Palia is a Mix of Breath of the Wild, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing
The recently announced Palia from new developer Singularity 6 gets its inspiration from many different places. It markets its social simulators after Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but within a massive open world much like Breath of the Wild. It's also clear where it takes some aspects from Stardew Valley as well in terms of rehabilitating and NPC relationships.
By adding the key gameplay elements from each of these games, Singularity 6 hopes to amass Palia into an MMORPG with endless opportunities where players can choose how they experience the fantastical world, its quests, and its main story. While some may choose to focus on exploration, others can put the bulk of their time into their guilds. Whatever the case, players have complete freedom in the world of Palia, offering a relaxing, online experience.
From the get-go, players will be pointed in the direction of a player home, but the land it's on has been long abandoned, much like the start of most farming simulators. Players must work to revitalize their home, which includes tilling the land and starting a modest farm, perhaps for income. Similar to Stardew Valley, players must build from the ground up from destroying rocks, chopping down trees, and likely using these resources to build what can eventually become a beautiful, full-sized home. Players will also have the opportunity to design the interior of their homes using extensive customizing options.
But beyond that, while Palia may take social simulation from games that specialize in this area such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it takes some inspiration from Stardew Valley as well. Players will have the opportunity to romance NPCs, a major element featured in many farming sims. Friendships and relationships require interaction and gift-giving, similar to the farming sim style, but unlike Stardew Valley, each romanceable NPC will have their own love language, and they can react to romance in a variety of ways.
But Palia will be much more than just another farming sim. While social interaction and house customization are key parts of the game, exploration has been largely modeled after Breath of the Wild and other open-world games. The hit Legend of Zelda game introduced a new style of open-world exploration, allowing the player freedom in how they complete quests and finish the main story, which often results in players getting lost in adventuring around Hyrule. Other games have similarly taken from this style of gameplay that leaves small breadcrumbs around the world, keeping players interested, such as Genshin Impact and the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
Additionally, collecting recipes and cooking will be an intriguing gameplay element, Singularity 6 said during a press release. But beyond simply cooking dishes that can aid in tasks and exploration, cooking will play a part in the community simulator of Palia as well.
Similar to how players can set up Dream Islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons or simply open them up to other players, Palia will allow players full control over communication with strangers and access to player homes. Homes will be in a neighborhood, which is Palia's version of guilds. Here, players will be able to initiate challenges, collect rewards, and take part in collaborative activities such as building their community with other players. Building neighborhoods will be somewhat similar to constructing and designing islands with shared Switch users, but neighborhoods can be opened up to others outside of that community as well.
Overall, Singularity 6 hopes players will make a second home out of Palia and its neighborhoods. While most MMORPGs rely heavily on combat, adventuring, and dungeon crawling, that will only be a fraction of what players can expect with Palia to keep the experience relaxing and stress-free in the way Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley often do. According to Singularity 6, Palia is less of an MMORPG and more of a "community simulator," focusing less on the intense PvP competitiveness and more on bringing players together.
Palia is currently in development.
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