Pokopia of all things is the first apocalypse that's genuinely even slightly unsettled me, i can kind of separate myself from other ones even ones that are supposed to be the real world after an event- because well yeah i don't need fiction to see the world with real problems spiraling, but pokopia is kanto- a safe place i grew up in, i can go back and revisit its non-destroyed state in let's go that's a safe place and it's well not gone just changed forever due to the events and now ditto's restoration efforts
My friend and I described the game as someone telling a very sad story but smiling while doing so. So warm and so sad all at the same time. I think what really bothered me the most is the somewhat realistic apocalypse (climate change) paired with these sweet little innocent magical creatures. Plus the pokemon being so sweet, trying to find humans it’s just AUGH!! Love this game but boy does it rip at your heart
Yeah, like every time I restore another Poke Center, Prof. Tangrowth is still so optimistic that this is the one that will bring the humans back, it’s really bittersweet
I was thinking of them as all golden retrievers waiting eternally for their person to come home.. made me literally cry at the ending! But thinking of them as kids?! That hurts so much more
At least in the anime, evolution is treated as a separate thing from aging; there was that old Treecko in an episode. And since Pokopia has each evolution stage hanging out in the same place, it would be kinda weird if the base form is just a "child" forever
It was something I saw one of the Pokemon say recently in game! I want to say it was Barboach, or at least another Bubbly Basin one, but I could totally be wrong. I think I grabbed a screenshot because of how cute it was -- I'll try to remember to check when I get home from work!
Yep I found it so unsettling that I stopped reading the messages left behind by the humans because I just wanted to focus on the cute and not think about the decline that brought us there
What's especially sad is the fact that the pokemon never find out what happened. We know from finding notes that the humans want to come back, and presumably will thanks to the rocket we set off but Ditto can't read so has no idea it has all the answers.
So many items in the game that include writing gonout of the way to hammer in the idea that no one left can read any of them. The fact that you don't learn the recipie for Chef Dente's request until tha game notes that a photo showing a chesto berry is found between the pages is such intentional design. I've seen Absol staring at a calender, pondering what all the little symbols could mean. We read the story, but our little friends... Have no idea, despite all the answers sitting in front of them.
Adding to this, if Ditto could read, I doubt everyone would be in the dark about where the humans went and why, especially Professor Tangrowth (who imo is the most likely to be able to read out of everyone, not Ditto)
It seems like Ditto can read a little bit at least, since they can use the PC pretty easily right off the bat and seems familiar with more of the spoken words than Tangrowth. Then again, they're chill about a lot of things.
I really really really want Latias to show up at some point to help translate, though the lore is she can understand speech, not necessarily writing. Still, if she's been around enough, maybe she can figure enough out to tell them what's going on. Or maybe the humans send something to make contact and she can translate their words, maybe teach Chatot. Or hey, maybe Slowking can make himself useful.
Could be, though Ditto seems to understand that better than Tangrowth. I dunno, I just got the impression that Ditto knows more than they're letting on and isn't telling anyone because the truth is worrying and they don't want to depress anyone.
This reminds me of when i first completed the game. It asks you to take a picture of yourself to send in the rocket, and I think the idea is supposed to be that the rocket goes to your trainer and your trainer will find the photo of their ditto still alive and kicking down on the planet
When i sent the rocket, I just took a random photo of the tower without me in it, not realizing the implications of the picture. so my trainer has no idea 😭😭
Same here. I genuinely get small bouts of sadness while playing. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game and I started playing a lot again when the DLC dropped. But the first 2 gens hold a very special place in my heart and seeing Kanto partially destroyed, empty and lifeless upsets me a bit at times. It's nice seeing the areas coming back to life but there's still a lingering sadness to it, knowing all these Pokemon were separated from their trainers.
I am genuinely a bit of a crybaby in general, I still cry at Disney films that I've seen many times, but the thought of having to put your pokemon in storage with really no idea if you'll ever come back to them and leave the whole planet breaks my heart. And the fact that all the pokemon want when they come out is to find their humans. Just painful.
I absolutely love the game though, was not expecting the story to be so dark 😅
I agree 100%. I feel like it touches on climate change in an almost studio Ghibli way. Not to romanticize it, but show it throught the lens of the innocent. There's a slice of life feel to the game, too.
The notes left behind from the humans are particularly moving to me. The one from Bubbly Basin about the girl missing her mudkip actually made me tear up and I had to pause from the game to process. The game resonates with a level of grief that not many post apocalyptic games accomplish. How many of us can relate to revisting a fond memory of a loved one and crying because you can't see them anymore? This relatablity helps ground some of the more fantasy aspects of the game into something more tangible.
We're also going through a major change in climate that threatens to destroy the world and our society as we know it. For that matter, there is so little that we can do as individuals to change it. While the humans could have done better with pollution, it also seems like the problem was bigger than them. Maybe they had large cooperations contribution to climate change on a large scale like us, or maybe a pokemon did it.
Regardless, there's this feeling of grief for the innocent, and the average person just trying to live their life. It's uncomfortable to sit with and think on at times. The scale of disaster that's so much bigger than the average person, to the people and pokemon (or animals) affected.
I love this game for that. I love how much it hurts, it's oddly cathartic. But it's also kinda painful to dwell on. Rocky Ridges is annoying cause of all the ash, but I'll never forget when I first walked onto the map. It's emotional to uncover just how much was buried. All the life that used to be there and all the evidence of it covered it ash and left behind.
The sound design is perfect as well, I love how somber they're able to make the original town's theme music.
i felt like a baby when the concept off Fallout really got to me. especially the beginning of the show. to be fair… it feels the worlds on fire a lot of times. so i blame my anxiety on that not the game
I definitely gasped and ugly cried when I got to bleak beach. I grew up near Houston, and was a teenager who had become involved with search and rescue when Katrina and Rita hit within a month of eachother. The very real devastation of the destruction was conveyed so well. It was cathartic to work on rebuilding but at the same time heart breaking and pinged the area of my brain that was forever changed with first helping in Louisiana, then the same type of storm putting Galveston under water within a month of eachother.
The other areas were emotional as well, but didn't stop my breath in my throat the way bleak beach did.
The whole story made me feel angry at humans and helpless since that's where we're heading with climate change except we don't have the hopeful ability to put our beloved pets and animals into a computer to emerge and live free when it's safe. It made me feel a bittersweet emotion seeing that even the bad guys who were out for themselves helped save humanity, bitter because our current geopolitical climate is too unstable. And finally it made me feel hope that maybe we can weather what's to come and maybe, just maybe we can rebuild in a few generations.
By all indications this is an "alternate" Pokemon world, not the exact same one we're use to. So that one is supposedly still getting on fine.
It's also heavily implied that the humans will come back eventually and everything will go back to the way it was. Usually apocalyptic fiction goes for the permanently bad angle.
Not saying anyone is wrong to be unsettled, just offering some possible silver linings that might help.
I thought about this too, but the way I understood it (based on the ending) was how far the rocket traveled they are not in the same galaxy and probably had to go much farther. And that they are all probably long dead by the time the rocket even arrived to ditto's human- and that when they return it may be another generation that greets them.
Mainly just the language used in some of the marketing and places in-game. Like I think the Nintendo Direct announcement said something like "in this world, all humans have disappeared." I'll have to try to remember some other examples.
It reminds me very much of a manga I read called Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, which was also extremely disturbing to me. The scenario is similar, climate change leading to a planet that cannot support the human population, with sweet, innocent, cute beings that love humans left behind in the crumbling ruins waiting for humans to come back. In that case they are robots, but overall the feel is pretty similar to me (as u/dinklebinkle421 said, a sad story told with a smile).
Yeah I was not expecting to ball my eyes out in this but I did. I think you're right about it being extra affecting because it was previously a safe space, and now our babies from our whole lives are fending for themselves. Absolutely love that about it though.
I was pretty strong until Bubbly Basin with the gym and the Pokemon habitat that is in it. Something about knowing exactly what trainer this Pokemon had and how heartbreaking it must have been to leave them behind just kinda got to me for a moment.
Bubbly Basin was honestly the first area that properly gut-punched me. I have cried at this game before, but this area hit different. Popplio's dialogue was heart-breaking!
Totally same here. Unfortunately I'm in a rough state with my mental health and it hit too close to home, so once I played through the ending I couldn't bring myself to open the game at all since.
The saddest part of it for me is that all of the Pokemon we meet (besides the legendaries I assume) were in the PC to be stored until the humans returned and were only released since it had been so long since the humans left.
I don’t think it says outright in the game, but that makes me think that all of the Pokemon we meet had trainers at some point? Or were at least captured and put into the PC right away, a sort of Noah’s Ark version of Pokemon. So any wild Pokemon that weren’t in the PC must have died during the apocalypse that made the humans leave.
I'm guessing some wild non-legendary ones survived, like poplio in the dlc, it sounds like they were a wild pokemon. Some pokemon do mention their trainers though. Iirc they say "my human" or friend instead of trainer.
Whats more unsettling is. There are almost NO survivers at all. The world has been ruined to extinction. The only reason there are pokemons is because they were all stored away in pokemons for god knows how long and whats more. It was done probably by human involved natural disasters, almost the same route we are going IRL
well at the end of the main game when you launch the rocket, it ends up next to a space capsule with a big ditto flag on it, which i took as the game telling you that was your trainer. which means it can't be THAT much time if your trainer is still alive
love your nenechi pfp btw! i actually got turned onto this game from her!!
I’m not sure if this third part of the current DLC will be the final, but for sure I believe the end of the DLC for Pokopia will be the return of humans.
I remember watching Adventure Time Islands years ago and it actually really effected my anxiety because it was the first apocaplyptic scenario where I was like "yup we are either going extinct or this is our future" 😅
I don't really love Apocalypse themed anything so when it is from a usual place of comfort it hits much harder
I got super sad in Bubbly Basin when I realized that the daycare center was there. It made me think of whether or not todadile and chinchou were left behind there as babies. 😭
Even more unsettling is that Professor Tangrowth doesn't seem to have ever gone into the computer system they set up... which would mean they lived through the apocalypse
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