Palworld’s astonishing success swelled over the weekend, with the ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival and crafting game shooting up Steam’s most-played games list and selling millions more copies.
    • TwilightVulpine@kbin.social
      1·
      9 个月前

      Right? I see people saying “oh but the violence! the slavery!” as if it wasn’t a collective act of childhood goodwill that prevented such associations being made to Pokémon. They talk a lot about friendship, but it’s a friendship built on beating up creatures in the wild, which then obey and fight for you unquestioningly. Even some which are human-like and stated to be as intelligent as humans.

      I consider myself a Pokémon fan and I defended them often, but it’s a concept that gets a little iffy if you think about it for more than a minute.

  • averyminya@beehaw.org
    0·
    9 个月前

    I just wish the devs didn’t make such blatant ripoffs, it seems their whole studio is taking existing Nintendo games and remaking them. Their previous game is literally a breath of the wild clone, down to the game starting in a cave, exiting and seeing the panorama of the world zooming in on where you need to go. ~~For comparison: https://twitter.com/Potatoe4Bored/status/1749271229025092052~~ I guess the link is dead, sorry.

    The monsters in this game aren’t much better in that regard, someone posted a thread comparing 111 of the monsters to Pokemon (and Digimon) and it was pretty ridiculous. It’s hard to say they’re even “inspiration” because so many of them are just changing the color palette and type of animal. Even some of the attacks are the same (like one of the monsters with a bow).

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Pokemon. I’m not upset that they ripped it off, it’s more that I’m disappointed that it’s not very original when the game seems like it’s already a no brainer. It seems like there are very few strong Ark style games so it would have been nice to have a new IP mostly unrelated outside of mechanics. Instead we get a bunch of Pokemon that went through Digimon evolutions. It’s just too bad since the game is clearly decent enough overall.

    • ampersandrew@kbin.social
      1·
      9 个月前

      Or they’ve been dying for a different way to play Pokemon than what Nintendo’s been selling them for decades.

    • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      9 个月前

      Idk, it’s definitely not some sort of life changing experience or high art or whatever. It is however kinda cute, a little bit funny, has an enjoyable gameplay loop, adequate exploration, and satisfy combat. It’s also pretty cheap.

      The monster mechanics are surprisingly well integrated into the world. Just basic shit like pulling out a burny fox to see when in a cave is pretty immersive. Then discovering special mechanics like the boar that rapidly mines by charging rocks has you throw out your pick and start careening around like a loon.

      It only really has legs during the discovery phase I think, but that’s fine. Games aren’t bad if they end.

      • Kaldo@beehaw.org
        0·
        9 个月前

        Id hope they use the popularity to improve it further but I really don’t wanna get invested in the same way I have with valheim, they have been mostly resting on their laurels so far and these developers will probably do the same. I hope I’m wrong tho, seems like a game I’d enjoy if it had more depth.

        • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          1·
          9 个月前

          It would be nice, I wouldn’t bet on it though and don’t recommend buying something in the chance it gets better later. I’m enjoying myself atm and wont be mad if it never becomes more than it is.

          Hopefully it’s at least a signal to other devs that there is real market interest in base building + monster collection or just open world monster collecting

          • Kaldo@beehaw.org
            1·
            8 个月前

            Yeah, that’s always good advice, I don’t mind missing out on hype since I’d be playing single player anyway. Enshrouded is also out and it might turn out to be the better option too, who knows. Seems like a good start of the year for survival games enjoyers either way.

    • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
      0·
      8 个月前

      After 4 decades of active video game play, the last year or so has been very empty for me.

      Nothing seemed to be satisfying, nothing captured my attention for long.

      Sure I got my Elden Ring character ready for the DLC, but not with enthusiasm.

      Sure I made it to diamond in Duel Masters finally, but it brought me no joy.

      I bought Palworld last night on a whim and it has been 15 hours and the only time I have stopped was to take care of basic needs.

      I am engaged, excited, and enthusiastic to game for the first time in a very, very long time. And the last time I liked a game this much it was Elden Ring at launch and I literally did nothing for 3 months than eat, sleep, work and Elden Ring.

      I feel that Palworld is heading in the same direction.

      Is there jank? Sure, but nothing that has broken my enjoyment yet.

      • hyorvenn@jlai.lu
        1·
        8 个月前

        I just cannot go past the bootleg aspect of everything they take inspiration from copied straight from other games. It just look like a soulless AI-generated game to me.

        But sure it didn’t sell for nothing, the game is surely enjoyable and I didn’t mean to take that from you in my (somewhat caustic) comment.

    • Kiosade@lemmy.ca
      0·
      9 个月前

      It’s a legitimately good game. My brother was shitting on it too til he played it.