An Honest Review From an Original Alpha Tester

[Roan]

I've wavered back and forth between whether I wanted to write this or not. I was in the very first group of testers way back in the pre-alpha days of Palia. I've seen a lot of iterations and changes over the years, and yet... Palia never really managed to feel like a fun, fully-fleshed out game to me. It's a mish-mosh of half-baked systems that are neither fun nor rewarding to participate in.

The Positives:

+ Exploration is fun - the first time. It's a beautiful world they've created and there are certainly a few secrets to find for those that thoroughly explore.
+ You don't NEED a party. The game is entirely soloable if that's your preferred style of play. Even the "endgame resources" you need a metric ton of can be obtained solo, just be prepared to incur the wrath of the server. More on that later.
+ The home / housing plot customization actually is pretty cool and fun. I've seen a lot of amazing and unique homes in my time playing the game.

The Negatives:

- There is very little reason or incentive to play with other people. Palia feels more like a single player game with other people milling about. Sure, you *can* party up with other people but for most activities it feels pointless or just slows everything down.
- Toxic Positivity. Palia has a lot of people who feel that their way to play is the only right way. Resources are shared and can be picked up by anyone who contributes towards obtaining it, which has created an expectation that you are to pause your own gameplay to call out rare resources to the entire server, then waiting an unknown amount of time for random strangers to slowly meander over that way. Resources respawn instantly somewhere else on the map, by the way... so this entire process actually ends up slowing *everyone* down, but that doesn't seem to matter to anyone.
- No trading or economy. Palia's tagline has long been "play the way you want" and yet, you are actively forced to participate in activities you don't enjoy. Palia's fishing system, for instance, bores me to tears; I was essentially locked out of completing the game's first "bundles" because I couldn't buy or trade these fish from other people for the things *I* enjoyed doing. There's a half-realized "gifting" system, but it requires you to have already obtained an item before you can request it from other people.
- Writing is lackluster at best, and downright uncozy at worst. Palia is filled with characters that fit into tropes quite nicely, some which border on rather insensitive or offensive.
- Severe lack of meaningful content. I'll admit, I enjoyed Palia at first. It's cute when you get started and everyone I know has found some enjoyment upon just getting started. That lasts for approximately 10-20 hours, when you get out of the honeymoon phase of the game and enter the absolute hell that is Palia's "end-game" grindfest. S6 has been (and likely always will be) terrified of losing players in the game's introduction, so much so that there... really isn't one. You level up so fast that you'll be done with Softwood and Hardwood within your first few days playing the game, and then all that's left is to farm Flow Trees for the rest of eternity.

Palia has always felt like a video game for people that don't play video games. If you're looking for a beyond-casual game you can play for half an hour or an hour a day and feel like you're making progress, Palia is right for you. If you were hoping for an MMO-style Stardew Valley you can sink hundreds of hours into... I'm sorry to say this isn't it.

[MadDawg2552]

Originally posted by Valimure:

- Toxic Positivity. Palia has a lot of people who feel that their way to play is the only right way. Resources are shared and can be picked up by anyone who contributes towards obtaining it, which has created an expectation that you are to pause your own gameplay to call out rare resources to the entire server, then waiting an unknown amount of time for random strangers to slowly meander over that way. Resources respawn instantly somewhere else on the map, by the way... so this entire process actually ends up slowing *everyone* down, but that doesn't seem to matter to anyone.

They KIND OF alleviated this issue when they released Flow Tree Groves. Now I just see people wait until midnight in-game time and just chop flow trees in the grove. Hardly anyone calls out single trees any more, and I haven't seen a single flow spawn group.

Palium is still an issue, though, especially after they nerfed the drop rate. You go out and mine all the stone and iron to try to get Palium to spawn, then someone comes up behind you and mines the Palium before you can get back to it. Then when you do find a Palium node, people complain in chat if you mine it without calling it out (even though they do the same thing).

- No trading or economy. Palia's tagline has long been "play the way you want" and yet, you are actively forced to participate in activities you don't enjoy.

During one of their videos before release, they said there were alternative ways to gain resources if you didn't want to participate in specific activities. You can buy Palium bars and Flow wood, but you must actively farm a lot of the other rare resources yourself (people don't tend to give those away, even if you ask in chat).

- Severe lack of meaningful content.

They seem to be adding new content at a rather quick pace (something big at least once per month). Unfortunately, it's content that you can finish in one or two days. I just wonder if they are going to keep up that pace once it's in full release, or if they will slow down content patches.

You level up so fast that you'll be done with Softwood and Hardwood within your first few days playing the game,

I don't mind the speed of leveling. It prevents the game from overwhelming new players with how much there is to do, and it doesn't keep you locked out of the high level stuff for months or years while you grind out skills. Once you get to level 10, skill levels start taking longer to gain (the only point to leveling passed 20, though, is to get the achievement to level them to 50, and also to get skill tokens).

and then all that's left is to farm Flow Trees for the rest of eternity.

The only reason to farm Flow trees and Palium bars is to complete your furniture collection (or build furniture for your house). You could also instead farm skill tokens and buy the Flow wood and Palium bars.

If you were hoping for an MMO-style Stardew Valley you can sink hundreds of hours into... I'm sorry to say this isn't it.

Since August, I've already sunk more hours into it than I can count (at least 500), and I still haven't completed everything. If you are the target audience, you'll always find something to do every time you log in. If this isn't your type of game, you'll get bored once you complete the content.

[Roan]

I'm on my phone so don't have the patience to make the formatting fancy, but...

Re: Palium Nodes
I heard they put them on the same spawn table as Iron Nodes... Odd decision since I've been trying to tell them for eons that having regular rocks and ore nodes on the same spawn table was a dumb decision. What do I know I guess?

Re:Trading
There are alternative ways to obtain *some* resources, primarily for Furniture Crafting. If you need bugs or fish you are out of luck. However, even the alternative ways to obtain resources (as nice as they are) require doing that activity. For a game they advertised as "play the way you want" you are absolutely, 100% locked out of certain quests and progression if you do not want to participate in every skill.

Re:Content
Perhaps eventually it will all add up to a complete game. Launching with only two main areas was already strange enough for me. Sad to hear the new stuff is just as simple as everything else... Though I would imagine that they probably can't do too much else considering they seem to inevitably end up breaking either the thing they're adding or some other aspect of the game every patch.

Re:Leveling
I'm glad the pace works for you. I agree that newbies need to get hooked, which is why you generally see a gradual bell curve of difficulty; this rewards early efforts and gets people playing, and then keeps them playing as they aim to reach those further milestones. It's about the serotonin release that happens when you achieve goals... Maxing out a skill after two or three days and then grinding infinite (and currently pointless) levels for the rest of your playtime does not feel rewarding to me in the slightest, and worse, I fear it's setting up those of you that *do* enjoy the game for failure down the road when they add those levels in and you get absolutely flooded with rewards / quests / new recipes.

Re:Furniture Collection
That was actually one of my biggest pieces of feedback during testing. It seemed like Furniture Crafting is the main point of the game, and what most of the skills / items feed into. There are dozens of furniture sets, each with dozens of items. I wouldn't be surprised if there's well over 1,000 furniture items to craft at this point... And if you really don't care about making every item or your house is how you like it, what's keeping you playing?

Re:Hours Played
I'm glad Palia has found a fan in you, and I hope it interests some others. All I can do here is give an honest review as someone who has been there from the beginning, and probably sunk just as much time as you desperately trying to make this a game I would enjoy. Like I said, if you want to complete every single quest despite the cringe writing and craft every furniture item... There's hundreds of hours of content. If that's not your thing... Don't waste your time.

[Xialoh]

Originally posted by Valimure:

worse, I fear it's setting up those of you that *do* enjoy the game for failure down the road when they add those levels in and you get absolutely flooded with rewards / quests / new recipes.

Wouldn't this be a...good thing? Suddenly getting stuff for what you already enjoyed doing anyway?

[Roan]

When S6 goes "we've added in hours of new content in the form of rewards for level 10-20 in each skill!" And then you get everything instantly because you're already well past that? I'd rather have new things to work towards but maybe you operate differently.

Plus I get overwhelmed easily, so getting all that stuff at once would drive me up a wall. It's why I start a new file on Stardew every time there's a major update.

[CatsEyes]

Originally posted by Valimure:

- Writing is lackluster at best, and downright uncozy at worst. Palia is filled with characters that fit into tropes quite nicely, some which border on rather insensitive or offensive.

I so agree with you on this. The game looks like it's cute and suitable for kids but if a 7 year old that gets bullied at school will talk to the hunter they will surely cry. Many of the NPC's have rather ugly personalities.

I hate to say I was not at all surprised with seeing the "inclusive and watch out bigots" announcement when setting up the game, I had not much hope for good writing. Some of you gen Z'ers are lovely but the "inclusive and diversity" crowd seem to have grown up on their phones with no social skills and the morality and personality of a sack of potatoes you forgot 3 months ago in the back of the pantry. I've come to expect very sexist, ageist and disturbing dialog every time I see that notice.

A lot of the dialogue is just rude. Like really rude. One of the characters just threatened me with physical violence if i were to blab a secret. Two characters are "secretly" dating yet you can romance both of them which is morally quite reprehensible.

Every single character is a perfect stereotype with no dept down to the clothes they wear and the way they move and talk. The bartender is a flirty pretty boy. The "witch" is a sexualised woman making teasing comments who lives at the edge of the town. The furniture maker is the giddy blonde. The farmer boy is pretty and stupid and poor but kind. The mayor's wife hates her husband and is haughty. The farmers wife is chubby, makes pies and likes to gossip. The mayor's daughter is the "rebelling" brat dating someone the mother would disapprove of. One of the robots sounds like an obsessive stalker and not cute like what I assume was intended. The kids, einar, Naio and the innkeeper are mostly ok , but want to slap every one else.

If you are someone who wants to romance the hunter and think he's attractive, may I suggest you go into therapy immediately because otherwise a lifetime of miserable toxic relationships is waiting for you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

P.S.: Why on earth can't I build a 2x2 house with large rooms? Why can't I add a back door? And why can't I dye furniture and make/dye clothes? The limited colour presets are fugly. It's crazy. Like the OP said, this is a game made by people who don't play games.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

Why can't I add a back door?

Wait you can't? Isn't that what the porch is for?

[Xialoh]

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

I hate to say I was not at all surprised with seeing the "inclusive and watch out bigots" announcement when setting up the game

What? Are you saying there's some warning when you launch the game that says "Watch out bigots"?

[löyly]

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

I hate to say I was not at all surprised with seeing the "inclusive and watch out bigots" announcement when setting up the game, I had not much hope for good writing. Some of you gen Z'ers are lovely but the "inclusive and diversity" crowd seem to have grown up on their phones with no social skills and the morality and personality of a sack of potatoes you forgot 3 months ago in the back of the pantry. I've come to expect very sexist, ageist and disturbing dialog every time I see that notice.

Agreed on pretty much everything else, but what's up with this weird little rant? Are you confusing modern marketing bs with people who care about being inclusive? Inclusiveness and diversity is specifically something that Palia only pays lip service to for profit. There's some dialogue, but not more than what could be conveniently edited out for localisations to bigoted countries. Some NPCs are purple..? One NPC has a physical disability, but those responsible for game decisions don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about making their game playable, let alone cozy, for actual people with disabilities. I could go on, but let's not...

[MadDawg2552]

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

P.S.: Why on earth can't I build a 2x2 house with large rooms?

You can.

Why can't I add a back door?

You can.

And why can't I dye furniture

You can.

and make/dye clothes?

Clothes are cash shop exclusives, and they don't want free stuff to cut into their profits.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by MadDawg2552:

And why can't I dye furniture

You can.

I bought the furniture modification thing and promptly forgot it existed because I just don't really care about decorating my house that much

What I really want to do is save up enough money so I can have an entire room of fish, bugs, and meals. Like a museum.

[CatsEyes]

Originally posted by MadDawg2552:

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

P.S.: Why on earth can't I build a 2x2 house with large rooms?

You can.

You can't. Large rooms only interlock back and front. They don't allow you to connect them in a square. You can only do that if you put those ridiculous looking hallways in between or other rooms. You can not make a 2x2 or 3x3 etc square with just large rooms. It does not fit.

And you know what I meant with dyeing the furniture. All you can to is apply a handful of colour locked combinations, just like you do with your outfits, and they all look like ♥♥♥♥ and don't match well at all.

Clothes should not be cash shop exclusives. Really unique outfits yeah, but there should be regular stuff and you should be able to dye it how you want. Collecting all the dyes is the easiest way to add collecting content and a lot of people love this. The clothes in the cash shop are ridiculously overpriced and it does not entice me to spend anything at all. This was a stupendously stupid decision they made.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

Originally posted by MadDawg2552:

You can.

You can't. Large rooms only interlock back and front. They don't allow you to connect them in a square. You can only do that if you put those ridiculous looking hallways in between or other rooms. You can not make a 2x2 or 3x3 etc square with just large rooms. It does not fit.

And you know what I meant with dyeing the furniture. All you can to is apply a handful of colour locked combinations, just like you do with your outfits, and they all look like ♥♥♥♥ and don't match well at all.

Clothes should not be cash shop exclusives. Really unique outfits yeah, but there should be regular stuff and you should be able to dye it how you want. Collecting all the dyes is the easiest way to add collecting content and a lot of people love this. The clothes in the cash shop are ridiculously overpriced and it does not entice me to spend anything at all. This was a stupendously stupid decision they made.

I haven't really upgraded my house yet, but I agree with all these points.

The clothing/furniture colors are basically like animal crossing: each set has like 3-6 color options max.

[MadDawg2552]

Originally posted by CatsEyes:

Collecting all the dyes is the easiest way to add collecting content and a lot of people love this.

Until they lock the best / most wanted dyes behind a stupid ridiculous tedious task (like catch all the star quality bugs + star quality fish) or some other stupid ridiculous tedious task (defeat every boss on the hardest difficulty solo without taking damage to unlock black / gold).

I do agree that the color choices are very limiting, and pieces of one outfit don't match very will with pieces of another outfit. If they do add dye to the game, all the colors should be unlocked for everyone from the start (or you have to purchase them from Jel for clothing coins).

Clothes should not be cash shop exclusives. Really unique outfits yeah, but there should be regular stuff and you should be able to dye it how you want.

The clothes in the cash shop are ridiculously overpriced and it does not entice me to spend anything at all. This was a stupendously stupid decision they made.

Seeing as how the game is 100% free, it's either pay for cosmetics or pay to win. Your choice.If they offer free clothing, people lose the incentive to pay. If no one is paying, S6 isn't making money and the game shuts down.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Overwatch 2 is free to play but you still get some cosmetics for free, and if you really want to you can buy just about anything without paying as long as you grind enough weekly challenges.

They should give you rare opportunities to earn palia coins in small amounts like as random drops from ore deposits or quest rewards or something. Just enough to let you actually buy something eventually without spending money

[MadDawg2552]

Originally posted by Batabii • Palia:

Overwatch 2 is free to play but you still get some cosmetics for free, and if you really want to you can buy just about anything without paying as long as you grind enough weekly challenges.

They should give you rare opportunities to earn palia coins in small amounts like as random drops from ore deposits or quest rewards or something. Just enough to let you actually buy something eventually without spending money

Overwatch 2 is backed by a multi-billion dollar corporation. They don't need your money.

If Palia did that, they would eventually run out of money and have to close the game.