Why make Pokémon fight when they could paint your house
The odd mashup of Pokémon-like monsters, crafting, and machineguns, has made each new trailer forPalworlda delight over the past couple of years. Now it’s taking the bold step of moving beyond meme by becoming a playable video game, when it launches on January 19th.
Of course, that release date announcement came with one last trailer:
I said “Pokémon-like” in the first paragraph, but that might be generous. Some ofPalworld’s character designs are so similar to their obvious inspiration as to be almost indistinguishable. That’s part of what makes the whole thing so unheimlich, because here you can use those cute creatures and put them to unwholesome work as a production line for AK-47s, among other tasks.
That said, much of Pokémon - including making those cute creatures fight until the pass out - only seems normal via repetition. I am fundamentally onboard with the idea of a monster-collecting game where I can use the monsters not just for battles, but for automating construction and crafting tasks. There are moments in the trailer above where other possible inspirations start to emerge, such asMonster Hunterand maybe even Fortnite.
Palworld will launchin Steam Early Access, with the intent to stay there for at least a year. Updates will add new monsters, areas and dungeons, while the core experience - crafting, monster catching, fighting - is present from launch.
I have no idea whether Palworld will be fun to play, or whether it was best left as a series of daft trailers. We’ll find out soon enough.
