Open-World Pokemon Competitor Coming to Gamescom

While Pokemon will always be a mainstay IP in the gaming world, its had plenty of competitors (or simple Pokemon clones) crop up over the years, and the one of the biggest may finally be coming west. Just like Digimon and Pokemon started in Japan and then traveled West, Roco Kingdom started in China and has yet to come West.

Interestingly, it seems a lot of strong games have been coming from eastern game studios in recent years. Black Myth: Wukong was a Game Awards Game of the Year contender in 2024, after all, while Phantom Blade Zero is one of the most anticipated games of fall 2026. Plus, Naraka: Bladepoint, Where Winds Meet, and of course, MiHoYo’s catalog of games are all worth highlighting. It seems like it was only a matter of time before there was a strong Chinese competitor to Pokemon, and while it remains to be seen if that’s Roco Kingdom: World, it’s still an incredibly interesting open-world game like Pokemon.

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Roco Kingdom: World Coming to Gamescom

For those understandably unfamiliar, Roco Kingdom is an incredibly popular Chinese creature-collecting IP first published by Tencent in 2010. It has remained focused on the domestic Chinese market since then, but recent movements suggest it will come westward and perhaps receive an official U.S. or global release date at some point in the future. The biggest highlight is the fact that Tencent is bringing a playable English demo to Gamescom for August 2026, and demos only exist to intrigue audiences. If it wasn’t at least considering it, it wouldn’t be happening.

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Roco Kingdom: World brings the series’ creatures and world into an open-world game—a genre that’s always popular in the West—while also introducing new exploration methods, turn-based battles, creature interactions, and more. The game has been a major success in China, quickly reaching the top of the iOS game charts after launch and building a large player base, with more than 430,000 App Store ratings currently averaging 4.2 out of 5.

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Image via Morefun Games

Image via Morefun Games

Much of Roco Kingdom: World’s reception has focused on its strong nostalgia, relaxed open-world exploration, creature designs, and surprisingly friendly free-to-play approach, although later updates have caused some backlash over bugs, balance changes, repetitive endgame content, and other changes that some players feel have hurt the experience. TapTap currently lists the game at 7.3 from more than 70,000 ratings, showing that while the game’s reception remains generally positive, Roco Kingdom: World’s honeymoon period has been followed by more mixed opinions from its Chinese player base.

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Ultimately, it remains to be seen if Roco Kingdom: World delivers on the open-world game like Pokemon promise in the West, but an English demo at Gamescom could just be the first step in the globalization of the IP.