Pokemon Pokopia is out now, and I loved it. I gave it a 9/10 for IGN, and one of the things I praised most highly about it was its story and the ways in which it leverages nostalgia for emotional impact. In the review, I didn’t talk much about the specifics of that story, because I didn’t want to spoil it for anyone.
But Pokopia has been released, and I have been unleashed. I need to tell someone about this story, because it’s kind of unhinged! Pokopia, despite having a cute and wobbly exterior, is hiding (not very subtly) an extremely grim story, one of the darkest in the Pokemon universe so far. So if you’re prepared to delve deep, deep into spoiler territory with me, get ready. We’re gonna discuss Pokopia’s full plot and ending and why it has massive implications for the franchise.
WARNING! I AM HOLDING NOTHING BACK. This article delves into full spoilers for the entirety of Pokemon Pokopia’s story! Do not read unless you either do not care about spoilers, or have already finished the game! I’m SERIOUS!!!
By the time you roll credits on Pokemon Pokopia, you’ve likely sorted out the basic thrust of the storyline: humanity is gone. Entirely. As documented in the Hacker’s Confessions, the Team R Grunt’s journal, Someone’s journal, and the Professor’s diary entries, the Pokemon world is an empty ruin in Pokopia because of a massive climate disaster that seemingly affected everything: every region, every continent, everywhere. A group of scientists saw that disaster coming, and began making preparations to evacuate humanity…to space. And it sounds like they were successful. So yeah, every human who lived in the Pokemon world was sent to space sometime before the events of Pokopia, or else they likely perished in the flooding, drought, volcanos, and other mass devastation.
Meanwhile, most Pokemon were placed inside a computer system to effectively hibernate until the humans could come back and salvage the planet. And the intention was for humanity to come back. Except…there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it’s actually been hundreds of years since they left. Hacker’s Confessions #6 suggests that “even a slight deviation” from the plan could leave humans stranded in space for hundreds of years, saying that they built a failsafe so that if that happens, the system storing the Pokemon on the planet would “release the Pokemon most suited to those environments.” Which seems to be exactly what’s happening in Pokopia, as Professor Tangrowth explains up front that he hasn’t seen a single human or Pokemon for ages, but all of a sudden they’re appearing everywhere. Of course, Ditto is the first one to show up – as a Ditto, it’s the best suited to every environment.
The “hundreds of years” theory is further supported by Someone’s Journal #4, which documents the steady, unexplained rising of the ground in Saffron City into the air. It says that some scientists believe that “in a matter of centuries this area will be as high as a mountain, in terms of elevation.” By the time we make it there as Ditto, those cities are the Sparkling Skylands, even higher than the mountains. Again suggesting multiple centuries have passed since humans left. That doesn’t even get into how deep down the Pewter City museum is buried, or how long it would take for nature to overgrow Fuchsia City the way it has by the time we show up.
Assuming that’s true, then something has gone wrong with humanity’s evacuation plan, leaving them unable to easily return to the planet in a timely manner. At the end of the credit roll, we see the rocket manage to reach one human out in space, alone, and the Ditto plush in the window suggests it might be the player character Ditto’s trainer. But that’s impossible if hundreds of years have gone by. And it’s unclear if this person is alone, has any ability to get back to the planet at all, or even understands the implications of the rocket reaching them. Multiple notes we pick up imply that any number of things could go wrong and leave humans stranded in space, never to return, and given that they didn’t make it back in the appointed time, it’s fair to assume something happened to prevent them.
What’s even sadder is that Ditto, Professor Tangrowth, and their pals know none of this. They can’t read. The notes we find are for the benefit of the players, but the Pokemon planet-side will just go on believing that humanity can come back one day if they just make the world nice enough. And, if you needed another reminder, this disaster has apparently impacted the entire world. Not just Kanto, but every region. So that leaves a world full of Pokemon, awkwardly mimicking the lives of humans as best as they can remember them, hoping for a reunion that may never happen.
Pokemon Pokopia is indeed about a Pokemon Utopia – an idealistic world where only Pokemon exist and are allowed to thrive. There’s plenty here to meditate on, such as whether or not the climate disaster in Pokopia was caused by humans, or if the Pokemon will ultimately be better off without them. Some certainly seem to be happy they’re gone (Mewtwo), some are fairly indifferent (Kyogre), while others, like Garbordor, actually thrive off of having humans around. And of course you have folks like Ditto who miss their human partners, and do not realize those human partners are almost certainly deceased by now. Pokopia is grim, guys. I cannot believe they let developer Omega Force get away with this!
This, of course, leads to plenty of questions about what this means for the larger Pokemon universe. Is Pokopia even canon? When does it take place? Is it in some kind of alternate universe, like the ones posited in games like OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire? Is the Kanto region of Red, Blue, and Yellow inevitably headed for future destruction? Because look, if Pokopia is canon… humans are extinct. There is a version of the Pokemon universe where humanity took off and left Pokemon behind to take over. What does that mean for the world? Are there other universes where this didn’t happen? Did…did humans take some of the Pokemon with them and colonize other planets?
We will likely never get the answers to any of these questions, as Pokemon games have a habit of dropping lore bombshells like this and then never really resolving them, though Pokemon Legends: Z-A did recently wrap up at least one loose thread from Legends: Arceus that really nagged at me. It also seems like Pokopia’s devs are up for at least some ongoing support of the game, so maybe we’ll get a final chapter at some later date.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry over the final cutscene for the 17th time. Ditto, buddy, I’m so sorry.
Wondering which Pokemon you’ll be able to live alongside? Check out our list of all the Pokemon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we’ve also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn’t tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pokemon Comfort Level.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
