In Palia, humanity is the past… or at least, humanity was the past. Palia starts with a giant purple void and a halfway-decent character creation tool. I do love a good character creation tool. After crafting the perfect human, I was thrust into a world where the legendary human race was supposed to be extinct. No one seems to know exactly how or why humanity died off or, more importantly, why they’re reappearing from nowhere. One thing is certain: this cozy little town just got a lot smaller.
Ever since Palia went live on PC in August, people can’t get enough of this cozy MMO adventure. It plays like a hybrid of several other games in the genre, like Animal Crossing, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Stardew Valley. It only makes sense then that Palia would come to the cozy game machine itself, the Nintendo Switch.
There’s nothing better this time of year than to snuggle up with a good video game under the covers with a cup of hot cocoa. Palia opens up a world of endless possibilities as players build their own relationships, homes, and communities. But how does Palia hold up on the limited hardware capabilities of the Switch?
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How Does Palia Perform On The Switch?
To answer that question properly, we need a baseline for comparison. There is definite bugginess in Palia. The Nintendo Switch caps the framerate for Palia at 30fps, but there were many times when it was clearly much lower than that. Other times, things in-game that I should have been able to interact with like animals, trees, and NPCs were completely unresponsive. Nothing is more creepy than having a sentient cat-like creature who stares blankly into your soul without actually responding. It’s like dealing with a real cat.
Another such instance of this was during a hunting session. Hunting requires arrows. Arrows are not free and have to be bought from the shop 20 at a time. They aren’t expensive, but that’s not the point. I kept shooting at animals that weren’t really there. The arrows would then have no effect, and the animal would eventually just disappear. Other times, It would react and run and I would give chase. Palia made a point of telling me that chasing is an integral part of the hunting mechanic, so I should wear good shoes. So why, then, would the animal just bug out and disappear mid-chase?
Having only played Palia on the Switch at this point, I wondered if these problems were isolated to the Nintendo Switch version or if this is a game-wide issue, so I downloaded it on my laptop. My laptop isn’t a powerhouse, but it’s definitely better hardware than the OLED Switch I use. I expected the PC to look and perform much better. It certainly renders a nicer image, but the performance was much more stable on the Switch than on my laptop.
This was a pleasant surprise because, in theory, the Nintendo Switch is the perfect platform for a game like Palia. Just like Stardew Valley did in 2017, Palia will benefit from the move to Nintendo Switch. There was still some bugginess in both versions of Palia but hopefully a little more time to marinate will take care of the performance problems I faced.
Keep in mind, these issues are somewhat expected. Palia’s website calls the current state of their game an “Open Beta.” Because version 1.0 hasn’t been released yet there is an expectation that there will be some problems. They aren’t surprised by them and in fact need the feedback from players to help make improvements to Palia ahead of its official launch. Even despite these issues, Palia is a charming game with plenty of enjoyment to be found. I can definitely see the inspiration it has from other popular cozy games.
Palia’s Connection To Other Cozy Games
Palia feels like Animal Crossing. In Animal Crossing, one way you can build friendships is to give the NPC villagers gifts. Different villagers respond better to certain gifts but will accept whatever you give them. Obvious buying friendship vibes aside, Palia does the same thing but in a different way. Just like in Animal Crossing, players can only give one gift per person per day. However, unlike Animal Crossing, Palia NPCs don’t have to accept your gift.
Learning a specific villager's likes and dislikes adds an interesting layer to this relationship element. In real life, we have to learn what things our friends and family appreciate and avoid what they don’t. Most people have a bit more tact than to refuse a gift outright, but it makes sense to me that Palia would teach you about your fellow villagers by having them turn down unwanted gifts.
In this way, Palia also feels like Stardew Valley. In Stardew Valley, gifts can be refused, and some of the characters are even quite nasty about it when they refuse a gift. I’m looking at you, Haley! Like Stardew Valley, villagers in Palia can be romanced. If we look past the fact that none of them are human, we can at least rest easy knowing that not all of them are eligible for courting. A few characters are already in a relationship and a few others aren’t humanoid enough and would cross the line from interspecies humanoid relationship to something that feels far more icky.
Online All The Time
Palia is a perpetually online game. Unlike Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, you must be connected to a server to play Palia. You can’t work on your home or relationships offline in a solo setting but rather players must be connected to others at all times. The weakness to this is that the multiplayer aspect of Palia feels like an afterthought - another issue that the Open Beta process has the opportunity to fix.
I could get behind a continuous online game if there were an option for a solo or private server. Games like Elite: Dangerous do this, making online interaction much more limited and protected. With no private or solo option, I can’t let my 10-year-old play unless I’m playing with him because I can’t 100% regulate his online interaction with strangers if there’s no way to avoid them. Alternatively, the strength of this is that when you want to meet up with your friends, it becomes a lot easier than Animal Crossing’s ridiculous method that involves opening the gate, hoping everything goes smoothly, and hoping that no one visiting disconnects everyone else by accident.
The problem with the multiplayer feeling like an afterthought is that it also feels like Singularity 6 wants it to be a highlight of Palia. This has caused me to run the gamut of emotions from frustration to rage-quitting my session. An example of this is my wife. She loves cozy games like this but takes some time to learn the ropes. So I’m helping her get through the tutorial, and we’re at her housing plot. She is trying to make some furniture but needs more wood. I go to help chop a few trees and realize that I can’t chop anything in her area.
Annoying but fine. I’ll go to my own plot. I chop for a few minutes and return with 100 Sapwood, which is way more than she needs, but it’s fine; she’ll use it. When I couldn’t figure out how to drop it for her, I did a quick Google search and found out that I couldn’t give her items or even drop them on the ground for her. I can bend over backward to kiss the butt of some NPC in the quest for friendship or more, but I can’t even help an actual friend in real-time.
In fact, the only things that we can do together are hunt, cook, fish, forage, farm, and play a rousing game of Follow-The-Leader. Despite these activities being an enriching experience with others, Palia seems to have a serious identity crisis with their multiplayer.
That’s especially disconcerting, considering that the game is supposed to be an MMO.
The juggernaut of the cozy genre, Animal Crossing may not understand how to make online connectivity an optimal experience, but they have solved the riddle of how to make multiplayer practical and enjoyable. Palia should learn from that and make changes that allow for a fuller, more cooperative multiplayer experience. Again, this is an open beta and my sincerest hope is that changes are coming regarding how multiplayer functions. Having a neutered multiplayer doesn’t feel like what the team at Singularity 6 had in mind.
Conclusion
It may sound like I’m being hard on Palia… and I am… but not without good reason. I want to love Palia. Palia is exactly the kind of game I could see myself losing hours upon hours to. I remember when I first played Stardew Valley and how I would stay up way later than was appropriate and I kept saying “Just..one..more..day!” Palia has that kind of promise and potential. All the pieces are there! I want to enjoy it and play it for years to come. I’m excited to learn about the mystery of the human disappearance and sudden reappearance.
There is so much Palia has to offer that it frustrates me that it isn’t as good as it could be. I truly hope that the future of Palia is brighter. This is what an open beta is for; taking a game that still needs some TLC and making it better. Nonetheless, it’s a great start for the folks at Singularity 6 and I’m very hopeful that there is much more in store for us in Palia.
Full Disclosure: A copy of the game and in-game currency was provided by PR for the purpose of this editorial.
