In Palia elements that are usually considered side quests in other MMORPGs will become the main focus. It’s all about cooking, growing food, housing, and forging good relationships with the neighborhood. We at MeinMMO will tell you everything important about the MMO.
What kind of game is this? Palia is being developed by an indie studio made up of old gaming veterans from Blizzard and Riot Games. They have taken inspiration from games like Animal Crossing and want to create an MMORPG from that:
- You move into a house with your character and then live in direct neighborhood to other players, but also next to NPCs with a rich background. You can build relationships with them.
- You can decorate your house with thousands of items.
- In the game, you will engage in various activities, including cooking, having your own farm in the garden, or catching bugs.
- Fights will only occur in special adventure zones. There, the focus will be on hunting wildlife and finding hidden treasures. There will be no PvP at all.
Palia is supposed to be free-to-play and claims to offer the “fairest free-to-play” experience.
A first look at the MMO is provided by the announcement trailer:
Palia is in alpha, but there is no release date yet
Currently, Palia does not have a fixed release date for PC. The MMORPG is set to release for Switch in Winter 2023, even sooner for PC. Presumably, the upcoming closed beta will go directly into release.
The closed beta starts on August 2 at 7:00 PM. However, you will need an invitation for this. The NDA from the previous alpha will also be lifted, allowing all testers to show gameplay and talk about the game.
The open beta will then start on August 10 at 7:00 PM. Anyone can participate if they create an account. All beta progress will remain permanently with you..
Palia will be released for PC and Nintendo Switch (via Twitter).
There has not been any statement on that yet.
8 Life Skills and Relationships with NPCs
What does the gameplay of Palia look like? While there has not been much gameplay shown yet, the developers have already described in detail what you can do in the MMORPG.
Palia is meant to be a feel-good game, without pressure and without stress. You enter a colorful world that somewhat reminds you of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While there will be PvE fights, you should be able to completely avoid them if you don’t feel like it.
Those who want to compete with each other can also participate in small and varied competitions, such as cooking or fishing duels. These are also completely optional and should remind you of an afternoon card game or a race on the beach. Just no stress is the motto.
What activities does the game offer? Besides the competitions mentioned above and the relationships with NPCs, the game offers you primarily 8 life skills that you are also familiar with from classic MMORPGs:
- Woodcutting
- Mining
- Fishing
- Cooking
- Hunting wildlife
- Making your own furniture
- Gardening – growing food in your garden
- Catching bugs – a mini-game
You will be able to learn and level all skills at the same time. There should be a quest that introduces you to each activity. After that, you are free to use or ignore it.
Additionally, there is a strong focus on “fashion.” You should be able to find and wear various outfits. Through a wardrobe system, you should also be able to change your look with a few clicks. Over time, the developers aim to implement more and more outfits, focusing solely on aesthetics. They will not offer any special attributes or advantages.
What about the story? You play as humans who are a “legendary people” in the world of Palia. At the peak of their prowess, they suddenly disappeared, and no one knew why. Now, thousands of years later, humans have suddenly reappeared, and you need to create a new home in this unknown world.
However, Palia is not meant to be a strong story-driven game. The story evolves mainly through the friendships you build with NPCs. Each of them has a unique background story, which gradually brings you closer to the answer about the disappearance of the humans.
Here you can watch the day/night cycle of Palia:
“We offer the fairest free-to-play”
What does the monetization of Palia look like? To finance the MMORPG, a shop will be introduced that will adhere to the following rules:
- Only cosmetic content will be sold – primarily clothing sets and outfits at the beginning
- You will never be able to pay for something that you can also earn in-game
- There will be no boosters or buffs – the developers want earned achievements to mean something
- There will be no loot boxes with randomness
- There will be no rotations in the shop; everything will always be available
- The developers commit to always communicating their decisions honestly and openly
The developers emphasize that they want to “win together with the players.” The team has committed to paying good salaries and social benefits and therefore needs to make money with Palia. But they do not want to force players to pay for something. The aim is to find the players who “like to spend money.”
Testers were able to destroy the servers with baking cakes
How have the alpha tests been so far? So far, over 600,000 people are said to have applied for alpha tests of Palia (via Twitter). That’s an impressive number. However, due to a confidentiality agreement, there are only a few statements about the tests.
The developers occasionally tell quirky stories on their blog.
- For example, a player named Berry baked 2 cakes together with friends in the alpha. Many, many cakes. At 1,023 of these sweet sugar bombs, the game is said to have crashed. A bug that will be fixed in the future.
- Additionally, players hit the ground with gathering tools to create cool photos from the dust effect. This wasn’t actually intended by the developers, but it might remain as a feature in the game, as they mentioned in a blog post.
What do you think of Palia? Does the concept appeal to you, or do you need fights and PvP in an MMORPG? Feel free to write it in the comments.
Learn more about other new MMORPGs here: All 59 MMORPGs currently in development for PC.
