I was morally obligated to keep an eye on Palworld. I've been playing Pokémon on and off for four fifths of my time on this Earth. I'm a card-carrying Dwarf Fortress weirdo, which Palworld's lead dev has cited as his favorite game. Ignoring Palworld would've been a dereliction of professional duty. Now that I've spent a dozen hours with it, emerging this week into early access, I can comfortably say that duty might've been fine to leave derelict.
Palworld is lucky to be arriving in a world where the Switch's proper Pokémon games are as rough as they've ever been, with the open world of Scarlet and Violet visibly tearing itself apart at the seams. Palworld might have me soaring over a generic Unreal 5 landscape on the back of a knockoff Charizard, but for a brief moment, it's a glimpse at what an open world Pokémon could be: one that isn't flickering in and out of existence whenever you're arrogant enough to move. I'm a creatures guy! If a game's letting me loose to collect little freaks, I'm content. But once I've landed to add one of Palworld's creatures to my base-building roster, I'll remember what game I'm actually playing, because it'll toot out a little triumphant jingle as it informs me that my new friend has the "Work Slave" passive skill.
Let me put it this way. Watching that first Palworld trailer from 2021 was like seeing a picture of Bugs Bunny smoking weed and half-ironically thinking it's sick. Actually playing Palworld is like having to hang out for hours with somebody who's made Bugs Bunny smoking weed their whole deal.
