We have talked a lot about Palworld as “the Pokémon with guns” because Pocketpair clearly has not paid attention when it comes to study and replicate the design of Pokémon, nor have they been subtle when it comes to presenting their game to the world—with its little slavery twist involved, of course. In fact, if you explore the Japanese studio’s publications on social networks, you will find that many responses are from users showing suspicious similarities to the Game Freak creatures. But I think that in reality the game still has more similarities with Zeldaalthough they have not been evident during the promotional campaign.
For example, the intro sequence is very similar to Link’s awakening at the beginning of Breath of the Wild: from some ruins, you step outside and see a lush valley from the top of a cliff. The terrain is so similar, in fact, that if you look to the right you will see an NPC sitting next to a bonfire that serves to introduce the player to the plot and world of the game. From there, as you play you will find other uncomfortable similarities: the animation when climbing surfaces or the exasperations of your character when he makes efforts, the parasail deployment and even the sound effects that occur when you first discover a new mappable location.
It will be necessary to see if the community finds other types of common features, the kind that make one wonder if the problem comes from having inspired more than necessary in another game or if it is of another nature. I understand that more than one will raise an eyebrow, we’ll see how many and to what extent they react – after all, Sable or Towers of Aghasba are in similar situations and have not gone any further. Be that as it may, Palworld is scheduled to release in early access on January 19 through Steam and Game Pass. Beyond some somewhat disturbing developments, it must be said, the truth is that the dynamics of the game and its systems are completely different: it is one of some made in Unreal Engine, both for good and bad, and not a Zelda.
What exactly is Palworld like?
In case you weren’t familiar with the matter, in Palworld the “survival, crafting, open world and early access” elements that we see so much on Steam take a step further by adding monster collecting to the formula. I’ve been playing the new Pocketpair game for a few days and, although it is clear that the creatures make up an indivisible part of the experience, the playable cycle is more mindful of the resource collection natural resources and the unlocking of new technologies: things that we are much more accustomed to seeing in other games of the genre.
The monsters, curiously, do not propose anything especially novel or profound: you can summon them to help you with some tasks and they also fight at your side, although during the action they are semi-dependent agents to whom you cannot assign specific orders except “attack” or “wait.” ” and things like that. However, being an early access release, we will have to wait and see how the rest of the campaign develops in collaboration with the community.
