Palworld is the hit new monster-collecting game on Xbox Game Pass and Windows PC via Steam. Unlike in Pokémon, I feel like it’s doable to « catch ’em all. »
Catching Pokémon can be exhausting these days. At time of publication, there are more than 1,000 different species of the fictional monsters. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet don’t contain the full National Pokédex, but the base game has 400 Pokémon and hundreds more when you count additional monsters added in the DLC. Even when trying to complete the reduced Pokédex, the process of collecting creatures can be a slog. Now, playing Palworld, I can breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time in a long time, it feels I can finally “catch ’em all,” with under 150 Pals in the game.
Palworld is a hit game from Japanese indie studio Pocketpair. Before it came out, many described it as “Pokémon with guns.” Now that the developer has released it in early access, it’s clear that the game goes well beyond just Pokémon influences. It has climbing and exploration reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and mechanics common to survival games. However, one way that it is like Pokémon is its incorporation of creatures called Pals.
