Sorry if this is redundant, I didn’t see another thread focused on reactions to the game itself (just the Pokemon-ripoff news cycle).
I tried it on GamePass thinking, why not - might as well see how overhyped it is. And unexpectedly, I put in about 8 hours this weekend.
Despite some rough edges and some very clear inspiration, I am actually enjoying it. It has a very satisfying gameplay feedback loop and is an overdue (if involuntary) “modernization” of the basic monster-collector format.
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The gameplay is very good up until level 40 and is definitely one of the more complete early access games.
So far I have not encountered any game breaking bugs, but the game itself does have tons of jank.
Now I am currently level 47, and can say that leveling from 40 to 50 is a hella grind and takes a lot of time and resources. Mainly time, as getting end game pokeballs takes a massive amount of resources that only pals can harvest, process, and then craft.
Also, the end game bosses are quite beefy and hit like a truck.
That’s good to know. I haven’t felt the grind yet (level 20) but maybe level 40-something is where the devs’ early access content plateaued.
For end game, how do you think the spheres feel? Cause I swear to god the ultra and legend spheres have bugged capture rates; no way I am getting the percentages those things advertise.
Lol, I know what you mean. Those legendary spheres say like 80-90% but it feels like a coin flip most of the time. I have had so many fail at like 95%.
I also noticed they tend to tick slower.
For what it’s worth, if you customize the difficulty of your game (which you can do at any point, including after reaching the 40s), you can change most things, including resource drop rates and how much effort it takes to mine them, xp rates, Pal encounter rates, capture rates, etc.
I had a similar experience as you; by the time I hit 42 or so, I had the capture power maxed out, and most eggs were not giving me anything interesting, and I had the whole map revealed, so exploring had lost its luster and I was not enjoying the thought of grinding out another 6-8 levels to start being able to tackle some of the harder challenges in the game; I set the XP rate to x4, and doubled the resource rates, and it pretty much solved the problem for me.
Obviously if you’re playing on a server this isn’t an option, but if it’s just your own single player game, consider trying it; you might find some settings that smooth it out for you.
yes id recommend turning on double resources or you will go mad mining thousands of ore and coal
If you build a base on/near a bunch of ore nodes and dedicate it entirely to mining your pals will mine it for you and it respawns daily (passive ore generation ftw!!!)
There is a fairly nice base location near the center of the map that has ~6 coal and ~6 ore nodes, and is on a plateau making it functionally immune to NPC raids. I found it completely accidentally; there’s the 3 wildlife sanctuaries around the outside of the map and they all face inward at different angles, so I was trying to triangulate where they were “pointing” to see if it was leading somewhere. Turns out it was leading to a sweet base location.
This is noteworthy because there’s 4 resources (ore, coal, sulfur and quartz), so you need a base with access to 2 of them if you want to have all 4 generating passively.
I’ve been having a blast. I’ve played other survival games but they rarely feel interesting to me, I haven’t delved this deep into since Conan Exiles (which now that I think about it also has a mechanic of capturing people to work/defend your base)
There are a few issues I’ve had. The worst are when playing on a dedicated server, I often lose connection and I load back in under the world. The worst is when offline my pals are unable to care for themselves and they’re all weakened and depressed when I log back on, the only solution right now is to put them back in the box before logging off.
Not really. There’s a ton of other survival games I’d rather play, and the game’s progression feels like it’s deliberately just fast enough to keep me from closing it. After 8 hours or so I closed and uninstalled because it feels engaging enough to play, but not enough to be anything but chores.
The boss battles suck, the crafting has arbitrary timers to it. I just really don’t find it fun at all.
I love monster collection games, and I enjoy survival, but this definitely isn’t for me.
I’m still not sure if I’m just enjoying exploring a new world and gameplay style.
I actually agree that the game progression is just fast enough to not close it - but it’s really interesting way of putting it, because to me, that would be a great sign that the devs had properly calibrated how to keep the player interested and keep you feeling like “just ten more minutes” for hours.
Someone said above you can customise the game. Including exp and resource drops.
So it seems you can modify the game to your liking. Which is a really cool feature that most games lack.
I’ve got a feeling that the legal issues, even if they’re in the clear, are going to pose a lot of problems for the longevity of the game. But, I’m really hopeful that this sparks inspiration for other devs to take on the monster collecting genre. Pokemon has dominated that space for so long that they practically define the genre at this point, so it’ll be nice to see new monster collectors come out with their own unique styles.
So far Pocketpair has been VERY careful about actually infringing on copyright or trademarks. People smarter than I am are pretty certain that if Nintendo or the Pokemon Company could take legal action against the game as it is, they would have already. The important things to note are that you cannot copyright an art style and you cannot copyright or patent game mechanics. And even if things were touch and go, the gameplay loop of adding survival elements and an emphasis on cooperative guild base management is pretty transformative compared to Pokemon games. So as long as they avoid adding pals that are so close to their Pokemon counterparts that they don’t pass the squint test they will be alright.
Agreed, all of the ‘drama’ surrounding this possible copyright case is largely created by youtubers and tiktokers for views.
That said, Nintendo WILL probably sue but as a formality to protect their brand, and will gracefully pay Pocket Pair’s legal fees as a cost of business once the court rules in Pocket Pair’s favor to keep their copyrights from lapsing to generic use. It’s not uncommon.
Not doing that is how Bayer lost the copyright for ‘Asprin’ in the U.S.
Now if a ton of people refer to Pals as Pokemon the same way people refer to all tissues as Kleenex, THEN they might legitimately run the risk of losing their copyright and will pursue aggressively but I don’t see that happening.
There is no legal issue, Nintendo is suing as a formality to protect their existing copyrights. They’ll be ruled against and shrug their shoulders and pay Pocket Pair’s legal fees because that is a much better business decision than risking losing their copyright to their existing creatures.
If they don’t aggressively protect their copyright, the JCO might just rule that they have become generic and common use like how Bayer lost the trademarked name ‘Asprin’ in the U.S. when it was considered common use and Bayer did not pursue it aggressively.
But that doesn’t make good youtube poop or memes so you probably think this is some kind of hotly contested hullabaloo because of where you are getting your info from.
I have been playing the ever loving fuck out of it any chance I get.
It is like a mix between Dark Souls, Pokemon, Death Stranding and Return to Moria. I love all of those things.
Is there jank? Sure, but not enough to harm my gameplay.
I’ve felt legit nervous facing some of the bigger higher level Pals, and the exploration is very well designed and always engaging.
It’s good but as a fan of survival games like Minecraft, Rust, Valheim and Grounded it leaves a lot to be desired in that aspect of the game. It feels really early access (which yeah I guess it is so I’ll concede on that) and feature non-complete. With that being said, I’m still coming back to it and enjoying it.
P.S. I’m also on gamepass and have sunk a few hours into cloud gaming as well and it’s pretty good. As soon as Microsoft start adding something like native upscaling to xbox cloud gaming they’re gonna be on a whole other level of playability.
I have about 45 hours in it so far, and I’m still loving it. It’s just really up my alley.
Yes, though it’s mostly been my partner that has been playing! She’s gotten into a gameplay loop of gearing up, heading to the furthest teleport point, exploring until she finds the next, and coming back to re-equip and work on the base stuff. mid-30s level I think, the base is pretty neat too
It’s still in my wishlist, I have not palyed it yet. Good to know you liked it!
The trailer looked uninteresting so I didn’t try it.
Hosted a multiplayer world and didn’t have any serious issues, but according to everyone else playing with me it was laggy as shit (and I’m kown for having the best internet in my group)
Despite trying I never got Into pokemon as a kid so my judgment isn’t worth much in that regard, but it’s still very much an unfinished game, as everyone buying it should know in advance.
It was fun but I probably never would have bought it without friends to play it with, and I probably won’t launch it again until it’s far more complete.
almost 50 hours at this point. Its perfect game for having music or videos playing in the other window. Played both Single and Multiplayer. I’m a bit burnt out with whats available, but considering I played Ark back when it first was released, and that game makes me feel like having to go to a job I absolutely hate, Palworld so far has been enjoyable, looking forward to seeing updates.
Having fun so far. Only reached lv 10 so it’s just tutorial stuff. Can’t wait until I have a regiment of chickens with muskets
Enjoying it a lot, maybe ~12h in or so?
I put about 30h into Valheim and this feels like it will play out a similar way. I’ll have a blast for a concentrated time, maybe play with a friend or two, then find something else. I thought the mishmash of realistic world and cute cartoony monsters would clash but it’s working for me. Just starting to see the loop of automation and what to look for in a second base. It has a charming amount of jank attached to it.
I spent most of my time yesterday rebuilding my base after one of those grass elephants attacked us for no obvious reason, then a bunch of WAY higher level Relaxasaurus raided alongside the elephant and burned my base down.
I actually bought it, tried it for a bit, and then refunded it.
It just felt kinda bland? Not sure if this is just because I wasn’t in in the right headspace, but the game got to the point where I started collecting resources in a base and I just put the game down.
It’s like they got a generic survival game and added not-pokemon and guns to it for shock factors, without really considering gameplay cohesion.
The real reason I refunded it though is because, according to someone on Bluesky, the devs have a history of being NFT and genAI shills. I’d rather not get emotionally invested in mons that could just become NFTs or AI puppets.
Very interested in a future game where someone else takes the idea and actually has the passion to create a good 3D mon catching game. Clearly it’s something the market wants.
The generative AI and NFT concerns were overblown. His generative AI comment was from his other game, AI art imposter which has AI in the title. For crypto stuff, it’s likely because his company just chases trends. Say what you will about that, but to me a trend chaser is more innocuous than a grifter.
I wish this were an article/column, but it’s a brief video if you want a journalist’s perspective: https://youtu.be/mYBN5Er8qOs
