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Palworld

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Palworld
File:Palworld cover art.jpg
Developer(s)Pocket Pair
Publisher(s)Pocket Pair
Producer(s)Takuro Mizobe[1]
Programmer(s)Hiroto Matsutani[2]
Artist(s)Daiki Kizu[2]
Composer(s)Tatsuya Yano
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
ReleaseJanuary 18, 2024 (early access)
Genre(s)Action-adventure, survival
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Palworld[a] is an action-adventure survival game by Japanese developer Pocket Pair. The game is set in an open world populated with animal-like creatures known as "Pals". The players can battle and capture Pals in order to use them for base building, traversal, and combat. Palworld can be played either solo, or online by up to 32 players on one server. Announced in 2021, it launched via early access for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in January 2024.

The game's comedic premise, which involves using firearms and equipping Pals with them, earned it the nickname "Pokémon with guns". Other elements, such as using creatures for food or placing them to work in mines and factories, have also garnered attention.[3] It was generally well-received, with praise for its gameplay, content, and satirical premise,[4][5][6] but criticism for its reliance on shock humor and use of unoriginal designs and mechanics.[7][8][9][10]

Palworld sold 5 million units in the first three days of early access and reached 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam, making it the third most-played game on the platform.[11][12]

Gameplay

In Palworld, players control a customizable avatar from a third-person perspective with the goal of exploring the open-world Palpagos Islands and uncovering their secrets. Players need to manage their hunger level, craft basic tools, gather materials, and build bases that act as fast travel points. Unlocks through a technology tree allow the player to craft and use weapons, structures, and decorations.[7]

The islands are inhabited by over 100 creatures known as Pals. Players directly engage in combat with Pals in order to weaken them and capture them using "Pal Spheres". Pals can also be bought on the black market through non-player characters or traded with other players.[7] After obtaining Pals, they can be summoned to battle or stationed at the bases to assist with scavenging, crafting, cooking, etc., depending on their type. Each Pal has a Partner Skill, allowing further utility by using them as weapons or mounts.[13]

The game's antagonists are various factions, such as a crime syndicate, a Pal liberation movement, and a police-like island defense force, led by powerful Pal trainers who reside in Towers across the islands and act as the game's main boss battles.[14] The factions have human NPCs who occasionally spawn in the world as well, either patrolling or battling each other, who are hostile to the player and can fight them with weapons. The game features a wanted level system, where if the player commits a crime (usually against humans, such as assault), other human NPCs will become hostile against them and defense force troopers will spawn to attack them, until the player is killed or they evade their pursuers.[15][16]

Development

Palworld is being developed and published by Pocket Pair, an independent company based in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It is their second early access open world survival project, following Craftopia. Like that game, it uses gameplay mechanics reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but adds creature-collecting mechanics popularized by the Pokémon franchise.[17] Pocket Pair claims that Pokémon was not one of their main inspirations. According to CEO Takuro Mizobe, the concept of Palworld is based on Ark: Survival Evolved, which also had monster companions in dinosaurs; the survival mechanics and in-game tasks were inspired by Rust, while the Dragon Quest series influenced the creature designs.[18]

The game uses more original assets than Craftopia, which proved challenging for the team. Early in development, it was decided to move Palworld from Unity, which powered all of Pocket Pair's earlier projects, to Unreal Engine, as they decided it was more suitable for heavier open-world games.[1][19] It was first planned for release in 2022, but the deadline was extended to August 2023 as the scope of the project grew and the company hired more staff, and then once again to support dedicated servers on launch. When the early access began the game was estimated to be 60% complete.[1] In total, the budget exceeded 1 billion yen, and the company hired over 40 additional employees.[19][20]

Release

The game was revealed on June 5, 2021, detailing key features such as survival, crafting, exploration, exploitation of creatures, and the multiplayer focus.[21] More details were shared over the following years, and the game made appearances as part of presentations such as Tokyo Game Show, where Pocket Pair announced the release for Xbox consoles in addition to PC, and Summer Game Fest, where they revealed the January 2024 early access launch window.[22][23]

Palworld was released on January 19, 2024, through Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview (available with Game Pass from day one), where it is expected to remain for at least one year.[24] Planned features for future updates include PvP modes, guild raids, and cross-server Pal trading.[25]

Reception

Pre-release

The game's reveal trailer was met with high engagement on social media and mixed reception, ranging from excitement to disgust.[26] The phrase "Pokémon with guns" was commonly used to refer to the game by both players and journalists.[3][26] Some viewers thought that the game was fake, a sentiment that surprised the development team.[2] It also received some skepticism due to the unfinished state of the developer's earlier work, Craftopia.[27] The satirical tone of promotional material, with references to labor laws and illegal hunting, sparked interest in the game exploring the dark undertones of the creature-collecting genre.[3][26]

Early access

Palworld received mostly positive professional reviews. IGN and PC Invasion praised its fun combat and engaging gameplay loop, with the latter noting the large, albeit somewhat barren, environments being brought to life by different Pals.[4][28] The Escapist described the combat allowing players to fight alongside their Pals against tougher enemies as a high point.[5] PCGamesN called the game "a morbidly compelling descent into creature capitalism", stating that though it had some flaws such as its insistence on ethically-questionable behavior and the unoriginal designs of Pals, its gameplay and the open world made up for it.[10] GameSpot praised the game's mechanics and tone as a "refreshing perspective in a genre so often tripping over itself to present things as joyous and heartfelt", believing it to represent the first time "a creature collector game has owned up to its exploitation-as-gameplay systems."[6]

Conversely, Rock Paper Shotgun and PC Gamer criticized Palworld for relying too heavily on shock humor about animal abuse and sweatshop labor across all facets of gameplay, which PC Gamer derided as "mid-2000s Newgrounds edgelord" and "over-committing to the bit",[9] with Rock Paper Shotgun also arguing the gameplay mechanics and presentation of Pals fundamentally misunderstood the meanings and appeal behind Pokémon and the monster-catching genre.[29] It also attracted some criticism for the unoriginal designs of Pals[8][10] and mechanics lifted from other titles, which VG247 thought undermined a game "worth admiring".[7]

Palworld sold over one million copies in the first 8 hours of early access on January 19, 2024,[30] which rose to two million copies within the first 24 hours,[31] and three million copies within the first 40 hours.[32] The game would end up selling over five million copies within the first three days of early access,[11] at a rate of 86,000 copies per hour.[33] It also reached over 1,500,000 concurrent players,[12] leading to server issues.[34][31]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: パルワールド, Hepburn: Paruwārudo

References

  1. ^ a b c Yokoyama, Keiichi; Amber V (January 23, 2024). "Exclusive interview: Palworld dev talks about game's influences, original assets and the possibilities of a PvP mode". AUTOMATION. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Stewart, Marcus (November 24, 2023). "Creature Feature – Capturing The Curious Story Of Palworld". GameInformer. Archived from the original on January 17, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Almeida, Deborah (July 16, 2022). "Palworld Is Perfect for Gamers Who Wish the Pokémon Universe Was Darker". CBR. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Northup, Travis (January 18, 2024). "Palworld Early Access Review in Progress". IGN. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Berry, Alex (January 19, 2024). "Palworld Is a Refreshing Pokémon Twist on Survival Crafting". The Escapist. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Delaney, Mark. "Palworld Is Refreshingly Comfortable With Being Immoral". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d Raynor, Kelsey (January 19, 2024). "Palworld is more than just 'Pokemon with guns', but not much more". VG247. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Yin-Poole, Wesley (January 19, 2024). "Pokémon Fans Are Coming for Palworld With a Vengeance". IGN. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Carpenter, Lincoln (January 18, 2024). "Palworld could be a delight if it wasn't so invested in being awful". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c "Palworld early access review – a morbid and messy survival game". PCGamesN. January 19, 2024. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Bussell, Cat (January 22, 2024). "Trigger-happy Pokémon-alike Palworld passes 5 million sales and 1.2 million concurrent Steam users". TechRadar. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024. Palworld's official Twitter account also stated that the survival game has sold over five million copies since early access started.
  12. ^ a b Lowry, Brendan, updated January 22, 2024 (January 20, 2024). "Palworld breaks 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam and becomes third most-played game ever, blowing past Lost Ark and Dota 2 [UPDATED]". Windows Central. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Mills, Kiera (January 19, 2024). "The best Pals in Palworld and how to catch them". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  14. ^ Berry, Alex (January 19, 2024). "Where to Find the Rayne Syndicate's Tower in Palworld". The Escapist. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  15. ^ Jurkovich, Tristan (January 20, 2024). "Palworld: 6 Beginner Mistakes To Avoid". Game Rant. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  16. ^ Novichenko, Artur (January 19, 2024). "Palworld: How to Remove Wanted Status". Game Rant. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  17. ^ Delaney, Mark (January 18, 2024). "Palworld Tips And Tricks". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  18. ^ Henley, Stacey (June 9, 2021). "Interview: Palworld Developers Don't Know Why You Think Their Game Is Just Pokemon With Guns". TheGamer. Archived from the original on December 17, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Pocket Pair (Takuro Mizobe) (January 16, 2024). "3日後に命運が決まる、パルワールドという偶然の物語". note.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  20. ^ いわし (January 16, 2024). "ポケットペア『パルワールド』ができるまでの物語公開―"めちゃくちゃ面白いゲームに仕上がった"失敗を乗り越えて辿り着いた"集大成"". Game*Spark (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  21. ^ Romano, Sal (June 5, 2021). "Craftopia studio Pocket Pair announces multiplayer open-world survival crafting game Palworld for PC". Gematsu. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  22. ^ Shubhankar Parijat (September 15, 2023). "Palworld Receives New Gameplay Trailer, Adds Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One Versions". GamingBolt. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  23. ^ Stewart, Marcus (June 8, 2023). "Palworld Catches A January Early Access Launch Date". GameInformer. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  24. ^ Romano, Sal (June 5, 2021). "Palworld launches in Early Access on January 19 for Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC". Gematsu. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  25. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (January 19, 2024). "Palworld Is Already Off to a Huge Start on Steam". IGN. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  26. ^ a b c Colantonio, Giovanni (June 7, 2021). "Pokémon with guns: Indie game Palworld has players up in arms". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  27. ^ Clayton, Natalie (June 8, 2021). "I'm losing my mind at this trailer for open-world Pokémon clone Palworld". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  28. ^ Lambourne, Aidan (January 18, 2024). "Palworld review – Pokemon Survival Evolved". PC Invasion. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  29. ^ Castle, Katharine (January 19, 2024). "Palworld utterly misses the point of being a good Pokémon-like". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  30. ^ Serin, Kaan (January 19, 2024). "Palworld is the latest mega-hit survival game, selling one million copies in its first 8 hours - with "Very Positive" reviews on Steam". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  31. ^ a b Robinson, Andy (January 20, 2024). "Pokémon-style survival game Palworld is a huge hit, with 2m players in 24 hours". Video Game Chronicle. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  32. ^ Palumbo, Alessio (January 21, 2024). "Palworld Sold 3+ Million Units in 40 Hours, Broke 1 Million Concurrent Users on Steam (Surpassing Elden Ring)". Wccftech. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  33. ^ "#Palworld has sold over 4 million copies in only about 3 days! Momentum has increased since yesterday, with the latest sales at 86,000 units per hour. Thank you everyone for playing Palworld!". Twitter. January 21, 2024. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  34. ^ Kennedy, Victoria (January 19, 2024). "Palworld servers struggle as players pile on via Steam". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
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