Palworld is the inevitable answer to the age old question: Do Pokemon eat each other? Well, the game is much deeper than that but the comparisons to Pokemon won’t stop anytime soon. I don’t think that is a terrible thing, even if Pokemon is now looking into it, as it has a lot of other influences as well. Sadly, some of those influences are from Nintendo as well but I think it might be enough to keep them out of a lawsuit.
Palworld to me is an amalgamation of a few popular games in a somewhat unique mashup: Pokemon x Legend of Zelda x Fallout x Grand Theft Auto. This sounds like a very confusing mashup so let me explain each reference and how I think it fits into the Palworld formula from my first look at the beta that is currently in Early Access on Steam. I’ve spent roughly 10 hours in the game to see how this new game looks and feels. My current Pal collection is roughly 40 or so creatures of different sizes.
Pokemon
This reference is fairly obvious – from the catching/collecting/cataloging new species on a island that you have crashed (?) on to upgrading their experience and skills to having those creatures engage in combat, the references to the Pokemon formula are pretty clear. Palworld does add some new things to that formula that makes this game more adult focused such as forced labor, weapons (including guns), and the ability to…eat them. All of these new features are something that I have personally wondered about as I get further down the Pokemon “rabbit hole” with my son.
This is definitely a game that raises a lot of ethical questions about finding, capturing (against their will), and forcing them to fight/work for you or get eaten. That being said, that is fairly close to what mother nature offers so it’s not so far off from real life. The ability to find creatures and collect them is fairly tedious and the leveling system so far is fairly slow but I hope to see improvements in those areas. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to eat Pokemon (or feed them to other Pokemon), this is the game for you.
Legend of Zelda
This one is also pretty clear to me starting with the “sheka” slake like tablet you see at the beginning of the game that has markings that hail from the Legend of Zelda universe. Add the “ancient technology” that you have to research alongside the ability to glide or climb with a stamina bar and that reference becomes much more clearer. Palworld even has towers (POI) that serve as fast travel points which are both a feature of Legend of Zelda and Fallout. I don’t think this reference is bad per say, but noticeable for anyone that is a fan of that series.
Fallout
This reference may sound a bit out there but stay with me. The crafting mechanic is very similar to how Fallout (and Legend of Zelda for that matter) work in game. Resource gathering is either manual or automated; you have a carry limit; and you need to build containers to store your resources. You can build structures of various different types of materials that are locked behind a progression system and build multiple bases over time, much like you can in Fallout 4. You can set your Pals to defend the base from raiding parties which can be human or other Pals. You can also invite other players to your world or join them in theirs.
If you have spent a decent amount of time in either Fallout 4 or Fallout 76, these elements will sound very familiar. The part I don’t like is how tedious it is to collect materials and construct items. While you can do either with a group of Pals or by yourself, you still need to hold down a button for anywhere from 2 seconds to minutes for each item you are constructing. This time will quickly add up and so far I’ve spent much more time building then out there searching and exploring. Couple that with the low XP rates gained for building and it is easy to see how this is a weak point of the game from an experience standpoint.
Grand Theft Auto
I admit this sounds like a very weird part of this game. You can attack anyone, human or Pal, and if you attack humans that aren’t aggressive to you, some sort of police force comes after you. You can have different “wanted” levels based on the type and/or amount of your transgressions and they will chase you for a period of time before giving up. You can also fight them if you so choose but in my experience that only makes things worse. Add guns into the equation with human raiding parties and this reference is very clear.
Palworld has a ton of potential as evidenced in the massive rise in popularity since it went into Early Access with a $30 price tag. I bought this game with my own money and I am enjoying it so far while waiting for some much needed quality of life upgrades. One of these would be a functioning invert Y axis toggle, which is broken on both the Steam copy as well as the Xbox version in my limited testing.
You can find Palworld on Steam and Xbox, either for purchase or via Xbox Game Pass.
