Pokémon Pokopia's underwater update could be a masterpiece — if it overcomes one big hurdle

During the June 2026 Nintendo Direct, Koei Tecmo and Game Freak revealed their post-launch DLC plans for Pokémon Pokopia. In August, we're getting a brand-new biome called Bubbly Basin, and it's arriving alongside a new move: Dive. This will let players breathe underwater, opening up a whole host of possibilities for new discoveries, items, Pokémon habitats, and more. There's just one potential hurdle standing in Pokopia's way: underwater levels suck. From Ocarina of Time's water temple to diving underwater in Super Mario 64's Jolly Roger Bay, or shooting drowners with the crossbow in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, video games very rarely nail being underwater. Instead, movement becomes harder, there's usually some kind of time pressure before you drown, and vision is obscured because, well, you're underwater. Pokémon Pokopia is slightly different from those examples, however, because it's a cozy sim game. There's very little challenge involved. But there's still a risk that Bubbly Basin and the update as a whole will be subpar compared to the rest of the game if it falls into the typical underwater gaming tropes. Bubbly Basin is likely to be based on Cerulean City from Kanto. However,