Palworld (XB/PC/Game Pass) - Fight, farm, build & work with "Pals". 15m sold on Steam & Over 10m players on Xbox.

Last edited by Monkey Man on Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:52 pm, edited 11 times in total.

Fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called "Pals" in this completely new multiplayer, open world survival and crafting game!

https://www.pocketpair.jp/palworld

Developer: Pocketpair
Publisher: Pocketpair
Platforms: Steam, Xbox (Game Pass), Microsoft Store PC (Game Pass).
Release Date: 19th January 2024 (Early Access/Game Preview).
Genre: Action Adventure.
Players: 1-4 on Xbox/Windows Store with cross-play. 1-32 on Steam.
Price: Currently £22.49.
Open Critic & Metacritic: TBA.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623730/Palworld/
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/ ... KV34XDW014
https://twitter.com/Palworld_EN
https://discord.com/invite/pocketpair
https://www.youtube.com/@pocketpair
https://www.tiktok.com/@palworld_official

Features

Over 100 Different Pals

Palworld is home to over 100 unique Pals, each equipped with a diverse set of skills to enhance the player's adventure. Along your journey, you will also encounter formidable boss Pals that pose a challenge even for the most seasoned Pal tamers. Naturally, these boss Pals are also capturable.

Engage in Battles and Capture Pals

Palworld seamlessly integrates elements of battle, monster-capturing, training, and base building. Players wield a range of weapons, from classic bows and spears to modern assault rifles and rocket launchers. The process of capturing Pals involves strategically throwing a sphere, with a higher likelihood of success when weakening the target. Captured Pals become powerful allies in combat, each possessing distinct attributes and skills, even among those of the same type.

Base Building with Pals

Players can enjoy the experience of constructing bases alongside their Pals. Within the created base, players can assign Pals to various tasks, automating item collection, production, farming, and even electricity generation. Each Pal works uniquely based on its personality, requiring food and rest. The care provided directly influences the Pal's motivation, playing a pivotal role in base operations.

Open-World Multiplayer

Work together with fellow players for shared adventures in an open-world setting. Multiplayer not only allows for cooperation but also conflict, enabling players to attack one another, steal Pals, and even steal items. Players can engage in Pal battles, pitting their Pals against each other in combat.

Media

It's been a massive success so far with 1m sales in the first 8 hours so thought I'd chuck a thread together -

Edit: Now 5m sales with the highest concurrent numbers ever (exc PUBG) for a paid title on Steam -

From the gamepass thread:

Palworld is fun! I reckon you won't be seeing anything like that gif for at least 10 hours.

Much more like Valheim then anything else. The Pokemon are a very nice addition, works a lot like Arceus and it's a lot of fun seeing them potter about your base, and setting up the ideal workers for what you need.

Definitely feels a bit buggy right now. I was playing with Kriken and our inventories bugged after a few hours. Needed to restart the world a few times.

It's a shame you can't dial into a world on a server like Valhalla and the host has to be live for you to play. Not a big deal but it's nice pottering about collecting materials for everyone if noone else is about.

---

Gonna be streaming it again in about an hour!

I gave this a quick try yesterday having gone in pretty blind and I'm kind of disappointed at it being basically a survival game with some monster capture mechanics tossed in. I was kind of hoping for something a bit more structured or narrative driven.

All the "Pokemon with guns" hype was very much overblown given the kind of game it is I think.

It's a pretty fun sandbox-style game, with some cute designs for the Pals. A lot to explore with this world, and plenty of ways to create bases. Will be giving it a second play later on to keep going north and set up a second base. Which I think I'll make fully ranch based. Still need to find a Pal with the lumberjack trait to manage the logging area of my first.

I’d rather have the 60Hz of Ntscworld.

Nintendo's/Game Freak's lawyers must be rubbing their hands at this one. :lol:

Classic Western game dev logic - what if Pokemon shot each other?

I played about half an hour earlier, mainly downloaded it as I’ve barely played anything on Game Pass and I needed something to fill my gaming time before the GR play of Disco Elysium starts in February.

So far, it feels like a cross between BoTW/ToTK, Pokémon and maybe Windbound? I’ve not played though so it might just be more of a feeling rather than anything else. It feels like they’ve taken an idea from a game they’ve liked and mashed it together, I’ll certainly play more of it to give it a few hours at least. One good thing is it has a very good customisable difficulty, looking at it you can change nearly everything you’d want and need too. I don’t see myself pouring the hours into it as there doesn’t really seem to be a narrative at play, it just seems to be “catch stuff, fight stuff, forage stuff, build stuff”. The basis seems solid enough though.

I then realise how odd that sounds considering I’ve put 500+ hours into New Horizons, which is the same minus the fighting and catching ‘Pals’.

speedboatchase wrote:Classic Western game dev logic - what if Pokemon shot each other?

It's a Japanese game.

Well.... gooseberry fool.

twitter.com/Julia_CaSsian/status/1748902201596973537

I hadn't paid too much attention to Palworld... and then I saw mentions of base building and I just stumbled across this X/Tweet. The building looks to be fun!

twitter.com/wario64/status/1748962708504875404

jawa_ wrote:

twitter.com/Julia_CaSsian/status/1748902201596973537

I hadn't paid too much attention to Palworld... and then I saw mentions of base building and I just stumbled across this X/Tweet. The building looks to be fun!

Holy gooseberry fool, its literally just Pokémon x Fortnite. :lol:

twitter.com/Palworld_EN/status/1749047519265632440

Friend ogt me this game as early birthday present, as he knew I'm on "don't buy any new games until June/July" approach and wanted me to play with him and our friends.

It feels less like Fortnite and more Valhelm (which I enjoy), since we're doing friend's private server so it acts lot like PvE survival game. Haven't done much before they wanted to play Lethal Company, but I liked what I've played so far.

I think it looks derivative and incoherent. It has that mish-mash appearance of different assets (the pals/humans/guns/environment/UI don't seem to quite match) which aligns with the overloading of trends.

Of course I've not played it and maybe it's great, but it does strike me as something I would have been really excited by the concept of when I was 13, not when I'm 31.

OrangeRKN wrote:I think it looks derivative and incoherent. It has that mish-mash appearance of different assets (the pals/humans/guns/environment/UI don't seem to quite match) which aligns with the overloading of trends.

Of course I've not played it and maybe it's great, but it does strike me as something I would have been really excited by the concept of when I was 13, not when I'm 31.

I completely agree! It looks absolutely terrible. I was watching the xbox showcase where this was revealed a few months back, burst into laughter at this focus group-led nonsense and forgot all about it til it launched.

Somehow it all just works. Survival can be a bit of a chore, but getting you pokemon to automate everything for you is very satisfying. Seeing a weakness in your base (slow ingot production) and then seeking out a pokemon to fill the gap (a better fire pokemon/the same pokemon with better traits!) is. A great gameplay loop.

Disovering stuff is so much fun, doubly so in co-op. Felt like every ten minutes I'd be like "Kriken! Look at me!" and I'd be firing explosive eggs out of my parrots bum (not just pokemon and Valheim they're ripping off!), or riding my ice ferret about. Earlier I was saving up resources for the faster glider and I hatched a cool looking pokemon*. Then I realised if I built him his equipment I could use him as a glider. He is so much better than any glider I can make for ages - actually raises me up when I open him too!

As much as the survival can get in the way of the adventuring it can also add to it. There are moments that felt so much like pokemon - adventuring with friends, desperately trying to catch a rare pal etc. This feels like what Arceus should have been, almost.

Oh and you can also capture all humans in pokeballs to set them to work on your farm or sell them to the pokemon Trader lol.

*his pokedex entry states that he used to be used to execute criminals by ripping their flesh from their skin.

Edit: I will say, after losing out first world, I would suggest anyone starting off maybe double the exp gain and up the stamina slightly for your first 20 levels or so, just to speed up the early game slightly but that's a slight preference. You can change your worlds settings whenever.

It looks like someone typed "make a pokemon game" into chatgpt

Tip which I wish I knew early on: Vixys in the ranch will produce free pokeballs and arrows.

Great thread from Dinga Bakaba (Arkane - Deathloop lead) about this game, well worth a read

Thread unroll: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1749 ... 73182.html

twitter.com/DBakaba/status/1749122283346473182

Palworld (XB/PC/Game Pass) - Fight, farm, build & work with "Pals". 15m sold on Steam & Over 10m players on Xbox.

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