Where on earth did Palworld appear from? One moment everybody’s talking about Fortnite, the next, nobody can stop going on about the new Pokémon-with-guns sensation that's sweeping the nation.
Much to everybody’s surprise, it’s also not a blockbuster AAA release; instead, this is a small indie title released by Japanese video game developer Pocketpair, not affiliated in any way with Pokémon or indeed Nintendo. It went live on January 18, and within three days had sold 5 million copies.
For context, that’s faster than The Last Of Us Part 2, which sold 4 million copies in the same amount of time. So, it's shifting in massive quantities. But what is the game actually about? More importantly, is it any good? We break it all down for you.
What’s it about?
At its core, Palworld is a survival-based game, described by developer Pocketpair as a "multiplayer monster-collecting game with open-world survival elements". Players start the game in a gorgeous open world: a series of islands called the (what else) Palpagos Islands.
From here, the premise is simple; players have to stay alive by crafting items, farming, making shelters and defending their land against human enemies and factions. Players also need to monitor their ‘pal tamer’s hunger levels, unlock new recipes and find resources.
Much of the game also revolves around capturing various ‘pals’ scattered around the Palpagos and sending them into battle against enemies both in-game and online (you can play with up to 31 others). As might be expected, the battle bit comes with a lot of guns, American-frontier style.
How many pals are there in Palworld?
Just like in Pokémon, one of the main goals of the game is to capture as many Pals as possible and add them to your Paldeck, with the aim of completing it. In the early access version of the game (it's currently in development, ; the version for sale at the moment is a beta) there are apparently 113 Pals up for grabs, with a whopping 175 Pals promised when the full, hopefully bug-free final version of the game is out proper.
To make things even more complicated, each Pal comes in two forms (or ‘Elements’) which influences what they can do. A Fire-type Pal is good for lighting a campfire, a normal Pal is more well-rounded, and there are also Lucky and Alpha Pals (aka the super-strong ones that need to be defeated before being captured).
Has there been controversy?
Um, just a bit. The Pal designs look suspiciously like those one would find in Pokémon – take the super fluffy Lamballs, for instance, which bear a striking similarity to the sheep-type Wooloo Pokémon.
The game has also been blasted by developers for ripping off everything from the obvious (character designs) to the gameplay (which borrows heavily from similar survival-based games like Minefield and Rust). Plus, a Paldeck seems awfully similar to a Pokedex, which is used in Pokémon to catalogue all the different varieties in the game.
That said, The Pokémon Company hasn’t yet commented on Palworld, while Pocketpair’s CEO Takuro Mizobe has said that the game has been legally checked, and isn’t in breach of copyright.
Not that any of this has impacted the game’s popularity at all. The day it launched, it shot to the top of Twitch as streamers embraced it, and it’s still trending highly now. Plus, it’s seen by some as adding a breath of fresh air to the rather staid Pokémon franchise: for years now, people have been calling for the game to be upgraded. In lieu of Pokémon doing it themselves, this, for many people, is the answer.
When is the full release date?
The game is out – it can be downloaded on Steam and costs £25. However, it’s technically still “in development”, and bugs are still being ironed out. Be warned: Pocketpair said that their support team had received 50,000 inquiries and warned about “serious bugs” still present in the game.
Is Palworld coming to PS5?
Palworld may eventually come to PS5, but as of yet there’s no firm release date – or even confirmation it will. That said, PlayStation's Shuhei Yoshida has hinted it might be on the way. A fan on Twitter tweeted Yoshida, asking for helping bringing Palworld to PS5 “as soon as possible.”
Yoshida then responded “yes.” Seems promising.
