When the world burns around you, is it selfish to seek comfort?

It’s been a little over a week since I rolled credits on Pokémon Pokopia, and I’m still ruminating on the feelings and thoughts it left me considering when I put the controller down.

From the preventable deterioration of the environment to adult loneliness in a post-pandemic landscape, this game managed to capture the modern millennial experience in a way few other entertainment experiences have. I’m going to be covering my experience with the game and how each passing hour with it not only helped me come to terms with these unresolved feelings I’ve harbored, but also how the right mindset and approach can bring hope for the future.

SPOILER WARNING - I will be covering plot points and discoveries some readers may want to avoid knowing about. Proceed with caution.

A DEEPER DESIRE TO CONNECT

When Pokémon Pokopia begins, players are introduced to a familiar world in an almost alien condition. Gone are the lush environments and lively cityscapes. Instead, you’re presented with a barren wasteland and a task to bring life back to the area. This is done by cultivating the land and constructing homes conducive to Pokémon livelihood.

This felt eerily reminiscent of when restrictions were lifted, and people began to reenter social spaces in a meaningful and safer way. Despite a strong familiarity with the world around us, we all had to reacclimate and relearn how to get back into the groove of a social society. Making friends in the modern age is quite difficult for adults, and when a global pandemic threw a wrench into things, it felt nearly impossible. When crafting homes in an attempt to lure Pokémon to live in the surrounding biome, it sparked something within me.

I should focus more on building the type of life that would, in turn, attract the type of people I’d like to surround myself with. Put myself in spaces where those individuals are most present. It can be scary meeting new people and trying new things, but progress cannot be found without change. And another level to this is that once these bonds are founded, I must also be a better friend and check in to make sure the needs of those I care about are being met.

See, Pokémon Pokopia taught me how to be a better caretaker to Pokémon of all types and abilities, but it also showed me how I can better develop relationships with long-standing and blossoming friendships alike.

THE EVER-PRESENT ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE

At the core of Pokémon Pokopia’s story is the revelation that human greed and desire led to ongoing environmental disasters, which in turn forced humankind to abandon the planet and set off into space. Many Pokémon were left behind in the PC storage system due to space constraints.

Millennials, as a generation, were told over and over again about the importance of preserving and protecting the environment. Despite capitalistic and political forces fighting every day against humankind’s best interests in this matter, good people fight to try to protect the Earth from its most fatal enemy, humans. Bringing these types of fears into a familiar and jovial series like Pokémon slams together two things that have sat in the minds of a generation of people for decades.

It’s not too Farfetch’d of an idea to believe the humans inhabiting the world of Pokémon wouldn’t fall victim to the same capitalistic desires of those in real life. Oftentimes, we feel as though our personal actions are far too small to enact any meaningful change, but the truth is that all of these smaller actions provide a snowball effect that, if pushed long enough in a meaningful direction, can deliver true avalanches of change on a broader level. This very thing is evident in Pokémon Pokopia. As you concentrate on smaller tasks that lead into each other naturally at a desirable pace, you eventually look back, and it’s clear you’ve made tremendous progress on the world around you. A once desolate pile of dirt and decay is now teeming with life, energy, and a desire to build community with one another.

What Comes Next

By the time the credits roll in Pokémon Pokopia, it becomes quite clear what and why the player should consider continuing their task of developing the world around them. Far too often in video games, the player is provided a post-game experience that’s often packaged with little to no narrative or progression-based reason to continue. It’s simply assumed that if you liked the game enough to finish it, you may want to just roam around for a bit.

The humans may return one day, so Ditto must focus on bringing back as many Pokémon as they can, and in turn provide a world worth inhabiting once again.

What’s not lost on the player, however, is that even if humans never return to the planet, a land healed and positioned to thrive once again is what’s in the best interest of those left behind. Pokémon.