Palworld (PC) - Part 1

Developer:

Pocketpair

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Release Date:

Preview 2024

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Systems:

Win, Xbone, Series X|S, PS5, macOS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing quirky Pokémon-inspired survival sim Palworld!

Actually there's no point in me pretending that this is something I've been playing this week, as you can see the version number on the title screen and I'm sure it's had a few updates since then. I wrote the "first draft" of this article back in January and I'm putting quotes around that because what I really mean is 'I wrote notes underneath screenshots and then left my future self to sort it out later'. Because that always works out great!

In my defence, it says "Game Preview" down on the other side of the screenshot, so technically the game isn't even out yet. I'm giving you an early sneak preview of a game in development... that everyone has already seen. Last I checked it was something like the second-highest played game on Steam.

A lot of people were a bit wary of this when it was announced, with its trailer full of Pokémon and assault rifles, and I can understand why they'd suspect it was going to be a bit of a janky mess. But I've actually played a bit of Pocketpair's previous game, Craftopia, so I went into this knowing that it was going to be a janky mess. I really liked Craftopia though; it was full of so much stuff and so many ideas, and it was weirdly endearing how none of it quite worked right.

Oh, before I start I need to mention that the desktop icon just says 'Pal' and that's adorable. Though I assume the original Japanese version would be labelled 'NTSC'.

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The game features four difficulty modes, but if you want you can switch to 'Custom' difficulty and go wild. Look at all these options! You can really fine-tune the experience you want out of the game.

No me though. When I'm writing about a game I always put it on the most default normal setting, to give me a fighting chance to determine how difficult it is compared to other games. Also a fighting chance in general.

After sorting out my options the first thing I got to do was name the world.

Craftopia (PC)

This came as a bit of a relief to be honest, as the first thing I did in Craftopia was destroy the world and I don't need that kind of guilt.

After that I got to make a character, which I always appreciate, even if the character creator is a bit limited.

There are a fair number of preset faces, some interesting eye designs, a few hairstyles, and all the colours you could want, but there's no way to rearrange your protagonist's features with sliders.

Also, I made an effort to come up with the most ridiculous-looking character design I could, but then it turned out that I needn't have bothered, as you get that every single time you press the 'random' button.

Seriously, the chances of getting something halfway normal out of this editor by random chance is pretty low.

Alright then, I'm going to do the opposite and go with average-sized arms, average-sized legs... just a really boring character in general.

Oh damn, that's cutest jump scare imaginable.

These adorable cartoon animals discovered my custom created protagonist lying unconscious on the beach among the flotsam of a wrecked boat and I'm pretty sure they weren't about to eat them. Not after they realised they were alive at least.

My character got up, found a tablet showing a mysterious message "The towers are the key... the tree holds the truth," and headed inland.

Whoa, that's the kind of view you want to see when you're starting a game. I definitely don't regret putting the graphics on full and Pocketpair probably didn't regret moving from Unity to Unreal Engine 4 during production. Hey is that the tree from Secret of Mana?

Alright, I've got a set of goals in the top right corner so I'm going to start ticking them off.

Goal number 1: read the Survival Guide. Actually it says 'Open the menu and check the guide', no reading required, so that'll take no time at all.

Goal number 2: Activate a Great Eagle Statue to unlock fast travel. This shouldn't be much trouble either, as there's one down there in front of me. Assuming it's not an Unremarkable Pigeon Statue, I'm not very good at recognising birds.

I also met 'Expedition Survivor' nearby who seems to be having a bad time. It turns out that these Pokémon creatures do actually eat people, so I should bear that in mind. If only someone could tame a Pal, they might stand a chance...

The dude did help me out a bit, putting 10 wood in my backpack. So it's one of those games and I need to gather a lot more resources. I also need to build a workbench and research the ability to craft Pokéballs. The game calls them Pal Spheres, but I don't think Nintendo's lawyers saw much difference.

It seems that every time I level up I get another row of technologies to unlock, and I've got 7 technology points to spend so I can unlock the entire second row right now.

I'm getting blueprints for a Palbox, a Pal Sphere, a campfire, a storage box and a workbench. There's also a wooden structure set, which contains plans for all the walls and floors I need in order to build a basic wooden house.

I can't make a wooden house without wood though, so I'm going to punch this tree down. It's a genre tradition.

Actually I'm going to pause, go in the menu, and turn off 'vibration' to stop my Xbox pad from dancing on the shelf with every hit. Then I'm going to start punching the tree.

I think I'll start my empire right here, in the area just below the Eagle Statue and the Expedition Survivor. There's plenty of space, lots of trees nearby, and there are cliffs either side to make me feel less exposed.

This ghostly structure is my new workbench project. I've scavenged enough resources so all I need to do now is hold down the build button for a while and wait until it's finished. Next I decided to build a club, which required more button holding. I could've made a torch, but I think I'll be careful with fire until I'm sure I can't accidentally burn all my new wooden stuff down.

Alright, now that I'm armed I can go out into the grass and start catching some wild creatures.

But now I'm looking at this adorable harmless friendly little sheep Pal thinking 'Why the hell would I ever choose to club it over the head?' I know that I have to weaken the creatures first before I throw a Pal Sphere to collect them, but I don't want to!

Oh hang on, the text says that I have unused Stat Points. I can put off walloping these woolly Lamballs for a moment while I deal with that.

I've got five stats to increase, but they're not increased equally. Putting a point into Health takes it from 500 to 600, while putting a point into Attack takes it from 100 to 102. So I will never be doing that.

I'll upgrade my carrying capacity by putting a point into Weight, that's never a bad idea.

Alright, I've caught a Cattiva and I didn't even to hurt the little creature first! I threw the sphere, it hovered for a bit with the creature struggling to get out, and once it was fully encircled with colour the job was done. I even got a bit of description text to tell about my new friend. Seems that having it on my team gives me an extra +50 to my carrying capacity, so I love him already.

So now I've learned that it's best to throw the ball at a creature's back for a bonus chance of success. I've also learned that it's very easy to accidentally hit the 'throw sphere' button when I'm not aiming at anything and my character will just toss it away. These things cost precious minerals, I can't be wasting them like this!

Oh no, the poor sheep! Things did not go how I wanted this time.

I went after a Lamball next, but my captured Cattiva is following me around and I didn't realise it was going to be so aggressive. When I attacked the the creature it joined in and beat the Lamball to death! Now the Lamball's body is rolling down the hill into a river and all I got out of it was wool and meat.

Hang on, the game's telling me to craft clothing before it gets dark and I just realised that I've got a half-empty food meter. I'm going to need to figure out how to eat soon or else I'll be in trouble.

My next level up got me the third technology tier, which means that I was able to unlock Cloth to solve the clothing problem. I raced back to the workbench to start making some, but it requires 2 wool, so things don't look good for the local Lamballs.

On the plus side, I can also make proper tools for mining and chopping trees, so harvesting resources just got a little quicker.

Alright I got the wool before night time and I made the cloth. I can't wear it through, not even as a blanket, as it's a just a material used to craft actual clothes.

Trouble is I don't know how! Do I need to build a clothing workbench? Do I need to research clothes? And how the hell do I eat food? In most of these games I usually drag it to the item bar and use it from there, but there is no item bar in this. There are food slots on my inventory screen, but I can't put the food there. I managed to play Don't Starve without ever starving, I am not going to let hunger get me in Palworld.

I'm not entirely surprised that my first real challenge in the game is figuring out the basics, as that seems to be how it goes with crafting survival games. But the screen is actually icing up here, so if I can't make clothes to keep me warm I need to start figuring out a plan B. Like actually reading the Survival Guide.

I crafted a torch and it works as a heat source! So my character won't be freezing to death tonight at least. Hunger is still a concern.

Next morning I should go out and chop enough trees to build a house, or a fire at least. Then I can sleep in a nice warm bed, safe from being eaten in the night. Hopefully.

I should also keep an eye out for stuff on the ground like stones, as every little helps. I'm a long way from filling up my inventory here.

Wow, picking up a stone got me just enough XP to hit the next level up, which added 'Cloth Outfit' to the tech tree! So that's why I couldn't make it before.

There are 60 of these tiers, so that's a lot of level ups and a lot of craftable items. No wonder they added a search tool.

I've also figured out food! All I need to do is right-click on the food in my inventory and I eat it, it's that simple. Though I can make it more complicated by cooking it on my new bonfire. Hunger isn't my favourite game mechanic, so I hope it's not going to become an annoyance. Durability is already making itself a pain as my club just broke. Who even breaks a club? They're designed for cavemen to use! They're solid durable devices.

Oh, I also put down this Feed Box for my Pals. Look at all that delicious fruit! I don't even know how it got there, all I put inside the thing were some berries I found growing around my base.

With the food situation taken care of I moved to my next goal: building a workforce of loyal minions. I put a Palbox down and used it to assign my buddy Cattiva to work on the base. Now he's running around on his own finding stuff to mine! I love the guy, he's awesome.

Oh now the game tells me how to eat food!

Alright, I built two squares of wooden floor, added four regular walls, a window block and a door block, placed a the roof on the top and now I'm choosing where to put the Shoddy Bed. Building structures is all very intuitive, though maybe I'm just saying that because I've built a lot of settlements in Fallout 4 recently.

Thankfully the walls appeared straight away without me having to hold the button down and wait for construction to finish, but this bed is going to take some button holding. I like it better when you can start tasks going and then come back later to find them done, like in Stardew Valley.

Go Cattiva, you little hero! He saw I was making a box and ran over to do it for me. Oh buddy, you are earning your box full of pineapples today. I'm so happy I threw a ball at you.

Though I do have to remember to build him his own bed now that he's living on the base, or else he'll get stressed. Hang on, what does that say on the left?

Is this something I need to be concerned about? Am I going to have to get my club out? Should I set up the password-locked security door on my new house? Seriously, that's a thing it has. I guess it's for multiplayer.

It was a travelling merchant, selling all kinds of stuff I can't craft myself (yet)! This could've been my chance to stock up on wool to so I can finally make clothes, but it costs money and I don't have any.

There's no way around this, I'm just going to have to go out and find some Lamballs, and then I'm going to have to hit them with a stick until they give me the wool I need. One way or the other.

SOME PAL HUNTING LATER

Alright I've captured some Lamballs and one of them is hard at work crafting my cloth armour for me. You wouldn't think a sheep would be good at making elaborate RPG clothing, especially as they're too short to see the over the top of the workbench, but I guess we'll see.

I should get them cooking some food as well. When my character tried it she ended up with a frying pan stuck to her arm! There's a proper bug for you.

Okay, what's next on the checklist?

The game's actually got two sets of goals on the top right: Journey objectives, which progress me through the game, and Mission objectives, which tell me what I need for the next base upgrade. Each upgrade allows me to assign an extra Pal to the workforce and gives me the next set of Missions.

I'm almost done with this task list, but I need to build a Berry Plantation. That's easy enough and I've got plenty of seeds for it, but it doesn't seem like I've got any Pals with the abilities needed to water it afterwards. I love how my crew gets on with their tasks passively, and they're so cute and satisfied when they complete a job, but my team is missing some crucial skills. No one's chopping any trees down, for example.

This is easily solved though. I just have to go out and catch new Pal types until I find one that has the abilities I need in order to expand my operation.

There's more to find in the world than just Pals, trees and rocks. I've been stumbling across treasures chests and effigies and journals.

This particular journal features the crucial lore that explains why they're called Pals. Though its info is a bit out of date as I already re-christened this place 'Super Adventures Island' at the start of the game.

Damn, here's another visitor to my base. I was really worried for a moment that she'd step on my house, and that'd be the end of it, but she's just walking around the outside for now. I think I'm just going to leave her alone, because I don't need any of my hardworking Pals leap to my defence and die as heroes.

Anyway, look I've finally got the cloth armour! My fluffy helpers have honoured the sacrifice of their fallen siblings and used their wool to create a pretty elaborate new outfit for me. Now I can go out at night without freezing, though now that I have a nice warm bed do I really want to?

Right, what's next? Making a parachute? What is this, Breath of the Wild?

That tablet I picked up at the start of the game said "the towers are the key" and I'm seeing something that looks a lot like a tower in the distance over there. Right now though I'm still focusing on my checklist.

I thought the game was being a bit excessive telling me to get 5 Lamballs, but now it wants me to get 30 creatures to increase my player level. Fortunately I remembered to craft some Pal Spheres before heading out this time. There's been a few times where I left without them, probably because I can barely see the number on the bottom right.

There's a Great Eagle fast travel point ahead, which should make getting out here a little easier in future... just as soon as I figure out how the fast travel system works.

Damn, I just assumed that if I jumped into water I'd be able to swim across to the other side and grab that effigy. Unfortunately swimming costs stamina and I don't seem to have enough left in the tank to jump back out again. My character just won't step up onto that bit of land.

Well the bad news is she drowned and dropped all her stuff, including that cloth outfit that took so long to make and all the Pal Spheres. The good news is that she respawned back at base! So I should be able to come back and pick it all up again... from the deadly water.

Hmm, that could be a problem.

Hey, if this map is accurate then the game's put my dropped loot on the land next to the water. That's very considerate of it.

I still have to walk all the way back over there though, because I don't know if there's a way to fast travel to a Great Eagle Statue from my base. Actually, why don't I just look this up and save myself some frustration?

Aha, I can use the base's Palbox as a fast travel point! Man, this thing does all kind of stuff, it really is the heart of my HQ. Unfortunately I can only have the one and buildings decay if they're constructed too far from it, so I can't construct a second outpost... yet.

Here you go Cattiva, my first and favourite Pal, have a pat on the head for being such a hard worker, even when you're sick. Doing this made hearts appear over him but I'm not sure it's really cheered him up. I need to research a way to treat him properly and for that I need level ups.

Oh, I solved the wool problem by the way. Now I've got a little farm where the sheep hang out and produce wool on their own without any need for me to smack them over the head with a club. But I don't think there's any way to play this game as a pacifist, not if you want to make progress. I need to get better at fighting, maybe expand my arsenal with a bow. Then I need to go out and capture or subdue... the Alpha Chillet.

I don't actually know what a Chillet is, but that sounds a like a boss fight to me, and I think I can predict how this is going to go. It's going to go badly.

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART TWO

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Next time it's the conclusion of my Palworld adventure as I go fighting bosses and see what that gets me.

Thanks for reading, by the way! I know I haven't been updating as often as I should, but that's just because doing things is hard and takes ages.