Alpha Pals in Palworld’s Overworld Show What Open-World Pokemon is Missing

Since its early access release in January 2024, Palworld has established itself with enough unique mechanics that make it more than just a Pokemon clone. While the game is similar to its highly successful competition in exploring a world to capture and collect a variety of creatures, one of the ways it separates itself is with its exceptionally difficult Alpha Pals roaming the overworld.

As players explore the islands of Palworld, they will run into the numerous Pals that inhabit them. Among them are variants known as Alpha Pals, large boss-type creatures that players will want to avoid encountering early due to their toughness and low capture rate. They bring about a certain liveliness to their game’s overworld that the recent Pokemon games’ creatures are unable to replicate. Given the likelihood that future Pokemon games try an open world again, subsequent titles have much to gain from adapting and modifying Alpha Pals.

Alpha Pals and Why Future Pokemon Games Need Their Own Version of Them

Alpha Pals benefit Palworld by acting as an extra objective that livens up an environment. Their daunting presence alone can compel players to stray away from the main path and make them traverse areas they otherwise might not have bothered with. With future Pokemon titles likely looking at Scarlet and Violet‘s open-world design as the path forward, the lack of monsters that urge further overworld expeditions from both games should be seen as an opportunity to include them down the line. Alpha Pals allow for many other opportunities:

• Helping players understand their current level of strength
• Becoming an optional challenge that players can overcome when they’re better prepared
• Compelling players to search for all the variants available
• Driving players into gathering resources to craft a specified Pal’s equipment to make them stronger
• Becoming uniquely formidable allies who can be designated as party members or camp laborers

Considering that Palworld is a blend of survival and creature-collecting aspects, the difficulty of learning how to capture Alpha Pals also works to the game’s benefit. Alpha Pals are found in predefined locations that are spread about evenly throughout the world. Discovering these areas creates an engaging objective that further reinforces path deviation and revisits. Even after finding them, players must still prepare the necessary equipment to deal with dangerous environmental hazards before engaging in battle. Future open-world Pokemon games could benefit from replicating these features as they add more layers to the monster-capturing process.

Related

Palworld Skipping One Pokemon Type Is a Double-Edged Sword

The lack of a particular Pal type could potentially be both a missed opportunity and a sigh of relief in the long run for Palworld.

What Alpha Pals Have That Titan Pokemon Needed

Alpha Pals wouldn’t be totally unprecedented in Nintendo’s franchise; Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s Titan Pokemon would be a reasonable point of comparison to Alpha Pals. Both are massive creatures whose formidable strength can be visually ascertained in the overworld. An important difference between them is that Titan Pokemon do not roam around their respective areas and only present themselves when players have reached a certain point in the game’s plot. Although tying these powerful creatures to a game’s narrative can lead to interesting developments, it also means that they are limited compared to their Alpha Pal counterpart.

Pocket Pair’s decision to give Alpha Pals immediate availability provides players with a sense of discovery, communicating that they might have memorable encounters willingly or accidentally at any moment. With the possibility of the next Pokemon game being another open-world adventure, its version of formidable monsters could benefit from being a hybrid of the Titan Pokemon’s story-driven narrative and the freedom and accessibility of Alpha Pals.

Should future Pokemon games add or take influence from Palworld features, it can potentially lead to innovations in the open-world and monster-catching genres. With the way Alpha Pals bring life and shape the environments of Palworld, Game Freak can use them as a valuable learning tool for developing the next Pokemon game’s overworld bosses.

Palworld

Pocket Pair’s Palworld is a creature-collection game set in an open-world. Entering early access on January 19, 2024, the project blends survival, building, farming, monster breeding, and shooter elements.

Released

January 19, 2024

Developer(s)

Pocket Pair, Inc.

Publisher(s)

Pocket Pair, Inc.

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Violence

How Long To Beat

N/A

X|S Enhanced

Yes

File Size Xbox Series

6 GB (February 2024)

Number of Players

1-4 (Co-Op); 32 Players Server Limit

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