Pokémon Pokopia's Bubbly Basin DLC could break the curse of underwater levels
Overview & Key Takeaways
The Bubbly Basin update for Pokémon Pokopia is coming in August, and it needs to do a few things differently if it's going to succeed.
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, in order to live up to that inspiration, this region needs to be big. It should include routes 24 and 25, along with Bill's house. Let us explore Cerulean Cave. And give us some of route 5. All of this is likely, because Pewter City, Saffron City, and Vermilion City are already in the game. While Pokopia doesn't strictly follow the geography from the first generation of games, those cities are all generally in the same area.
Image: Game Freak/Koei Tecmo/Nintendo
The underwater content needs to expand beyond just Bubbly Basin, though. Withered Wasteland, Bleak Beach, and Pallet Town are all surrounded by ocean. Give us a reason to dive into the deep blue here as well, or those areas will quickly become stale. Hide underwater caves, items, and Pokémon habitats down here, because while not the core focus of the game, exploration in Pokopia is wonderful. Otherwise, we're just exploring a barren wasteland, which is exactly what it looked like in the part of the trailer where Ditto was swimming with Psyduck, Piplup, and Azumarill in tow.
While Dive is a move that will require PP to use, much like Glide or Rollout, we must be allowed to use it indefinitely. Gliding slowly consumes energy as you fly, but that will be a hundred times more frustrating if we're constantly being forced to surface for air in an almost entirely underwater biome.
Image: Game Freak/Koei Tecmo/Nintendo
Finally, even though it may not make complete sense, non-water-type Pokémon need to be able to go underwater too, especially in Bubbly Basin. There are practically no restrictions on where other Pokémon in the game can reside, so if I want Charmander and Carkol to live alongside some of their water friends in Bubbly Basin, let me move them in. I'm sure their flames will be absolutely fine.
Pokopia is a wonderfully charming game, especially during its main story when you're discovering each new region. But Bubbly Basin feels like a risky first expansion. It's too easy to get underwater levels wrong. That said, it can't come soon enough, because I am craving some new Pokopia content.
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