The weakest part of Palworld is, unfortunately, the Pals

polygon.com:

Palworld is a monster catcher and survival game that feels mildly off. The cute, round, and friendly designs of the Pals you encounter don’t quite fit with the more organic and natural environments. It’s a jarring sensation that I was able to get past fairly easily, except for a dissonance more insidious than the initial visuals: Despite playing a monster-catching game, I found myself actively resenting my Pals. It’s a bit of a problem that in a game named, well, Palworld, maintaining a party of Pals is the least interesting bit.

Despite the memes of Palworld being “Pokémon with guns”, and enslaving your Pals for industrial-level manufacturing being a main mechanic, the game takes its time building up to that absurdity. Your character awakens on a beach, surrounded by curious Pals that scatter as you climb to your feet. This is a genuinely endearing moment — but the rest of the game dissuaded me from forming any real emotional attachment.

It takes a little time to start acquiring Pals; you’ll have to engage in the time-honored survival game tradition of punching trees and picking up rocks until you can build a humble base. Only then can you engage in catching Pals and forming a little battle team. And it’s here where the problems start. Your first Pals will be little critters, like the bouncy Lamball and the fiery Foxparks. They’re cute, but not particularly interesting. In fact, with all of the one-note noises they make, they can be downright annoying.

The first sign that there’s something really amiss with the Pal options available to you is in the technology tree, which allows you to unlock a meat cleaver for butchering Pals. Later, you can get an overseer’s podium that allows you to cruelly overwork your Pals. Done right, this introduces the kind of delicious friction that has led me to love games like Rimworld. Do I protect my beloved Pals, shielding the adorable creatures from the demands of industry? Or do I build an assembly line and put those little