Ahh, Palworld. Simultaneously representing the best and worst of the gaming industry. The worst in that the game is borderline IP theft and blatantly stealing and combining elements of other games. But the best in that it somehow all comes together to create something quite unique, fun, and better than anything the main victim of said IP theft has created in years.

In fact, this duality almost perfectly describes the tone of the game - adventuring around the colorful world catching cute Poke... erm Pals one second, then farming for the souls of dead Pals and sacrificing them to some Palworld deity in order to strengthen your little furry friends the next. You don't battle and incapacitate Pal's and their tamers, you kill them and take their hide, meat, and bones to craft better equipment. It's darks stuff, but the backdrop disguises it in an interesting way - Basically Pumped up Kicks in video game form.

As of now the game does reach a point where it starts to feel repetitive and could definitely use more settlements/towns, maybe some random encounters with other tamers who want to battle, a main storyline, more unique pal attacks, and more dungeon variety. I'd like to see Pocket Pair leverage their insane viral profits into a more complete game over the coming months, but I hear the player base is rapidly dropping off already so maybe it would make more financial sense to just take the win and move on to something else. Guess we will see what type of developer they are in the near future.