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If you’ve ever dreamed of having an Animal Crossing-like game where your neighbors were Pokémon instead of animals, boy, do we have news for you. During the Nintendo Direct that aired on September 12, we got our first look at Pokémon Pokopia, the life sim that’s looking to be equal parts Pocket Monsters and Animal Crossing with a dash of Minecraft.
The game stars a Ditto that has transformed itself into a human-looking kid, but, in typical Ditto fashion, has a Ditto face and some odd features that aren’t getting it past airport security anytime soon. Ditto has found itself in a strange, barren land, inhabited by local Pokémon. It’s your job to partner with them to turn this beautiful wilderness into a peaceful town for everyone to live in together, but you’ll need more than shovels and axes to do it. You’ll be learning moves from your fellow Pokémon to shape the environment.
Learn Leafage from Bulbasaur to turn Ditto’s arms into vines to cause plots of grass to sprout from the ground. Learn Squirtle’s Water Gun to water parched plants and make everything green. Like in Animal Crossing, it looks like you’ll also need to collect wood and rocks to build with at a workbench, and you can also grow various crops. Your new Pokémon friends will also need your help to build their homes. Other details in the background of the trailer suggest that you can possibly expand the size of your enclave to include a Pokémon Center, decorate the inside of the houses, and invite friends over to your new town.
Pokopia is being developed by Game Freak and, surprisingly, Koei Tecmo, but maybe it’s not so surprising given that their studio, Omega Force, played a key role in helping to develop Dragon Quest Builders 2. As a brief aside, Koei Tecmo seems to be continuing a strong relationship with Nintendo onto the Switch 2, given the other games from their studio that were featured during the Direct, including more footage from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (the third entry in Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors games) and the announcement of Dynasty Warriors: Origins with new DLC.
Release info seems tentative at this point, with the game currently aiming for a vague 2026 launch. We’ve got our eye on this one! Let us know what you think in the comments.
