Pokémon Pokopia - The Biggest Spin-off To Date
11-02-2026 14:00 UTC by Joe Merrick (Serebii).
Recently, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International took me to Nintendo's headquarters to get a first-hand look at over 90 minutes of Pokémon Pokopia, the latest Pokémon spin-off game coming to Nintendo Switch 2.
Pokémon spin-offs so far have covered a variety of genres, from fighting games to first person photography games, to battle simulators, to puzzle games and so much more, but one that has often been asked for is the life simulator game, but now comes Pokémon Pokopia.
Pokémon Pokopia is the latest full console spin-off game, being developed as a joint project between GAME FREAK, The Pokémon Company, and Koei Tecmo, and it has a lot of people wondering what it truly is; is it akin to Animal Crossing or more like the main development team's prior game, Dragon Quest Builders and, after playing with it, the answer is simply both, and neither; it is most certainly something new and unique.
The preview came in two elements. The first was around an hour where we just played the start of the game, and the second was a half hour playthrough of a later save file but playing together with other people to test out the game's multiplayer feature.
The Lost Ditto
The game starts much like advertised where you start the game as a Ditto, and then you choose your appearance. This is akin to the main series games and the amount of options you have just at the beginning is quite high. You then get taken into the ruins and eventually find Professor Tangrowth, and the Pokédex that they found will react to you as it was your Ditto's Trainer's Pokédex. This will start your adventure as Tangrowth leads you to the nearby area and explains how previously people and Pokémon lived there but something happened, but they'd like to bring them back.
This part of the game basically acts as a small tutorial to the game, giving you the basics before moving on. You will befriend a Squirtle, then a Bulbasaur after revitalising a Tall Grass habitat, and then a Charmander with them each giving you tools to continue onwards and make your way to the main area.
As has been shown in the Nintendo Direct and the previously released trailer, Ditto can learn some moves from the Pokémon such as Water Gun from Squirtle, Leafage from Bulbasaur that makes Tall Grass, Cut from Scyther and Rock Smash from Hitmonchan; these are your key abilities that will help you craft the areas. Rototiller from Drilbur is going to be a very useful one as it will allow you to pick up and move plants and foliage around as well as tilling the soil to allow for you to grow plants.
The premise you start with is simple; build habitats to lure wild Pokémon and hopefully humans will soon follow, and maybe you will find your Trainer again.
Mechanics
The mechanics of the game are fairly simple. You can pick things up with the Y Button, set things down, create a work bench to craft with materials and so much more. Using the Pokémon moves, it can really help you to craft the area. For example, using Water Gun will make an area in a plus shape be refreshed, but if you let natural water nearby then it'll cover a wider area. I managed to do this by finding a block nearby that was keeping water in and using Rock Smash to destroy it, which created a stream down to a fountain, refreshing all the ground along the way.
You can't just use moves such as this continually with no issue, however. Ditto has got a special PP bar that depletes with each use of a move. Once it's depleted, it will gradually restore and when you use a move, Ditto will have a strong hunger and will cause a slow down with each move. PP can also be restored with a Leppa Berry and you can buy upgrades so you lose less PP with each move use.
The areas in the game also seem enclosed; this isn't one big open world from what we can discern but some bigger open areas with others separated by gates that require certain level progressions to continue. However, this doesn't mean the areas are small or not adjustable, and you can check out a mini map to see locations of Pokémon, dwellings and more.
At one point I decided to see how low I could get and used Rock Smash to get right to the bottom of the area, and basically created a small crude tunnel system. I of course couldn't get out but luckily there's a fast travel option in the menu that allows for us to return to the nearest PC or dwelling.
There's also a lot to find in the areas. In addition to finding random items, materials and recipes, I also found random photos of various toys and Pokémon in houses, and journals. These are then stored in a collection for you to check at any time.
In the multiplayer portion, we also were able to test out the Dragonite and Lapras Transform features. For Dragonite you simply need to double jump to activate Dragonite which glides quickly and Lapras is activated with the B Button in water to allow you to traverse water quickly. These both used PP as well so can't be done in perpetuity.
There were also times where the game would let you know a photo opportunity was happening nearby and suggested opening the camera for it. The camera feature is as in-depth as prior main series Pokémon games, allowing for you to pose, take selfies, use a selfie stick and adjust other Pokémon's moods with music for the perfect photo.
Pokémon Habitats
Getting Pokémon to appear is fairly simple; to do it, you need to create a special habitat. These vary in their needs and we saw several during the preview. One was simply having four bits of Tall Grass together, another having Tall Grass under a tree, another having Tall Grass next to a Boulder, some requiring flowers. One even required a cardboard box and two toys. You can find these out by sometimes finding a sparkling trace of a Pokémon on the overworld. This will tell you the habitat that is needed and how to create it in order to lure the Pokémon.
In each area, the habitats can bring in certain Pokémon. For example, in the first part of the game using four Tall Grass and a Boulder would bring in a Timburr, but during the area in the multiplayer portion, it would bring in a Timburr or Machop as a Common spawn, or a Gurdurr as a Rare spawn. This shows that you have a random chance to get certain Pokémon, and if you want to get your Pokédex complete and befriend lots of Pokémon, you will need to make lots of habitats.
Once built and the Pokémon has spoken to you, the area surrounding it will count as its habitat and it will stay around there. You can talk to them and they will sometimes offer you challenges or requests such as improving their area, or finding another Pokémon, or bringing them an item. It varies depending on the Pokémon and area so there's definitely a lot to do, and each Pokémon has got their own personality.
There are lots of habitats to find in this game, with it having its own Habitat Dex. It definitely has more scope than we previously thought.
There are also some Pokémon you will find in the overworld without habitats that will ask for you to then build one for them. Two examples of this that I remember are Drifloon which needed you to build three campfires, and an Onix that was stuck behind a wall.
Pokémon Mechanics
Once you have the Pokémon in the area, you will be able to make use of their abilities. Each Pokémon has got certain attributes that allow for you to use them for something. For example, Timburr and Gurdurr have build which is necessary for making buildings. Charmander has Fire which lets it set things on fire. Garbodor has Litter and Recycle, which I wasn't able to see and there are so many more. With these, you can bring the Pokémon when needed to an area and they can help out; all you have to do is tell the Pokémon to follow you and they will go with you. These attributes are very much needed for building.
You can check the Pokémon's attributes and possible habitats they will spawn in at any time in the in-game Pokédex. I also noticed that Tangrowth's entry in the Pokédex was just for Professor Tangrowth and not standard which has some interesting possibilities.
Building & Crafting
Much like other similar games, building and crafting are a big thing in this game. After helping the Kanto First Partner Pokémon, Bulbasaur will point you to a workbench and here you have the ability to craft items. However, to do that you have to get the recipe for them. These recipes are obtained by purchasing them at the PC, or found around the island as yellow Poké Balls, akin to TMs in the main series games. With the recipe, you then need to find the relevant materials such as leaves, stones, sand, rocks, lumber etc.. These are typically found in the overworld, or for some can be obtained by using moves on things such as breaking rocks or cutting down trees. Once the items are on the floor, you can pick them up with Y, or if there are a lot you can hold down the Y button and Ditto will begin sucking in all the items in the area.
With the items in hand, you can then craft the item you want. More item recipes will unlock as you play through the game. You can also craft multiple of a single item at one time as long as you have the materials required for it.
Some recipes are even to create buildings and dwellings, such as fixing the Pokémon Center or giving Ditto a habitat. To do this, you will need to then collect the materials to make the item, then find Pokémon with specific attributes to bring to the build site. Once you do, you can start building. However, this will then take time; literal time. To build the dwelling for Ditto, once I had brought the materials and Timburr & Hitmonchan to the area, I was told that it'd take 15 minutes in real time before it was done. There is no way to skip this from what I could see. The game's clock is in real-time, matching your Switch 2's date and time so there will be no speed-running this.
The amount of customisable items, materials and recipes in this game number in the hundreds. Even though I knew it wouldn't be a small amount, I was shocked at the amount that there is. This means that once you are past the tutorial bit, you can truly make the areas exactly how you want and different from anyone else. Even just wanting to fill the collection up will undoubtedly take so much time to get all the different items.
Challenges
At the PC at Pokémon Centers, you will find special Poké Life challenges. These challenges require you to complete certain tasks such as building habitats, watering the ground, meeting wild Pokémon, finding 5 sticks and a variety of other things and so forth to get items and rewards. When you complete the challenge, you can go to the PC and redeem them to get Life Coins which can then be spent on items at the PC's shop. This gives a great way to dive into the game's mechanics, but I do hope it doesn't turn into busy work as the game progresses.
There is another system that runs with this, the Environment Level. To get it to improve, you have to help the wild Pokémon increase their comfort level. This is done by talking to them and asking them what they want. Some may want berries, others may want a toy in their habitat. If you follow the tasks and improve their comfort, then they will be happier and your environment level will improve. The higher the level, the more tasks you can complete and the more items and recipes that you can buy in the shop. When I went from Level 2 to 3 in the first area, it added dozens of possibilities that I could buy, including the dwelling for Ditto, a PP Up to boost Ditto's PP and a Handy Bag, a small item that let me put some items on a quick access menu on the main screen while playing the game.
There are also special challenges each day and special bundles available at the shop each day, and like the rest of the game that's a real-time day. This will aid in bringing you back to the game to check the missions and see if there are any special bundles
Multiplayer
The multiplayer segment of the game was much later in a fully built location. We were given the task of working together to help rebuild the Pokémon Center. We had to go find 8 Pokémon including some requiring special attributes including Bulldoze and Build, as well as various materials.
As they were scattered across the area, we had to go across to another island to find them, where they were just chilling in a small village with real buildings. As we had limited time, rather than use the door I chose to destroy the wall of the building to get to the Pokémon. This also brings to the point that there is zero transition between overworld and various buildings that you can create.
This experience really worked well as it was a lot of fun working together to get this done, spotting other Pokémon and helping eachother find what we needed. I could see a lot of play that, in addition to the usual hangouts, could happen in these modes.
The one thing that I will note is that like other games of its sort, you are in the host's game so progress you make other than Pokédex entries etc. will not carry over. I found many examples of this causing a little bit of a barrier, however. Whenever we found a new wild Pokémon in a habitat that was needed for the Pokémon Center, they demanded to speak to the host player before they would come with us. The PC also was the host player's and only had their Poké Life tasks and shop so other players would not be able to redeem Life Coins or spend it to get quick items, which was a little bit frustrating.
Performance & Presentation
Although this was an in-development version, visually, the game looked absolutely fantastic. The visuals were colourful and crisp and the frame rate was completely solid at 60 frames per second for my entire gameplay. I do not recall seeing a single frame drop, but we'll see how that is come launch.
In terms of the game's presentation, you can very much feel the GAME FREAK essence here. The menus basically match the same structure as you'd come to expect from a main series Pokémon game.
The music was also really nice. There were some subtle remixes of Pokémon tracks throughout and it just fit the vibe of the game so well.
Conclusion
With this game, every person will be able to craft their own experience. While there will be guidelines bringing you to certain elements to match the game's narrative of bringing Pokémon and humans back to these areas, the way you can just do things your way, and in your own pace, is just going to bring so much.
After my time with Pokémon Pokopia, I definitely feel like I have barely scratched the surface of the game. There is so much content here, far more than I possibly anticipated. This is not a small or short game like some have hypothesised, but a game that we're probably still going to be discovering elements of months after release. There's so much I can't talk about and that's just from the first hour…I can't fathom how much more there is going to be with this game. Following the short experience of Detective Pikachu Returns, it really feels like we're back to the great time of Pokémon spin-offs and I cannot wait to jump into this game further and see all there is, befriend the Pokémon, finish the Pokédexes and figure out just how many items, materials and more there are to find.
This is such a fresh take on Pokémon as a series. This could truly be one for the books and be the biggest spin-off ever, not just in terms of scope but in terms of reception. There's just so much to this game, far more than I could have possibly imagined.
Roll on March 5th 2026.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Footage provided by Nintendo & The Pokémon Company International
Transport to preview provided by Nintendo UK
This title is planned and co-developed by The Pokémon Company, GAME FREAK inc., and KOEI TECMO GAMES.
| Preview Video | |
Concept Artwork
We can also share some concept art for some of the Pokémon that can be found within the game.
| Ditto Dragonite Transformation | Ditto Human Transformation | Ditto Lapras Transformation | |||
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| Mosslax | Mosslax | Peakychu | |||
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| Peakychu | Smearguru | Smearguru | |||
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| Professor Tangrowth | |||||
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