grind redefined (pokopia review)
I don't really like resource-base type games. I'm talking about the particular gameplay loop of gather resource -> add to base -> gather new resource -> add to base and so on. Nor do the games with little tasks really draw me in. I know I used to; I loved Harvest Moon 64 as a kid, and I had a lot of "stay up until 3am on a worknight" nights with Stardew Valley.
Something changed, I guess, in the last eight or nine years, because I feel pretty repelled by this game loop. But then Pokémon Pokopia came out, and people with good opinions about games seemed to really like it. And, well, I do love Pokémon.
Unfortunately this game just didn't do it for me! There managed to be too much to do (the maps are sometimes just too big, and there are multiple of them) and also nothing to do at the same time. I really enjoyed the aspect of building and decorating homes for Pokémon in the first area...but then there were three more areas with the same loop, and it had lost its luster at that point. Just grinding resources to build houses and make things to grind more resources.
I do wonder if I would have enjoyed this game more if I played it at a worse point in my life. I've noticed this with the Animal Crossing series; I get very drawn into them when something in my life is deeply unsatisfactory. When life is pretty good? Not so much, sadly. Pokopia might, in some sense, just be a victim of bad timing for me.