It’s been nearly two years since I played Palia. I played at launch with a friend, and my curiosity was peaked. But I also knew I had a mountain of other games that I was playing. Still, I gave it a try when it was PC exclusive on the Epic Game Stores.
Overall, I played several hours! I was carried by my friend that fed me well, showed me their home, and gave me some tips. I did a few quests that included hunting, bug catching, and building storage along with a few story quests. Then, I stopped playing. I’d rather wait for it to flesh itself out a bit before committing any further while I wanted to complete other games.
Now, almost a year since its release on Steam last March, I had the urge again to return. Another friend who was feeling down with the COVID got addicted and after hearing talks of the game that I haven’t touched in ages, my interest my peaked and I decided to give it another go. I loaded up the game and…had no idea what I was doing.
So, What Did I Return Too?
I saw a somewhat bare bone camp with an infrastructure for a house and a small hut I built. Some storage bins, craft bench, picnic blanket with a basket, and that was about it. I had zero clue what I was doing and fortunately, it only took about 10 minutes for me to realize I barely played the game to begin with!
So, I began foraging and hunting again to get a Basic Sawmill, hunt Chaapaa and Sernuk, catching Blue Butterflies while thinking “what the heck is a Gardenia?” Clearly, I had no guidance other than my pinned quests. However, it was enough for me to get my feet wet again and the more quests I completed, the more I began to understand what I needed to do, and where I actually left off!
Relationships are Simple, Yet Complicated…
Relationships are pretty straight forward as most games in this genre are. You can chat with villagers everyday to slowly get their friendship levels up. While in some cases I do feel I spam through dialogue, there’s others where I do recommend paying attention as they may ask you specific questions that can reflect how much their relationship goes up with you.
There was also the romance options. For the longest time, I thought my options were going to be between Kenyatta and Tish. I did have one person I’ve never met in the Bahari Bay; whom I discovered hours later was another romance option, Tamala (whom I learned is dubbed “Tamommy” and…yes I can see why.) Clearly, I can tell this is a system not intended to be done overnight and you can only provide daily gifts once per real life day even though time in the game goes at its own pace. For this, I’m talking to all villagers when I can and taking my time.
The Game Is Still Far From Perfect
One thing I’ll note that I hope the developers will eventually take notice of: it’s not perfect. After two years, it’s still a very, very buggy game. I’ll have times where characters are floating through the air or clipping through the walls. Characters may even bump into each other and glitch out/warp to places on occasion. It would be hopeful if these were to ever improve, but if it’s been this long already, I highly doubt it.
I also had an instance where I was opening a door and I lost connection to the server. I reloaded the game, and I was in a completely different area I’ve never visited. Turns out it was Grimalkin’s Underground area behind his store which I was no where near when the disconnection occurred. I tried exiting, but I needed a key and somehow I softlocked myself. Fortunately, Grimalkin was there already and I was able to activate and finish the quest to get me into this area as well as provide me the key. Still, this was worrisome.
Despite this, I’m enjoying the game. I’ve finally got to the point of getting a steady income with my crops and seed makers, expanded my plot a bit, knocked out several quests, and played hours fishing and exploring with friends while talking about our experiences so far. Truly, having friends to play with improved my experience greatly and being able to help each other out whenever we can is a joy.
Though Troublesome at Times, I’m Still Enjoying The Game!
As of this post, I’m 25 hours into Palia on Steam within a week. I’ve completed three temples (and let me tell you: Temple of Gale made me want to step away from the game…but I pushed through.), I’m getting ideas of romance options I want to go with. I briefly considered Tamala, but I’m starting to lean toward Tish. I’m going to finish as much of the primary quests as I can when solo, but just goof off, fishing, and cook and with friends whenever I can.
I’ll ask you all: how’re you enjoying Palia? Have any tips, tricks, or friendly advice for new and current players? How do you pronounce ‘Palia’? If there’s interests, I can share more once I put in another 25+ hours into this game!
