Last week, I was so sure that today I would be writing about Marathon. But no—Pokemon got me again.
Here' s the thing that really gets me about Pokopia, the adorable crafting and building game now out on the Switch 2. It makes me think about what my cat needs from me.
I adopted Ella The Cat Grossman in January 2020. She had to be rehomed because she was a bully and needed to be the only cat in the house. We formed a close bond immediately—the night I got her, she climbed up on my bed and slept next to me. When I got COVID early on in the pandemic, getting up to feed her and take care of her pretty much kept me alive. It’s melodramatic, but I feel like she really saved my life. She sleeps with me every night and I often wake up to the sound of her purring as she stares at me.
Pokopia takes place in a world with no humans. Pokemon still exist—in fact, the player character is a Ditto transformed into an approximation of what their trainer used to look like—but they are all alone in the rubble of society. Early on in the game, Ditto and the Pokemon they meet decide to clean things up a bit and make the plot of land they’re on a nice place to live. Making nice habitats for Pokemon have attracted Pokemon to the area, they reason, so maybe making it a nice place to live for humans will bring the humans back.
When I read the passage in the game that explained this lore, my heart broke for my darling Ella. I know losing her will be hard. Earlier this year she had to have a cancerous growth removed from her foot, and though I was relieved she wasn’t dying, it made me realize that yes, she will die. I hadn’t considered the opposite, her outliving me, but now it’s constantly on my mind. I know Ella misses me when I’m gone. Whenever I go on vacation, the first thing she does when I get back is sit on top of me and purr furiously, as if she’s commanding me never to leave again. I hate to think of her all alone, missing me, mourning me.
What’s nice is that the Pokemon in Pokopia are pretty resilient. Although the world is different without humans, they manage to create a little society that still has love, joy, and community. It makes it a little easier to remember that someday I’ll have to say goodbye to Ella, in whatever form that takes.
How about you? Are you playing Pokopia? Are you doing nail biting runs in Marathon? Are you playing a game I’ve never heard of? I want to hear it all.
