Good!
Pokemon has refused to evolve in any meaningful way over several decades. Just sitting at the top and trying to own the entire concept of “monster friends” isn’t a real strategy. At minimum I hope palworld wakes gamefreak up, but honestly I just hope it takes the bandaid off and more devs flow in to the space.
“I hope more devs flow in to the space”
You mean Cassette Beasts, Beastie Ball, FUCKING DIGIMON, TemTem etc?
Yes. I’ve seen most of Digimon and bought Temtem over a year ago. But seeing how many Pokémon fans are in a tizy after Pal, I hope it keeps diversifing.
I’m curious why you would reply this. Kinda feels like a “Oh you like X name 3 Y’s”. Am I misreading the tone? Idk.
It’s moreso that I’m annoyed that Pokémon/Palworld fans seem to act like nothing but Palworld and Pokémon exist and I’m just wondering like “Dude devs have been flowing into the genre for YEARS. Palworld isn’t exactly the first”
The genre has been getting revitalized for a while.
So why is palworld seemingly so much more successful? Niche games like these mean nothing if they don’t appeal to a broad enough audience to be successful. I would have initially said the same thing about palworld but now it’s the #1 game on steam of all time and in hindsight it is so easy to see why.
“Niche games mean nothing”
Digimon is niche to you? The multimedia giant with multiple shows, frequent game releases, merchandise and even a card game which blew up in the TCG scene? The vital bracelet? Digimon Survive? Everything???
Have you been living under a rock? Digimon had a huge resurgence in the last few years.
Still don’t get this kinda stuff, it’s not even vaguely competing in the same ring as Pokemon. But hey if it pisses off the brats into Pokemon then it’s fine by me ┐(シ)┌
Palworld is sick as fuck, played pokemon as a kid and got tired of it, but this is a refreshing new take with great gameplay
I’m aware that the game is more Ark-like than Pokémon-like, but the sales comparison reminded me Masuda’s rather shitty public message justifying Dexit, it sounds outright hilarious in hindsight: “the world of Pokémon keeps evolving”. Now we only need Palworld devs saying “evolution is the survival of the fittest!” for extra burn.
Gotta be honest, maybe it really is the coat of paint, but I could not at all get into ark. Palworld has me hooked tho.
Haven’t played it because I don’t like treepunchers but it looks like an aweful grind to me to be honest
The “coat of paint” is a bigger deal than we players often pretend that it is. It’s what put us in the mood to play, so it’s often the difference between “play 5min, go play something else” and “fuck, it’s already morning!”.
Plus what other posters here said, Ark had quite a few other problems.
I do wonder what will happen with those 19 million once the shine wears off. Getting to max level and “catching them all” isn’t really that difficult nor that terribly time consuming. If I had kept playing, I would have hit 50 by now and probably have most of the available pals. And to be fair, I may get back to it and do so, but once I’m done with that I’ll probably put the game away.
I suppose a goal one could have is to work toward being as efficient as possible with their base. But unless there’s some compelling feature after maxing out level and catching the pals, the game is effectively won. Which may be fine and be what is intended (until an expansion arrives).
It’s definitely more shallow as a singleplayer experience. In the end it’s a survival game and those shine with emergent gameplay when you play with others. Looking at stuff like Rust I believe there will be a core playerbase that sticks around just for that.
But even if singeplayer isn’t its main focus, it’s definitely a breath of fresh air to have a creature collecting game, that isn’t a slow strategy combat slog for once, like Pokémon for the past 20 years.
I’m not sure what the raw numbers prove. I paid $1 for a free trial of Gamepass to play it. It’s an Ark clone with Pokemon. Wasn’t that impressed. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills listening to people rant and rave about it.
