{"id":136032,"date":"2026-02-11T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-197348"},"modified":"2026-02-11T17:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:15:00","slug":"pokemon-pokopias-roots-go-back-further-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/02\/11\/pokemon-pokopias-roots-go-back-further-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Pokopia’s Roots Go Back Further Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
<\/span> Image: The Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Pokopia<\/a> is a strange little concept. It’s a life sim set in the Pok\u00e9mon world where you, a humanoid Ditto, set out to rebuild a fallen civilisation with the help of your pocket monster pals. Weird, right? Where could the inspiration for that possibly have stemmed from? Uhhh<\/em>, the GBA’s Pok\u00e9mon Ruby & Sapphire<\/a>, it seems.<\/p>\n

Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori sat down with VGC<\/a> at a recent Pokopia preview event in Tokyo and spilled the beans about how the project started. \u201cWhen I was working on Pok\u00e9mon Scarlet and Violet<\/a>, I was continuously looking for new possibilities for Pok\u00e9mon,\u201d he said. \u201cIt brought me back to when I started on Ruby and Sapphire, creating those habitats and meeting the Pok\u00e9mon for the first time. That led me to create the prototype for this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohmori’s first work on the series came in the early 2000s, when he was tasked with designing maps for the flagship Gen III titles. “When I was creating the map, which was 2D at the time, I was putting grass onto it where Pok\u00e9mon would appear,\u201d he told VGC, \u201cthat feeling of Pok\u00e9mon appearing when I was creating the habitat was very interesting to me, and that feeling is something I cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can see how such a feeling went on to inform Pokopia. This is, on a basic level, a game all about making habitats and watching Pok\u00e9mon rock up to make the most of them. Later in the VGC discussion, Ohmori brought up Ruby and Sapphire’s Secret Base building as a personal favourite non-battling series mechanic: “I would like to scale the Pok\u00e9mon games in general, aside from battling. I will seek new possibilities to scale them.\u201d It’s a game inspired by the joys of that early game development \u2014 how sweet is that!<\/p>\n

“Anything that the Pok\u00e9mon does was carefully curated on the lore that already existed,” game director Takuto Edagawa said in the same interview, “to ensure we didn\u2019t break any of the past Pok\u00e9mon canon.\u201d It’s the reason why we’ve seen Ditto dropping a punch bag to attract a Hitmonchan or a fishing rod to attract a Magikarp in the Pokopia trailers, so it might be worth getting clued up on your favourite Pok\u00e9mon’s likes\/dislikes before diving in next month.<\/p>\n

And it sounds like you’ll want to dive in as soon as possible, if our early preview<\/a> is anything to go by. “It’s absolutely stuffed with charm and personality, and I get the feeling that it’s going to scratch an itch for anyone disappointed that we probably won’t be getting a brand new Animal Crossing anytime soon,” our Ollie Reynolds wrote, claiming that this could be the perfect antidote to the jaded Pok\u00e9mon fan.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Pokopia arrives on Switch 2 on 5th March<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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