Palia – Into the Wild

I’ve been waiting quite some time to try my hand at Palia. A rather cozy game that feels a bit like a matured Animal Crossing meets Stardew Valley MMO. I imagine most of my readers are already well aware of its existence, even if they aren’t inclined to try it for themselves.

In a nutshell, you’re an extremely rare human who just kindof… appeared. You immediately get busy talking to people, clearing a small plot of land and building what must be the largest makeshift tent ever built.

I only got to spend a couple of hours with the game before I wrote this, as I must prepare for my impending trip and get some rest before I depart. From a technical standpoint I had no real issues during this time. Logging in was fairly quick and straightforward. Performance wasn’t an issue, though my laptop is a bit overpowered compared to the average gaming PC. A topic I should perhaps visit in the near future.

The activities I’ve engaged in so far are relatively straightforward. Hitting trees and bushes with an axe. Hitting rocks with a pick. Throwing smokebombs at bugs. Perhaps the most complicated so far has been fishing, which as one might expect has a sort of minigame, but not one that’s terribly complicated or difficult to understand

I personally found the characters and writing to be mostly endearing and comical, with enough personality that despite them mostly being friendly, I developed preferences and affinities really quick. I’d list my favorites, but I can’t quite recall their names right away. I also tend to like these… human-era robot people.

I’m uncertain how much staying power a game this simple has for me. I think as long as I take it as the relaxing and cozy game that it is, and just enjoy being in this world, I’ll be fine. Time will tell. I want to really like it, though.

At my current stage I’m just reaching the point where I need to gather enough money to buy the workbenches I need to build a house. Shouldn’t be terribly difficult, as most of the gatherable resources can be sold, much like Animal Crossing, though I was a little disappointed to see that my cooked mushrooms don’t sell for more than the raw mushrooms required to make them. You still get cooking skill from making them.

Speaking of skills and crafting, my brother and I got a good laugh out of learning new furniture recipes. Crafting some of the items presented me with a few “who’s that pokemon” style silhouettes to learn a new recipe by guessing which one you want. There was one we were both absolutely certain it was a new bed recipe that turned out to be a couch. It was and excellent bait and switch.

There is a sort of hunger/stamina bar, but it doesn’t prevent you from doing things when it runs out. It just lowers your experience gain while it’s empty. Considering I wasn’t even using this mechanic early on, it wasn’t a major difference, and it seemed like it would be hard to maintain the quantity of food needed to keep that buff up all the time. Maybe I’m wrong. Just depends on what farming yields look like.

There are a few things I saw but didn’t get to explore, like these glowing trees that are too powerful for my makeshift axe to chop. No idea what they are, but I’m curious to find out.

All in all I liked the time I spent with it, and wished I could spend more time with it. I’m really looking forward to getting back into it, getting the house built, and trying to furnish it. Hopefully my brother will get his invite and be able to join me soon enough. He certainly liked the look of it, and my girlfriend seems to like the concept as I’d described it so far.

I did see some other people running around doing things too, but not a lot of activity going on in chat. I might consider chatting a bit when I’m on next just to see if I can get conversation going on. Seems a shame to have a game like this and have nobody chatting or being friendly while they do it.

I’m running out of time, though, so y’all take care. Remember to carry your bug hunting belt with you!

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