Featured Image Credit: Pokemon
Topics: Pokemon
On the surface, Pokémon Pokopia is the ultimate zen experience. You play as a Ditto who has transformed into a human, tasked by a very intelligent Professor Tangrowth to rebuild a barren wasteland. You water the grass, you build little wooden houses for Bulbasaurs, and you watch the world turn green again.
But as players play the game and start unlocking the outer regions, the "cozy" vibes are being replaced by existential dread.
As a heads up, there’s some spoilers for the game here. Here are the three darkest secrets players have unearthed so far.
The internet went wild when Peakychu was first revealed in the first trailer for Pokemon Pokopia. Turns out, as players find it in Bleak Beach, one of the second areas you unlock after your Pokedex reaches 'Great', there’s a tragic reason for its ghostly appearance.
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Its Pokédex entry tells a story of horrific self-sacrifice, not hinted at in the game’s narrative. Peakychu used all its electricity to heal and support her sick Pokémon friends.
We know Pikachu stores electricity in special pouches on its cheeks, so I think this means its internal organs have literally been fried. It shared so much power that it permanently drained its own energy.
That’s why its usual yellow fur is ghostly white. Interestingly, it’s still listed as an Electric type in your Pokedex, not a Ghost type.
This is the twist that’s ruining my childhood. For years, fans joked about what actually happened to Pokémon when they were stored in Bill’s PC (other NPCs are available).
Did they go to Pokemon Ranch? Were they just frozen in time?
Pokémon Pokopia finally gives us an answer, and it’s… Bleak. I think it’s the bleakest moment in the franchise's thirty-year history.
As you explore the Saffron Area - Saffron City reduced to The Last of Us inspired skyscrapers - the players have found a series of data logs about the "Pokémon Conservation Project" scattered throughout the derelict offices of the Silph Co. HQ.
These logs reveal humans have fled the planet after a planetary climate crisis. They left the Pokémon in a huge digital box, with the hopes of one day returning to them. That day may never come.
Similar to Peakychu, the internet was obsessed with Mosslax - a green, moss-covered Snorlax with a single, wilting flower growing from its head. But now, players have discovered why Snorlax is like this in Pokémon Pokopia.
Hidden in its Pokedex entry, Mosslax tried to sleep off its bad mood after losing a fight, and accidentally slept through the apocalypse. I’m a heavy sleeper too, I get it.
But what could this loss have been? Some fans are pointing out the reference to a particular Pokemon it lost to - was it against a rampaging Mewtwo or a climate-driven flood from Kyogre?
Could Mosslax have chosen to sleep through the end of the world because it couldn't face the reality of its defeat?