In Pokémon Pokopia you will be able to shape the world as you like. This brought MeinMMO editor Jasmin back to her childhood.
In an interview on VGC, Senior Game Director Shigeru Ohmori spoke about his beginnings in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. He was responsible for the map design there. He mentions that the habitats from Ruby and Sapphire, where you first meet the monsters, served as inspiration for the prototype of Pokopia.
In fact, there are also habitats in Pokopia that need to be prepared for the pocket monsters. As soon as they settle, they develop needs and desires that must be fulfilled in the form of items or furniture.
When I read the editions of Ruby and Sapphire, it immediately brought me back to my childhood. For me, a different feature than the habitats is needed to make the perfect Pokémon game.
A feature that made Ruby and Sapphire lovable
As a child, I collected all 8 badges and wandered through the Hoenn region. The map consisted of different areas such as rocky lava fields or the vast sea. Occasionally, there were special spots where players could set up their secret base.
With TM43 Secret Power, you could smash a hole into trees or rock walls. Behind it opened a room that could be decorated. That was my first encounter with video games that involved decorating rooms.
First of all, the right secret base needs to be chosen. Depending on where this secret room is located, it has a different design. Secret bases in rocky areas, for example, have stone walls and floors. I always liked the tree house best, as it made me feel as if I was actually high up in the air in a tree when I was a child.
Then came the decorating. My secret base was always characterized by being full of pink furniture, and not a single inch of the room was left free without a plush toy looking into your soul.
My brother was a bit more creative: he took inspiration from the secret base of the rival team and placed arrows all over the floor. Whenever you hit one of these arrow spaces, you would be flung in the direction the arrow pointed. As a result, visitors often spent several minutes in his room being tossed from arrow to arrow.
In hindsight, there weren’t as many options as in today’s cozy games. For example, the colors of individual furniture pieces or the walls and floors couldn’t be adjusted, which is often possible in many games today.
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were the first games where I could express my creativity. It wasn’t that important to me to collect all 8 badges. Much more important to me was to complete my collection of posters, cushions, and dolls.
The nice thing was that you could show your creations to friends and family. Although Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire are focused on collecting Pokémon and battles, for me, the feature of secret bases was the most important. This is how I discovered my love for cozy games.
Pokopia would be perfect for it
If a game were to evolve this system, it would indeed be Pokopia, wouldn’t it? In the 10-minute trailer, there were already some scenes showing that players could build their own houses with blocks. There is also supposed to be a room that can be freely designed.
However, it still needs to be shown how the personal space comes into play. I wouldn’t have much fun building buildings myself, as I prefer to decorate pre-made rooms like in Animal Crossing – or indeed the secret bases from Ruby and Sapphire. Also, the blocky look of the world currently rather discourages me than motivates me to terraform.
However, if there is a personal space that can be freely designed and into which you can invite your friends, Pokopia would be a dream come true for me. It is different whether you can shape the entire world freely or whether you decorate the place available to you as best as possible.
Additionally, I am curious how much you can express your creativity when decorating in Pokopia. In Ruby and Sapphire, I liked the fact that there are floor tiles with functions, such as the mentioned arrows or music tiles that play a sound.
However, there is also an aspect that discourages me about Pokopia. Normally, I prefer to have my games physically on the shelf – as a completely physical version. But the Pokémon game comes as a game key card, which leads many players to boycott: Pokémon is clashing with Palworld, but fans want to boycott the game for a completely different reason
