The embargo for Pokemon Pokopia reviews has was lifted earlier today, and boy are those reviews ever positive. Coming in with an average score of 89 on Metacritic and 88 on OpenCritic, the game is set to be one of the highest-rated titles in the Pokemon series to date. It should be noted that these reviews naturally only include those written by outlets with early access to the game, but is a strong indicator that we have a fantastic game on the way.

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Being developed by both Koei Tecmo and Game Freak, Pokopia appears to take a good bit of inspiration from the Dragon Quest Builders series, blending it together with the bright atmosphere and familiar faces of the Pokemon franchise. I'd love to give you more information than that, but wanting to keep the game fresh for myself, I've personally skipped the reviews and early footage. Anybody on the fence can expect a review from us around a week after the game launches, but know it's one I've been looking forward to since it was originally announced.

Metacritic Page
OpenCritic Page

 

[NostalgicMillennial]

I'll wait until the "rated high to not get blacklisted by Nintendo for future review codes" reviews come in.

 

[Flame]

Pokémon X and Y berry growing >

 

[RedoLane]

Wow, it's 2026 and apparently...
highest rated number = best game
is still a thing!

Surely I can rate a game a 100/100 after enjoying it for one hour and call it a day. yeeeeahh duuuude~
....
But seriously, it all comes down to personal experience. A number doesn't really mean that much, especially that early.
I like Majora's Mask more than Ocarina of Time, even if the latter is rated higher than the former on Metacritic.

 

[Axido]

Looking forward to either getting it on an actual cartridge or for $10 at most if it remains GKC-only.

 

[Xzi]

I'm fairly skeptical, footage I've seen looks low frame rate and the player character seems really slow in performing any action. People do love their cozy farming sims even absent all QoL features though, and it would be pretty funny/ironic if the best Pokemon game in years was a Palworld ripoff.

 

[Scarlet]

Wow, it's 2026 and apparently...
highest rated number = best game
is still a thing!

Surely I can rate a game a 100/100 after enjoying it for one hour and call it a day. yeeeeahh duuuude~
....
But seriously, it all comes down to personal experience. A number doesn't really mean that much, especially that early.
I like Majora's Mask more than Ocarina of Time, even if the latter is rated higher than the former on Metacritic.

Yeah you're certainly not wrong. How much you enjoy a game does come down to how much you enjoy it. If only we had a metric to describe how much an individual enjoyed a game. Say, a numeric value. If each person then submitted them to some kind of aggregate site, we might even be able to measure what the popular opinion was around it.

If only such a system existed!

In all seriousness though, yeah obviously it'll come down to personal taste lol. If I'm being entirely honest I'm just looking forward to the game and saw the overwhelmingly positive initial reception as something cool and figured it'd be a nice discussion point leading up to its release. As I said in the main post I'll be picking it up at launch and will be marathoning it to get my own review out before too long, so I'll hold off on my actual thoughts until then!

 

[RedoLane]

Yeah you're certainly not wrong. How much you enjoy a game does come down to how much you enjoy it. If only we had a metric to describe how much an individual enjoyed a game. Say, a numeric value. If each person then submitted them to some kind of aggregate site, we might even be able to measure what the popular opinion was around it.

If only such a system existed!

In all seriousness though, yeah obviously it'll come down to personal taste lol. If I'm being entirely honest I'm just looking forward to these games and saw the overwhelmingly positive initial reception as something cool and figured it'd be a nice discussion point leading up to the game's release. As I said in the main post I'll be picking it up at launch and will be marathoning it to get my own review out before too long, so I'll hold off on my actual thoughts until then!

I totally understand the hype though. Not really a Pokemon fan myself, but having overwhelmingly positive reviews that early is pretty uplifting for those who are worried. And yet...it's also questionable, considering Pokemon itself is quite overrated worldwide and people had their fair share of disappointments for the past few years.
I'm not saying your applaud is misleading. It's just, because it's a dynamic system, which means it could change day by day when more reviews are posted by those without early access and changes the calculations.
And that's not including the USER REVIEWS which are even more subjective and quite a mess.

What I'm saying is, and I REALLY not wanna be a buzzkiller, but words speak louder than a mere number

 

[BlusterBong]

People do love their cozy farming sims even absent all QoL features though, and it would be pretty funny/ironic if the best Pokemon game in years was just Dragon Quest Builders 3 in a Pokemon Skin.

FIFY, because by the logic you had, Palworld actually ripped off Dragon Quest Builders then.

 

[Xzi]

FIFY, because by the logic you had, Palworld actually ripped off Dragon Quest Builders then.

Do you use monsters to help build/farm/harvest in that? Doesn't seem like it.

 

[BlusterBong]

Do you use monsters to help build/farm/harvest in that? Doesn't seem like it.

Not that, but more on building a base that lets you take on later challenges involving combat "properly" (which is to say, when you actually have the resources to actually take on said challenge), though Pokopia seems to be more on the latter just make a base sort of thing, something really telling since they hired the guys who helped make DQB2 to make it and you can trace a lot of Pokpia's mechanics back to it, hense why it's more apt to call it DQB3 with a pokemon skin than anything else.

Only real difference between DQB and Palworld is that you use monsters over named characters and one is semi grid-based based (because the ground is cubic and structures use a grid based space system) an the other is just normal, not cubic at all.

 

[Ondrashek06]

I assume that the game will still be shipped on these stupid game keys?

 

[Skelletonike]

Eh, I pre-ordered it digitally. Had some eshop money and since it's a game key card, may as well get it digitally since this type of game is handy to have digital.

 

[Hadrian]

A very low bar to achieve.

 

[Xzi]

I assume that the game will still be shipped on these stupid game keys?

Yeah it is a game key card, which is extra ridiculous because it only lists a 10GB install size.

 

[chrisrlink]

watch the user based scores/ honest youtubers be low just like Z-A this worries me for wind/waves in 2027

 

[NinStar]

If this is true, then they should be ashamed, because a game like this doing better than the battle arena spin-offs and even the mainline series is a really low bar.

 

[ChronosNotashi]

Do you use monsters to help build/farm/harvest in that? Doesn't seem like it.

Only real difference between DQB and Palworld is that you use monsters over named characters and one is semi grid-based based (because the ground is cubic and structures use a grid based space system) an the other is just normal, not cubic at all.

You both say this as if Dragon Quest Builders 2 didn't introduce a mechanic halfway through the game that lets you tame monsters and bring them to your main island to help (eg: chimaeras and zombies handling cooking and drink-fermenting, and killing machines making farmers practically pointless), nor had a final story chapter that's basically nothing but monsters helping you (and themselves, since they all eventually realized that getting destroyed by Malroth would suck for them and wanted to escape that fate). Funny enough, monsters can also help with the building part - while you need to provide a blueprint and ensure the necessary materials are available, this does reduce some of the hassle of relocating building structures that you want to place elsewhere.

 

[Xzi]

You both say this as if Dragon Quest Builders 2 didn't introduce a mechanic halfway through the game that lets you tame monsters and bring them to your main island to help (eg: chimaeras and zombies handling cooking and drink-fermenting, and killing machines making farmers practically pointless), nor had a final story chapter that's basically nothing but monsters helping you (and themselves, since they all eventually realized that getting destroyed by Malroth would suck for them and wanted to escape that fate). Funny enough, monsters can also help with the building part - while you need to provide a blueprint and ensure the necessary materials are available, this does reduce some of the hassle of relocating building structures that you want to place elsewhere.

That's why I asked the question, I've never played it so I didn't know.

 

[ChronosNotashi]

That's why I asked the question, I've never played it so I didn't know.

That's fair. Granted, not all monsters can be tamed and recruited, but all of those that can have some form of use both as party members (when exploring RNG islands for materials, or during specific story events) and as island residents. That said, it's only a thing with the second game - the first game only has human helpers, but is also more limited due to being the first game in the spin-off duology (ex: you lost everything when moving to a new chapter, whereas the second game had you only temporarily leave stuff behind when visiting a story island before completing it).