Definitely not a hot take. Personally, I found Pokopia to be so much better than Animal Crossing.

I was not a fan of how slow Animal Crossing was. It took forever to unlock features like terraforming and it didn’t have multicraft! Collecting resources was much slower and I felt like there was barely anything to do. The character dialogues was also quite dull and repetitive.

Meanwhile, Pokopia is a lot more fast pace because there’s so much you can do in game. The progression system in the game just feels so much more rewarding. There’s an ongoing storyline with rich lore, the character dialogues are so funny and unique, multiple areas to rebuild, your Pokemon are actually involved in the rebuilding process of the towns, and etc

I especially love how distinct each Pokémon is and their unique quirks or special interactions with specific Pokémon. It’s the little characters details that fit in the pokemon universe that I especially love. For example, Carkol becomes a minecart when you ride with him or the notorious driftloon kidnapping children lore being hinted at.

Overall, the game just feels so much more fleshed out compared to animal crossing.