Couldn't make Sifuu my wifuu so I romanced her son so I could at least call her Mommy.

i'd like to see Palia improve, I'd say this game is similar to Zelda, Stardew Valley! If you like games as such, you'll Love Palia! It's well made, relaxing and quests are simple, Farming, and going out to fetch water for your crops, Waiting for your own harvest to be ready, realisticly enjoyable! Hunting, Gathering Resources, Cooking your own meals! and most Importantly building your own Home! (This is optional and a fun fact) friendship meters! You can build a close bond with villagers, your choice if you want a blooming romance! There's alot to do in this game so you won't end up bored, sharing resources is kind of becoming competive for me with other players though, It's slightly unfair? Reality wise, please make the map and servers more fleshed out, add some free fun cosmetics as well earned rewards, I'd enjoy a swimming feature... as i noticed I immediately drown when in water...other than that, Looking forward to the future, Singularity 6 team!

Example of what you should not do in game development. - Palia had a 50 million dollar budget. - Team consists of 20+ employees which come from big companies like Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot. - Development started in 2018. - Palia was released more unfinished than Stardew Valley, a game that only took 4.5 years to make and was designed by one person who was working as an usher for a cinema. - Originally claimed to be an open world MMORPG focusing on the social aspects, which the game is literally anything but that. - After the backlash of the false MMO claim, the devs created a condescending blog to tell us what they think MMO means. - Devs then released a highly requested feature, pets, which they put behind a paywall. - Instead of providing free and paid pets, the devs released another condescending blog stating they would not do that. - Over the months instead of adding more meaningful content or even multiplayer content, they kept releasing useless content that wont have you playing longer than a few more minutes, such as: Obstacle course, romancing more NPCs, more NPCs, crops, cooked foods, and quests. - Noticing they are losing many players, mainly due to not even considering MMORPG fan's wishes, they began trying to push out the game to every platform possible. - Now that they're getting negative reviews on Steam, they made a blog stating they're just an early access game, simply just to hide behind it. First I'm going to talk about the 'MMO' part of Palia. Palia is not an MMO. It really isn't. It's not 'massively' multiplayer, objectively. There are 25 players on a server and there are currently two in game areas, excluding your plot. That's a small world, and a small section of players to interact with. Secondly, the 'multiplayer' part. Palia has no business being multiplayer in its current state. It's a complaint people have had since day 1. I'm not sure if there are two different visions at odds with one another in the dev team, but it certainly feels like it. Palia has almost no multiplayer features. It feels like a single player game with other players as background. You don't really do things together, you do things alone while standing next to other players. The only exception to this really is cooking, which is very well done and fleshed out. Even things like flow groves or flow trees, that require multiple people, are really at odds with what makes a good multiplayer game. The only required multiplayer activity is a chore. You will find special trees you need two people to chop, and you have to call it out and wait for someone to help. There have been multiple instances where nobody even comes, so you're then locked out of chopping it, or animation cancelling for 5 minutes to do it yourself. The one good multiplayer feature was tied to an event - it was a minigame called Hotpot. Why this was tied to an event and they don't focus on the core game, I have no idea. Finally, I want to talk about the main reason I'm leaving a negative review. Whenever I've had criticism of the game there will inevitably be a lot of fanboys coming out of the woodwork to screech "But it's in BETA, what do you expect?" Except, it's not. All references to the game being in BETA were removed from their website. The steam page does not say the game is in BETA and the 'BETA' descriptor under the main title screen was specifically removed from the switch version. (Small update to this: prior to posting this review I checked the discord and a mod was warning someone for discussing this subject, make of that what you will). I also encourage people to look at the company reviews on Glassdoor to see that some of what I'm saying here about mismatched visions, poor communication and obsfucating the truth seems to have some weight to it. EDIT to this: S6 put out new that the game is in fact still in BETA. No mention of why this tag was removed from switch but at least they're taking steps to be clear and clarifying things which is definitely a step in the right direction to being more communicative. I do recommend trying the game, because it is fun for a while. I just want people to be aware of some of the issues and to not get their hopes up that this game is sustainable as a long term game like other 'MMOs' are. I do have hope for Palia in the future but as it currently stands it needs some serious changes and the devs need to listen to the community, and faster. Whoever was responsible for hotpot - it was great, well done. Add stuff like that to the base game and don't lock it to an event. Whoever added the new trees/ flowers to be grown on plots - also a great step. Now actually focus on making this a community focused game. Let people sit down in town. Add games or different card games to the inn. Palia has so much potential that's being wasted.

(Excuse the “time logged”, as I usually play on my switch and not steam, but wanted to give a review! ---{Graphics}--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑️ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{Gameplay}--- ☐ Very good ☑️ Good ☐ It‘s just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{Audio}--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑️ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{Audience}--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☐ Adults ☑️ All ---{PC Requirements}--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑️ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{Difficulity}--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{Grind}--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isnt necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You‘ll need a second life for grinding ---{Story}--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑️ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It‘ll replace your life ---{Game Time}--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond ---{Price}--- ☑ It’s free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{Bugs}--- ☐ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☑️ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ Cyberpunk 2077 ---{?/10}--- ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐6 ☑7 ☐8 ☐9 ☐10

Example of what you should not do in game development. - Palia had a 50 million dollar budget. - Team consists of 20+ employees which come from big companies like Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot. - Development started in 2018. - Palia was released more unfinished than Stardew Valley, a game that only took 4.5 years to make and was designed by one person who was working as an usher for a cinema. - Originally claimed to be an open world MMORPG focusing on the social aspects, which the game is literally anything but that. - After the backlash of the false MMO claim, the devs created a condescending blog to tell us what they think MMO means. - Devs then released a highly requested feature, pets, which they put behind a paywall. - Instead of providing free and paid pets, the devs released another condescending blog stating they would not do that. - Over the months instead of adding more meaningful content or even multiplayer content, they kept releasing useless content that wont have you playing longer than a few more minutes, such as: Obstacle course, romancing more NPCs, more NPCs, crops, cooked foods, and quests. - Noticing they are losing many players, mainly due to not even considering MMORPG fan's wishes, they began trying to push out the game to every platform possible. - Now that they're getting negative reviews on Steam, they made a blog stating they're just an early access game, simply just to hide behind it. First I'm going to talk about the 'MMO' part of Palia. Palia is not an MMO. It really isn't. It's not 'massively' multiplayer, objectively. There are 25 players on a server and there are currently two in game areas, excluding your plot. That's a small world, and a small section of players to interact with. Secondly, the 'multiplayer' part. Palia has no business being multiplayer in its current state. It's a complaint people have had since day 1. I'm not sure if there are two different visions at odds with one another in the dev team, but it certainly feels like it. Palia has almost no multiplayer features. It feels like a single player game with other players as background. You don't really do things together, you do things alone while standing next to other players. The only exception to this really is cooking, which is very well done and fleshed out. Even things like flow groves or flow trees, that require multiple people, are really at odds with what makes a good multiplayer game. The only required multiplayer activity is a chore. You will find special trees you need two people to chop, and you have to call it out and wait for someone to help. There have been multiple instances where nobody even comes, so you're then locked out of chopping it, or animation cancelling for 5 minutes to do it yourself. The one good multiplayer feature was tied to an event - it was a minigame called Hotpot. Why this was tied to an event and they don't focus on the core game, I have no idea. Finally, I want to talk about the main reason I'm leaving a negative review. Whenever I've had criticism of the game there will inevitably be a lot of fanboys coming out of the woodwork to screech "But it's in BETA, what do you expect?" Except, it's not. All references to the game being in BETA were removed from their website. The steam page does not say the game is in BETA and the 'BETA' descriptor under the main title screen was specifically removed from the switch version. (Small update to this: prior to posting this review I checked the discord and a mod was warning someone for discussing this subject, make of that what you will). I also encourage people to look at the company reviews on Glassdoor to see that some of what I'm saying here about mismatched visions, poor communication and obsfucating the truth seems to have some weight to it. EDIT to this: S6 put out new that the game is in fact still in BETA. No mention of why this tag was removed from switch but at least they're taking steps to be clear and clarifying things which is definitely a step in the right direction to being more communicative. I do recommend trying the game, because it is fun for a while. I just want people to be aware of some of the issues and to not get their hopes up that this game is sustainable as a long term game like other 'MMOs' are. I do have hope for Palia in the future but as it currently stands it needs some serious changes and the devs need to listen to the community, and faster. Whoever was responsible for hotpot - it was great, well done. Add stuff like that to the base game and don't lock it to an event. Whoever added the new trees/ flowers to be grown on plots - also a great step. Now actually focus on making this a community focused game. Let people sit down in town. Add games or different card games to the inn. Palia has so much potential that's being wasted.

Good luck if you play this game. With 600+ hours on the game me and my friends lost our data recently. Staff were pretty quick to blame us because of bugs we experienced that were apparently "game-breaking" and after numerous support messages my account was reset with no intention to transfer my data. Paid content would "eventually be transferred" which means it isn't a priority. My save data is gone and the hours of designing my plot, grinding materials etc. won't be recovered because I can "make a new account". Losing your data and paid content isn't a "minor bug" the way support staff treated me was horrible. Had 60+ messages with images embodied in the email text show you this is a serious issue and waiting for a patch isn't going to show you it's a major account issue then I don't know what will. But hey, my account has been broken since the start of the year. Wonder how many patches it will take for this minor issue to get fixed. Since me and my friends have been "assured" our issue will "eventually" get fixed. Apparently having the highest levelled EU players who have spent hundreds on the game isn't a priority in the slightest and is a minor bug. Whilst getting stuck sometimes on your plot is a major bug. I see S6 doesn't think the community is close and don't talk at all. The staff didn't even address me by my correct username in some of these emails. TLDR; save your money, unless you don't mind your data getting lost. EDIT: There was no exploits used. Stop mentioning exploits, blaming sloppy coding on exploits (which are also sloppy coding anyway) is just giving the devs more reasons to stay lazy. I have every right to complain for the hours I put in and anyone blaming exploits/dismissing my feelings/criticising my review obviously wouldn't think the same if they were in my position. S6 will never appreciate you, so stop it lmao.

My friend who I play CS:GO with said if I post a review on Palia and it gets 700 likes and 300 Awards that he will buy me a RTX 3060 and 1 Kilo of Lemon . So im just gonna leave this here. Help a brotha

got the steam setting. made a character without a palia account, since it was only needed for crossplay as they said. Turns out, i cant play with fellow steam friends either. Which isnt crossplay. apparently you can only play with friends when you have an account. This wasnt made very clear when giving the option in the first place. So now i am stuck with a character that i cant play on with my friend. Cant make a new one and connect it to a palia account, cause it only allows you to have one account (what type of bs is that that you cant delete your character and are stuck with it?) So basically i lost all will to play this game, since i wanted to play it with a friend., Which i cant cause of a lot of bs rules. And i dont want to play solo, progress and then have to start all over again. If thats even possible. Fix your game pls. And provide this info when making a character or allow it later to connect an account.

Example of what you should not do in game development. - Palia had a 50 million dollar budget. - Team consists of 20+ employees which come from big companies like Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot. - Development started in 2018. - Palia was released more unfinished than Stardew Valley, a game that only took 4.5 years to make and was designed by one person who was working as an usher for a cinema. - Originally claimed to be an open world MMORPG focusing on the social aspects, which the game is literally anything but that. - After the backlash of the false MMO claim, the devs created a condescending blog to tell us what they think MMO means. - Devs then released a highly requested feature, pets, which they put behind a paywall. - Instead of providing free and paid pets, the devs released another condescending blog stating they would not do that. - Over the months instead of adding more meaningful content or even multiplayer content, they kept releasing useless content that wont have you playing longer than a few more minutes, such as: Obstacle course, romancing more NPCs, more NPCs, crops, cooked foods, and quests. - Noticing they are losing many players, mainly due to not even considering MMORPG fan's wishes, they began trying to push out the game to every platform possible. - Now that they're getting negative reviews on Steam, they made a blog stating they're just an early access game, simply just to hide behind it. First I'm going to talk about the 'MMO' part of Palia. Palia is not an MMO. It really isn't. It's not 'massively' multiplayer, objectively. There are 25 players on a server and there are currently two in game areas, excluding your plot. That's a small world, and a small section of players to interact with. Secondly, the 'multiplayer' part. Palia has no business being multiplayer in its current state. It's a complaint people have had since day 1. I'm not sure if there are two different visions at odds with one another in the dev team, but it certainly feels like it. Palia has almost no multiplayer features. It feels like a single player game with other players as background. You don't really do things together, you do things alone while standing next to other players. The only exception to this really is cooking, which is very well done and fleshed out. Even things like flow groves or flow trees, that require multiple people, are really at odds with what makes a good multiplayer game. The only required multiplayer activity is a chore. You will find special trees you need two people to chop, and you have to call it out and wait for someone to help. There have been multiple instances where nobody even comes, so you're then locked out of chopping it, or animation cancelling for 5 minutes to do it yourself. The one good multiplayer feature was tied to an event - it was a minigame called Hotpot. Why this was tied to an event and they don't focus on the core game, I have no idea. Finally, I want to talk about the main reason I'm leaving a negative review. Whenever I've had criticism of the game there will inevitably be a lot of fanboys coming out of the woodwork to screech "But it's in BETA, what do you expect?" Except, it's not. All references to the game being in BETA were removed from their website. The steam page does not say the game is in BETA and the 'BETA' descriptor under the main title screen was specifically removed from the switch version. (Small update to this: prior to posting this review I checked the discord and a mod was warning someone for discussing this subject, make of that what you will). I also encourage people to look at the company reviews on Glassdoor to see that some of what I'm saying here about mismatched visions, poor communication and obsfucating the truth seems to have some weight to it. EDIT to this: S6 put out new that the game is in fact still in BETA. No mention of why this tag was removed from switch but at least they're taking steps to be clear and clarifying things which is definitely a step in the right direction to being more communicative. I do recommend trying the game, because it is fun for a while. I just want people to be aware of some of the issues and to not get their hopes up that this game is sustainable as a long term game like other 'MMOs' are. I do have hope for Palia in the future but as it currently stands it needs some serious changes and the devs need to listen to the community, and faster. Whoever was responsible for hotpot - it was great, well done. Add stuff like that to the base game and don't lock it to an event. Whoever added the new trees/ flowers to be grown on plots - also a great step. Now actually focus on making this a community focused game. Let people sit down in town. Add games or different card games to the inn. Palia has so much potential that's being wasted.

--{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☑ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☑ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☑ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☑ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10

⠀⠀⢀⣀⠤⠿⢤⢖⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⡔⢩⠂⠀⠒⠗⠈⠀⠉⠢⠄⣀⠠⠤⠄⠒⢖⡒⢒⠂⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠇⠤⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠈⠀⠈⠈⡨⢀⠡⡪⠢⡀⠀ ⠈⠒⠀⠤⠤⣄⡆⡂⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠢⠀⢕⠱⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢳⣐⡐⠐⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠁⠇ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠑⢤⢁⠀⠆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⢰⠀⠀⠀⡀⢄⡜⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⡦⠄⡷⠢⠤⠤⠤⠤⢬⢈⡇⢠⣈⣰⠎⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣃⢸⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢪⢀⣺⡅⢈⠆⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠶⡿⠤⠚⠁⠀⠀⠀⢀⣠⡤⢺⣥⠟⢡⠃⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Here I will leave this beautiful Capybara, whoever passes by can pet it and give it a thumbs up

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☑ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10

It has come to my attention that this game is lorded over by tyrants that have people work their rear ends off and then dumps them. That's just straight Villainous. Complete with toxic drones that will bully you out of their discord and the game itself. It was a good game. Thank you to the people who made that happen before they were thrown to the streets. Singularity 6 Corporation. You are a disgrace and actual scum.

palia more like GRINDIA AMIRITE Fun game tho, only cosmetics are paid as well, which is a plus (I paid like 30 bucks to be a shiny fairy and I'm not ashamed of it)

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☐ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☑ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☑ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☑ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☑ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☑ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10

Example of what you should not do in game development. - Palia had a 50 million dollar budget. - Team consists of 20+ employees which come from big companies like Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot. - Development started in 2018. - Palia was released more unfinished than Stardew Valley, a game that only took 4.5 years to make and was designed by one person who was working as an usher for a cinema. - Originally claimed to be an open world MMORPG focusing on the social aspects, which the game is literally anything but that. - After the backlash of the false MMO claim, the devs created a condescending blog to tell us what they think MMO means. - Devs then released a highly requested feature, pets, which they put behind a paywall. - Instead of providing free and paid pets, the devs released another condescending blog stating they would not do that. - Over the months instead of adding more meaningful content or even multiplayer content, they kept releasing useless content that wont have you playing longer than a few more minutes, such as: Obstacle course, romancing more NPCs, more NPCs, crops, cooked foods, and quests. - Noticing they are losing many players, mainly due to not even considering MMORPG fan's wishes, they began trying to push out the game to every platform possible. - Now that they're getting negative reviews on Steam, they made a blog stating they're just an early access game, simply just to hide behind it. Now you are here. You'll enjoy the game for a few, until you realize how empty and shallow the game is. This could have been a great game, but it appears the devs pocketed the millions and are continuing to focus on pocketing of your money rather than making the game better. I am more than willing to spend $40 for clothes if only they made the game enjoyable with a multiplayer experience, rather then adding fillers every patch for about a year now for more cash flow.

Palia is kinda one of the worst games I've played. Kinda in that I've played Worse but also I've never been more frustrated in a game and its developers in my life. To start off, I've been playing since some early closed betas, I did all the quests I have all the highest tier gear I did every bit of content I followed development for a good long while before calling it quits a month ago. I've prob got 100-200 hours total in game I knew a lot of players who up and quit at random and I was sitting there wishing I could quit but I wanted to document how bad things were for my friends. Anyways. Palia is a "Cozy" "Comfy" ""farming sim"" mmo. First off the farming is worthless as it makes very little money and what money it did make got nerfed. It's also a chore, with a puzzle long solved that day 1 I had made a field optimized for every single crop to grow itself. There's a sort of puzzle element to the crops which buff surrounding crops in certain interesting ways but you can do a quick google and find the maps of plots which will make farming a joke. But even if you decide to ignore that and grow for yourself and do all that yourself, you're so limited on how much you can farm. you're only allowed 9 3x3 plots of farm land a decision I've seen exclusively negative response to so it really boggles the mind. If you wanted to Farm in this Farming Sim game it's likely the farming will fall flat on its ass before you ever get Into It. Comfy and cozy is a funny thing to sell a game on, all wholesome and innocent and pure. The micro transaction bundles of up to 40 dollars are something the community ride or die defends nonstop because it comes up a lot from people who read that sort of optics and go "what the fuck." This is sort of the reasonable response coming from a world where Horse Armor DLC used to be a joke and is now a feature in every single game you play almost. Thanks Bethesda. "But it's just cosmetic!!" one may say, and so is the fortnite store. There's something about "MMOs" lately which the devs and community boast player friendliness and end up having horrifying micro transactions, like warframe and its wild pricing and mod lootboxes. Warframe and Palia also share horrendous real time timers, the things everyone used to shit on when games like farmville made their circulation on facebook, Palia's timers aren't nearly as bad as warframe's sure but I think waiting I think 12 hours for my home to be built was a revelation to me that early on signed the idea that the game was gonna be awful. Even when you find the engaging gameplay, which for me was hunting for a good while, they find a way to ruin it. Early on hunting used to make great profit it felt rewarding and fun and good, but over time they've nerfed the sell prices. Then nerfed them some more. Then nerfed the animal spawn rates. And so now the hunting gameplay is fun but utterly worthless and time consuming. By the way there's been a bug in game for god knows how long in which the ultra rare magic deers teleport into the ground and are unkillable. Really fun. Also in general the network lag (for this single player mmo) makes hunting kinda suck as you watch the prey teleport around and dodge your shots with their Ultra Instinct esque movements. And sometimes when you kill them you can't even pick up their drops because the drop bag is just missing! Super cool Palia. The only other tasks to be had are stuff like Mining/Logging, and Quests. Both are really frustrating but for very different reasons. The resource gathering just kinda sucks, and is also the only multiplayer required part of the game! You have to have multiple people hit the magic trees to gather them! Why? I dunno it's kinda weird and coordinating with others has been a pain day 1 that they've never fully tried to remedy. The magic rocks also require coordination but more so on a "once one person breaks it it vanishes for everyone." Now to be fair, that has been changed for the better! Now when rocks are broken or similar rare resources, they're still around! on a timer. for some reason. they still vanish after time. No idea why they want this mechanic so bad. Quests are also kinda, mediocre. The story is you are the only human in this world! on launch I saw a full server every hour I played so it fell flat there. The rest of the quest was interesting though you get to do a zelda esque dungeon that lasts 5 minutes before it's over and it asks you to engage in a weeks long grind fest to complete a stardew esque bundle which has ultra rare time gated fish involved and you work for weeks thinking maybe after you finish you can do the next dungeon just to find out they're not even implemented yet and this game is just an early access single player game that you wasted 100s of hours wanting to find the fun but being wholly unable to. Yeah the quests just sorta end really early on. It's sad. On the flip you got the romantic interests which all are so very clearly tropes that it's like looking at those horrendous Booktok adverts which read out the tropes as bullet points. I did the chef and found him underwhelming. They had a dad character who was clearly bait for ppl to love so they could later release his romance to hype up the game more. It worked there was news articles on it. Oh yeah and bug hunting is just a perfunctory inspired-by pokemon legends arceus gameplay loop which you throw smoke bombs at bugs around the world to stun and catch them. Lastly I've just gotta say, the fucking Devs are a nightmare. Every single day there was some kind of unprofessional "Uwu sorry development is hard" esque message in the Discord Server from official developer staff. That really isnt much of an exaggeration, they did in fact say word for word "Development is hard" the day they had the server down all day just to announce it was down for no good reason as they would not be delivering the patch that day. That's right they delayed a patch while the servers were down for maintenance to install said patch. Which is and was a first for me. Usually when servers are down for extra time you get loyalty rewards from these mobiles games, wait sorry forgot this is a pc game. Oh wait no it's also on switch! Where it runs catastrophically bad! This game is optimized like shit btw, on my at the time brand new pc at launch the game loved to stutter and lag and struggle to stay above 60 fps it was great. But yeah every day the discord server, which also is the only way to know when maintenance is as there's no in game announcements for downtime as far as I've ever seen, has messages from the same 2 or 3 staff members revealing how unprofessional and sad the state of development is. I remember after new years they posted a lot about how things were crazy and were otherwise radio silent for like a month, I really wondered if funding was cut and the servers were getting shuttered that week. Overall the dev team feels the same as how the modern windows blue screen of death is, babying talk for serious issues which carefully skirt around the idea of providing useful info to their users. They also show zero regard for player feedback especially shown when pets were added to the game as a cash shop exclusive item, the feature was long promised to players and asked for by players and it was added as a back of the hand slap as a "thank you for giving us money!" reward. One of the following state of dev posts featured the devs saying they'd probably never remedy this issue as it was "always" intended to be like this or some shit. They also have a weird thing where they ask beta testers to not talk about the bug nets. tl;dr: Overall Palia is straight up not worth your time. It does not respect your time or wallet. It does not have any reason to have any online elements. And it is run by people seemingly wholly interested in making quick bucks off the cozy game fad rather than being genuinely interested. Don't waste your time or money on this game.

In general, life sim games (farming, cooking, etc.) are among my favorite video game genres. While these games are typically more enjoyable in single-player mode, I decided to give Palia a try, and honestly, it’s been a largely disappointing experience. Here are the things that frustrated me the most: -Rather than a true life sim, Palia feels like a furniture-crafting simulator. About 95% of what you can craft is furniture. -The game’s core design imposes numerous limitations, forcing you to invest excessive time in nearly everything. -If the game is supposedly in “beta,” it shouldn’t bombard me with constant notifications to buy from the premium store. -You can’t freely grind and stockpile materials because the game caps your inventory. You’re limited to creating just eight measly chests, which can be upgraded to increase storage space. The most ridiculous part? Furniture storage is unlimited, so you could craft 100,000 chairs without issue. -If you planned to fill your property with crops, you’re out of luck. The game restricts you to purchasing a maximum of nine tiny garden soils. This leaves you with two choices: plant a little of everything and spend your time constantly watering crops and pulling weeds, or use a garden planner to figure out the most efficient crop layout. -Fabric and silk in the game are only used for crafting curtains and tablecloths for furniture. If you thought you could use them to make clothes, the game quickly informs you that clothing is only available for purchase with premium currency. -Hunting is incredibly dull. You spend dozens of hours chasing the same four creatures with their “variants”: a squirrel, a deer, a wolf, and a toad. -Cooking is by far the worst skill. It’s painfully slow to level up. Recipes serve only two purposes: boosting your Focus or acting as collectibles. If you thought you could make money from cooking, the economy is wildly unbalanced. Many recipes cost a fortune to make, yet you only recover about 20% of their value. -The introduction of the Ranching skill is equally awful. You can only level it up by petting animals, and it takes 17 real-world hours to progress. Seriously, what?! -The RNG is atrocious. Good luck trying to find a black pearl or a shiny pebble, which have less than a 1% drop rate. It can take weeks to gather the necessary resources. -My PC can handle triple-A games with ease, but with Palia, I’m forced to play on medium graphics settings and cap the FPS at 60 to avoid crashes. This speaks volumes about the game’s poor technical performance. I could go on about other things I disliked, but in short, Palia has been far from the cozy and relaxing experience it’s marketed to be.

This game was fun, but then I found out the truth of the company and the community. I want to start by saying, I've been on Palia since the second the open beta came out. I downloaded it, hopped in and had a good time, but I did so on Epic Games as that's where the original launch was. With that out of the way, let me get on with the good of this game: Pros:

• Cozy game where even with the clock mechanic with "days" you dont have to do missions on a timer like Stardew Valley
• Hunting, fishing, mining, and always something to do.
• You can romance most npcs and all at once.
• Relationship meters and...decent missions that aren't complete fetch quests.
• And I guess a fun community? Sometimes. Only if you follow the rules they made at times.
• Customization: From your plot of land to your character, you can do as you wish which most games do not allow these days! Well, the plot of land is customizable...if you want any decent attire, you're paying upwards of 10$+ for one outfit, or glider, 5$ for a pet that only exists to follow you and is a poorly coded accessory.
• Making friends is kind of easy? Again, some people are nice! Others? They will bully and harrass you if you do something they don't like. Just block them though. The nice people are worth the play.

Now for the cons! I know I'll get flack for this review and for the cons by the community, but I genuinely do not care anymore. All my playtime which includes hundreds of hours of playtime, if not more, on Epic Games is done and I don't have any desire to touch this game again. Not because it's a bad game entirely, but due to my beliefs in this company that made the project. Disclaimer: these are my views and my opinions that I have looked into and have been keeping an eye on for months now since starting. If you want to support them, be my guest, but let me open with everything that's happened to newcomers! Cons:

• This company laid off people who were with them from the start of the project (6 years), on top of others who had a huge part in the creation of the narrative and also those who worked to manage the Discord and other platforms. Many of the people fired worked on concept art, made models for furniture and items in the game, and drove the plot along. They also fired people who managed and spoke with the community! Our gateway to even be heard is being cut off one strand at a time with S6. After launching on steam, 35% of people were dropped. That's 49 people with only a few dozen people left.

  "Unfortunately we have had to restructure and reduce the size of our team as we stay focused on supporting Palia and serving our community long term. We had to let 36 of our colleagues go yesterday, in an effort to navigate this tough economic period," reads a statement issued by a company spokesperson. "We thank our departing team for all their work; we are committed to providing the best assistance and transition we can. We hope the industry will provide homes for these talented colleagues."

  Source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/report-palia-studio-singularity-6-lays-off-36-employees The lack of communication on this to the community not once, but twice is insulting. Oh yes, they've had not one but TWO rounds of layoffs in less than 9 months. Take that how you will as well!
• Constantly adding premium items, but refusing to acknowledge these items aren't making enough money. I understand cosmetics and micro-transactions are needed for some games, but I'm calling S6's bluff currently on this. People have suggested making it a one off purchase, they won't. Instead, they're using employees who should be working to get this game out of beta to make more premium items, including new pets to replace the old ones that you didn't even have a chance to buy before. As mentioned, said pets only follow you around nothing else! What was the last update we had for the story, like the actual main story? February. I understand stories take time, but the problem is they just fired the people who were writing the story. We don't need a huge update for each piece of the story, but I can tell you now pulling a Gameloft with their recent project of Dreamlight Valley - again another huge company who pulled the "womp womp we're in beta" move when they made people pay for said beta only to break promises - that had the same sorts of transactions before they even launched an open beta is a no go. The missions to fill story beats are quick fetch quests, or quests that are too hard to complete to keep up more playtime. This is again due to staff firings. Multi-million dollar studio who COULD afford the people for the narrative, but won't. Take it as you will.
• Toxic positivity in the community. "Don't like, don't play," aka you're upset and have GENUINE criticism? "Oh the game's in beta, they're working hard. Play something else." The community hates negative criticism because it's "supposed to be a welcoming community", when in the same breath people bully others for "not following the rules" the community made that others do not see unless in the Discord or Reddit. Just because you type it out in a comment, doesn't make it official either. Toxic positivity is prevalent in most of these cozy game communities and it's not okay! Please check out Rattle on YouTube for examples of this. She covers the downfalls of SSO and how they're pulling the same actions that S6 is falling into slowly but surely.
• Nerfs to single player activities to pad playtime! It's all in the update logs!
• Lastly, This was a Kickstarter game started back in 2019 by those who claimed to be an indie team, they're not. They're a full on studio. In fact, who founded the studio? Ex employees of Riot, Blizzard, and many other huge companies with questionable practices. They might not be triple A, but they have the money and still refuse to use it correctly in order to keep ahold on all these funds and also choose to not be open to their community.

I was brought to this game by good word of mouth as it should be only to be shown not only how poorly managed it is, but how quickly they'll cut ties with those they saw as "family". As they say "it's just business" and S6 proves right as rain this is how they handle these things. They're not a triple A studio, but their words are still corporate trash. They're banking off those like us who want cozy games, just like Gameloft has and soon others will to as even the Lord of the Ring's domain is suddenly wanting to make a game exactly like this. They don't get my pity. They aren't firing people because they have a bigger company telling them to, they're not adding micro-transactions because they have higher ups forcing them, and they certainly aren't treating employees like trash because of high management. They're doing it because they can and blaming it on the economy to save money and prove they do not care for the consumer or the people working for them currently. To finish this review off, I'd like to quote someone form a thread on reddit who sums this up well.

...No matter the side. One google search and you find out how much money they got for the game, how big the company is and how it has some big names coming from other...projects. Play, don't play, pay for the pet, don't, to each their own, but do it knowing who is behind before you jump in such a toxic way to insult others And when they say "who cares" well it's not the same an indie studio with their first game not having an idea of what to do and being formed by 5 people than such a big studio with people that was already behind big games with nasty systems like this one.

At the end of the day, please do your research. Thank you for reading.

Example of what you should not do in game development. - Palia had a 50 million dollar budget. - Team consists of 20+ employees which come from big companies like Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot. - Development started in 2018. - Palia was released more unfinished than Stardew Valley, a game that only took 4.5 years to make and was designed by one person who was working as an usher for a cinema. - Originally claimed to be an open world MMORPG focusing on the social aspects, which the game is literally anything but that. - After the backlash of the false MMO claim, the devs created a condescending blog to tell us what they think MMO means. - Devs then released a highly requested feature, pets, which they put behind a paywall. - Instead of providing free and paid pets, the devs released another condescending blog stating they would not do that. - Over the months instead of adding more meaningful content or even multiplayer content, they kept releasing useless content that wont have you playing longer than a few more minutes, such as: Obstacle course, romancing more NPCs, more NPCs, crops, cooked foods, and quests. - Noticing they are losing many players, mainly due to not even considering MMORPG fan's wishes, they began trying to push out the game to every platform possible. - Now that they're getting negative reviews on Steam, they made a blog stating they're just an early access game, simply just to hide behind it. First I'm going to talk about the 'MMO' part of Palia. Palia is not an MMO. It really isn't. It's not 'massively' multiplayer, objectively. There are 25 players on a server and there are currently two in game areas, excluding your plot. That's a small world, and a small section of players to interact with. Secondly, the 'multiplayer' part. Palia has no business being multiplayer in its current state. It's a complaint people have had since day 1. I'm not sure if there are two different visions at odds with one another in the dev team, but it certainly feels like it. Palia has almost no multiplayer features. It feels like a single player game with other players as background. You don't really do things together, you do things alone while standing next to other players. The only exception to this really is cooking, which is very well done and fleshed out. Even things like flow groves or flow trees, that require multiple people, are really at odds with what makes a good multiplayer game. The only required multiplayer activity is a chore. You will find special trees you need two people to chop, and you have to call it out and wait for someone to help. There have been multiple instances where nobody even comes, so you're then locked out of chopping it, or animation cancelling for 5 minutes to do it yourself. The one good multiplayer feature was tied to an event - it was a minigame called Hotpot. Why this was tied to an event and they don't focus on the core game, I have no idea. Finally, I want to talk about the main reason I'm leaving a negative review. Whenever I've had criticism of the game there will inevitably be a lot of fanboys coming out of the woodwork to screech "But it's in BETA, what do you expect?" Except, it's not. All references to the game being in BETA were removed from their website. The steam page does not say the game is in BETA and the 'BETA' descriptor under the main title screen was specifically removed from the switch version. (Small update to this: prior to posting this review I checked the discord and a mod was warning someone for discussing this subject, make of that what you will). I also encourage people to look at the company reviews on Glassdoor to see that some of what I'm saying here about mismatched visions, poor communication and obsfucating the truth seems to have some weight to it. EDIT to this: S6 put out new that the game is in fact still in BETA. No mention of why this tag was removed from switch but at least they're taking steps to be clear and clarifying things which is definitely a step in the right direction to being more communicative. I do recommend trying the game, because it is fun for a while. I just want people to be aware of some of the issues and to not get their hopes up that this game is sustainable as a long term game like other 'MMOs' are. I do have hope for Palia in the future but as it currently stands it needs some serious changes and the devs need to listen to the community, and faster. Whoever was responsible for hotpot - it was great, well done. Add stuff like that to the base game and don't lock it to an event. Whoever added the new trees/ flowers to be grown on plots - also a great step. Now actually focus on making this a community focused game. Let people sit down in town. Add games or different card games to the inn. Palia has so much potential that's being wasted.

I wish there was a way to leave a neutral review. Palia is a fun game, but it suffers from a few issues that make me sway toward leaving a negative review. I've played the game since the closed beta. First I'm going to talk about the 'MMO' part of Palia. Palia is not an MMO. It really isn't. It's not 'massively' multiplayer, objectively. There are 25 players on a server and there are currently two in game areas, excluding your plot. That's a small world, and a small section of players to interact with. Secondly, the 'multiplayer' part. Palia has no business being multiplayer in its current state. It's a complaint people have had since day 1. I'm not sure if there are two different visions at odds with one another in the dev team, but it certainly feels like it. Palia has almost no multiplayer features. It feels like a single player game with other players as background. You don't really do things together, you do things alone while standing next to other players. The only exception to this really is cooking, which is very well done and fleshed out. Even things like flow groves or flow trees, that require multiple people, are really at odds with what makes a good multiplayer game. The only required multiplayer activity is a chore. You will find special trees you need two people to chop, and you have to call it out and wait for someone to help. There have been multiple instances where nobody even comes, so you're then locked out of chopping it, or animation cancelling for 5 minutes to do it yourself. The one good multiplayer feature was tied to an event - it was a minigame called Hotpot. Why this was tied to an event and they don't focus on the core game, I have no idea. Speaking of flow trees as I previously mentioned them. They're a necessary resource for decorating. They spawn randomly on the map. That's all well and good but since day 1 of the game they will spawn out of bounds quite consistently. Either the devs don't play Palia or they just truly don't care about fixing this, because it's been 8 months. It should, in theory, be easier to get flow wood outside of flow groves, but the trees are scarce not by design, but due to a bug. Yesterday I counted 5 flow trees out of bounds in Bahari. Since there's a limited amount that can spawn, that's already multiple that nobody will be able to harvest. It's like this on all servers - they'll eventually take a spot out of bounds. This is one of numerous bugs that have not been fixed since launch. My favourite so far was ever since the last patch there were placeholder textures all over Bahari beach in the form of green cylinders. Singularity 6 decided to leave them there until the next scheduled patch. No hotfix or rush to fix it. Another reason I'm leaving a negative review is that many of the updates have basically just been building on the shell of what already exists. There's nothing in depth. Adding a new plant, a new creature (there are only 3), a new decor object or paid outfit is not great content. Again, things like hotpot are the exception, not the rule. People like to defend Palia and say "but it's cozy" but honestly 'cozy' has now become synonymous with lazy and uninspired to me recently. It's not exciting. Adding on to this, lets move on to the most controversial aspect of the game - the premium store. Palia is free to play, and as a free to play game I'd say it's fairly good. The only monetized aspect of the game is clothing. Great. There is a problem with that though, and it links to what I said in the prior paragraph about 'depth'. You know all the cool features of 'MMOs' like grinding for a new outfit, or reaching max level in a skill and getting a cool hat or SOMETHING to show off you've achieved it? That doesn't exist in Palia. It never will and the devs have confirmed this. You will only obtain unique outfits if you pay for them. I really don't get the mindset here when creating a good game. It would have made more sense if everyone just started with the same outfit and the current wardobe was obtainable through quests, at least giving some accomplishment and goals, but everything surrounding clothing is extremely lacklustre, including the store. I wish Palia could have been what many people thought it would be when we followed it during development, but it seems like there's no effort to create community, and you're sort of expected to play a single player game in a multiplayer world. It's been 8 months and you still can't sit on chairs or benches in town. I guess the devs don't care about flavour like that. There's nothing to do in the Inn, no 'fun' ways for players to interact unless you create them yourself, and that's a problem. As for the positives of the game - the housing plot and decorating is very well done. I would say it's definitely the best part of the game. Again though, it's very single player focused. You can show off cool things you've earned on your plot, but nobody really sees it unless you invite them. People assumed there would be neighbourhoods, or some way to force interaction with plots, but again, it's entirely on the playerbase. Another positive is cooking, which I'd say is also well done and fun in multiplayer. Skills that fall flat are bug catching and hunting. They're just terrible. I'm level 70 something in mining/ cooking, over 50 in fishing and gardening, yet only level 15 in hunting. It takes a ridiculous amount of time and it's not remotely fun to grind those levels. Same with bug catching. Finally, I want to talk about the main reason I'm leaving a negative review. Whenever I've had criticism of the game there will inevitably be a lot of fanboys coming out of the woodwork to screech "But it's in BETA, what do you expect?" Except, it's not. All references to the game being in BETA were removed from their website. The steam page does not say the game is in BETA and the 'BETA' descriptor under the main title screen was specifically removed from the switch version. (Small update to this: prior to posting this review I checked the discord and a mod was warning someone for discussing this subject, make of that what you will). I also encourage people to look at the company reviews on Glassdoor to see that some of what I'm saying here about mismatched visions, poor communication and obsfucating the truth seems to have some weight to it. EDIT to this: S6 put out new that the game is in fact still in BETA. No mention of why this tag was removed from switch but at least they're taking steps to be clear and clarifying things which is definitely a step in the right direction to being more communicative. I do recommend trying the game, because it is fun for a while. I just want people to be aware of some of the issues and to not get their hopes up that this game is sustainable as a long term game like other 'MMOs' are. I do have hope for Palia in the future but as it currently stands it needs some serious changes and the devs need to listen to the community, and faster. Whoever was responsible for hotpot - it was great, well done. Add stuff like that to the base game and don't lock it to an event. Whoever added the new trees/ flowers to be grown on plots - also a great step. Now actually focus on making this a community focused game. Let people sit down in town. Add games or different card games to the inn. Palia has so much potential that's being wasted.

Example of what you should not do in game development. - Palia had a 50 million dollar budget. - Team consists of 20+ employees which come from big companies like Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot. - Development started in 2018. - Palia was released more unfinished than Stardew Valley, a game that only took 4.5 years to make and was designed by one person who was working as an usher for a cinema. - Originally claimed to be an open world MMORPG focusing on the social aspects, which the game is literally anything but that. - After the backlash of the false MMO claim, the devs created a condescending blog to tell us what they think MMO means. - Devs then released a highly requested feature, pets, which they put behind a paywall. - Instead of providing free and paid pets, the devs released another condescending blog stating they would not do that. - Over the months instead of adding more meaningful content or even multiplayer content, they kept releasing useless content that wont have you playing longer than a few more minutes, such as: Obstacle course, romancing more NPCs, more NPCs, crops, cooked foods, and quests. - Noticing they are losing many players, mainly due to not even considering MMORPG fan's wishes, they began trying to push out the game to every platform possible. - Now that they're getting negative reviews on Steam, they made a blog stating they're just an early access game, simply just to hide behind it. First I'm going to talk about the 'MMO' part of Palia. Palia is not an MMO. It really isn't. It's not 'massively' multiplayer, objectively. There are 25 players on a server and there are currently two in game areas, excluding your plot. That's a small world, and a small section of players to interact with. Secondly, the 'multiplayer' part. Palia has no business being multiplayer in its current state. It's a complaint people have had since day 1. I'm not sure if there are two different visions at odds with one another in the dev team, but it certainly feels like it. Palia has almost no multiplayer features. It feels like a single player game with other players as background. You don't really do things together, you do things alone while standing next to other players. The only exception to this really is cooking, which is very well done and fleshed out. Even things like flow groves or flow trees, that require multiple people, are really at odds with what makes a good multiplayer game. The only required multiplayer activity is a chore. You will find special trees you need two people to chop, and you have to call it out and wait for someone to help. There have been multiple instances where nobody even comes, so you're then locked out of chopping it, or animation cancelling for 5 minutes to do it yourself. The one good multiplayer feature was tied to an event - it was a minigame called Hotpot. Why this was tied to an event and they don't focus on the core game, I have no idea. Finally, I want to talk about the main reason I'm leaving a negative review. Whenever I've had criticism of the game there will inevitably be a lot of fanboys coming out of the woodwork to screech "But it's in BETA, what do you expect?" Except, it's not. All references to the game being in BETA were removed from their website. The steam page does not say the game is in BETA and the 'BETA' descriptor under the main title screen was specifically removed from the switch version. (Small update to this: prior to posting this review I checked the discord and a mod was warning someone for discussing this subject, make of that what you will). I also encourage people to look at the company reviews on Glassdoor to see that some of what I'm saying here about mismatched visions, poor communication and obsfucating the truth seems to have some weight to it. EDIT to this: S6 put out new that the game is in fact still in BETA. No mention of why this tag was removed from switch but at least they're taking steps to be clear and clarifying things which is definitely a step in the right direction to being more communicative. I do recommend trying the game, because it is fun for a while. I just want people to be aware of some of the issues and to not get their hopes up that this game is sustainable as a long term game like other 'MMOs' are. I do have hope for Palia in the future but as it currently stands it needs some serious changes and the devs need to listen to the community, and faster. Whoever was responsible for hotpot - it was great, well done. Add stuff like that to the base game and don't lock it to an event. Whoever added the new trees/ flowers to be grown on plots - also a great step. Now actually focus on making this a community focused game. Let people sit down in town. Add games or different card games to the inn. Palia has so much potential that's being wasted.

Good to see Captain Ginyu finally got his own video game. It’s like the devs melded Animal Crossing, Zelda and everything we love about MMOs into one with no muss no fuss. It’s the game I will turn to when all the others don't give me joy or when I just need an escape that gives me a cozy feeling. I played WoW from the very beginning (yes I'm showing my age here), have played countless other MMOs most gamers don't even remember ever existed, and was even an early tester during closed beta for a notable MMO (Sky: Children of the Light) long before it was publicly playable...... with this experience in mind, I would like to say that: Palia is special. Sure, it has bugs. Sure, some of them are silly or frustrating, and I hope they get fixed sooner rather than later. But the sheer amount of content available, for absolutely free, and the very evident devotion of the developers to hear negative feedback and respond to it by making genuine improvements to the game? That's f**king rare. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I have never seen such a responsive and passionate dev team in a beta experience before. As a very veteran player of both MMOs and betas, all of the excessively whiny people just look really silly to me. I like to imagine them attempting to play WoW or Maple Story back during the very early days, when it took literally a whole freaking YEAR of grinding just to hit level 30-40, and the developers didn't really give much of a damn about complaints. It's a fun mental image. To be honest I adore this game, played it since it came to Steam, even love it on the Steam Deck. I feel so incredibly spoiled to be able to play this game, in bed, with my favourite mug of chocolate. Yes it's a bit laggy here and there but it hasn't been a nuisance to the point it has become unplayable. Even now, there are still things I keep discovering and I haven't been bored. The graphics are my favourite, watching the sunsets in this game are quite something, farming, love crafting furnitures, the list goes on. It's like all the basics are there, I love the characters and especially how the home plot and decorating works! There's so many lovely items and I love decorating. It's my favorite thing to do in cozy games. The farming is great too with the crop boosts. Also love that we can request items and help each other out. Playing the game before and after work is something I find very relaxing. I feel a lot of peace of mind when I explore Bahari bay or spend time on my farm. The community is friendly, they have helped me on many occasions, it is pleasant to observe players waiting for others to come and cut a flow tree and each character of the village of Kilima is unique, at first I did not consider some of them relevant, but over time, I discovered that each of them has its own charm. It's cosmetic slash art may have a hint of Fortnite but, it plays like Harvest Moon. No combat and all about time management and resources. It has some Zelda inspired mechanics and scenes but is nothing like Zelda either. The game also has similarities to my time in Portia and Sandrock with how the machines work. The game play is meant to be a cozy relaxing experience while dating NPC’s and fishing/gathering. The goals are very Animal Crossing-like in terms of having a pretty home and plot being a driving motivator, a loop I highly enjoy. The biggest draw of the game for me is its personality. The characters, which are the core of the experience, have interesting and very well-written quests and dialogue. It easily stands up to the quality of AAA titles, especially if we're talking MMOs. They put in a lot of work and it shows. The other reason is that there is a lot of love put into the game. Every single NPC has a unique walking animation. That's something I've never seen before in an MMO. Characters have voiced dialogue that changes based on the time of day. Characters refer back to quests you've done for them in the past and this puts it head and shoulders over every Harvest Moon game. I see a lot of potential for this game. Some of these things may not seem like a big deal, but people are always complaining that MMO’s feel soulless and this is a labor of love. Even if you don't give a crap about the story or characters, hunting with the bow is a lot of fun. Nailing a little raccoon/squirrel from a distance after it crests a hill never gets old Overall, I really like it. It's got good bones. But it very clearly needs a some work still. It’s extremely niche. It has a good foundation for what it is, but making an entire MMO based around life - skills has its limits. Still, for me it’s a pretty great grinding game, I enjoyed the progression of buying upgrades and leveling up skills, and I really liked the collection aspect of bug catching and fishing, like Animal Crossing. The housing system is pretty well put together too, though a little buggy sometimes. If you're somebody who enjoys something like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, then Palia will probably be a solid "filler game" for you. It’s hard to see this game being anybody's "main" MMO, but as something to unwind with on the side, I can see some people really enjoying it. Excited to see what the devs will add to the game in the future. 8/10

I have been playing since Open Beta started last August, longer than I have been playing on Steam. There are things that I learned recently that I wish I had known from the beginning. 1. Female Frame Avatars have a built-in disadvantage while hunting, fishing, and other activities. This is cruel and unfair, I hope it changes. 2. Most rare fish/bugs are locked until you reach a higher level in those skills, at least level 25! Some won't unlock til level 50!!! 3. Fishing is setup like real fishing. When you hear the chime, start to pull the fish in, if it starts to fight, stop. Then pull it in a lil more, stop again. Do this until you can pull it in all the way. 4. Sushi, Fisherman's Brew, Fishstew offer some fishing boosts, so will hook boosters; but they won't be as effective until you reach higher levels in fishing. 5 If you see dark green vines growing on a rock or wooden structure, it's most likely hiding a hidden room. 6. Look under bridges and in boat wrecks for treasure chests. 7. Temple of the Gales & Temple of the Roots were designed by Satan, don't ragequit if you can't finish them. Find a friend, someone you trust with your life, let them finish it for you. That way you can still get the rewards. 8. If you are a troll, an insufferable twat, or Elon Musk, you should romance Kenyatta or Tomala, they are both pure evil. 9. Any time you get invited to the mayor's house for a party, talk to all the guests first, before completing the quest, once it's over you'll be booted out and you'll miss out on some juicy lore. 10. If you find a strange shiny rock near ruins, keep it, never delete it. It will be useful later :) 11. If you find a grove of Flow Trees before anyone else, or Palium ore, don't be a dick, share the news in chat. Give map coordinates, location, set off a flare. For the grove, wait at least til 3am to chop. Set off a honey lure to keep people busy so they don't chop early. 12. If someone is being a Troll Jackhole, you can report them directly from chat and block them. 13. Party up! Fill your Focus! Both will boost skill gain by a lot! 14. Yes I know the pets are cute and the premium outfits look amazing, but they really add nothing to the game except elitism and lag. Do not feel pressured to buy any. Currently if you were to buy every outfit, pet & tool skin, it would be over $2,000.00 USD! 15. OH When you get Renown use it to boost Focus first, by going to the Phoenix Shrine (the big bird where you first spawned) and the Dragon Shrine (follow Chayne). Both max out at 1,000 points. After that you can use Renown to buy plots of land, and building supplies from City Hall. 16. The houses are just vanity projects, don't feel pressured to build a large one, we don't need to eat, sleep or poo. And there is no weather. 17. When crafting furniture, craft every individual item in a set first, before crafting duplicates. You will level up soooo fast! 18. Cake Parties are for A-Type Micro-Manager Extroverts. If you are a Neurodivergent, Introverted, Weirdo, they will send you into a panic attack. Do it once for the quest, then never again. 19. Build a big kitchen house, with 4 each of: chopping & mixing stations, stoves & baker's ovens. Invite chill friends over to cook together, as lot as each person does one task, you should all get a copy of the food. You can stack tasks too, like 2 people can both chop onions. 20. There are Eshe-Holes in the game who want it to be a Fortnite nightmare of PVP warfare. DO NOT ENCOURAGE THIS. Palia is cozy, chill, wonderful. 21. Muujins suck. Don't all charge at the Disco Deer, be smart, take your positions and shoot 2 Dispell and 1 Slow Down Arrows at it. Save goes for Greg and the Silver Chapaas! Be patient when hunting Elder and Magic animals, they love to run and teleport, be ready to run run run!

I think we all need a cozy place to relax after decades of bloodshed and looting dungeons