Game Review: Palworld (100%) - a yummy soup with a couple sour ingredients

 "It's done..."

"Yes, Mr. Frodo. It's over now.”

That LotR meme was my first thought when that final achievement popped. While I had an overall good time with Palworld, it was not without its low points. However, I believe that the cracks in the game were only really illuminated with spending so much time trying to 100% it. I think largely the casual crowd won't see/care about some of the grievances I encountered.

I came into Palworld as a Pokémon fan - and very skeptical of this game. People saying "Pokemon with guns" just made me eye-roll and turn up my nose to it. Turns out I was dead wrong - Palworld IS the Pokémon game I (and many others) have been dreaming of since we were kids. A fully open-world, immersive RPG with roaming Pokémon to catch and fight - why did it take this long to get this kind of game? Regardless, I'm happy we've arrived.

I'll keep my experience short and to the point. A lot of my irks with the game stem from the open-world/MMO-y aspects, and I had to take a few breaks between big tasks to not burn out.

• I played the main story line with "Lucky's Only" which made each caught Pal alot more meaningful and exciting to acquire. It certainly dragged out my gametime but felt worth it in the early/mid game. Nothing felt as good as finding those first few Lucky Pals!
• Lucky hunting is fun, but I will say there are a couple sound effects in the game that have the same tone/frequency and fooled me into thinking it was the same sound effect (like the fishing sparkle sounds). I would like to see that sound effect be more unique.
• The Hardmode towers are a bit overtuned. There shouldn't just be a few specific team builds to take them down (when you have 250+ Pals in the game!)...or maybe I'm just bad.
• Palworld looks gorgeous with everything turned up. Seeing all those mountains and jungles in the distance with Pals roaming around is just awesome.
• This game neeeeeds a minimap option. Looking for those damn effigies and journal notes was such a slog without one.
• Some Pals are eeeerily close to their Pokemon inspirations. I know they made some redesigns post-lawsuit, but I'd like to see Pals claim their own identity and seperate the design philosophy a bit more. Here were the most egregious ones:
• Rayhound=Boltund. Orzerk=Garchomp. Vixy=Eevee. Nitewing=Staraptor. Foxcicle=Arctic Ninetales. Warsect=Heracross. Skutlass=Basculegion. I could go on and on...
• The early game Pal variety is AWESOME and addicting...but by midgame new Pals stop being as exciting and impactful. By end-game I was catching new Pals without ever actually knowing who or caring what they were. They all started to even sound the same...Solenne? Solyne?Souffline??
• Some mid to late game areas feel a bit too large and barren - I noticed this more when I was scouring for effigys. I think there could be an argument to reduce the amount of landmass to create more memorable areas (like the beginning areas, they feel well designed and intentional). These days I think gamers would rather explore a smaller, handcrafted, intentionally designed area vs a huge expansive barren landscape.
• The Master rank arena grind was horrendous. Not hard, just tedious. It became just 6 hours of navigating menus and waiting. Wish there was a 'Rematch' button to battle again with the same team or something to skip all the loading screens...
• The game could use more music to give it charm. It feels kind of lonely and soulless at times without it.

My favorite Pals by the end: Relaxaurus Lux (that mohawk!!), Direhowl, Ragnahawk (my trust flyer), Ghangler Ignis (that's a mean looking fish!), and Galeclaw (the glider ability was invaluable).

Now I know I have my critiques and qualms, but I did enjoy my time with it! And now that the "Pal" is out of the bag with this type of game - and it's obvious the gaming public have an appetite for it - I am excited to see where this genre evolves in the coming years.