Highlights

  • Journals in Palworld reveal the lore, offering insights on the unique Palpagos Islands and game mechanics.
  • Contrary to Pokemon, Pals only exist in the isolated island chain, setting the stage for potential exploration of human reactions.
  • Future Palworld updates could add regions that don't have Pals and focus on NPCs reacting to these creatures.

While playing Palworld, players will find journals across the map that help them better understand the game’s world and its mechanics. The most prevalent of these journals were written by an unknown castaway, and help explain the lore behind the Palpagos Islands and how Palworld sets itself apart from its biggest inspiration.

The castaway begins their journals by explaining that they come from outside the islands. They’re an explorer who discovered a barren area on world maps, and washed ashore an uncharted chain of islands while investigating. The story of the castaway is meant to parallel the story of the player, helping them understand the strange world around them as they come across new mechanics and locations. In addition to acting as a guide for players, these journals also spend time speculating on the history of the islands and the mysteries that abound there. The third, and possibly unintentional, implication of the castaway journals is that it explains how the world of Palworld differs from the world of Pokemon.

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The Palpagos Islands Offer a Vastly Different Setting than the Pokemon World

One of the biggest differences in setting between the two games is stated early on in the castaway journals. Before reading them, players would be forgiven for thinking that Palworld offers a clone of Pokemon's formula, but a key difference becomes apparent when the castaway explains that Pals don’t exist beyond this specific island chain. They document their confusion when first coming across Pals and the absence of any normal animals such as sheep or cats. This cements the idea that, apart from the Palpagos Islands, Pals aren’t found in most of the game's world.

"Every living thing I've found here is nothing like I've ever seen... normal creatures you might find on any other island seem to be almost entirely absent." - Palworld's Castaway Journal- Day 1-2

As a contrast, the Pokemon games have always implied that Pokemon are the norm in their world, completely replacing all normal animals from the real world. The series has even taken interest in exploring the Pokemon world’s version of real locations, basing regions on places like France, Hawaii, and Spain. Without this option, one wonders how Palworld will expand its setting beyond this initial game.

What Are the Implications of Pals on People Beyond the Palpagos Islands?

Future updates to Palworld could explore new areas of the map featuring more humans from a more normal world. The castaway had no knowledge of the Palpagos Islands, but they can't be the first person to find them. Thinking about what happened to other normal humans as they learned about Pals might offer a chance to showcase differences in how people view animal life. Perhaps the player could be revealed as the first human to fully respect Pals. A human colony in the Palpagos Islands being led by the player opens plenty of opportunities to expand on the gameplay.

Future updates might choose to expand on Palworld's base building mechanics, allowing the player more freedom in their bases as they teach others about their findings. Alternatively, with great power in a real world setting often comes powerful weapons. An all-out war among Pals would be a sight to behold. Surely not everyone who comes to the islands is pure of heart; the game's villainous factions prove that much.

In Pokemon games, players experience a world that has evolved alongside creatures of immense power. But in a world where those creatures evolved separately from humans, there’s no telling how a normal society would react. This opens the door for plenty of different types of stories to be told that wouldn’t be possible in the Pokemon franchise. While the two series have more than their share of similarities, this is one area where Palworld could evolve away from its inspiration and make a name of its own. In light of the controversy among Palworld and Pokemon's similarities, this might be just what the series needs to stand out.