Palworld Could Be The Best Pokemon In Years

I fell out of love with Pokemon ten years ago when X and Y launched, exhausted by how each new release was painfully similar to the last, with the few noteworthy implements being little more than gimmicks. The novelty has run dry even as Pokemon br﷽anches out and tries new things, as with Scarlet & V🔥iolet’s more open world and Arceus’ real-time catching. There are so many more inventive and in-depth turn-based RPGs out there that, no matter the appeal of building up a bestiary of whacky creatures, I can’t bear the formula at its centre.

I’m still itching for the childlike wonder of finding new critters, so I tried Pokemon Go only to run into the usual ‘bag full, spend some cash’ walls, putting me off entirely. I’ve also tried the various copycats (Tentem and Nexomon spring to mind), but they tend to be little more than nostalgic Pokemon clones, still running into that problem with the formula.

Even Arceus' attempts to break away from traditional Pokemon felt undermined by such an uninteresting world with little to uncover.

Palworld is the first Pokemon-like that feels fresh. I wrote it off at first as a cash-grab banking on the Pokemon brand and the internet’s love of all things edgy since the hook was just, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:‘What if they have guns?’ But after reading Tabletop Editor Joe Parlock’s hands-on tho♍ughts and sifting through gameplay footage, it looks like the tagline only scr🌳atches the surface.

When Pokemon went open-world, it felt barren and lifeless, with checklist objectives and lacklustre interactions with ‘mons in what should feel like a more lived-in environment as opposed to the game-y tall grass we’re used to. Palworld is far more promising, blending in survival mechanics so that we’re n🍷ot just endlessly wandering fields to catch critters, but building on them to make this world our own.

It also tosses aside the starter rigmarole that Pokemon ran into the ground years ago, as we’re instead thrust into this world with nothing but our bare hands. You have to build the balls to catch Pals with and beat them into submission before cramming them inside, grappling with the questionable ethics of Pokemon's catch 'em all motto while avoiding the same tutorial we’ve slogged through year after year.

Pals being a real, tangible risk to humans - so much so that you can make weapons and fight them head-on - is such a radical shift from the Pokemon cockfights we’re used to. But it’s these changes that go deeper into the culture of Pokemon that keep Palworld fresh, offering new perspectives on the same tired stories. No matter h🦩ow much Nintendo’s flagship series reinv🌠ents itself, building off the same foundation endlessly stifles its potential, and Palworld gets that like no other copycat.

Everything I hear about Palworld and the ways it manages to both ape Pokemon and iterate on it excites me, because Pokemon’s attempts at branchin𝄹g out and doing new things are always undercut by sticking so rigidly to its ‘90s formula. Pick a Pokemon, conquer a bunch of gyms, beat your𒀰 rival, and fight the region’s toughest trainers while a faction up to no good throws a spanner in the works. We’ve done this countless times now.

Throw in the unhealthily short dev cycles that see games crammed out so fast that we had Arceus and Scarlet & Violet in one year and it’s n🌼o wonder Pokemon is so wrung dry these days. Palworld might’ve shot into the public eye as a fun headline for news editors, but there’s so much more promise beyond guns👍, finally throwing Pokemon fans who fell out of love with the series a life raft.