I hope Game Freak sees this as a wake up call. People will kill for a Pokemon game with a little innovation.
Why would they? It takes effort to make something innovative. They can make buckets of money by doing nothing. They might make more, but it’s going to cost a lot more too.
This game literally cost 6 million though, that’s nothing to the Pokemon company.
Pokemon Arceus had a little innovation. The thing is: a little innovation after decades of doing the same thing is like a textbook example of “too little, too late”.
Also Pokémon Arceus was still empty and boring
So is Palworld if you played it. The island kinda lacks cohesion
Yeah. But it’s also put together by a group of misfits that barely cobbled a game together. Not a decades long gaming empire.
" He built it in a cave, with spare parts!"
It’s also worth noting, that this is an early access game.
Not even remotely the same level of empty. In Palworld there’s 10-100x times the density of creatures and resources. Plus Palworld just looks better than Pokemon Arceus and also doesn’t resort to fog to hide things popping into existence
Oh we wanna use graphics as an argument? Guess I should play Ark survival instead
Ok? Then go play Ark and leave the rest of us alone
I don’t think that GameFreak will see this as a wake up call. And even if it does, it might not do the necessary changes to Pokémon main series.
The stagnation runs deeper. It is partially caused by inertia (“we’re selling well, why bother innovating?”), but also by GF’s insistence on making the main series story-driven instead of gameplay-driven. Even if story-driven Pokémon goes a lot against the franchise’s biggest strength - a wide, unique, and immersive universe to explore.
Except Palworld is insanely popular with essentially no story…
That’s the point. Pokemon could be successful in the same way but they’re saying Game Freak doesn’t want to change how they do things.
Shouldn’t they have learned the lesson from Pokémon Go? That had absolutely no story that I was aware of.
That wasn’t made by Game Freak, that was Niantic.
So? They proved first no one gives a shit about story
Because it’s gameplay-driven.
There’s no Rotom bossing you around. No “sit down you player, as we tell you what’s supposed to be your story”. No unnecessary broken bridges forcing story linearity. The story that you see in this sort of game is the one that you build as you interact with the game, not the one that the developer wants you to watch.
Yeah really goes to show just how massive this market is, and how horribly game freak has whiffed here
People will kill for a pokemon game that doesn’t release broken as hell from bugs. Crazy idea I know
They’re probably finding out all the ways to sue PalWorld in.
People like cathing cool animals and do thing with them valling it a pokemon like game is just weird. No one called pokemon final fantasy with animals.
It’s actually pretty good. there’s a little jank but a lot of heart. I was surprised to see that Every pal had battle, working, eating, and petting animations.
There’s a glitch where you can tame the bosses too - and even those have animations.
Are you sure it’s a glitch?
I thought that’s intentional.
I believe they’re talking about the Boss Pals like Zoe and Grizzbolt
I still doubt it is a glitch
You have to get the police after you, go into the boss battle tower and get the police to shoot the boss, bugging it out and freezing it, then you can catch it with the basic ball immediately.
It has like 90k health (which is extremely high for that level) and keeps Zoe riding on the back, if you let it out and return it to the ball, Zoe will remain floating in that spot indefinitely.
It is most certainly a glitch.
Fair enough, I havent finished that boss yet, I just kind of figured itd be capturable like the everything else.
Yeah, this one is seemingly the only special one I’ve come across so far.
You can butcher any pal…
You can butcher anything that goes in a pal ball.
The syndicate thug gave me gold and ammo when butchered
Why would you butcher that cute little fella
But at the same time, you do not need to butcher anything. I did find it amusing how the animation for butchering has heavy mosaic censoring though.
and this doesn’t even include any of the GamePass players, right?
The game wouldn’t run for me on GamePass, crashes every 15 seconds… so I guess I’ll on Steam.
I think it’s only steam.
It runs on steam, i host a server and sometimes got some big old frame drops. Otherwise it runs pretty well for me.No it’s on Gamepass. I downloaded but haven’t played yet
It’s about the statistics from this post. And these only consider the steam players. :)
I have a minor conspiracy theory about the Game Pass launch: it almost seems like they made the game pass version intentionally worse/buggier. Still had fun gameplay but lacking features that a lot of people want, some odd oversights (e.g. no menu to quit the game in the PC game pass build, have to alt+F4) and more stability issues. That gives people a chance to try it, find out they like the game, learn it’s better on steam, and then buy it there.
That’s exactly what happened with my entire friend group (we also wanted a Private server for more people and persistent world regardless of who is online, which GP version can’t do currently).
Rationally, I recognize that it’s probably a matter of the build being different, limitations when running in the Microsoft ecosystem (though other games are about to connect to private servers, even if it’s less straightforward) and the GP version is primarily for console (runs on PC as well, but the menu screens feel like console ones). But it certainly didn’t hurt their sales that the Steam version was clearly better.Apparently the GamePass version is like 4 updates behind the Steam version. According the the developer this is because of Microsoft’s certification process taking multiple weeks
I’ve been playing it for a while now, quite fun. It reminded me of tech modpacks that incorporated Pixelmon in Minecraft, although this is much more refined. It has much less of a Pokemon vibe as people give it credit for. Other than mounts, you have no control of what abilities your pal uses, and it is much less focused on paper-rock-scissors and more on the terrain and damage delivery because of its real-time FPS nature,
I wonder if it runs good on the steam deck
Friend of mine joined my server from his steam deck, and was using the deck dock to a 52" TV, said it was running beautifully.
30fps on lows from what I remember seeing others post. Allegedly there is a mod to help performance on Deck, too
Lmao
30 fps on medium, 40-50 fps on low. Honestly not too bad.
Is it not a joke? I’m on another steam deck group where asking this question turned into a joke…
Could you explain the joke? I don’t get it
On every game platform community I’m privy to, asking if pal world runs on x system is a troll move…
I honestly don’t understand how people saw this slop and all just threw their wallets at it. The only way I can cope with this beating fucking Counter Strike is that it’s “Adult Pokemon” premise was too interesting to pass up. I can’t imagine it’ll be like this in a month or several. As an outsider this is beyond bizarre to watch. Maybe PETA got to me but it turns my stomach watching people gleefully butcher and enslave Pokemon.
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Yep! Clearly I’m in the minority thinking it’s distasteful to take innocent, bright, goofy looking creatures that resemble the childhood characters most of us grew up with and literally fucking slaughtering them with a butcher knife for soup. I’d rather shoot unnamed terrorist #32 in his terrorizing face. Correct.
If the game wasn’t also low effort slop that’s borderline an asset flip with how many designs they’ve stolen, I’d probably tolerate it more but I’m awestruck so many people are eating this trash up and celebrating it.
I really hope you’ve taken a breather inbetween your internet raging to realize the “violent” aspects of this game are completely optional. It’s tastefully done, and absolutely no different than killing Minecraft cows for food. Are you a vegetarian when you play Minecraft?
If the game wasn’t also low effort slop that’s borderline an asset flip with how many designs they’ve stolen, I’d probably tolerate it more but I’m awestruck so many people are eating this trash up and celebrating it.
If you’re going to parrot stuff you heard off Twitter, the least you can do is verify it for yourself first. The designs aren’t stolen. Did they steal 3D models? No. Are they shamelessly similar? Yes. But that’s allowed, and it’s been a staple of the gaming industry for 30 years. We literally call other genres of shamelessly similar games by the games they copy. Soulslikes. Roguelikes. Metroidvanias.
You clearly haven’t tried this game. It’s not “slop,” it’s high effort, there is a ton of attention to detail, and the success it has gotten is absolutely earned. I’ve never seen an indie game get so much right.
It beat Baldur’s Gate 3 on Steam. It has more players than the 2023 Game of the Year.
Steam is filled with trash low effort games, yes. But are you really so full of yourself that you think Palworld would sell this well if it were just another shovelware title? If it were “slop?” Grow up, please.
And let’s not forget the franchise you’re defending. THIS is slop:
Are you a vegetarian when you play Minecraft?
Not taking position, but for example Dead Cells offers a diet option, where you can choose the type of “food” (healing collectibles) you find scattered across the levels. I find that it’s an interesting and fun option to offer players.
Are you a vegetarian when you play Minecraft
Forget Minecraft, are they vegetarian? It would be peak hypocrisy to be so concerned about how people treat pixel animals and not care how real life animals are treated.
“low effort” lol Not to mention they made an entire game to prepare for palworld…
I’m 100% convinced craftopia was a testbed for the mechanics they wanted in palworld lol
Are you this mad at pokemon too? They obscure all of this, but the premise is the same…
Oh the premise is the same but the difference is I can’t go stab my Pikachu, cut it up, then turn it into soup because I got bored. Pokemon still has kid gloves on it to where nobody dies, injuries are superficial, and everything gets better with a visit to a special building. Palworld shatters that and goes “Hey, fellow psychopaths, you can now enslave and butcher all those friendly creatures you grew up with!” like all of us were just fucking drooling at the chance to murder cute animals. Clearly I’m the weird one because I never grew up thinking the Pokemon should be killable.
The uniformed virtue signaling is strong with this one…
All of the “butchering” is optional. Believe me, the game makes it much easier to set up a berry patch that auto-feeds everything in your base, rather than manually butchering everything.
And… Normal Pokemon is enslaving as well. You’re literally catching them and forcing them to fight each other to the brink of death. Just to recycle the rhetoric of the crazies 20-25 years ago. It’s akin to dog fighting. You’re also a child in Pokemon…
Come on, at least try to make a good argument.
Yeah imagine still playing counterstrike on the same 3 maps and guns for 20 years and spend 1000 dollars on a cool knife.
Do people riding horses gross you out too, or really on dogs to find injured people in accidents? Animals have had jobs with people throughout history.
Do you not fight wolves, attack dogs, dragons, and other animals on any other game you’ve played?
You don’t have to butcher your pals. There is no in game need for it. You have pals, v you pretty them and feed them and provide them needs and they help you cut a tree down. Sometimes they don’t feel like it and they just don’t do it. What’s the problem?
Careful, the palworld circle jerk machine is in full effect here.
Ah, the classic “people that disagree with me are circlejerking” defense
I typically associate a circlejerk as a bunch of people who really like something not being open to outside critique and I’ll keep it a buck that’s exactly what I’ve experienced from the Palworld crowd.
Calling something “slop” isn’t a critique, and people downvoting it aren’t circlejerking
Calling it slop is shorthand for the critique, friend. I’m sure you’re familiar with the term?
The game is a basic, watered down, cheap, imitation of something better. In this case, Pokemon and Ark. The developers had a small budget, have a history of ripping off other games, and is succeeding only off the novelty of the concept “Pokemon with guns” and “Adult Pokemon with slavery!”. There is no depth, no substance, it’s a sandbox they cobbled together and all of you lined up for your yummy slop and now defend it because god forbid you take a step back from the group circlejerk to analyze what it is you’re beating it to.
You’ll have post nut clarity in a couple months. Once you all get your fill a new game will take it’s place. Among Us, Valheim, Fall Guys, PUBG, H1Z1, Fuck even Lethal Company which I’d consider pretty damn good. They’re games that have massive surges but ultimately fall off. No staying power. They’re not a Fallout: New Vegas with memes almost everyone can relate with (some exceptions with Among Us). They’re not Counter Strike that keep people logging in and have a highly competitive community. They’re not Warframe that develop their game in cool new ways to bring old players back. They’re not Elden Ring with a story rich world hand crafted with quiet whispers of deeper lore scattered around. They’re definitely not Baldur’s Gate 3 with some of the most unique companions and interactions that have created memories which will last for years to come.
It’s slop. A flash in the pan. Tasteless grool to tide you over until the next bowl, then the next, until someone makes another good game worth remembering. Worth talking about.
“could I possibly be wrong?
No, it’s a circle jerk…”
Maybe PETA got to me but it turns my stomach watching people gleefully butcher and enslave Pokemon.
So you gleefully play terrorism stimulator the game?
I’m anti-war and anti-guns, I play a lot of war games and shooters. It’s a game.
You really don’t see how “killing bad guys doing bad things” is a lot easier to stomach than walking up to a Miltank eating grass and blowing it’s head off with a shotgun?
There’s a way you do violence with cute characters and it’s fucking called Pokemon. It’s called Slime Rancher. I don’t know who the fuck asked for Happy Tree Friends: The Game but congrats, you got it.
You really don’t see how “killing bad guys doing bad things” is a lot easier to stomach than walking up to a Miltank eating grass and blowing it’s head off with a shotgun?
Unless you’re on the terrorist team, sneaking up on an agent doing his job and blowing his head off with a shotgun.
You’ve drawn a weird line in the sand here: shooting semi-realistic looking people with a gun and seeing their blood splatter? That’s fine. Shooting a cartoon with a gun until it falls over? THE HORROR!
Are you up in arms over Zelda? Mario? There’s no blood or dismemberment, they just fall to the ground. “Unconscious” if that helps you release the death grip from your pearls.
You clearly have no idea how the game actually behaves and have invented something you can be upset about. There are lots of videos of gameplay, please find me an example of the violence you find unacceptable.