There’s an impostor among us.
The Pokémon Company has dropped a new extended trailer for its upcoming life simulator game Pokémon Pokopia. The game puts players in the jelly-like shoes of Ditto, a Pokémon that is attempting to build a home in a strange new land. It’ll have the help of plenty of Pokémon in doing so, of course–one of them being the newly-introduced Professor Tangrowth.
Watch the extended trailer below:
Pokémon Pokopia shows off more gameplay in extended trailer
Pokémon Pokopia is The Pokémon Company’s very first life simulator game, featuring the shapeshifting Pokémon Ditto as its playable protagonist. The game was noted to share similarities with Nintendo’s Animal Crossing franchise when it was first revealed, but today’s trailer dives into some of its uniquely Pokémon-themed gameplay quirks.
Ditto has been transformed to look like a human in Pokémon Pokopia, albeit with dead-eyed dots for eyes. In a strange world once inhabited by both humans and Pokémon, it meets the hermit Professor Tangrowth and attempts to build up the town of its dreams. By building various habitats for specific Pokémon types, Ditto can attract Pokémon to come live in the town of their own volition.
To build these habitats, Ditto will have to learn moves from other Pokémon to do things like water plants and break walls. It will also be able to gather materials from its surroundings to craft items, and thus freshen up the barren land it’s woken up in. Among other moves, Ditto will be able to fly around using Glide or travel across water using Surf.
Ditto can also interact with the Pokémon who eventually inhabit its town, and build houses for them to live in to boot. Much like Animal Crossing, some Pokémon will have specific requests to make their stretch of land a home. Others will help Ditto restore the town to its former glory.
Players can also customise Ditto’s human-like appearance with various hairstyles and outfits. The game is playable in four-player multiplayer, and will feature four new variants of existing Pokémon. In the vein of the franchise’s spread of region-specific Pokémon, these “Peculiar Pokémon” offer new forms of existing favourites, like:
- Peakychu: A pale, fatigued-looking Pikachu with drooping ears.
- Mosslax: A Snorlax who seems to have slumbered for much too long, and now has moss growing all over its body.
- Smearguru: A Smeargle who has taken its painting habits even further, and now appears vibrantly colourful.
Pokémon Pokopia launches on 5 March, 2025.
