Pokémon Pokopia's Bubbly Basin DLC could break the curse of underwater levels

During the June 2026 Nintendo Direct, Koei Tecmo and Game Freak revealed post-launch plans for Pokémon Pokopia: an August DLC called Bubbly Basin and a new move, Dive, that will let players breathe underwater. That promise is appealing, but underwater levels have a long history of being awkward in games—from Ocarina of Time's water temple to Super Mario 64's Jolly Roger Bay or shooting drowners with the crossbow in The Witcher 3—where movement becomes harder, time pressure appears, and vision is obscured.

Pokopia is a cozy sim with little challenge, yet Bubbly Basin risks feeling subpar if it falls into the same tropes. Bubbly Basin is likely drawn from Cerulean City in Kanto, and to live up to that inspiration it should be large: include routes 24 and 25, Bill's house, Cerulean Cave, and some of route 5.

Pewter City, Saffron City, and Vermilion City are already in the game, and while Pokopia doesn't strictly follow first-generation geography, those cities are generally in the same area.

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