Palworld is INCREDIBLY Well Designed, and THIS is why it's blowing up!

I am loving my time in pal world and so are yeah a lot of people but a lot of my enjoyment comes from how smart I think it's designed and for as much as we can start talking about its massive success and call it this year's valheim or something similar I think there are many things to praise about the game and despite me not being at endgame or even close to it the truth is that even if the game does taper off later on the Brilliance of its success before that would still be valid so yes this is an actual analysis of why pal world is brilliantly designed and how it combines elements of different genres to make something special and how it achieves that by combining those things with mainly Nintendo games like Pokemon and Zelda and yes I have to say Pokemon with guns out loud at some point in the video for the YouTube algorithm so let's break down the addictive design and additions the game ads that I think can even make this sort of game appealing to many people that normally wouldn't play a game like this which is probably what's happening right now to be honest and the first part is unsurprisingly the pows I initially thought that Pals would be a gimmick in a survival game or the main focus of this game that would also contain a hollow shell of a survival crafter around it and it turns out I was wrong on both counts I think the pals are integral to the game in a way that really makes me remember my frustrations with the Pokémon franchise and I won't go too in-depth on that comparison in this video but I do want to talk about it more since many reviews I've seen go out of their way to not talk about Pokémon and I think there's a mountain of stuff to discuss around it but the short version is PALS are meaningful in everything in the game in a way that is really smart it's clear that the game was built from the start with the idea of making a monster collector where the monsters were more than simply your party and that's really the Crux of its improvements in that monster collecting genre in a Pokémon style game the monsters are the protagonists you're pretty much along for the ride this is something that Pokemon arus understood and it's notably a game from which po World takes some of the best ideas like leveling up through repeated captures of the same Pokémon but given that's the case those Pokémon that you capture are often relegated to being things that you stuff in your party in order to resolve combat encounters and that's it in pal World they are so much more they're the building blocks of the automation Factory part of this game where not only are you looking for the best Pals for each task that you need done but for them to have the best traits to be the best worker workers so you're encouraged to find the perfect pal and then find the perfect individual in that species or to breed until you get one and then put them to work and then seeing them work and smile and be happy or miserable if you're a monster in turn endear you more to them and the pals are for as much as many of them are heavily inspired by other franchises very well made they're cute they're well animated they're expressive and they runaround base in a way that sometimes reminded me of Viva Pinata it made me quickly grow attached to them and so far it's core gameplay Loop is all centered around those pals since it adds incentives to capture a lot of Pals and to capture Pals you need to produce a lot of things which require resources and you use those Pals to produce resources and to produce all of the things you need to capture them but this entire process this Ura boros is presented in a way with care and detail that makes it cute and Charming so that you actually care for them and it's a simple yet very elegant system but it doesn't stop there because your pals are also companions in realtime combat and workers in the field when you explore your party's value goes beyond their combat prowess of course they can run around with you and fight and they can also have passives things like how kativa increases your carry weight by being in your party but they can help with mining or logging or other tasks they have active abilities ranging from mobility and exploration to Pure combat benefits and it incentivizes going out with a diverse party depending on your plans but that's because they're not simply there for combat as would be more naturally expected of a game with the focus on collecting monsters these can do all sorts of things from fighting to Flying to working and so your pals are integral to everything to what you can or can't do when exploring to your combat ability to your speed at different tasks and of course to how your production lines are working in order to maintain efficiency and progress the automation survival and crafting aspects of the game and it's all done with charm and purpose and all of this has a profound impact on the excitement I felt when discovering each New Pal no longer were they simply oh that looks cool I wanted which still is the case here giving me a childlike joy that I admittedly still have when playing the latest Pokémon game but instead here I was excited to discover what they could do what facilities it could work what special upgrade it might have in the tech tree if it would have a special ability for combat or exploration I was excited to see how it would look and animate when moving around different objects at base or when it was cranky or sleeping and that meant I was always more excited to encounter a new pal or to encounter a new shiny equivalent of a pal or to capture a particularly cool boss this is not only a great idea but it's executed here with de and skill that I didn't expect and one that I think greatly contributes to the success of the game and people's attachment to it or I guess I can summarize a lot of how this makes me feel with it's things I've always wanted Pokémon to do whether I'd realized all of them or not but here's part two and that's a fixed map and this is smart on many levels one from a design and quality perspective and one that might not be intended which is the social one this game straight up would be worse with a randomly generated map and that's because the map we have here is carefully built in a way I love it evokes a lot of things from arus and Scarlet Violet but it also does them better and at a bigger scale dotting the world world with Collectibles memorable locations and signature bosses all around that set the tone for Regions and logically establish what you can expect to find the way that it feels purposeful adds a lot to that exploration where in other randomized games exploration comes down to identifying resources and sometimes being surprised the pacing of a fixed designed map leads to the Hallmarks of great open world games from the start you're trained that odds are that if something calls attention to itself it's probably worth exploring hiding a collectible be it the Effigies or an egg a chest with rewards different Pals to capture a dungeon but there's something worth seeing leading to those long TRS where time flies it also makes it easier to do things like tutorials and making sure that players are introduced logically to different Pals that can do different things at a pace that makes sense for how you want the players to build out their their base and progress the tech tree while there is plenty of freedom and you can go about and find different locations that have different levels of PS that are still suitable to you starting off from the beginning location is an easygoing experience that means that players completely new to something like survival crafting won't be intimidated or overwhelmed the second social aspect is that people will talk about their favorite areas hidden stuff they found or optimal places for bases they'll share the map and talk about it in videos or on forums or in person but it gives common ground for people to understand and drives Community engagement more than a random one where people can't talk about finding Secrets or where to find a certain pal the downside is that it means that the game is more solvable there will be optimal locations for farming there will be Maps pointing out where the best pals are but it makes the immediate quality of jumping in and playing so much better that I believe it's worth it especially given that the game intends to eventually steer towards PVP servers where battles for certain positions will become common and take away the element of being solved for the dieh hard fans that want to really sink time into the game by adding that additional layer of gameplay and strategy that comes with PVP but speaking of layers we need to talk about the survival mechanics the survival crafting and automation within the game is very basic it's a simplified version of the many many tiers that we can find in other games making many common resources very valuable and useful for many projects and taking away a lot of the pressure inherent to these games with resource crafting and preparation by not only making it simple but having the automation processes built in very quickly from the start and it's so damn cute that you enjoy engaging with them and when it comes to balance and accessibility this is smart while with all the other things I've I've said with the pals and the exploration if a player were drawn to the game for those reasons but dislikes survival crafting games they could get turned off but this more simplified system adds in my opinion just the right amount of that layer in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming to them from a different perspective there's the potential criticism of saying those simplified systems make the game worse from the angle of wanting a great survival and crafting game but to that I would say that you can't be everything to every person this is a game that combines a lot of different things but as I said it revolves around the pals and having systems that will benefit the gameplay Loop by just taking the skeleton of a genre and putting it in to me is a win but its emphasis is on making the exploration aspects much more enjoyable and front and center than other things and while that's just my perception of this and I feel it to be a benefit I could be wrong on the developers intentions but the part that solidifies it for me is also the only negative I have which which is building what I said about the survival aspects can be said about building it's way too simple clunky and interacts weirdly with the AI much less than I expected by the way for an indie Early Access game specifically but they do bug out and get stuck on player builds but it's more how limited the options are much like how simplified the Gathering and crafting is but where Gathering and crafting are requirements to progress through the game and having them be too complicated could hinder pacing and frustrate some players Base building is largely optional in most games in this genre sure you have some slight Tower Defense like mechanics with the raids and some stuff to fight them off but it's all quite basic it's more the fact that the more complex building pieces would never scare players away since it's optional but instead would be very beneficial for nerds like me who build Mega projects in valheim with friends and would like to do that for our Pokémon towns and Facilities I understand why this system is rigid and it's precisely because of that Ai and automation systems but I'd like to see it expanded and this reinforces my idea that the priority is PALS and exploration and not these elements but I still think it'd be cool even if it's not a priority since as I said the building isn't something that could really be detrimental to the game by being more complex where survival arguably could be and of course the fourth part is the thing that people keep saying which is the guns the guns aren't a big deal in this game just because you can say Pokémon with guns that's not the important part it's that the main gameplay component is third person shooting of guns The Clash is cool and striking as a visual sure but it's more about how solid and well executed these third person mechanics can be compared to something like a melee combat system people enjoy building guns and shooting them in video games they understand how to do it and it feels feels good to do so when your main combat system in a game is centered around it instead of many other survival games that focus on melee or improvised Weaponry it's going to draw in a crowd that enjoys those systems from other games and sees this as a straightforward thing they already understand and that is less janky than other survival games you aim you shoot you dodge there's no weird melee wax no janky magic system and I mean you have your pals and their abilities and you have your guns and that's a appealing because of its implications in gameplay more so than the idea that guns are cool or something like that it's high-tech it's modern in a way that feels slightly anachronistic but is also just fun to use and when you put all of these things together into a game you're appealing to wide audiences in ways that you can capture pun intended a lot of fans of them if they like multiple of these elements they'll love the game more if they're dieh hard fans of a specific one they might walk away disappointed due to it lacking enough of that particular thing unless they like Pokémon I think that those from my experience that they'll like this game a lot regardless but you'll get so many more fans of that large audience than the ones that you'll lose and when it's packaged with competent execution good optimization and a heck of a lot of charm because I love my lift Monk and no you can't have him look at this shiny kativa look at it look at my shiny gumas anyways it's really a surprise success but at least to me a completely logical one so I've been Muk Thief thank you so much for watching I will be making a couple more videos on pal World cuz I have some thoughts that I want to develop towards the end game and then make them into a video so if you're excited for that or any of the multiple things I do here on YouTube consider checking out the channel consider subscribing and I will be eternally grateful thank you so much for watching and I'll see you again very soon

Channel: Mugthief

Views: 60,175

Keywords: palworld, palworld gameplay, palworld review, palworld guide, palworld asmongold, palworld tips and tricks, palworld steam, palworld success, palworld steam sales, palworld steam reviews, palworld analysis, palworld genius, palworld absurdly good, is palworld good, what type of game is palworld, palworld playstation, where to play palworld, palworld gamepass

Id: L-EUUwOkBI4

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2024