Fine ... Palworld is pretty damn good

I was pretty unimpressed with Palworld when I checked it out the day it entered early access on Jan. 19, 2024. And, despite the hype, I didn't expect that much more when I came around to the 1.0 version, which came out last week.

When I dropped in, I discovered that the game was just as janky as last time – far jankier than I expected it to be on launch. But the game itself offered increased direction, a wider selection of Pokemon sorry I mean of Pokemon God I mean Pokemon Pals to do my bidding, and deeper systems for me to chase.

The world is expansive, the base building is easy, and the Pals have tons of depth to them, which makes capturing and hoarding an army of weird elemental animals a ton of fun. And the way all of those systems work together to allow you to battle trainers out in the open world or create a Pal-run factory at home is honestly quite impressive. It's the every-game, comprised of basically all of the good and the bad from every crafting and factory game out there.

In the video above, my good friend and co-host of my Marathon podcast, JakeTheAlright, essentially nails my issues and joys with the game. But even with all of our shared issues, I find myself almost entirely positive on it. I keep getting that itch in the back of my mind to play more, even as the world around me unfolds into an extremely daunting "oh Christ, there's so much to do all the time in this game."