“Unlike a typical life or farm sim, I’m not tracking days or energy use”
PALIA is a cozy MMO where you’re not a hero
CUSTOMISING MY PROPERTY IS ONE OF PALIA’S MOST PERMISSIVE SYSTEMS
Cosiness and MMOs are my two main vices, so Palia feels like it’s being made specifically for me. I’ve got a bit of emotional investment in its success, I’ll admit, so I voluntarily played a good bit more of Palia’s alpha than I really needed to for work purposes.
In Palia you are not a hero. You’re one of many, many humans who’ve popped into the world after the local Majiri people believed you’d all gone extinct – a nice deviation from the usual MMO setup, which asks us to believe that the world is primarily populated by chosen ones. There’s no PvE or PvP combat, and your goal is to become a member of the village.
Unlike a typical life or farm sim, I’m not tracking days or energy use. I share a time of day with everyone on the server so there’s no sleeping until tomorrow or depleting energy. Instead, I play through the entire day and night cycle and cook myself meals to increase the experience I gain for activities. In my first week with the game that entailed fishing and crafting, clearing wood and rocks from my property to eventually replace my small tent with a wood house, visiting skill masters and doing quests for new recipes, and doing a spot of hunting with fellow PC PowerPlay writer Mollie Taylor.
There is a main questline to pursue, which involves figuring out why you and all the other humans are appearing, and helps provide a sense of progress. The other goals I’ve got to chase are upgrading my tools, levelling-up my friendship with locals by bringing gifts, collection achievements, and adding new rooms and decor to my home.
Customising my property is one of Palia’s most permissive systems, clearly the primary endgame, as it were. I can place furniture from my third-person perspective or from above and also snap to a grid or free placement. I can hang light fixtures from the rafters and place small clutter objects freely on shelves. I can even manage editing permissions for my lot to grant different friends access to touch my stuff.
After the open beta servers launched, I finally started having some more natural interactions with other players. I found myself in a couple fishing circles where a nearby player’s cheering emote can help others cinch a catch and flagged down helpers to cut glowing purple Flow Trees who regain durability as you chop and so are easier to tackle together. What I’m hoping Palia will consider in its future are shared open world events for players to all flock to on the map – a staple of games like Guild Wars 2 and Fallout 76 that make a world feel worth visiting.
Palia will be free-to-play with cosmetic transactions when it fully launches. For now, it’s in open beta where you can try it yourself.