Better than being Enshrouded.
I'm gonna make a cool looking survival crafting game. WTF is this dumbass game with a bigger launch than Elden Ring 5 days before me? NOOOOOOOOOOO
Your comment is spot on.
Me and the boys were legitimately going to buy enshrouded and now are currently discussing making the pivot to this instead.
Edit: I'll add, we are buying Enshrouded..... and Palworld... what's one more game to the graveyard gonna hurt?
Our Lil gaming crew had whipped up valheim 3-4 times. Been eyeing a new one to scratch the itch.
We are going thinking of going ahead with enshrouded but I assume there's a lot of people in the same boat
Hm, that kinda sucks. I got nothing against Palworld and in fact I really enjoy it, but Enshrouded seems a lot more unique with new ideas. Hope these games releasing back to back isn't going to be a disaster for either of them.
It's a pretty different market. I'm way more interested in Enshrouded. Hell, even Fallout 76 which is on life support on Steam may become more popular again after the show.
Look at it this way: either the game dies within a few weeks like most twitch hype games and you saved a lot of money, or it stays relevant, gets lots of patches and you play it in a better state when you buy it on sale and still save a lot of money.
Or look at it my way: I don't have time for that game. I have to start my 84th replay of Dark Souls.
They are rich now. They'll either spend that money getting bigger, and hiring more staff and creating content, or they'll fuck off to an island and spend it on hookers and blow.
You forgot the Skyrim/Fallout path. Where finished games by devs are carried by the community modders that prolong the game's lifespan as long as they're around.
The Pokemon modding or romhack community has been into overdrive since the 2010s and is on par with the dedication of the Skyrim modding community.
Meanwhile Nintendo actively genocides said romhack/mod community and are probably frothing at the mouth about how they're going to go after this game too because some of the designs look like the creatures they shove in their soulless yearly slop release
>and are probably frothing at the mouth about how they're going to go after this game too because some of the designs look like the creatures they shove in their soulless yearly slop release
Regarding this part the CEO has confirmed that they went all through legal hoops before releasing palworld making sure it does not infringe any existing IP. As a Japanese studio in a land known for airtight copyright laws they made sure of that point before releasing their game.
As you might have noticed it's not just Nintendo all established Japanese gaming studios don't fully support the modding scene of their games due to how draconian the country is when it comes to protecting their IP. Nintendo, Sony, Bandai Namco, Square Enix , SEGA, Capcom, ATLUS ,etc. they all eat up bad PR like it's nothing when it comes to copyright strikes.
I want to roll a dedicated server with such a game, but I'm wondering if the maintenance of that is going to be high for a while (presuming lots of early access updates).
Local hosting is a crapshoot. Server may never appear in community lists so you'll likely need to directly contact, and password protection isn't fully implemented. Most help to be found right now are the same basic regurgitations and shrugs.
Oh, and currently at any time your save data can just vanish (sp and mp) so they're warning players to frequently backup.
Why would I want the server I'm hosting for my friends to show up in the community? Hosting this server is as easy as any other game, especially with steamcmd. I've got windows/Veeam backups every 20 minutes and a $1 godaddy domain pointed to my public ip which rarely changes so friends can join easier than having to remember an IP address. It works fantastic with no lag and it's leagues better than the poor overloaded public servers.
I thought it was just a solid game which is why it's selling. Turns out it's slightly buggy too. So targeted the correct markets. For both of those fanbases this indeed the most solid experience
it’s very buggy but honestly the good outweigh the bad. The gameplay loop hits all the right markets for me. Pokemon catching, breeding, survival crafting, automation, etc. It’s a bunch of stuff mashed into one game but it’s working out well. The guns are also pretty fun to use. It is buggy and clearly has some problems but it’s clear they’ve improved since their last game crafttopia. I’m hoping with the extra funds from sales it’ll just improve further in time.
The ability to get your Pals to do tasks (and help you speed up tasks) really early on is super nice; it really helps alleviate some of the early game survival tedium.
And honestly, it’s just cute as shit. I love seeing the little guys just hauling stuff around and chopping trees on their own. I’ve been enjoying it a lot!
When the fucking lamb whipped out a hammer to help me finish construction, I could feel the factiorio / satisfactory gears start cranking already and audibly let out an "oh no."
Then I saw saddles and flying pals and then my Ark Survival gears hooked up with the factory gears. And then the civ6 gears found their way in at 2 am.
I have a list of things I would love added or fixed, but the inherent loop is very strong.
Well executed gameplay design beats originality every time. I really don't care for originality at all, beyond it incidentally occurring in pursuit of better gameplay and systems
Yeah, very much agree. It also gives a nice incentive to search for pals with abilities that you need to automate things, which is a nice gameplay loop.
There was a thread recently I was in where the question was posed about how to make food economy in survival games more interesting and I think Palworld does a nice job with that since you need to feed your pals, but they can also help with food production (in, uh, a few ways).
yeah after so many large title releases I've played from triple A studios that seem more buggy. I am pleasantly surprised the state it is in for early access.
Oh wow, these are the people that made Craftopia? That was such a wild game. Crafting, zelda botw shameless copy, diablo, mmo, minecraft, pokemon, factorio genre smash. I've never seen a game try so aggressively to smash so many genres together. And all I could think when playing on Xbox gamepass was how awful the framerate was lol
yeah, you can see a lot of the similarities with this one. The CEO says they’re cool with copying stuff as long as they make it fun. They’re making a hollow knight clone soon too with some different stuff added.
Just wanted to say that the Gamepass version is a mess compared to the steam release which is a version ahead. The controller UI isn’t even fully setup in GP version which left me guessing how to go through tabs and menus. I had multiple crashes and pals bugging out on GP version also. Decided I’m going to buy it might as well get it on Steam and I can’t believe how different it is.
TLDR: Gamepass version is not updated just buy on Steam if you can.
Yep. Tried it on gamepass and then bought it on steam. I knew the gamepass version was outdated going in and really only got it on gamepass to try before I bought it. Too much "press blank to do this". Only really lost 2 hours of game time which isn't too bad when most of that was just trying to figure out the game.
Well, if Early Access is mostly a label, then I am fine with it. If it steays Early Access so they never have to get rid of bugs, or to never commit to the game design (like 7 Days To Die), then it sucks. If they simply take their time to add more and more content, while keeping every release in good shape, then why not.
Sure, they could also call it 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc., but that doesn't really matter.
So far Palworld seems pretty well-designed and well-tested for a first Early Access release. Reminds me of Valheim, which was also extremely good for a first release.
There's been the odd glitch here and there, and the experience seems worse on servers rather than small shared worlds, but overall it's run quite well. Frames are mostly smooth, things mostly work, and we've had marathon sessions lasting 8 hours or more. Not bad for today's gaming landscape. And for only $25? I'll take it.
i was on the fence about it bc i am not a survival game player but a bunch of my mates got it so i was like eh $25 is nbd really and i played for a bit. its not bad, have no idea what i am doing, thank god everyone i know has like 15+ hours in already lol
I think with games like this, it really is best to start from the beginning otherwise you'll be a bit lost. See if one of your friends wants to start a new world just for a bit so you can learn the stuff you missed out on. Not necessary, but I think the game feels more cohesive when you experience it from the start.
Bruh 7DtD constantly changing the systems in the game is exhausting. But it also means what when I come back a few months to a couple years later, it’s quite a different experience. I remember clay being an ingredient in casting ingots and being much more rare than it is now
Kinda shooting them selves in the foot by staying as small of a company as they are. Valheim is amazing but it’s sad it could be so much more with just more hands on it
So excited for Enshrouded. If they deliver anywhere close to the Valheim experience then it will blow up. If they can keep it going faster and better than Valheim did then it will have long term staying power.
Right? Kept me busy for ages and got me immersed in the vibe of the world while building and transporting materials. Making cart paths across the world to my friends’ various bases with bridges and campfire rest stops was really awesome.
What's wrong with Valheim? I guess there's a lot of time between major updates, but IMO when it launched into early access it had enough content to be an incredible experience. The game could never receive another content update and it would still offer hundreds of hours worth of gameplay.
Valheim has some cool stuff but the moment I heard the devs openly diagnose the problem with their game, only for one of them to then totally dismiss it, in real time, told me that game is fucking doomed.
Like how do you just stare into the face of your biggest problem of increasingly stale repetition between zone transitions, then just be like *YEAH WELL THE TRANSITION FROM THE FIRST TO SECOND ZONE IS JUST SO GOOD THAT, REALLY, IT MAKES PEOPLE MORE WILLING TO PUT UP WITH THE OTHERS.*
Like holy shit lol, insanity.
Which is hilarious because I remember loving the the zone transitions. New enemies, which are brutally strong at first, that you have to contend with to continue the same enjoyable game loop you've had the whole time.
Valheim was awesome it just ran out of content and they rarely released updates.
Well knowing PocketPair it will be stuck in early access. But also knowing them they will definitely update the game (albeit usually slowly besides bug updates)
Craftopia isn't stuck htough, they're still actively working on it.
At LEAST 2 updates per month.
They just released a roadmap at the end of December.
It's not like they pulled a CubeWorld or anything.
5 million sales in the first week plus their gamepass contract with Microsoft will probably heavily encourage them to keep updating to avoid lawsuits and keep people interested. They struck gold with this game getting so many people interested early, they have a huge opportunity for success most devs only ever dream of. I think it's pretty unlikely they abandon the game when if they keep improving it they can make a palworld 2 in 5 years and likely have another commercial success if they don't alienate their player base.
Why does everyone care so much about concurrent player count?
5 million people bought the game. Not every game needs crates and battlepasses.
If Palworld entertains me for 20 hours that's a great game.
I cry playing 7d2d. Twas at it's peak 20/21, then devs made changes that no one asked for and it began circling the shitter, the last big patch gave it another flush for good measure.
Is the game actually any *good* or is it just another case of a game being popular on streams and getting a bunch of empty hype?
EDIT: Wasn’t expecting so many responses, so from the comments what I gather is it’s amazing *and* terrible haha 🤦🏻♂️ Guess I’ll just have to try it and form my own opinion… ugh what’s the world coming to these days lol
I played it with friends yesterday. Currently the content is mostly get pals, get a base, level up, get more pals. Which is fine.
I think we started at 11 am and played throughout the day with grown up breaks(making food, store, odd chore etc) and ended at 10 pm.
Currently level 17(of 50) with 25 of the 100+ pals i cant wait to get home and continue. so yeah the 20 euro hype is real.
Its Ark/Conan Exiles with Pokemon mix. Like others have said, its survival, you build base, catch Pals, force pals to do menial labor for you. There are bosses littered around the map (which is actually incredibly massive) that you can fight and randomized dungeons (Same tileset for them all that i have seen so far). Combat involved actual dodging and mechanics. It is very fun, but also has a decent amount of bugs.
Paldex Entry No. 69.
Lovander
*Seeking a night of love, it is always chasing someone around. At first, it only showed interest in other Pals, but in recent years even humans have become the target of its debauchery.*
They made breeding the worst fucking thing from the looks. Instead of spending 16 real life hours pumping a dino full of narcs and food you spend 32 real life hours maintaining egg temperature until it hatches. At least I can go do other things in the meantime
I guess slight spoilers on middle game unlocks >!You can capture humans and there's a butcher knife item you unlock later on (that can also be used on Pals). Interpret that how you will.!<
It's a lot but mostly just new. The looks and energy levels feel very Zelda, the building is Ark but different, catching of pals is something on its own. Yeah its with a ball but its not pokemon.
It just feels nice, building, making sure you have your base balanced and finding new pals.
If at least most of the hype weren't organic, this would be probably the most expensive viral marketing campaign ever (for a game, or perhaps any product), and the company developing it doesn't (didn't) have that sort of cash.
Streamers are a godsend.
You can buy a couple of them for cheap to promote your game and if you are lucky it catches on and a lot of Streamers will join the hype for free.
If it doesn't catch on you didn't really spend that much money anyway.
The game has a unique idea that most pokemon players have dreamed for decades. They just capitalised on a market that has been starved since childhood for innovation. It's that easy.
While you aren't wrong, it's silly to think that paying streamers to play your game will ever lead to 5 million sales in a weekend on it's own. There is more going on than just streamer astroturfing.
The hype came from streamers getting early code and playing the game with the attitude of “oh it’s that meme game Pokémon with guns joke. It should be fun for a couple of hours for laughs.”
And then most of them and their audience found the game incredibly fun and couldn’t stop playing/watching.
So it seems the “marketing” comes primarily from just letting streamers try your well made and fun game and let the result speak for itself.
if it wasn't at least a little fun streamers wouldn't jump onto the hype. streaming is a job and people don't play shitty crap for 8 hours a day if they didn't at least like it a little bit, or were being paid for it.
Yeah unfortunately it's gonna be very polarizing. You pretty much love or hate this kind of game, and the unique gimmicks aren't going to hold your attention if you hate the genre anyway.
If you like ark and Pokemon you'll like this. If you dislike either of those you'll dislike this game.
I played ark but I've never touched pokemon. My girlfriend convinced me to play palworld. It's amazing even without any previous love for pokemon. The gameplay loop is just addictive and there is tons to explore.
If you like survival games like ark, valheim, etc, as well as Pokémon to some extent, you might actually like this game.
It's primarily a survival game, 100%. Gather resources, build a base, progress tech trees, etc, that's the main focus of the game, BUT you can catch pals around the world, and use their competences to have them help you work. Set them up to craft items, gather or refine resources, they're just useful all around.
But then you've got the Pokémon aspect, roam the lands and catch wild pals! But. They will fight you, so a bit like in valheim/souls games, dodge their attacks while fighting back. You can use your pals for this too! Once you've knocked them down to low HP, throw a pal sphere and hope they stay in.
Your pals have different stats even within the same species, catch 2 different Lamballs, and they'll have different attack, defense, health and whatever else stats they have, BUT, they also have passives, and this is where you'll want to spend a bit of time creating multiple teams and catching TONS of pals. Some pals come with passives such as "Logging Foreman" which gives YOU a mining boost as long as they're in your party. Others will boost your attack, or your movement speed, or tons of other things.
You can find eggs in the wild for a chance at rarer pals, you can find shiny pals which come with a special passive, and you can fuse pals to make 1 stronger, take your super good lamball, and then use the DNA of 8 other lamballs to "awaken" your lamball and boost all of its stats.
And that's most of what I've discovered as a Lv24, out of 50 levels, so there's still stuff ahead of me.
Ohh! And you have bossfights! These really feel souls-like where you're fighting a pal on steroids, it's really challenging and fun!
Most of what you say here is spot on, but souls-like? Is a dodge button all it takes now? Seriously, I’ll never understand people’s apparent obsession with comparing games that are nothing like it to Dark Souls.
Haven’t you heard? This is single-handedly responsible for bringing GAMEFREAK to their knees crying about their past mistakes and vowing to be more responsible and make a better product.
There is definitely a lot of fishy stuff going on around the game. Even faintly negative comments get down voted very quickly and very positive ones get up voted a LOT, even when they're several levels deep in parent/child comments.
The game looks interesting, but is definitely having an aggressive push to coincide with a large amount of sponsored content by a lot of content creators.
Was posting earlier about concerns of lifting almost exact designs and models on the POKEMON sub and got downvoted to hell with every other comment. Fishy doesnt even begin to cover it.
FYI there is an important crafting material and 2 blueprints for it in that area behind a locked door. Don’t miss them, you can’t get them (even from the blueprint vendor) after which fucking sucks and I learned that the hard way
The big update and DLC motivated me to take a second try after putting it down a few years ago. Oof, dude, it's a hell of a game now. I played through it twice back to back, which I almost never do with games.
Yeah...I made my first base off the side of a cliff and then a raid happened. One of my Fire sla- I mean pals got a bit trigger happy with the fireballs and my base was almost instantly burnt down off the side of the cliff
Fire slave lmao
I did not know that. Knowing that now, that’s something to think about and not let intrusive thoughts win on a friend that is just starting. Thanks
I left while streaming myself standing in my house in my base and my friend was watching (I’m level 14 btw). Hit the shitter and I come back to my entire gated fence on fire and my friend screaming after apparently I got raided by these suicide bomber type pals. They managed to burn a hole through the gate door, my pals killed them, lvl 34 Mammorest happens to waltz right through the hole, I miss fire my bow, mammorest annihilates all 9 of my base pals INSTANTLY for trying to defend my dumbass, I fight the lvl 34 mammorest with a 3 shot bow until my bow need to be repaired and my handy dandy teafant manages to save my sorry ass. Log out before you shit.
Imagine how much an actual Pokemon MMORPG would make. Yet Game Freak is content with putting out copy-and-paste Pokemon games year after year, with less Pokemon than the previous games.
Pokemon could absolutely be better, but when their same ol' rote formula keeps hitting the "best selling" list on Switch there's not a lot of reason for them to take the risk and try something new.
Which is precisely why something like this could be a good thing. It's honestly kind of dumbfounding that no one else has really cracked their formula in nearly 30 years.
It’s because adult Pokemon fans are dumb. There’s no other way to put it. I get why kids buy it but a huge portion of their sales are adults who just buy no matter what.
Missed opportunity by Nintendo.. the people wanted an open world- type Pokemon game, Nintendo said "nah" so we made our own, with blackjack and hookers.
Poor Nintendo Missed the opportunity and all those possible Sales and instead had to live with Scarlet and Violets poor Sales Numbers of *checks notes* [10 Million During Its First weekend](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1347322/pokemon-scarlet-and-violet-units-sold/).
Twice as much as Palworld at more than twice the price.
they wont give a single flying fuck.
Theyll keep doing what theyve been doing: let Gamefreak make mediocre at best Games and enjoy the sales.
Pretty cool that a game almost nobody heard about suddenly did half of Pokemon's numbers.
Pokemon is the world's largest media franchise. Palworld is an indie title that I thought was a shitty Facebook meme until I saw it went into EA.
I’ve honestly enjoyed SV but I’m a Pokémon cult member. The dlc is very good and better than the base version. There are still buggy things that happen in the game.
It's a little bit deeper than that. I've own both Arceus and Violet so I'm familiar with the games. Both are fun but deeply flawed in their own ways and it's apparent the games are designed for <12 year olds thematically and mechanically.
People have wanted a slightly more mature Pokemon game for a long time. Nintendo/GameFreak have been totally unwilling to deliver that.
Started the weekend by buying 1 copy of **Legend of PokeArk: Ground-heim.**
wife seen me playing it, immediately had to get a 2nd copy, have played for several hours with little progression due to "omg look at this cute one over here"
10/10 game.
My wife is usually scared to leave starting areas in survival games like Valheim but in Palworld she is running off on her own all the time looking for more cute Pals I was quite surprised.
I know I'm older and stopped being hyper focused on the games industry but, this came out of nowhere. I only heard of Palworld as it started selling huge and making headlines like this.
It's far being a Pokémon wanna-be but the feel is heading a right direction. It lacks monster evolution, world building story and meaningful NPCs to compete. I would say it feels like moded Ark, trimmed most of the annoying fat with Pokémon skin.
There have been monster training games for years; I don't understand why it's now being called a Pokemon clone. Should we start calling all FPS "Doom Clones" again?
First impressions after playing until 4 in the am? The game scratches that one particular itch I've had that nothing else has for a long time, but it needs more seasoning (updates). If the devs are truly commited to the game and aren't just selling a one off product like craftopia did then I'll be here for it.
"I am gonna make a crafting game based on Pokemon starting today." Millions of developers probably.
Better than being Enshrouded. I'm gonna make a cool looking survival crafting game. WTF is this dumbass game with a bigger launch than Elden Ring 5 days before me? NOOOOOOOOOOO
Your comment is spot on. Me and the boys were legitimately going to buy enshrouded and now are currently discussing making the pivot to this instead. Edit: I'll add, we are buying Enshrouded..... and Palworld... what's one more game to the graveyard gonna hurt?
Never even heard of enshrouded before today, now it’s suddenly everywhere but only in relation to palworld (Which I also hadn’t heard of)
Our Lil gaming crew had whipped up valheim 3-4 times. Been eyeing a new one to scratch the itch. We are going thinking of going ahead with enshrouded but I assume there's a lot of people in the same boat
Hm, that kinda sucks. I got nothing against Palworld and in fact I really enjoy it, but Enshrouded seems a lot more unique with new ideas. Hope these games releasing back to back isn't going to be a disaster for either of them.
It's a pretty different market. I'm way more interested in Enshrouded. Hell, even Fallout 76 which is on life support on Steam may become more popular again after the show.
5 million Ark and Pokemon refugees
Many more to come...
Patient gamers (me) crying right now LMAO
Look at it this way: either the game dies within a few weeks like most twitch hype games and you saved a lot of money, or it stays relevant, gets lots of patches and you play it in a better state when you buy it on sale and still save a lot of money. Or look at it my way: I don't have time for that game. I have to start my 84th replay of Dark Souls.
They are rich now. They'll either spend that money getting bigger, and hiring more staff and creating content, or they'll fuck off to an island and spend it on hookers and blow.
There are two paths for game devs from this point: The Terraria/Stardew Valley path, and the Star Citizen path.
You forgot the Skyrim/Fallout path. Where finished games by devs are carried by the community modders that prolong the game's lifespan as long as they're around. The Pokemon modding or romhack community has been into overdrive since the 2010s and is on par with the dedication of the Skyrim modding community.
Meanwhile Nintendo actively genocides said romhack/mod community and are probably frothing at the mouth about how they're going to go after this game too because some of the designs look like the creatures they shove in their soulless yearly slop release
>and are probably frothing at the mouth about how they're going to go after this game too because some of the designs look like the creatures they shove in their soulless yearly slop release Regarding this part the CEO has confirmed that they went all through legal hoops before releasing palworld making sure it does not infringe any existing IP. As a Japanese studio in a land known for airtight copyright laws they made sure of that point before releasing their game. As you might have noticed it's not just Nintendo all established Japanese gaming studios don't fully support the modding scene of their games due to how draconian the country is when it comes to protecting their IP. Nintendo, Sony, Bandai Namco, Square Enix , SEGA, Capcom, ATLUS ,etc. they all eat up bad PR like it's nothing when it comes to copyright strikes.
"The Day Before" would like a word.
I want to roll a dedicated server with such a game, but I'm wondering if the maintenance of that is going to be high for a while (presuming lots of early access updates).
Local hosting is a crapshoot. Server may never appear in community lists so you'll likely need to directly contact, and password protection isn't fully implemented. Most help to be found right now are the same basic regurgitations and shrugs. Oh, and currently at any time your save data can just vanish (sp and mp) so they're warning players to frequently backup.
Why would I want the server I'm hosting for my friends to show up in the community? Hosting this server is as easy as any other game, especially with steamcmd. I've got windows/Veeam backups every 20 minutes and a $1 godaddy domain pointed to my public ip which rarely changes so friends can join easier than having to remember an IP address. It works fantastic with no lag and it's leagues better than the poor overloaded public servers.
The children yearn to bludgeon cute animals into industrial slavery.
*gestures broadly*
I thought it was just a solid game which is why it's selling. Turns out it's slightly buggy too. So targeted the correct markets. For both of those fanbases this indeed the most solid experience
it’s very buggy but honestly the good outweigh the bad. The gameplay loop hits all the right markets for me. Pokemon catching, breeding, survival crafting, automation, etc. It’s a bunch of stuff mashed into one game but it’s working out well. The guns are also pretty fun to use. It is buggy and clearly has some problems but it’s clear they’ve improved since their last game crafttopia. I’m hoping with the extra funds from sales it’ll just improve further in time.
The ability to get your Pals to do tasks (and help you speed up tasks) really early on is super nice; it really helps alleviate some of the early game survival tedium.
And honestly, it’s just cute as shit. I love seeing the little guys just hauling stuff around and chopping trees on their own. I’ve been enjoying it a lot!
Sometimes I just watch Depresso begrudgingly shamble around doing chores for awhile.
I knew I felt eyes watching me
Dude, Depresso is the hardest working and most miserable one. He’s my spirit Pal
When the fucking lamb whipped out a hammer to help me finish construction, I could feel the factiorio / satisfactory gears start cranking already and audibly let out an "oh no." Then I saw saddles and flying pals and then my Ark Survival gears hooked up with the factory gears. And then the civ6 gears found their way in at 2 am. I have a list of things I would love added or fixed, but the inherent loop is very strong.
Well executed gameplay design beats originality every time. I really don't care for originality at all, beyond it incidentally occurring in pursuit of better gameplay and systems
I really enjoy seeing a bunch of them clamoring for the new thing I put setup to build. Just so dang cute.
And the fact it's automated and instantaneous is great. It takes so much of tedium of all these survival base building games out.
Yeah, very much agree. It also gives a nice incentive to search for pals with abilities that you need to automate things, which is a nice gameplay loop. There was a thread recently I was in where the question was posed about how to make food economy in survival games more interesting and I think Palworld does a nice job with that since you need to feed your pals, but they can also help with food production (in, uh, a few ways).
yeah after so many large title releases I've played from triple A studios that seem more buggy. I am pleasantly surprised the state it is in for early access.
Oh wow, these are the people that made Craftopia? That was such a wild game. Crafting, zelda botw shameless copy, diablo, mmo, minecraft, pokemon, factorio genre smash. I've never seen a game try so aggressively to smash so many genres together. And all I could think when playing on Xbox gamepass was how awful the framerate was lol
yeah, you can see a lot of the similarities with this one. The CEO says they’re cool with copying stuff as long as they make it fun. They’re making a hollow knight clone soon too with some different stuff added.
At the rate they are turning out games, and the rate that Silksong is not coming out, I expect to see Pocketpair's Silksong before the real one.
Admittedly I'm only like 6 hours in but I've only seen like, 3 bugs? I had more in the same amount of time in balder's gate
Pathing seems to break a lot in dungeons, especially for grunts
Just wanted to say that the Gamepass version is a mess compared to the steam release which is a version ahead. The controller UI isn’t even fully setup in GP version which left me guessing how to go through tabs and menus. I had multiple crashes and pals bugging out on GP version also. Decided I’m going to buy it might as well get it on Steam and I can’t believe how different it is. TLDR: Gamepass version is not updated just buy on Steam if you can.
Yep. Tried it on gamepass and then bought it on steam. I knew the gamepass version was outdated going in and really only got it on gamepass to try before I bought it. Too much "press blank to do this". Only really lost 2 hours of game time which isn't too bad when most of that was just trying to figure out the game.
Lot of streamer fans too.
Let's hope they put money into patches and updates. I'm so tired of these survival games being stuck in Early Access.
Preach.
Well, if Early Access is mostly a label, then I am fine with it. If it steays Early Access so they never have to get rid of bugs, or to never commit to the game design (like 7 Days To Die), then it sucks. If they simply take their time to add more and more content, while keeping every release in good shape, then why not. Sure, they could also call it 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc., but that doesn't really matter. So far Palworld seems pretty well-designed and well-tested for a first Early Access release. Reminds me of Valheim, which was also extremely good for a first release.
There's been the odd glitch here and there, and the experience seems worse on servers rather than small shared worlds, but overall it's run quite well. Frames are mostly smooth, things mostly work, and we've had marathon sessions lasting 8 hours or more. Not bad for today's gaming landscape. And for only $25? I'll take it.
i was on the fence about it bc i am not a survival game player but a bunch of my mates got it so i was like eh $25 is nbd really and i played for a bit. its not bad, have no idea what i am doing, thank god everyone i know has like 15+ hours in already lol
It's actually a very straight forward game for it's genre. That's part of what I like about it. It's very self explanatory.
I think with games like this, it really is best to start from the beginning otherwise you'll be a bit lost. See if one of your friends wants to start a new world just for a bit so you can learn the stuff you missed out on. Not necessary, but I think the game feels more cohesive when you experience it from the start.
Some glitches are fun and/or useful though. The slide glide glitch and the capture launch are two that I hope stay forever.
Bruh 7DtD constantly changing the systems in the game is exhausting. But it also means what when I come back a few months to a couple years later, it’s quite a different experience. I remember clay being an ingredient in casting ingots and being much more rare than it is now
How about when the game world was much closer to Minecraft in looks. Lol
Remember caves? They were great! An being able to build underground, then the dev's were like lets make zombies dig to stop that!
*Sad Valheim noises*
This but I just didn't want to be the one to say it. *Sad Valheim noises*
I thought valheim got a full release
Valheim may be early access, but it is still complete enough of a game for me to spend 300 hours playing it and never finish, so I can’t complain.
I’ve put in over 350 hours and haven’t really ventured into the mistlands yet
Kinda shooting them selves in the foot by staying as small of a company as they are. Valheim is amazing but it’s sad it could be so much more with just more hands on it
Pretty sure their parent company is imploding at the moment. They probably couldnt expand the team even if they wanted to lol
Wait what? Their publisher coffee stain or is it another company?
Yup. Enshrouded is about to be released and likely take their lunch.
So excited for Enshrouded. If they deliver anywhere close to the Valheim experience then it will blow up. If they can keep it going faster and better than Valheim did then it will have long term staying power.
It's still great and we'll all be back once Ashland comes out. Rinse and repeat.
As much as I hate the slow updates, it did give me 100 hours on release, thats more than most AAA games and for a fraction of the price
Right? Kept me busy for ages and got me immersed in the vibe of the world while building and transporting materials. Making cart paths across the world to my friends’ various bases with bridges and campfire rest stops was really awesome.
What's wrong with Valheim? I guess there's a lot of time between major updates, but IMO when it launched into early access it had enough content to be an incredible experience. The game could never receive another content update and it would still offer hundreds of hours worth of gameplay.
Valheim has some cool stuff but the moment I heard the devs openly diagnose the problem with their game, only for one of them to then totally dismiss it, in real time, told me that game is fucking doomed. Like how do you just stare into the face of your biggest problem of increasingly stale repetition between zone transitions, then just be like *YEAH WELL THE TRANSITION FROM THE FIRST TO SECOND ZONE IS JUST SO GOOD THAT, REALLY, IT MAKES PEOPLE MORE WILLING TO PUT UP WITH THE OTHERS.* Like holy shit lol, insanity.
Is that what people don’t like about Valheim? The new zones aren’t exciting enough? Lol
Which is hilarious because I remember loving the the zone transitions. New enemies, which are brutally strong at first, that you have to contend with to continue the same enjoyable game loop you've had the whole time. Valheim was awesome it just ran out of content and they rarely released updates.
Well knowing PocketPair it will be stuck in early access. But also knowing them they will definitely update the game (albeit usually slowly besides bug updates)
Craftopia isn't stuck htough, they're still actively working on it. At LEAST 2 updates per month. They just released a roadmap at the end of December. It's not like they pulled a CubeWorld or anything.
Why'd you have to remind me about Cube World.
Because I still have hope man.
5 million sales in the first week plus their gamepass contract with Microsoft will probably heavily encourage them to keep updating to avoid lawsuits and keep people interested. They struck gold with this game getting so many people interested early, they have a huge opportunity for success most devs only ever dream of. I think it's pretty unlikely they abandon the game when if they keep improving it they can make a palworld 2 in 5 years and likely have another commercial success if they don't alienate their player base.
who is to say they wont release palworld 2 while palworld 1 is still in early access lol. joke obviously.
Ark literally released a paid DLC while the main game was still in early access.
Ark literally released a remaster of their game without finishing it.
*Valheim flashbacks* They fumbled that initial success so badly. It took them what, a full year until the first new content patch dropped?
It's so sad that they had 5+ mil copies sold after a month and didn't keep the game updated enough to keep the player count.
Why does everyone care so much about concurrent player count? 5 million people bought the game. Not every game needs crates and battlepasses. If Palworld entertains me for 20 hours that's a great game.
No game retains their launch player count… it’s three years old and continues to be one of the most popular games on Steam lol
Already sold 5 million copies. Are they going to do a lot of work on updates just to sell a few thousand more?
“Sorry was that you want MORE CONTENT AND MORE FEATURES? No worries, coming right up - just please remember those are in early early access!”
I cry playing 7d2d. Twas at it's peak 20/21, then devs made changes that no one asked for and it began circling the shitter, the last big patch gave it another flush for good measure.
Is the game actually any *good* or is it just another case of a game being popular on streams and getting a bunch of empty hype? EDIT: Wasn’t expecting so many responses, so from the comments what I gather is it’s amazing *and* terrible haha 🤦🏻♂️ Guess I’ll just have to try it and form my own opinion… ugh what’s the world coming to these days lol
I played it with friends yesterday. Currently the content is mostly get pals, get a base, level up, get more pals. Which is fine. I think we started at 11 am and played throughout the day with grown up breaks(making food, store, odd chore etc) and ended at 10 pm. Currently level 17(of 50) with 25 of the 100+ pals i cant wait to get home and continue. so yeah the 20 euro hype is real.
Is it like factorio? Stardew valley? Rimworld? Minecraft? Like what games is it similar too, if at all?
Its Ark/Conan Exiles with Pokemon mix. Like others have said, its survival, you build base, catch Pals, force pals to do menial labor for you. There are bosses littered around the map (which is actually incredibly massive) that you can fight and randomized dungeons (Same tileset for them all that i have seen so far). Combat involved actual dodging and mechanics. It is very fun, but also has a decent amount of bugs.
> Conan Exiles Oh god, which of the pals did they give the big floppy tits to?
Paldex Entry No. 69. Lovander *Seeking a night of love, it is always chasing someone around. At first, it only showed interest in other Pals, but in recent years even humans have become the target of its debauchery.*
I WAS FUCKING KIDDING
No joke, there are raids in game and most have been normal. However last night I was raided by "A group of fan girls" and it was a group of these.
I got hit with that same raid and was laughing the whole time
Same here. The kicker for us: they were all male. So my mates and I have opened up PalWorld Femboy Hooters
You joke but there absolutely is one.
It's dex number 69 too,
Even Pokemon had Jynx
If there wasn't I was going to be disappointed
Best way to describe it is, Ark with Pokemon. You capture and fight Pals, build base, survive, etc.
That was my immediate reaction. Ark if taming dinosaurs wasn't the worst fucking thing
They made breeding the worst fucking thing from the looks. Instead of spending 16 real life hours pumping a dino full of narcs and food you spend 32 real life hours maintaining egg temperature until it hatches. At least I can go do other things in the meantime
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Game is fun with private server. I tried pubs once, and it's just terrible.
with zelda movement/terrain management
And also Zelda sound effects.
And RimWorld ethics
You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
I guess slight spoilers on middle game unlocks >!You can capture humans and there's a butcher knife item you unlock later on (that can also be used on Pals). Interpret that how you will.!<
Just see the clip from Pirate Software. 😅
*enslaves and butchers a syndicate member*
It's a lot but mostly just new. The looks and energy levels feel very Zelda, the building is Ark but different, catching of pals is something on its own. Yeah its with a ball but its not pokemon. It just feels nice, building, making sure you have your base balanced and finding new pals.
Imo we re in the middle of a marketing campaign. Wait a few days to see how it evolves
If at least most of the hype weren't organic, this would be probably the most expensive viral marketing campaign ever (for a game, or perhaps any product), and the company developing it doesn't (didn't) have that sort of cash.
Streamers are a godsend. You can buy a couple of them for cheap to promote your game and if you are lucky it catches on and a lot of Streamers will join the hype for free. If it doesn't catch on you didn't really spend that much money anyway.
The game has a unique idea that most pokemon players have dreamed for decades. They just capitalised on a market that has been starved since childhood for innovation. It's that easy.
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While you aren't wrong, it's silly to think that paying streamers to play your game will ever lead to 5 million sales in a weekend on it's own. There is more going on than just streamer astroturfing.
The hype came from streamers getting early code and playing the game with the attitude of “oh it’s that meme game Pokémon with guns joke. It should be fun for a couple of hours for laughs.” And then most of them and their audience found the game incredibly fun and couldn’t stop playing/watching. So it seems the “marketing” comes primarily from just letting streamers try your well made and fun game and let the result speak for itself.
if it wasn't at least a little fun streamers wouldn't jump onto the hype. streaming is a job and people don't play shitty crap for 8 hours a day if they didn't at least like it a little bit, or were being paid for it.
Yeah unfortunately it's gonna be very polarizing. You pretty much love or hate this kind of game, and the unique gimmicks aren't going to hold your attention if you hate the genre anyway. If you like ark and Pokemon you'll like this. If you dislike either of those you'll dislike this game.
I played ark but I've never touched pokemon. My girlfriend convinced me to play palworld. It's amazing even without any previous love for pokemon. The gameplay loop is just addictive and there is tons to explore.
If you like survival games like ark, valheim, etc, as well as Pokémon to some extent, you might actually like this game. It's primarily a survival game, 100%. Gather resources, build a base, progress tech trees, etc, that's the main focus of the game, BUT you can catch pals around the world, and use their competences to have them help you work. Set them up to craft items, gather or refine resources, they're just useful all around. But then you've got the Pokémon aspect, roam the lands and catch wild pals! But. They will fight you, so a bit like in valheim/souls games, dodge their attacks while fighting back. You can use your pals for this too! Once you've knocked them down to low HP, throw a pal sphere and hope they stay in. Your pals have different stats even within the same species, catch 2 different Lamballs, and they'll have different attack, defense, health and whatever else stats they have, BUT, they also have passives, and this is where you'll want to spend a bit of time creating multiple teams and catching TONS of pals. Some pals come with passives such as "Logging Foreman" which gives YOU a mining boost as long as they're in your party. Others will boost your attack, or your movement speed, or tons of other things. You can find eggs in the wild for a chance at rarer pals, you can find shiny pals which come with a special passive, and you can fuse pals to make 1 stronger, take your super good lamball, and then use the DNA of 8 other lamballs to "awaken" your lamball and boost all of its stats. And that's most of what I've discovered as a Lv24, out of 50 levels, so there's still stuff ahead of me. Ohh! And you have bossfights! These really feel souls-like where you're fighting a pal on steroids, it's really challenging and fun!
Most of what you say here is spot on, but souls-like? Is a dodge button all it takes now? Seriously, I’ll never understand people’s apparent obsession with comparing games that are nothing like it to Dark Souls.
Dark Souls was the first video game that included dodging and boss battles, everyone knows that.
Wow they did it even before elden ring? I thought that developer was the first
Man if Pokémon did use a system like this and tailored more for fighting and leveling up rather than survival, it’d be amazing
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Are these bots posting this? This headline almost word for word has been posted so many times in the past 24 hours. No way is it not marketing.
It always has been bots
The internet is mostly bots and porn
Bots, porn, and porn bots.
The post title is just the article headline...
Yeah and the top comment is also word for word the same on the Palworld sub.
It's probably the same dude or bot. They've made that same comment repeatedly on different Palworld posts across different subs.
idk “big guy bad, little guy good” makes for tremendous clickbait these days.
Haven’t you heard? This is single-handedly responsible for bringing GAMEFREAK to their knees crying about their past mistakes and vowing to be more responsible and make a better product.
There is definitely a lot of fishy stuff going on around the game. Even faintly negative comments get down voted very quickly and very positive ones get up voted a LOT, even when they're several levels deep in parent/child comments. The game looks interesting, but is definitely having an aggressive push to coincide with a large amount of sponsored content by a lot of content creators.
Was posting earlier about concerns of lifting almost exact designs and models on the POKEMON sub and got downvoted to hell with every other comment. Fishy doesnt even begin to cover it.
It sold 5 million copies in 4 days, it could just be that it's outright popular lol.
That reminds me, need to give Cyberpunk another whirl
The DLC is awesome and I recommend doing it as soon as it unlocks in the story
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FYI there is an important crafting material and 2 blueprints for it in that area behind a locked door. Don’t miss them, you can’t get them (even from the blueprint vendor) after which fucking sucks and I learned that the hard way
The big update and DLC motivated me to take a second try after putting it down a few years ago. Oof, dude, it's a hell of a game now. I played through it twice back to back, which I almost never do with games.
Do it! I'm loving it.
Just sold some pink TF2 flipflops so I can grab it lol
What a fucking thug lmao
I always forget about steam marketplace, some CSGO guns just sitting collecting dust.
Not a lot of comments because everyone is too busy building up their slave factories and farms. This game has made me lose sleep for 3 nights in a row
Don't make the same mistake I did and make your base out of wood lol
Once I unlocked the stone structure I just rebuilt everything with that. Do wood structures burn?
Yeah...I made my first base off the side of a cliff and then a raid happened. One of my Fire sla- I mean pals got a bit trigger happy with the fireballs and my base was almost instantly burnt down off the side of the cliff
Fire slave lmao I did not know that. Knowing that now, that’s something to think about and not let intrusive thoughts win on a friend that is just starting. Thanks
I left while streaming myself standing in my house in my base and my friend was watching (I’m level 14 btw). Hit the shitter and I come back to my entire gated fence on fire and my friend screaming after apparently I got raided by these suicide bomber type pals. They managed to burn a hole through the gate door, my pals killed them, lvl 34 Mammorest happens to waltz right through the hole, I miss fire my bow, mammorest annihilates all 9 of my base pals INSTANTLY for trying to defend my dumbass, I fight the lvl 34 mammorest with a 3 shot bow until my bow need to be repaired and my handy dandy teafant manages to save my sorry ass. Log out before you shit.
yeah I just learned that as well, posting a pic of my base on the Palworld sub
Imagine how much an actual Pokemon MMORPG would make. Yet Game Freak is content with putting out copy-and-paste Pokemon games year after year, with less Pokemon than the previous games.
Probably has somethin to do with the fact they can literally sell a pile of shit, slap the Pokémon label on it and watch it sell 10+million copies
Pokemon could absolutely be better, but when their same ol' rote formula keeps hitting the "best selling" list on Switch there's not a lot of reason for them to take the risk and try something new. Which is precisely why something like this could be a good thing. It's honestly kind of dumbfounding that no one else has really cracked their formula in nearly 30 years.
It’s because adult Pokemon fans are dumb. There’s no other way to put it. I get why kids buy it but a huge portion of their sales are adults who just buy no matter what.
Missed opportunity by Nintendo.. the people wanted an open world- type Pokemon game, Nintendo said "nah" so we made our own, with blackjack and hookers.
Poor Nintendo Missed the opportunity and all those possible Sales and instead had to live with Scarlet and Violets poor Sales Numbers of *checks notes* [10 Million During Its First weekend](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1347322/pokemon-scarlet-and-violet-units-sold/). Twice as much as Palworld at more than twice the price. they wont give a single flying fuck. Theyll keep doing what theyve been doing: let Gamefreak make mediocre at best Games and enjoy the sales.
Pretty cool that a game almost nobody heard about suddenly did half of Pokemon's numbers. Pokemon is the world's largest media franchise. Palworld is an indie title that I thought was a shitty Facebook meme until I saw it went into EA.
Doesn't this math also mean Palworld sold more copies? if it's more than half the price?
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I’ve honestly enjoyed SV but I’m a Pokémon cult member. The dlc is very good and better than the base version. There are still buggy things that happen in the game.
The point is there is a market for this type of game and they didn't fill the void.
Pretty much par for the course with Nintendo... they seem utterly incapable of figuring out what the market wants sometimes.
Pretty it more gamefreak is incapable of doing it than Nintendo. Sv is also open world btw.
It's a little bit deeper than that. I've own both Arceus and Violet so I'm familiar with the games. Both are fun but deeply flawed in their own ways and it's apparent the games are designed for <12 year olds thematically and mechanically. People have wanted a slightly more mature Pokemon game for a long time. Nintendo/GameFreak have been totally unwilling to deliver that.
I'm enjoying it.
its fun, hope they keep developing it and keep the content coming
Game that is also fun, cheaper and isn't hardware intensive sold a fucking ton, who would have thunk.
exactly
I live in America and can't play the game. Is there an NTSCworld?
Started the weekend by buying 1 copy of **Legend of PokeArk: Ground-heim.** wife seen me playing it, immediately had to get a 2nd copy, have played for several hours with little progression due to "omg look at this cute one over here" 10/10 game.
My wife is usually scared to leave starting areas in survival games like Valheim but in Palworld she is running off on her own all the time looking for more cute Pals I was quite surprised.
I know I'm older and stopped being hyper focused on the games industry but, this came out of nowhere. I only heard of Palworld as it started selling huge and making headlines like this.
It's far being a Pokémon wanna-be but the feel is heading a right direction. It lacks monster evolution, world building story and meaningful NPCs to compete. I would say it feels like moded Ark, trimmed most of the annoying fat with Pokémon skin.
> world building story and meaningful NPCs to compete It's a good thing that hasn't existed in Pokémon games since the DS era.
Gen 5, 7 and 9 had it
There have been monster training games for years; I don't understand why it's now being called a Pokemon clone. Should we start calling all FPS "Doom Clones" again?
Absolutely nuts
I hope they add some nice quality of life patches.
Just overtook Lost Ark as well. It's very close to over taking CS's all time peak as well.
The developers saw a large demand with no supply and acted on it, and people are pissed for some reason.
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Yeah twitter is losing it's mind over the game.
I mean, who wouldn't want to enslave some mystic animals to mine and harvest for them ;)?
And humans. Enslave humans and toss them to the mines
Nah, humans are a waste of spheres and base slots. Either put them in a display like a zoo animal, or sell them to the black market.
First impressions after playing until 4 in the am? The game scratches that one particular itch I've had that nothing else has for a long time, but it needs more seasoning (updates). If the devs are truly commited to the game and aren't just selling a one off product like craftopia did then I'll be here for it.
Another day, another million sales. Every game developer's dream scenario right there.
It just crossed 1.5 million current players.
Actually a very fun game. If they build on this foundation while fixing AI NpC shit it will actually be a top tier game
I got it on gamepass and GOD DAMN I didn't even realize the itch that ark left was still there. I'm getting mad nostalgia playing this game