Palia

Genre: Action-RPG / Management Simulation / MMO

Players: MMO (25 Players Per Instance)

.

Review:

Palia, released in 2023 on PC and Nintendo Switch, is a free-to-play game that combines the “Farming RPG”-style gameplay you see in games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, along with a larger world and social elements of an MMO. There’s no combat in this game, but there’s still a decent amount of exploration, light platforming, and quests aplenty. And while this game does have paid content, that content is cosmetic only, and the game still gives players plenty of free cosmetic options.

Compared to other Farming RPGs, Palia’s progression feels a bit on the slow side, but on the bright side it seems filled with things to do. The usual suspects are all here, of course – farming, fishing, mining, foraging, and so on. However, as mentioned a moment ago, this game also has plenty of quests to fulfil for its various villagers, and the game’s typical friendship/romance system also unlocks character-specific quests you can perform for the game’s characters.

These characters are pretty likeable (particularly the adorkable researcher Jina), and the world they find themselves in is an interesting one, a medieval fantasy land populated by fantasy races like elves, as well as robotic people. Humans didn’t exist here until recently, when you and the other players started popping up in the place thanks to a magical phoenix statue.

Apart from the somewhat slow pacing and the fact that everything being so big in this game means that everything you need to get to seems placed far apart, my main complaints regarding this game are all technical. Palia is playable on the Nintendo Switch, it does work, but it doesn’t work very well.

Graphically, Palia looks great when it works properly, with a colorful, slightly-cartoony 3D world filled with detail, and with characters who have some excellent animation, all backed by a lovely instrumental soundtrack. The problem is that it frequently doesn’t work well. Framerate drops and even brief pauses, lag, pop-in, texture pop-in, aliasing… this game goes from beautiful to ugly very quickly.

However, perhaps worse than this are the game’s buggy menus. Sometimes they work properly, but other times they do something odd, like making you press a button multiple times to select something, not highlighting a quest goal character when you select their associated quest, or not letting you use the “warp back to your home” option from the map screen without giving you any reason why. These problems lead to a lot of frustration, and drag down an otherwise pretty positive experience.

Of course, you may be wondering about the multiplayer component of this game. Well, to start with, your home area is privately yours unless you specifically invite someone in. Head out into the rest of the game’s world, and you’ll see other players running around, going about their business, fishing, hunting, talking to townsfolk, and so on. There’s a chat function and emotes, but I didn’t see anyone using them. Much of this is likely because, while Palia is indeed a multiplayer game, the early hours of the game are primarily focused on teaching players how to play the standard “Farming RPG” stuff. However, there are challenges you’ll face later in the game that are easier with the assistance of other players.

Overall, Palia is far from my favorite “Farming RPG” on the Nintendo Switch, but I did find it to be an enjoyable one that was unique enough that it still has plenty to offer, even in a crowded genre. It has a large world to explore, plenty of stuff to do, and when it comes to price, it’s hard to beat free. Having said that, the Nintendo Switch version of the game suffers from all sorts of issues, including both graphical issues and issues that affect the gameplay. And while it’s still enjoyable, it definitely is harmed by these significant flaws. I can only hope that this game’s developers get the Nintendo Switch version patched up quickly, because as it is, this game is rough.

tl;dr – Palia is a free-to-play game that combines Stardew Valley-style “Farming Sim” gameplay with an MMO-style world and multiplayer. Overall, this works quite well, and although the pacing is a bit slow, there’s plenty to do and a big world to explore. Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch version of the game has some pretty bad graphical issues and buggy gameplay problems that drag down what is otherwise a pretty pleasant experience. Since it’s free, Nintendo Switch owners may still find this game worth playing, though I do think the PC version is likely to be a better alternative.

Grade: B-

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best New Free-To-Play Game – While it’s a bit lacking as a port, Palia nevertheless provides players with a huge world to explore and tons of things to do. What’s more, this is the first MMO on Nintendo Switch that I feel actually fulfils at least some of the potential of that genre. And being free to play certainly makes it easier to jump right into it!

Runner-Up: Best Simulation

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}