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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Tom Regan

What is Pokopia? Inside the calming Pokémon game that ditches battles for gardening

Screen shot from Pokopia game with happy Pokémon characters
Spend more time with creatures cast aside in other Pokémon games in Pokopia. Photograph: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company/Koei Tecmo

Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and everybody knows what to expect from these games by now. The concept is simple: head into a cartoonish paradise full of whimsical creatures, capture them in red-and-white balls and assemble a team of warriors from them, before battling other aspiring Pokémon masters. But the latest entry in the series is different – a game that’s more about building than battling.

In Pokopia, a refreshingly pacific twist on the series, players are dropped into a virtual world where Pokémon are freed from their spherical prisons and happily roam their natural habitats. There’s one minor caveat – you have to create those habitats by hand, building them from what you can find.

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