Speaker 1:
0:00
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming.
Speaker 2:
0:06
Wait for it. Anime Plus Ultra.
Speaker 1:
0:11
Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is Wait for it.
Speaker 2:
0:35
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait for it podcast. I am your co-host, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty and Eric. We are here with the February edition of the Game Room, where it happens, and typically we use this series to talk about games from our early years, where we really got into gaming, when we first got into gaming, and we reminisce on different titles. But every once in a while, a game comes around that simply cannot be ignored, and that is the case for the February edition of the Game Room. And super excited to be talking about PAL World and surface level. This looks like a pretty simplistic game. It's pretty obvious where they draw. They drew a lot of inspiration from which we will definitely get into. But, eric, you know, while we may not bring that, you know not much new in terms of the conversation about this game. People everywhere are talking about it but, most importantly, they're playing it.
Speaker 1:
1:35
That's absolutely the biggest thing from this game that I don't think people expected. When they heard Pokemon with guns when it first was announced and you know, it kind of felt like a meme game, like people would have fun with it, and in a way it's kind of happened. Players have dropped off a little bit. Some would argue a lot, but for a game that's an early testing for us to have as much fun as we've had with it and really only getting the chance to play it because we have the best dealing gaming in Xbox Game Pass Again. It's kind of crazy to look at this and say we're doing an episode on Pow World for this series and that's not the only game this year that we're going to be covering. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Pow World Phil, I did not see it coming. I didn't think we would be playing this at all and the fact that we're talking about it is an accomplishment in itself.
Speaker 2:
2:29
Well, remember when we did the draft with your friendly neighborhood game, we're a shout out to them. We did the fantasy critic draft and we kept saying, like I really don't know what we're going to be playing this year? Obviously, we've already had two flops already Suicide Squad killed the Justice League. Skull and Bowls what is that? What is Skull and Bowls? Skull and Bones Same game yeah, same game, maybe a very different game. That might be even better actually. But when you talk about triple A gaming, there wasn't that title that we were like oh man, we can't wait, like Spider-Man, harry Potter, eric's Game of the Year. There just wasn't a title like that that it presented itself. And that's what makes gaming so great is that titles will come along that will surprise you, that come out of nowhere, and that's very much the case with this year's game, as well as next month's game Spoiler alert, it's going to be Hell Divers 2. But these are games that just come out in the left field and we find ourselves enjoying very, very much. So if you are also interested in seeing what other games you've talked about in this series, make sure you stick around to the very end. Let you know. We can find the rest of our content as well as our social media pages. But, eric, let's go ahead and jump right into this here. If you are somehow unfamiliar with PAL World, it is an action adventure, survival, monster taming game created and published by a Japanese developer, pocketpair. The game is set in an open world populated with animal-like creatures called PALS Wink, which players can battle and capture to use for base building, traversal and combat. Players may also assign the PALS to bases where they will automatically complete tasks for the players. Pal World can be enjoyed either solo or online, with up to 32 players on one server. It is currently available, as Eric mentioned, through Xbox Game Pass or on PC through Steam, I believe. I'm not sure if it's on the Epic Games Store, but, like you said, eric, pokémon with guns was the essential made-up tagline amongst the community because, surface level, that's basically what it is and what it looks like. Now, as this episode progresses, we'll definitely talk about how. It's definitely much deeper than that and I think that's one of the reasons it's been able to hold a higher player count through the month of February, as we were recording this here mid-February. So, eric, what was it about this game? Because, again, you never played, because the game that I have most directly compared this to is Arc, and that's not a journey that you took with me back in I think it was 2017, when I was playing it with a couple of friends. It just didn't seem like something you were interested in. So what was it about PAL World that made you say, you know what, yeah, I'll give this a shot.
Speaker 1:
4:59
I think anytime you can get lost in a world in a game, it's helpful and it immediately starts off and it's interesting because there's so much of the world to explore. I think one of the most underestimated or underrated things in gaming is the horizon right. Whenever you can see in the horizon, see in the distance, that mountain top that you can travel to, or that, that beach head that you can explore, like there's so much that can be done in those games, those open world games, and from the beginning you feel that here the exciting element was all the extra stuff. So it wasn't just an exploration game, but you also were able to craft, you were able to fight, you were able to do all these things and on top of that you got to do it with people. And I think that, Phil, if this was just a single player experience, it might be a little less interesting. But the option to play and I know on Xbox the servers are a little bit more limited. I think they're working to update that or it has been updated but again, just that option being available is great because we didn't get to play a lot together. I think we've played more solo than we have together, but the times we did play together, I felt like that maximized the amount of fun I was having.
Speaker 2:
6:16
Yeah, and listen, I don't want this conversation to just evolve into man. I wish Pokémon would. I don't want that to happen, but it is inevitably. The comparisons are going to happen because what a lot of people are hoping now. First off, a lot of Pokémon fans got mad about this like game freak. Why haven't you stepped in? Why haven't you sued you know pocket pair? What's going on? First off, this isn't the first Pokémon clone. Ok, these games come along all the time. I think Temtem was the last one that came around a couple of years ago and everyone was like, oh, this is the Pokémon killer and this has existed for the longest time. And Pokémon itself is not an original idea, idea of just a sorry to spoil your, burst your bubble, pokémon fans. But that's not what. What is happening here and you know there's always going to be a market for throwing in cute and cool and fun looking animals into a game, wanting to capture them and collect them. That is a collecting, I think is like this innate Once they were, like it's this innate feeling that we all have from a young age, whether it be Pokémon cards, baseball cards, you know, transformers, toys, whatever it may be Like. We have that innate like just need and want to collect something. So anytime that happens, people are going to be drawn to it. And then you add in the fact that you can give a tiny little squirrel, a machine gun, come on, like what do you mean? How am I not going to play that game? And you know, obviously, the art, comparisons, air come to the part you're talking about, like the base building, the crafting, things like that. And in the crafting you know, we'll talk about that a little bit later as far as some of our gripes could use a lot of work, but I think, as far as what they were, what they put out, and this is what developers had said they wanted to do they wanted to put out a game that people would have fun with and enjoy, and that's what's happened. You know, when you talk about the things such as AI generated art and theft and all that kind of stuff, there are people that are more qualified to talk about that than us. Did some of that happen? Possibly, you know, but we are not at liberty to talk about that just because we're not as well versed in it as I'm sure other people are. All it comes down to is, like you said, eric, it's got a very fun gameplay loop. It encourages the exploration, which has been a whole lot of fun. I've been. I've done nothing but like just wanting to find a, you know a faster like flying pals so I can get around the map easier and find more fast travel points so I can go back and forth, find new pals and build new things, and that's what's worked about it. So, you know, while there are some gripes that we're going to talk about a little bit later, they nailed the most basic part down and that's why it's been so successful.
Speaker 1:
8:54
And that basic part, I think, is what people have criticized Pokemon and the games that have been coming out for not doing or being creative with at all. Again, it's a very simple gameplay loop but, Phil, it does have a lot to offer. I do think at some point that gameplay loop can definitely be a problem and we'll probably link it in the show notes. But our friends at your friendly neighborhood gamers did a episode on YouTube talking about the guide to survival for Pal world and they talked about just the fact that, you know, fell off the game just because that gameplay loop is so repetitive. You're essentially building bases, capturing pals, building bases, capturing pals. It is the same gameplay loop, but I just think again, I still have so much I want to accomplish. You know I haven't gotten to the point where I can give a squirrel a gun. I haven't unlocked that yet as of the time of this recording, and a lot of times when I get to these recordings, Phil, I end up trying to finish the game, but sometimes it doesn't happen. How world? I fully expect to spend more time in throughout the rest of this year just to kind of continue to scratch that itch of what did I not explore what have I not gotten yet. And I think if the game adds to what the shortcomings are, or they fix those shortcomings and they add to the experience, I think they've got a great game on their hands. And it's kind of crazy, Phil, because 2024 started off with two complete ends of the spectrum. We got Suicide Squad and Skull and Bones, and then we got two games that we didn't expect to be playing, that we're doing episodes on on the podcast which is Power World, and next month is going to be Hell Divers 2. And that's kind of crazy just to see the end of the spectrum, not only from our gaming experience, but how the community has received those games.
Speaker 2:
10:56
Yeah, when it comes down to it, like the, everything that I've seen from Suicide Squad killed the Justice League has been like, yeah, there are there. It looks like there are probably some crazy moments, but they all seem manufactured. Same thing with Skull and Bones. It's very cutscene based, whereas things that happen in Power World and especially the things that happen in Hell Divers 2, they're all organic, like all these crazy clips that you see online from both games. That's the kind of thing that makes you want to jump into it. That's literally the first clip I saw. I sent it to the group and I was like yo, we need to probably check out this time on Hell Divers 2. And then you know the trailer for Power World as well, something I was like hey, you know, you mean my sister, you know Game Pass owners people that swore they would never get Game Pass Jordan are playing Power World because because of how you know interesting that it looked so it is. It's bringing people in that again. I think are do have that itch for Game Freak and Nintendo to upgrade Pokemon because, like you said, I mean they've been putting out the same game for all these years. People are terrified about the black and white remakes that are about to come out, or they haven't been announced yet, but they're coming and people are worried about that. So eventually when you put out, you know, projects like a Pokemon Arceus, so it's supposed to be like this next level or next gen Pokemon game, and it ends up being terrible, people are going to migrate somewhere else and look for elsewhere. And this goes to show that if even they put in like a little bit more effort, then the numbers are going to be there. Like I will pick up my Nintendo Switch or I will buy the Switch to to play a truly next gen Pokemon game. I'll pay for it, I will do it, but until then I will find that elsewhere and I'll give an electobuzz, a Gatling gun and have a great time. So that's where we're at right now. So you know, I don't think it's as simple as I want a Pokemon game. So I'm just going to play something that's similar, because I think there are gameplay elements here that are very, very soft. But with the good, eric has come the bad or the difficult. And you know, I do want to kind of transition to that and talk about some of our experiences, because I know you, playing it so low, especially recently, have had a couple of those issues.
Speaker 1:
13:08
Yeah, I definitely think I don't know that they're minor gripes, but there are things. When it comes to crafting, I feel like a lot of things could be simpler, a little bit smoother, a little bit more refined. And again, this game is an early beta game Like this is not a completed game. That that was very, very clear from the get go. But I just think that this game does need to fix some things to keep us going Right. We talk about that gameplay loop. I do think the faster or not the faster, I do think the more you get into it, the more you advance. Things should go a little bit quicker, and I don't mean upping your attributes for work speed. What I mean is I should be able to assign pals to do tasks a little bit easier than you can now and then not drop off in the middle of it and then I have to pick it up to get something that I want. If I need nails being created on a workbench, that should be a pretty simple task. There are also things where the game is reliant on certain elements and, phil, you've mentioned this. Or if you don't set up a base by somewhere with a lot of or that, essentially you end up mining, you're not going to be able to burn it for the material you need for a lot of the things that you need to build. So it's just kind of like it doesn't help with the gameplay loop If it's simply crafting catch, catch pals, do it over and over. It doesn't help when those things are challenging and it makes you do them a little bit. More of an automotive feature to some of these things would go a long way for me to actually join, enjoy the exploration, which is ultimately what I think got people hooked on it in the first place and is what I'm hoping will keep me invested throughout the gameplay.
Speaker 2:
15:03
Yeah, crafting has definitely been one of those hot button issues for players and, again, this is also bringing in a player base that is not familiar with a arc, with a rust, with a survival type of game, and that's understandable and, granted, you can adjust the settings however you want, which is great. Eric, I actually ended up turning off the feature where you drop all your items. I was like, nah, I'm not doing that. I know it's part of the survival experience, but no, I don't want to be stressed out in the middle of a boss fight, even though I understand it's part of the core gameplay loop that they intended. But no, I turned it off. If it's able, if I'm able, to turn it off, I'm going to take advantage of that. But yeah, you're bringing in players that aren't used to playing this type of game and there are going to be some frustrations. One of the biggest complaints is like assigning a pal to a task where you have to pick them up and then throw them at it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'll tell you, it's probably 40% of the time works, 60% of the time does not. So, again, these are all things that can be worked on, as you you know, as the game progresses, which I fully expect them to do. One of the other things, too, that I really enjoyed about, because a game not similar but like a gameplay loop in Lego Fortnite came out very recently as well. That's very similar to this, but in Lego Fortnite you can give somebody that you've invited to your guild or your village or whatever, a key to enter the game whenever they want, so you don't have to be, you know, in the game for them to enter it. And Pal world, as far as you know Xbox goes I think it's different on PC, but if I want to, you know, if Eric wants to go into our world that we share and do some crafting, you know, just do some Luke Rinding and all that kind of stuff, I have to be in there with him. So those are all things that they are going to add eventually, but it is like just quality of life stuff that I think is preventing it from from people sticking around like, like Dylan mentioned, you know, a little bit longer.
Speaker 1:
16:59
Yeah, and I think the weakest part of this game, phil, is definitely the combat. That's definitely definitely a big bad, bad, ai Not good. Very bad, yeah, and I think again, I'm just more keen on letting my pals do the work, but I'm essentially watching them fight from a distance. So when it comes to combat, like I'm not excited to jump into combat. Not to mention you said bad AI. Yeah, the AI characters, the human characters, are bad, like when we get into raids and they just kind of show up and do nothing and just show up to be killed essentially, or sometimes there will get be one that is stuck, so most of the raid will come and then you have to go find that last person. It's little, little stuff like that.
Speaker 2:
17:47
Because I think you'll agree, the raids are a cool idea, that's a neat idea, but yeah, it just doesn't work.
Speaker 1:
17:52
And again, it's an early beta testing, so I do give it some grace for sure. But you know you got to call a spade a spade.
Speaker 2:
18:01
Yeah, and you know, as far as other things that they are working on, I have the road map up here that they want to add eventually. I'm going to pull this up here. Yeah, PVP raid bosses, such as so end game content, Pal arena, which is PVP for pals that will really make it like Pokemon. Of course, stream Xbox cross play, various Xbox feature improvements, server transfers and migrations, improvements to the building system, as well as new islands, pals, bosses and technologies. So you know all things that we're definitely excited for. You know these things just just take time and with a developer that seems to be like relatively new, this is like a successful day before. Remember, day before, I had this like tiny ass little team and it had all these lofty expectations, but they were like, no, we're just going to put out a game that I think people are really going to enjoy and we might not be a small team, but people, you know it's going to be fun and real and it's going to be an actual game, unlike things we saw in 2023.
Speaker 1:
19:06
110%. Yeah, that's uh. That is the complete opposite and again, I mentioned it earlier I think just the fact that it's so community driven is such a great thing. I think most companies we're going to mention this with hell divers when we do that episode. You know we've only played that game for two days in hell divers and we're already putting it in the same conversation that I'm saying with power worlds. Power worlds has been out for like a month and these two games off the bat. It's a little bit of time that we've spent with it as a community. We all know this is what gaming could be and should be in a lot of senses, even with the flaws. So it just kind of comes down to the fact that I hope that a lot of these companies, not just Nintendo, wake up and realize you don't have to micro transaction us to death. Everything can be fun. You can make a good game with a little bit of heart put into it and the community will react appropriately. Don't don't nickel in dimus.
Speaker 2:
20:07
Yeah, Again, like I said, it's like we're a very simple bunch, Like, just give us something that's enjoyable, Be, you know, don't be sneaky in what you're trying to accomplish and, you know, be forthcoming. You know, and uh, you know, all that has worked out very well. You know we talk about the, the popularity of this game and at its peak, Eric, as far as uh, you know, the steam charts, uh, was 2.1 million players at one point. Now that has dropped, obviously drastically, as these things do, you find, you find your, you know your core audience and and that's what happens. But the uh, you know, as of playing, uh, you know, just a few minutes ago, 250,000 players playing on steam alone, and that doesn't, I don't believe that counts to the uh, you know people that are playing on Xbox. So it has struck a chord with many people, including ourselves, and you know, I think we're going to continue playing this game. We certainly have to jump back into it, uh, as far as our world, but again, I think, once they are able to, uh, allow us to jump into the world without, you know, the main person being there, that's going to work wonders. You know, um, for a lot of things and uh, as they add more islands, more pals, all that kind of stuff. You know, I think the trajectory for this game can only go up, barring some kind of um disaster, which hopefully does not happen. But, um, Eric, anything else you, uh, you want to mention, when it comes to Powell world, a very straightforward episode and, uh, you know, hopefully it gets to the right ears in terms of the people over there making these games and also people making games in general. Like you said, just a call to action. This is what we want, this is what works for us.
Speaker 1:
21:42
Yeah, no, no, I think we've kind of covered it again. We mentioned it, uh, I believe, at the top. Uh, for transparency. This is our third attempt recording this episode, so maybe we didn't say it, but in case that's the case, uh, that, uh, you know, this is not. This is nothing new. What we're saying, you've heard it in the reviews leading up to this. We just wanted to give our own personal opinions as two more people in this growing community that have enjoyed a game like Powell worlds. Uh, you know, despite its flaws, despite some of the controversy, it was still a hell of a time and that's why we ended up. Phil, I honestly think you know not to keep bringing up hell divers, but it is what we're actively playing right now. I don't know that we would have taken a chance on hell divers, have we not taken the chance on Powell world? At the very least, I think it helped make us make the jump and I think it's going to help us make the jump to more games that are getting a lot of good. You know, steam behind it and we weren't really planning on playing, or they weren't on our radar. You mentioned the fantasy critic draft and the fact that there was nothing on our radar to play this year, and here we are. Two of our episodes already in the first quarter of this year are going to be games that came out this year. I think that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:
23:00
Yeah, and also just to talk about those Xbox players, a power world was the third biggest game pass launch ever, as far as day one players. So this was something that a lot of people were interested in. I think it also helps that Microsoft does not have a Pokemon style game. Really that's at the forefront on its, you know, on its console. So that certainly played a big part in it as well. So, yeah, I think that you know any time that we find games that we will genuinely stick with for a while, that do take us away from the fortnight's, that's always a good thing, although we always do find our way back to it. It's like a like I would say it's a bad relationship, but for tonight has treated as well. I think it's a good, solid, stable relationship. But you know what we want to see, what else is out there, and so far this year we've found a couple of suitors that have taken us elsewhere and we haven't been so faithful. Sorry for tonight.
Speaker 1:
23:52
Yeah, but for tonight that old reliable I mean there's no bigger gameplay loop than that one is. Go in there and be the last one standing like there's, that's the biggest gameplay loop you're ever going to find. But they find ways to bring you back in, to change things up, to enhance, to add.
Speaker 2:
24:11
And I'm about to spend $150 on a guitar. So you, know, for four.
Speaker 1:
24:16
We will and we'll do it.
Speaker 2:
24:18
We told those drums come out all by the drums man. I don't care, it's been. Yeah, I know a lot of people that mixed feelings on Fortnite Festival, but we we play it probably at least twice a week.
Speaker 1:
24:28
So and again you give us instruments. I think people have been wanting rock band to return. People have been wanting a lot of these simplistic things. People want An updated rock band. People want a new style Pokemon. You know what I'm saying. Like, again, I think you mentioned it.
Speaker 2:
24:46
We, we gamers, were really simple, said hell divers of Titanfall one of the best times of our gaming lives ever.
Speaker 1:
24:54
Exactly, exactly. So again, give us, give us what we want. It was what we want.
Speaker 2:
24:59
It's not that hard, guys. But yeah, those are again our thoughts about power world. Have you guys checked it out and what has been your experience thus far? We would definitely love to hear from you, if you. Again, if you would like to hear any of our other episodes About any of the other games that we have played here on this series, check the link tree link in the show notes below. You'll find all the rest of our content. You'll also find our social media pages, the most important ones to keep up with being Instagram, tiktok, as well as our growing discord page. If you maybe found us for the first time after meeting us at either Rick City anime festival or stingray con, welcome. Thank you so much for checking out this episode and for being part of this community. We hope to hear from you very, very soon. Next month we are going to be at collective con. We're not hosting any panels or anything like that, but we will have a presence there talking about Bold Matt Suri, which is coming back to Jacksonville later in this year. If you want to support the show, you can do that a couple of ways. One you can head on over to Apple podcast, spotify. Wherever you're listening, leave those five star reviews. It helps drive us up up the charts. It's very, very helpful. You can also share the content. Tag us. Let us know you're listening. Most importantly, let other people know that you are listening. We greatly appreciate it. But if you feel like maybe going the extra mile in supporting us and joining a very special Community, eric will let you know how you can do that.
Speaker 1:
26:20
As with everything, with every free option, there is also a way you can do a little bit more. So for every like and comment, you're also able to support us directly through our buzz sprout page with your funds. But for everything that you can do as well, like joining our discord and joining the community, you could take those funds and join another community in the form of patreon, where patrons like Stefan and Briar Are helping to support the show there, getting behind the scenes and early access to episodes like this one. So definitely make sure to check that out. But whichever you decide to do, we truly appreciate the support. This show has been going on for many years now and we have a lot more planned. This year is gonna be really exciting. I think we're taking it to the next level and we cannot wait to see what 2024 has in store for us. With that being said, my name is mr Eric almighty. That is my co-host, fill the Filipino, and please don't forget, we release new episodes every Wednesday on the podcast, with bonus content on platforms like tiktok, and all you got to do Is wait for it.
Speaker 2:
27:29
So I heard you're looking for a go-to source for entertainment wait for it Gaming. Wait for it anime.
Speaker 1:
27:40
Mr Eric almighty and fill the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered and all you got to do is Wait for it. This is the wait for it podcast.
