this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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This is what an open-world pokemon game should have been. Not the buggy disappointing mess GameFreak gave us for 2 generations.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Its a very messy game. I dont think there was ever a vision for what kind of game this was going to be, they just grabbed whatever was hype at the time and added it in. Throw in pokemon, throw in fortnite, throw in breath of the wild, throw in meme postable character creator. I guess its working out for em.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The core gameplay is fun as hell. I'm using a crossbow and my flame fox thing to catch or knock out pals while riding my pink sheep-llama thing to explore the world and having a blast. For an early access game it also runs great and so far no game breaking bugs.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is the map big enough for 4 people? Friends have been wanting to get it and have me run a dedicated server, but I'm worried we're going to get a few hours into it and get bored from the lack of size and shit to do. Medieval dynasty pulled that on us...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

There's more than enough map. It's huge.

And it will take a lot of hours to even see all the Pals, much less catch them all.

And they aren't just reskins of each other. So far every pal fight feels different. It's a unique experience every time you find a new one.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Oh yeah, map is pretty sizable

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm currently playing it and I don't really think it's as messy as it appears on the surface. It has a pretty clear progression goals from what I can tell 5 hours in.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I agreed I expected a mess but actually got a very good, well thought out game. They definitely got a lot of their ideas from other games but I don't think that's a bad thing when they take all these separate ideas and mix them in a novel way.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

throw in meme postable character creator

Mmm. Monster Factory worthy? Always excited for new episodes of that.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Saw that the game was made by the folks that are behind Craftopia, which definitely explains why it looks and plays the way it does, "without a vision". Here's to hoping this one actually gets finished and released.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I agree with most casual reviews that it's a bit unpolished, somewhat buggy, and needs work in some areas, but on the whole is a decent foundation for a game and most importantly is FUN.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fun fun or Dorf Fortress FUN?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Same question.

People rave so hard about any pokemon clone regardless of quality that it's really hard to figure out which ones are actually fun.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I think this is more of an Ark/MC clone than a Pokemon clone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm familiar with Ark but MC?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Oh, duh. It was so obvious I missed it. Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Having tried it, there seems to be a lot of thought put into it from having the pals help grow crops to being a flamethrower in battle.

It's very much a smoother Pixelmon experience (pokemon Minecraft mod).

Feels like ark but possibly more polished? Hard to say since it's in early access.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As someone who's played my fair share of Ark, I'd definitely say it's more polished than Ark already

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Easily. My computer runs it on default graphics at 60fps without weird artifacts. The things I use and build work.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Running a dedicated server for my friend group, and it's pretty fun!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

I've been hearing really good things. People expecting some shit post of a game but ending up with something that was actually pretty deep.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That's going to be difficult to answer because people are going to look for different things in the game. I don't particularly care for the survival mechanic. I don't like having to keep up with food. And the food appears to spoil rather quickly. Like some of it has a timer of like 15 minutes. Currently there's a bug though where you can make it last indefinitely. If you have food on you drop it and pick it up and it resets the timer. If you have food in the feed bin, move it from the bin to you then back in a resets the timer. Also appears that perhaps if the pals add food in like eggs it resets the timer as well.

For a pokémon game it's all right. It is leagues better than what the pokémon company has been putting out. Closest I can say is it's kind of similar to Arceus.

The AI needs work yet. But it's early access so that's to be expected.

Combat, I really don't know what to say. You have stats as the player that go up based on your choice each time you level. You can increase your damage by 2 each level... You start at 100 damage... And the weapons that you get are basic, poison and fire. You can also get a melee weapon but... If the player is meant to fight alongside the pal it needs a little work yet. Especially with your range attacks you need to constantly craft ammo.

The whole crafting mechanic... I don't really understand the point. It's the exact same mechanic that's just lobbed into every single game. I will say it works quite well in this mechanically. Like when you're trying to put a wall up or floorboards down they snap together. And you don't need to keep the resources on you you can just have them in a container literally anywhere on your base.

There are proper bad guys, which the pokémon company has long since abandoned.

If this game gets the proper support from the developers, I can definitely see a lot of potential from this. But I think they're definitely going to have to sit down and think about what should be in the game and what should not be in the game.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

With the food timers, as far as I can tell only the top unit expires, so you can jam 100 baked berries in your feed bag and not have to worry about managing hunger for a few hours

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Its alright if you like the whole survival thing but it isn’t anything groundbreaking, just that plus a Pokémon-esque companion gimmick.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago

Well someone gave it this glowing review:

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How did I not hear about this? I need names, now.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago

Palworld.

For an early access it's surprisingly polished.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is this friendly for someone who's never touched a Pokémon game?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's not really a pokemon game, the similarity basically ends at: there are weird fighting animals you catch with round objects and take research notes on. There's no evolving, combat is an active battle rather than turn-based, combat participants are unlimited, your character participates in combat directly, you can catch people, you put what you catch to work for you at your camp, plus all the survival elements.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

you can catch people

Wait... what?

you put what you catch to work for you at your camp

Hmmm.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This and the obvious modern guns are what are giving me pause. Slaughtering cute pokemon and slavery.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But the ~~dog~~ pokemon fighting rings were okay?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

No. Pokemon itself is definitely kidnapping and dog fighting. But at least it's cute and they disguise it a bit. This game seems (I haven't played yet, may check it out on GP) to throw off the veil and that squicks me out a bit.

Honestly if it wasn't for the Pokeball-horror, the fighting aspect would be more tolerable. It could then be pushed that you convinced pokemon to fight with you and they live good lives the rest of the time. Instead of either being in a state of stasis with the only thing they know is fighting, or being in literal prison when not fighting.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Nobody tell this guy about Rimworld

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Heh, I played it. But being super evil in that is very risky unless you have the (I forget?) psychopath trait. It's generally easier to be good in Rimworld for the shallow-end amount I've played it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

With the Ideology DLC you can have a whole colony of monsters!

A nomadic group of nudist cannibals? Go right ahead!

A matriarchal society where men are property and must where burkas? Yes.

Cave dwelling mushroom eaters with an eye gouging ritual since they all crave to be blind. Absolutely!

And that's all without the families and babies DLC!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If it helps, inside of a Pokeball it's supposed to be a simulated paradise for the pokemon, but that is also a form of cyber dystopia so ...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah. So then the incentive to leave is seeing other people. Yeah, it's not great. :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Worst most captured Pokemon only leave their Pokeball to battle themselves to exhaustion in either gladiatorial combat against another similarity trapped opponent, for the purpose of additional enslavement or simply to physically or mentally cripple their free opponent into unconsciousness.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This game seems to have just as much of a veil as Pokemon games. It's not some "gritty reboot".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

The steam page is pretty veil-off, they make it pretty clear that you gun down pals and can force them to work in factories literally to a death of starvation if you like.

I dunno if that carries through to the game, but the advertising definitely shows it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

You can also slaughter the slaves.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I'd say yes.

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