I’m not sure I’ve thought or said the same pronuncian more than a couple times in a row since I started playing this game. I didn’t even think much about it until I actually booted the game up on my Switch 2, an act that already had me thinking deeply about the game and it’s place in my life since I decided to buy a digital copy of the game. Typically, I eschew digital-only ownership because that’s a thorny proposition in this day and age of increasingly leasing products rather than actually owning them in order for companies to extorot more money from customers who just want to enjoy the things they’ve bought. I almost didn’t get the game at all for this reason, but there’s an inevitability to all of this stuff that I can’t really ignore, so I went ahead and bought it. In my mind, it’s better to buy the digital copy of the game than a physical cartridge pretending to be a “physical” copy of the game when actually it’s just the license required to allow you to play the digital copy of the game you had to download anyway. Better to be able to just play the game rather than need to swap cartridges around, if I can’t actually hold the entire thing in my hand. That way I can swap between two games without needing to get up or pick through my collection of cartridges. And, you know, not have to deal with the license relay bullshit involved in the game key cartridge if I ever, say, download the game onto a storage device in my Switch 2 that just so happens to never be in my system when it connects to the internet.

Anyway, digital ownership bullshit aside, the game has been a lot of fun so far. It’s very cutesy and, to be entirely honest, something I didn’t know I wanted. It’s just another sandbox-y chore simulator, but this one is Pokémon-flavored and that’s not something I’ve had before. There’s a bit more than just novelty in there, since the whole loop of gathering and everything seems to be fairly streamlined (at least in the hours I’ve played so far) and while there are still some things missing I expect I need to make more progress to unlock, the game does a good job of not letting that get in your way too much. If anything, it might not get in your way enough because I’ve made a LOT of other progress in the game that would probably have been better waiting until I was deeper into the story, but the whole point of these games is to be able to knock it all down and then build it all back up again, so I’m sure I’ll get around to making it feel organized and less messy eventually. I mean, the game really does just let you run with what you’ve got to start and while there are plot unlocks that keep you (literally, in some cases) gated out of later content or options, you don’t really need most of that stuff until you’ve pushing the boundaries of the space you start with. And there’s tons more expanding I could do still, but I’ve kind of clued in to the whole “you’re going to be better off just progressing things before you get too involved in building things out” idea.

So far, it is striking a good balance of “enough to do that feels pleasant to do but not so much that I don’t want to stop eventually.” This is crucial for me because, otherwise, I will just “one more task” myself past my bedtime and into the wee hours of the morning. While I’ve had a couple close scraps with 2am thanks to this game, it was on nights that I didn’t need to wake up early and it is generally relaxing and low-stakes enough that I will eventually just start to doze off, which is always a good sign to wrap things up and go to bed. I’ve managed to heed that sign twice so far, but I’m still in the early parts of the game where I really don’t have a lot of maintenance to do. It’s mostly show up, pick a couple goals to work towards, and then do that and whatever else comes up until I think it’s time for bed. It’s very pleasant to do so far, but I think that, as I figure out some of the more opaque systems, things will get more and more complex. I mean, I’ve seen enough “optimize your gathering” youtube videos in the brief searches I’ve done for other smaller things (like figuring out if there will eventually be a way to place water source blocks or if I’m stuck using gravity and elevation forever) to know that there’s whole systems of this shit out there, but I’m not really hurting for resources ever and I’m fine with the way this game is putting everything on a real-world timer. I don’t need to do EVERYTHING today. It’s enough to do some stuff and set myself up for more tomorrow.

I don’t know if this will be long-term sustainable. I know there’s a “build your own world” mode that you can get to nearly immediately that the game warns you “you really should know more before you go here” and that gives you a lot of room for open-ended play, by yourself or with friends you invite over, but I tend to hit those points and then flounder. I don’t lack vision or the creative spark to work in a space like that, I just appreciate having to work within boundaries. You get a lot more interesting innovation when you’ve got some restrictions to deal with and can’t just do whatever you want. That said, though, there’s a lot of potential for that new area and I’m interested to see what I can do with it when I finally make my way over there once I’ve mostly wrapped up the core of the game. I found a freaking mountain I can apparently have built and I’m excited to eventually give that a whirl. Once I’ve figured out what restrictions the game places on building things, anyway. You can place a plot about anywhere and I have no idea how well it’s going to work if you’re cliping with something when you do that. Stuff to investigate, once I’m finally making structures that take up more than a few small squares of space anyway. Which could be a while, given how I’m trying to take my time these days and not cram as much game into my days as possible. A little bit at a time.