Palworld is probably what you'd get if that Pokemon FPS mod never got axed by Nintendo and eventually evolved into the kind of survival crafting game that regularly devours hours on Steam, as evidenced by a new gameplay trailer which smacks of Valheim as much as 'Pokemon with guns.'
You may remember Palworld from its head-turning debut last year – or as the next game from the studio that gave employees time off specifically to play Elden Ring. It's hard to forget a trailer which opens with riding adorable creatures – appropriately called Pals – and building a farm with them, and then casually cuts to shootouts where your precious little sheep are used as meat shields and an uzi-wielding squirrel joins the fight from atop your head. Can't forget the sweatshop gun factory, either.
Palworld's latest trailer is more gameplay-focused and shows off the building and resource gathering baked into its surprisingly brutal world. In addition to houses and farms, it seems you can also plop down a pen for your Pals and then enlist their help in making crafting benches to power your base-building ambitions.
That said, there's still a whole lot of shooting going on. At one point our protagonist nails a magic deer in the neck with an arrow only to send it rag-dolling in the wind. The boss fights also have a clear Pokemon Legends: Arceus vibe to them with the way you and your Pals fight on-field, dodging AoE hit markers and sprinting around the arena. You know, just with shotguns and assault rifles.
Let's not overlook the real killer app in this trailer, though. Around 15 seconds in, the prompt "Get on my head" briefly appears on the right side of the screen. We already knew that Palworld lets you deploy multiple Pals as mounts, pets, and combatants, but a dedicated "Get on my head" button is a massive leap forward for the monster-raising fantasy that games have been chasing for years. This is definitely one to watch, and not just to see what nonsense it manages next.
At least you can emote with your Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which is as sweet as you'd expect.
