Photos are my own screenshots from the game
Recently, I heard about a new game on Steam that is Early Access. I heard about it from one of my friends who is more involved with the (web2) gaming community at large. The game in question is Palworld.
I won't sugarcoat this.
Palworld is a Pokemon clone that allows you to capture "pals" and use them to battle each other. But it is much more than that. Palworld has nuances that set it apart from any Pokemon game. Like what, you might ask. Fine, I'll give you one simple answer for now:
guns.
What is Palworld?
At its core, Palworld is a survival game. If you've ever played Ark: Survival Evolved like me then you'll notice some similar themes. One of the first things you'll want to do in the game is set up shop and start producing food in the form of red berries. Otherwise, starvation will set in and your HP will drop down to 1. You can find wild berry bushes, which yield seeds, in select areas in the open world. You'll notice that it takes forever to sow your plot and irrigate it. That's because you're doing all the work by yourself! This is Palworld, remember? You need to get out there and recruit your workforce of involuntary servants.
You'll soon realize that not every pal can do every job. The colored-in symbols under their stats determine which jobs they can do at the base. For example, this Cremis, which looks suspiciously like Pokemon's Eevee, will gather any harvestable crops and also graze. It will drop Wool while passively grazing at the Farm installation. That is its partner skill and those are what really give pals their utility. You can also condense or merge pals to strengthen that ability, indicated by the stars below the creature's sprite.
After progressing through enough of the game's story, you are able to unlock and construct one of these.
Tada! Behold, the Pal Condenser! Using a few pieces of ancient technology, we're able to build this marvel. Like I said before, it strengthens the pal's partner skill, but at the cost of its fellow pals...
Here I am, now clothed, and condensing 16 Direhowls into one 2-star Direhowl. So, in this case, apart from gaining an all-around stat boost, he'll run faster while mounted and perhaps stamina decrease during sprint is affected, too... I actually don't know. To get the first star I only needed 4 spare pals (excluding the base pal) so it goes up by powers of 4. It may make a major difference after gaining the first two stars, but I have yet to go around catching 64 of any one pal type to get that third star.
You may have noticed that in the previous screenshot, I was being notified about being raided by the Syndicate. Yes, your base can get raided. In an alternate reality, actually, just while playing a multiplayer session of Palworld with my friend, my base was raided by a "Mob of Angry Pals". And they just so happened to be fire type. My wooden base was obliterated in literally a matter of seconds! So, in this reality, my headquarters is situated in a remote beach on the edge of the map at the foot of some crumbling ruins.
The only way to my base from the outside world is through those dank ruins. You can see most of the invaders, marked by red diamonds, stuck somewhere in the ruins and one that fell. They never make it to the base.
You're probably also wondering who or what Mau is and why it's flooding my HUD!
I would consider Mau's Pokemon analog to be Meowth due to many reasons, despite the fact that they surprisingly don't look alike. Both have onomatopoeia in their names. Also, if you read Meowth's description on the bottom of the card, it matches perfectly with Mau's partner skill: digging up gold coins. And yes, they are nocturnal and do this at night, too.
Psst! Over here!
Sorry, I'm in the middle of cooking! And you'll never guess what I'm making! Nope. Wrong, wrong, you're all wrong. I'm actually making a cake! Yep..
It's not for us. It's for the animals. Any two male and female pals can be bred to create a random pal from a set list of combinations, but they need some cake.
Let them eat cake!
Meanwhile, I incubate the eggs of rare genetic monstrosities not found anywhere around my peaceful beachside home. Aside from the nearby cave, which occasionally spawns random pals to be dungeon bosses, this is my only way of acquiring new, random pals. On a sidenote, the caves are a rich source of raw materials like Paldium, ore, coal, and sulfur.
Nintendo sues? Why?
Cue mashup
I see the same imagery in these two (above).
Or how about this comparison?
Or what about the (boss) guy from the title card? Perhaps the gatling gun is the major difference the creators of Palworld are banking on? Just ask the Lifmunk on my shoulder who wields a submachine gun.
Okay, okay, this was the last one but I'm sure you get the point.
There are many blatant look-a-likes and in all seriousness that could be why Nintendo, owner of Pokemon, is mad. The future for Palworld is unclear. All I can say, as a player with two level 20-something avatars, is that Palworld is different. They have more of an Ark game going on but with Pokemon imagery that is still a bit rough around the edges but is actively being updated. Copyright Infringement or not, people love it. All the more reason for Nintendo to think it deserves a cut. You're going to hear pal-enthusiasts arguing in favor of the game, "You can't do ____ in Pokemon," with the blank being a number of things besides having guns.
You can't catch people in Pokemon. In Palworld, you can catch syndicate thugs, Free Pal associates, even boss trainers (under special circumstances). And might I add, some cruel keepers put them to work on the base so hard, sometimes day and night. Conditions are so bad in some places I've visited, where Pals had bloodshot eyes, eating disorders, and even ulcers. In that sense, it's different even from Ark. In Ark you either have to do everything yourself or eventually automate it with next gen end game level tech. We're not there yet even in Palworld. We are still in the stone age and are barely scratching the surface in terms of firearms. Except for the pals! They're fully decked out!
The game is exciting to play and progress through. And yet I can barely bring myself to play it anymore lately. Unlike the problem I faced in Ark (bosses and even dungeons too hard), Palworld seems to have suddenly become a waiting game. Sometimes new eggs I've bred need will need 40 REAL minutes to incubate. And that will just be the first one that I need to breed the next one, which is then needed immediately for the next breeding cycle and so on and so forth. Or I often find myself wondering what to do for XP. Fight bosses to level up but can't beat boss because I need to level up...
It's become very clear to me that to succeed in this game you simply need to sit there and clock in the hours, something I'm starting to realize I don't have the time to do much anymore.
So if you're the type that likes casual games you can switch off on a whim, this might be a little out of your comfort zone.
This game is more like: "Today we're going to ____"
A. Rebuild / Build a new base
B. Explore the map / Look for ____
C. Fight Bosses / Clear Dungeons
Any one of those choices has the potential become an hours-long expedition, especially the base building. I've seen several pretty wacky bases. One thing I wish was included is a meter that shows when you've built the maximum amount of structures within the confines of your base. Because if you exceed this limit, other structures start to get destroyed. Or, keeping in mind with the culture of "game-breaking" or just plain weird base ideas, remove the limit altogether. Then we can have all the fun that our creativity allows. By the way, those with supermassive bases: have fun with loading and frame rates and glitches! Haha!
Right about now is when my dialogue becomes exhausted. So if you're passing through, you may continue on your quest. Me, I'll continue my search for other hidden gems out there. This one was great even in early access. Tell me what you think? Would you try it?
All Pokemon cards overlaid in my images are photos of physical cards from my own original collection. Whether they be genuine or not remains to be seen...
Can you believe I still have these? Some of them are in German and French!