Palworld – Was the hype worth it?

About a year ago, a game got released that had garnered a lot of attention from its initial trailers years before release already and instantly got downloaded by millions of people. Claims were made about its originality and whether the developers had copied – or even stolen – ideas from other games or even their own older games like Craftopia. Lots of streamers and YouTubers started playing the game and that’s how I got introduced to it, initially, as well. The game that I’m talking about is – of course – Palworld.

In Palworld, you’re a survivor stranded in a foreign land, the Palpagos Islands, and you have to gather resources, craft items, and survive like in many other games of this kind. The catch is that you are encountering strange – and arguably very adorable – creatures, called pals, that will attack you or flee from you. Just like in Pokémon, you catch these pals in little round spheres. They will then be stored in what’s called the pal-box and you can utilize them in your base or they can accompany you as you explore these wild lands. Each pal type has its unique abilities and can help you in different ways. Some, you can ride or fly on, some have very powerful attacks, some are helping you farm the land, and some even provide electricity. You’ll need the electricity to advance in crafting items, which is probably one of the biggest differences to Pokémon. Crafting and automation are arguably a big part of the game – and you can even unlock different types of guns – which is why some people have called the game Pokémon with weapons. There are also different ways to modify the pals, but I will not spoil everything here. Since the game is an open-world game, there is no real story to play through, but there are different types of enemies that you can encounter, some are creatures, some are human, some are humans that have bonded with pals.

Unfortunately, that is the biggest weakness of the game. While it is open-world, the world feels kind of empty sometimes, even if it is very pretty. In the beginning, there were basically no NPCs and the human settlements didn’t have much to explore in them. And while there has been a big content update in December, Feybreak, which did add NPCs and even quests among other things, those seem kind of silly and not that interesting. Everything human still feels one-dimensional and flat. Generally, since the game was released as early access and has remained that way so far, there is still a lot of content that needs to be added and some balance to be achieved. Right now, some of the bosses seem relatively difficult compared to the rest of the game and you need to have exactly the right companion pals to beat them.

So, why would you play Palworld? The pals are what drew me to the game in the first place and they are also what have made me spend over 200 hours in the game before the update and I hadn’t even managed to beat the final boss, yet. They are very cute and with all the different content updates, Pocketpair added more and more different creatures. Their range of abilities make the game unique and together with the wide array of craftable items, including weapons, gliders, and all the base building stuff, you can have fun in the game. Most of the time I spent in the game was to level up my base, unlock new technologies, and just get more and better items. For the future, I hope that they will breathe some life into the NPCs and the human aspects of the world. According to their future roadmap, there are at least some more story updates planned. But, more importantly, they will release more pals and more technologies over time. And that is why I will keep coming back to the game.

 

It remains to be seen how the game will improve over time, but at least the controversy around the game seems to have died down among players as the hype ebbed away. However, Nintendo is not only suing Pocketpair in Japan, but also trying to ensure their patents in other countries, which is why the pal-spheres were partially removed from the game. We will see what the future brings in that aspect. In terms of the game itself, I enjoyed Palworld. Most of my time I spent exploring the world, building my base, and putting my pals to work – although I have shied away from truly exploiting them, they are simply too adorable. I will certainly have another look or two once the game is more polished, unless Nintendo somehow manages to have it taken down.

Basic Info:

Palworld

Developed and published by Pocketpair

For PC (including MacOS), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5

Early access release 19.01.2024

Survival, open-world, monster-taming

Seems to not have a PEGI rating, but the (German) USK is 12

Picture credits

All images are screenshots from the game taken by the author

Other Sources

Romano, S. (2024, January 24). Palworld Early Access Steam sales top eight million in less than six days: All-time peak concurrent player count tops 2.01 million. https://www.gematsu.com/2024/01/palworld-early access-steam-sales-top-eight-million-in-less-than-six-days

Yin-Poole, W. (2024, January 25). As Palworld Blows Up, Could Nintendo Successfully Sue the Controversial ‘Pokemon With Guns’ Game? The Poké Ball is in Nintendo’s court. https://www.ign.com/articles/as palworld-blows-up-could-nintendo-successfully-sue-the-controversial-pokemon-with-guns-game

Yin-Poole, W. (2024, November 08). Palworld Dev Reveals Patents at the Heart of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company Lawsuit — and How Much Money It’s Being Sued For https://www.ign.com/articles/palworld-dev-reveals-patents-at-the-heart-of-nintendo-and-the-pokmon-company-lawsuit-and-how-much-money-its-being-sued-for

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