Ever wanted to see a human shaped Ditto freaking drown?
Well, you're in luck, as a new trailer posted yesterday features a scene of Ditto freaking drowning and throwing a tantrum afterwards. Honestly? Mood.
The 1st wave of Pokemon Pokopia's paid DLC (which I lowkey forgot was happening) received a new extended trailer yesterday morning, featuring the reveal of the release date, and there's not much longer left to wait!
The DLC, titled Bubbly Basin, launches August 5th, which, as of the time of writing, is (checks calendar) next Wednesday! So, less than a week to go before you, too, can save a Ditto from drowning.
The trailer details the previously announced free update, which will add the 'Dive' ability to the game, allowing for exploration of previously inaccessible underwater areas. The free update launches the same day as the DLC, which is good because the new content would actually be unplayable without it.
The new content of Wave 1 is all about giving the Dive ability purpose beyond 'wouldn't it be cool if I defied the laws of physics and built a house underwater?' by introducing a brand new town that is entirely underwater, the titular Bubbly Basin. The trailer showcases all kinds of cool new possibilities that come along with this, such as, y'know, building a house underwater (wow). In fact, you'll be building an entire TOWN underwater (Wow)!
Like, look at this. Imagine if there were a Wal-Mart Supercenter right here.
With the Pokemon Pokopia Bubbly Basin DLC, there can be!
But even cooler than that is the new Buoyant Block terrain type, which can be placed off the ground to suspend items in mid-air! (If you can even call it 'mid-air' since, y'know, we're underwater) So not only can you build a house underwater, you can build a house underwater that FLOATS (WOW).
There's also all kinds of aquatic themed furniture to collect to match the vibe, as well as a dark, cavernous area illuminated by luminous coral that looks like it'll be super fun to explore. And, y'know, perhaps build a house in. If you're into that kinda thing.
The trailer also shows a really cool looking Sharpedo submarine that you can enter. I'm sure there will be plenty more secrets to uncover once the DLC is out next Wednesday.
This... is really whetting my appetite to return to Pokopia. When I played back when it first launched, I was genuinely floored by just how much game there is here. It's pretty much my ideal life sim, combining the cozy sim and town building aspects of Animal Crossing, the exploration, resource gathering, and basically infinite creative freedom to shape the world to your liking of a game like Minecraft, and the flavor, world, characters, and charm of Pokemon into a game that is way better than I ever imagined. The only thing is, I simply haven't played it in a while, not because I haven't wanted to, but because other games came out and distracted me, allowing Pokopia to genuinely kinda slip my mind.
It's a shame I haven't played more of it, because it is a very, very good game. The focus on the Pokemon themselves is a massively appealing aspect of the game for me, as it is the actual Pokemon that are a big reason why Pokemon is my favorite franchise. That's why the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series resonates so much with me, and are some of my favorite games of all time (don't worry, I'll be talking more about PMD as soon as I get the opportunity). And Pokopia, while it is a completely different genre of game, is the closest thing we've gotten to a new PMD in a long time, and does just enough to scratch that itch to the point where I'm really sad I haven't dedicated more time to it.
While Raiders remains my primary focus currently, this new DLC could very well be the kick in the tail I need to finally boot Pokopia back up and give it some more time when it drops in just a few days.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The end of the trailer gives us our first glimpse at what to expect from the second wave of DLC, which is due out in late 2026. Wave 2 won't feature a new town, but one of the things it WILL include are accessories you can deck out your Pokemon friends in, which, um, yes please, sign me up, that sounds great. That's all the info they've shared on Wave 2 for now, but there's certainly more to come. I'd set my sights on the likely September Nintendo Direct as a probable location for an in-depth reveal of Wave 2's contents.
Beyond Wave 2, the third and final wave of DLC arrives sometime next year, bringing another new town to the game. It's great to see Pokopia receive such substantial post-launch content, especially with how dense the base game already was. My hope is that Pokopia can evolve into a flourishing sub-series for the Pokemon franchise that doesn't just receive post-launch support, but potentially even sequels in the future! There's plenty of room for Pokopia to grow, and with how popular and well-received the game ended up being, I see no reason why it shouldn't.
I mean, how many other games can you build a house underwater in?
