[HN Gopher] Palworld's success is partially born from Pokemon fa...
___________________________________________________________________
Palworld's success is partially born from Pokemon fans' discontent
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 19 points
Date : 2024-01-30 20:22 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.polygon.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.polygon.com)
| WhereIsTheTruth wrote:
| It is not the same genre and therefore not the same target
| audience (Story Driven Turn Based RPG vs Base Building Survival)
| nrb wrote:
| It's strikingly similar to Pokemon Legends: Arceus though.
| thereisnospork wrote:
| If palworld had been called 'pokeworld' and featured the
| canonical Pokemon instead of pals would you still argue the
| target audience isn't the same? What does the name of the
| critters really matter?
|
| Palworld is the RC cola of the game Pokemon fans have been
| wanting.
|
| Edit: From another angle: what is it about palworld that
| couldn't have been delivered by a Pokemon(tm) game had Nintendo
| et al not been asleep at the wheel? (Costing them, so far,
| hundreds of millions USD)
| ronsor wrote:
| Re: your edit
|
| An experience not bogged down by "brand safety"
| incrudible wrote:
| > brand safety
|
| Exactly. What I have seen from this game seems off-putting
| and distasteful for a universe ostensibly designed for
| children. I also do not buy into the _Pokemon should grow
| up with its audience_ argument. There is another generation
| of children growing up, after all.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| The violence really isn't any more graphic than the
| Pokemon games or TV shows. When you knock out a
| Mareep/Lamball, it's eyes turn into cartoony Xs and it
| rolls away.
|
| I guess it's distasteful how the game doesn't sweep the
| slavery aspect under the rug, but that doesn't make the
| original IP any less problematic
| geoelectric wrote:
| That's a quick dismissal.
|
| If I weren't already a Pokemon fan I wouldn't have bothered
| with Palworld, because I don't care much for Ark (the game
| whose loop it largely duplicates).
|
| And the fact that Game Freak can't seem to code a mainline
| Pokemon game that runs well on Switch certainly did help whet
| my appetite. If I'd been more satisfied with Sword/Shield or
| Scarlet/Violet, I probably wouldn't have jumped on this one.
| Unfortunately, neither runs very well--particularly
| Scarlet/Violet, which was dumped rough and flat out abandoned
| for performance patches.
|
| As the other commenter said, Palworld is not all that
| dissimilar to the open-world title Arceus, which is coded
| competently enough. But I like having more to do in my open
| world than just fulfilling challenge lists. If there's story in
| Arceus, I peeled off out of boredom well before it presented
| itself. At least in Palworld I can build a base, etc.
|
| So yes, my interest absolutely had something to do with the
| decline in Pokemon games for this latest generation.
|
| It may surprise you to know that a) gamers cross genres on a
| regular basis and b) the Pokemon franchise itself is multi-
| genre (the card game, Snap, and Go! being big obvious
| examples). Genres basically just don't matter to this equation.
| We're here for the monsters.
| Khalos wrote:
| Is that not sort of exactly the point?
|
| People love the concept of pokemon and monster collection, and
| it hasn't really evolved beyond the same RPG formula in 20
| years.
|
| Nintendo has utterly failed to deliver different experiences in
| the franchise. There's clearly an appetite for it.
|
| I don't think different genres mean a completely different
| target audience. Most gamers play multiple genres, and there's
| a massive overlap of fans of Pokemon and fans of Palworld in
| particular.
| everforward wrote:
| It's absolutely the same target audience: Pokemon fans. There's
| a lot of us out here that haven't played a Pokemon game since
| the early 2000's when we played the 3rd basically-the-same
| Pokemon game and gave up.
|
| Frankly, I think Pokemon's adult sales are mostly nostalgia and
| that the gameplay or genre matters very little. Turn-based RPGs
| can be a lot of fun, but Pokemon doesn't seem to have notably
| changed since I played it as a kid. It also exists in a world
| of competition; Baldur's Gate 3 and Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader
| are both turn-based RPG's. The Divinity series as well.
| doublerabbit wrote:
| Ouch. That hit me.
|
| Completed Pokemon Blue only using blastoise.
|
| Played Sapphire as a rom
|
| Bought Soul Silver at an airport to play on the plane to
| California to see a friend.
|
| Never touched Pokemon again.
| shirogane86x wrote:
| As someone who kept playing Pokemon (and who has casually
| played online matches since gen 4) the game did change... But
| not in good ways.
|
| The mechanics and the balance got better (even if power creep
| is a very real thing). In fact, going back now, early pokemon
| titles are, mechanically, extremely weak (especially the ones
| before diamond/pearl).
|
| The problem is that the single player experience is extremely
| lacking. The games were never hard, but as the player gained
| tools they became even easier. The story peaked at
| Black/White and then kept oscillating between forgettable and
| downright horrible.
|
| The performance of the games has also steadily gotten worse,
| and Scarlet/Violet is the worst point in the series on that
| front. By a mile.
|
| The problem for me, and for I assume many other players, is
| that it's sadly a one of a kind franchise. It's probably the
| one with the most content in its own sub-genre (there's very
| few catch-em-all type games that hold a candle to it), and
| it's also the only turn based rpg with a competitive scene on
| the market. I've probably collectively spent tens of
| thousands of hours on the franchise over a span of 16 years
| or so and unless something that can even get close to the
| experience pokemon gives me gets made, I'm kinda stuck.
| lsaferite wrote:
| I've never played Pokemon, but I have played Ark and BOTW.
| Palworld is like a love child of multiple games that I love
| and does a reasonable job at them (IMHO).
| ZunarJ5 wrote:
| Pokemon did not mature with its primary audience.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| I'm not sure it's just that, some of their latest offerings are
| just really, really, really low quality. The original Pokemon
| games might not have been high brow adult media but they were
| well crafted enough that anyone could enjoy them.
| shirogane86x wrote:
| To be honest, not most of them. It took until GBA era to get
| some decent mainline games, and the series probably peaked
| around DS era, both mainline and spin offs. Gen 1 and 2 have
| so many flaws that make them age really badly
| bradjohnson wrote:
| What flaws? Age really badly in what sense?
| maxbond wrote:
| I kinda think the Pokemon games are badly designed. I haven't
| played the last few generations, but my experience was that
| it was constant grinding, exploring was tiresome because you
| were constantly dealing with wild pokemon and trainers, the
| combat isn't interesting enough to carry the game, and there
| is no real progression. The trainers go from being total
| pushovers the entire game, to suddenly being quite difficult.
|
| When I think of Pokemon I think of feeling powerful because
| my starter Pokemon could defeat any team in the game on it's
| own - to getting to the end and suddenly needing a well
| rounded team. It felt like a bait and switch. "You thought
| you were good at this game? No! You suck! Go grind forever to
| level the rest of your team!"
|
| It feels like a game of rock paper scissors grafted onto a
| grinding simulator. It feels like they add more Pokemon and
| more ways to grind, but what I would want from it is keeping
| the same Pokemon I grew up with and am emotionally invested
| in, with less grind and more ways to feel like I am Ash
| Ketchum.
|
| But I'm an RPG fan, so maybe these games just aren't for me,
| and there's a different personality which enjoys minmaxing
| and novel Pokemon who are the right audience.
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| That's like saying Disney didn't mature with its primary
| audience. Pokemon isn't made for people in their late 20s,
| early 30s; it's made for and marketed to children.
|
| I say this as a pretty massive fan of the franchise; I only
| skipped gens 4/5 because I didn't have the personal disposable
| income to buy a DS. I'm sure VGC[0] is the primary reason most
| adults choose to purchase the new games, among those who do.
|
| 0: https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-
| events/pokem...
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| Is there a goal to all of the surviving and crafting in
| _Palworld_? Or is it like _Rust_ and _7 Days To Die_ with a good
| engine but no intrinsic motivation to play?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-01-30 23:01 UTC)