements of what you talked about in terms of kind of like the mundane nature of trying to understand how to get to point A to point B. I never felt lost.

[01:12:23] I never felt like I didn't know what to do because I always knew I had things to do, but I'm one of these people that likes to mid max, right? That's my play style. I want to get like through a, an experience as efficiently as I can, even though that often is not how that happens. Cause I like sparkly, shiny things and exploring and stuff. So, uh, similar to you as well. And so I, I found that in this game, I think the amount of things they throw at you, um, combined

[01:12:50] with kind of some of the limitations in terms of the UI elements of being like, right. Like, is this a recipe I own or is this something that I have to craft? Like there are ways that you can optimize that, but it definitely, I a hundred percent agree with you relies on a little bit of the gameplay muscle memory. Um, so putting it down and coming back in probably isn't close to as easy as animal crossing because it's a little bit more robust than animal crossing. Uh, that said, I think all of the features that they have, like there's stuff that we

[01:13:18] haven't even talked about on the show here, like the switch to mouse controls in terms of placing the blocks and stuff, which give you like additional access to more kind of just like customizable options. There's so much you can do this game. And I think like the strongest recommendation, if like you're thinking about playing, this is the first thing go on YouTube, look up a video of builds that people have made. And that I think will inspire you to at least try to go in and make it even a little home or a little habitat or something like that for yourself, uh, to go in.

[01:13:48] So this is definitely some, but a game for the builders for Pokemon fans first and foremost, but I think combining those two together is, is really excellent. So I think that's why that's a must play for me here. But yeah, I think that covers everything. Yeah. That's going to go ahead and do it for this show, folks. I want to give a big thank you to our listeners. If you've enjoyed our content and you want to support us further, please feel free to give

[01:14:16] us a rating review on any podcasting platform of your choice. Trina, I want to give another plug to you. Where can folks find you as well as any of your shows? Yeah. Um, you can find me, uh, pretty much anywhere. Trina with two A's ballerina, um, in terms of our, our shows, uh, gamer heads podcast.com. You can find, uh, our written reviews and even links to our shows, but all of our shows are

[01:14:43] on pretty much any platform you can think of, uh, both, uh, Hey kiddo and the gamer heads podcast. You can find, uh, video versions over on YouTube as well. Um, and just other fun videos on terms of gaming stuff too, over on our YouTube. So nice. That's fantastic. Well, thank you again so much for joining me today. And, uh, yeah, I'm excited to do it with that. Everyone, please. I want to say thank you. We need you to keep gaming, take it easy, and we'll see you next Friday night.