Palworld

Palworld
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
Engine	Unreal Engine 5[3]
Platform(s)	Windows Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	January 19, 2024 (early access)
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, survival
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Palworld^[a] is an action-adventure, survival, and monster-taming game hybrid created and published 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 was 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.^[4][5] It was generally well received, with praise for its gameplay, content, and satirical premise,^[6][7][8] but criticism for its reliance on shock humor and use of unoriginal designs and mechanics.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Palworld sold eight million units in the first six days of early access and reached over two million concurrent players on Steam, making it the platform's largest paid game by concurrent player count and the second-highest played game of all time.^[13][14]

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.^[9]

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.^[9] 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.^[15]

The game's antagonists are various factions, such as the Rayne 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.^[16] 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.^[17][18]

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.^[19] Pocket Pair said 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.^[20]

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 4,^[21] as they decided it was more suitable for heavier open-world games.^[1] 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.^[21][22] Of particular note among these, the game's character animator was hired, despite having no prior industry experience, after Takuro Mizobe reached out to a hobbyist animator on YouTube who had prior been uploading various combat animation videos and Girls' Frontline fan content;^[21] the game's director applied during a Twitter recruitment run despite already lining up for a position at NetEase;^[21] meanwhile, the main character designer for the Pals was initially rejected during an October 2020 recruitment drive for illustrators, however was hired when she reapplied again in February 2021.^[21]

Release

The game was revealed on June 5, 2021, detailing key features such as survival, crafting, exploration, exploitation of creatures, and the multiplayer focus.^[23] 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.^[24][25]

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.^[26] Planned features for future updates include PvP modes, guild raids, and cross-server Pal trading.^[27]

Reception

Pre-release

The game's reveal trailer was met with high engagement on social media and mixed reception, ranging from excitement to disgust.^[28] The phrase "Pokémon with guns" was commonly used to refer to the game by both players and journalists.^[4][28] 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.^[29] 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.^[4][28]

In Brazil, the game's publicity was boosted by the infamous fact that the pronunciation of "Pal" is similar to "Pau" in Portuguese. "Pau" can mean "wood" but also is sexual slang for penis. Both players and journalists ended up making various puns when talking about the game and the Pals due to the double meaning.^{[30][31][32][33][34]}

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.^[6][35] The Escapist described the combat allowing players to fight alongside their Pals against tougher enemies as a high point.^[7] 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.^[12] 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."^[8]

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",^[11] 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.^[36] It also attracted some criticism for the unoriginal designs of Pals^[10][12] and mechanics lifted from other titles, which VG247 thought undermined a game "worth admiring".^[9]

Palworld sold over one million copies in the first eight hours of early access on January 19, 2024,^[37] which rose to two million copies within the first 24 hours,^[38] three million copies within the first 40 hours,^[39] five million copies by day 3,^[40] six million by day 4,^[41] seven million by day 5,^[42] and eight million by day 6.^[43] It also reached over 1,800,000 concurrent players,^[13] leading to server issues.^[44][38] On January 24, 2024 it reportedly reached over 2,000,000 concurrent players on Steam, becoming the first game since PUBG: Battlegrounds to achieve this feat.^[45]

Pokémon plagiarism allegations

Shortly after release, users on Twitter started noticing similarities in designs between Pals and Pokémon, with a Twitter user claiming to show evidence of plagiarism of game assets.^[46] The CEO of Pocket Pair stated, however, that the character concepts were mostly designed by a single graduate student hired in 2021 following the company's public recruitment run for new illustrators.^[46][21] He also states that the game has cleared legal reviews.^[47]

On January 24, The Pokémon Company issued a statement indirectly citing the game, writing, "we have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024... we intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon."^[48] Pocket Pair's CEO stated that the company has received death threats.^[49][50]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website