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It's absolutely the same target audience: Pokemon fans. There's a lot of us out here that haven't played a Pokemon game since the early 2000's when we played t

It's absolutely the same target audience: Pokemon fans. There's a lot of us out here that haven't played a Pokemon game since the early 2000's when we played the 3rd basically-the-same Pokemon game and gave up. Frankly, I think Pokemon's adult sales are mostly nostalgia and that the gameplay or genre matters very little. Turn-based RPGs can be a lot of fun, but Pokemon doesn't seem to have notably changed since I played it as a kid. It also exists in a world of competition; Baldur's Gate 3 and Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader are both turn-based RPG's. The Divinity series as well.

doublerabbit 3y ago
Ouch. That hit me. Completed Pokemon Blue only using blastoise. Played Sapphire as a rom Bought Soul Silver at an airport to play on the plane to California to see a friend. Never touched Pokemon again.
shirogane86x 3y ago
As someone who kept playing Pokemon (and who has casually played online matches since gen 4) the game did change... But not in good ways. The mechanics and the balance got better (even if power creep is a very real thing). In fact, going back now, early pokemon titles are, mechanically, extremely weak (especially the ones before diamond/pearl). The problem is that the single player experience is extremely lacking. The games were never hard, but as the player gained tools they became even easier. The story peaked at Black/White and then kept oscillating between forgettable and downright horrible. The performance of the games has also steadily gotten worse, and Scarlet/Violet is the worst point in the series on that front. By a mile. The problem for me, and for I assume many other players, is that it's sadly a one of a kind franchise. It's probably the one with the most content in its own sub-genre (there's very few catch-em-all type games that hold a candle to it), and it's also the only turn based rpg with a competitive scene on the market. I've probably collectively spent tens of thousands of hours on the franchise over a span of 16 years or so and unless something that can even get close to the experience pokemon gives me gets made, I'm kinda stuck.
lsaferite 3y ago
I've never played Pokemon, but I have played Ark and BOTW. Palworld is like a love child of multiple games that I love and does a reasonable job at them (IMHO).
- everforward 3y ago
  I am also an avid Ark player (Ark 2 can't come too soon), at least when I have copious quantities of time to waste haha. I kind of enjoy the grind, reminds me of a more manual and exploration focused Factorio. Get dino to enhance resource acquisition, use new resources to make new tools, use new tools to get new dino, and repeat. To be clear, I don't think Pokemon is entirely the reason Palworld is selling. It's a reasonably well-made game for an early-access indie title, and it does pull the best parts of a lot of games. My only gripe is that I don't love the capturing system and I wish they would re-work it a bit. Having to try to get them down to 1% HP without good control over how much damage you're dealing can be very frustrating, especially when you try to go back and capture things much lower level than you. It ironically becomes harder to capture low level things as you level up. I prefer Ark's dual-HP system where HP going to 0 makes them die and torpor going to 0 (or max, can't remember which way it fills) makes them pass out so you can tame them. It feels like I have a lot more agency, and having to protect the dino while it tames makes it feel like a huge accomplishment to capture a high level dino. The breeding system is also in dire need of some love, but I think that's more easily fixable. They just need to add some randomness when you're breeding two dissimilar species. I.e. you shouldn't be able to deterministically breed a level 43 boss (Anubis) out of two level 17 Pals. It's super cool that it can happen, but it should be like a 10% chance.
solardev 3y ago
Just another data point: I never played or watched any pokemon but thought Palworld was neat. Just got into it because I like automation games and thought this would be that, plus pets. Stopped playing cuz the AI kept getting stuck on roofs and ignoring their assigned tasks. Don't know anything about pokemon aside from some yellow lighting bunny and an egg that you capture him in.
WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago
That's why Pokemon is still popular, because it hasn't changed much The day it changes will be the day it dies Expecting an IP to change is selfish, because you want the experience to be different than the 1st time, but what you don't understand is there are new players every years who have never experienced that 1st time, that's called demography, that's what the pokemon's target audience is, they are constantly able to renew their player base, hence making it last over the decades, you are expected to play the game few times, then pass it on your kids, so they can experience the same magic too (similar to Disney) Besides, they are already trying to explore different genres with multiple spinoffs: https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_games#Spin-off_games https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_games#... That's not because the last game was met with performance issues that they have to reconsider the genre of their game, they still have sold millions of copies You mention BG 3, but Larian studios did exactly that, their games haven't changed at all, it's still is the same formula, with a modern look, and it works, that's what Game Freak should keep doing Hopefully with the Switch 2, they'll have a better time making it more modern, being held back by Tegra 1 was probably not fun for them

doublerabbit 3y ago

Ouch. That hit me. Completed Pokemon Blue only using blastoise. Played Sapphire as a rom Bought Soul Silver at an airport to play on the plane to California to see a friend. Never touched Pokemon again.

shirogane86x 3y ago

As someone who kept playing Pokemon (and who has casually played online matches since gen 4) the game did change... But not in good ways. The mechanics and the balance got better (even if power creep is a very real thing). In fact, going back now, early pokemon titles are, mechanically, extremely weak (especially the ones before diamond/pearl). The problem is that the single player experience is extremely lacking. The games were never hard, but as the player gained tools they became even easier. The story peaked at Black/White and then kept oscillating between forgettable and downright horrible. The performance of the games has also steadily gotten worse, and Scarlet/Violet is the worst point in the series on that front. By a mile. The problem for me, and for I assume many other players, is that it's sadly a one of a kind franchise. It's probably the one with the most content in its own sub-genre (there's very few catch-em-all type games that hold a candle to it), and it's also the only turn based rpg with a competitive scene on the market. I've probably collectively spent tens of thousands of hours on the franchise over a span of 16 years or so and unless something that can even get close to the experience pokemon gives me gets made, I'm kinda stuck.

lsaferite 3y ago

I've never played Pokemon, but I have played Ark and BOTW. Palworld is like a love child of multiple games that I love and does a reasonable job at them (IMHO).

everforward 3y ago
I am also an avid Ark player (Ark 2 can't come too soon), at least when I have copious quantities of time to waste haha. I kind of enjoy the grind, reminds me of a more manual and exploration focused Factorio. Get dino to enhance resource acquisition, use new resources to make new tools, use new tools to get new dino, and repeat. To be clear, I don't think Pokemon is entirely the reason Palworld is selling. It's a reasonably well-made game for an early-access indie title, and it does pull the best parts of a lot of games. My only gripe is that I don't love the capturing system and I wish they would re-work it a bit. Having to try to get them down to 1% HP without good control over how much damage you're dealing can be very frustrating, especially when you try to go back and capture things much lower level than you. It ironically becomes harder to capture low level things as you level up. I prefer Ark's dual-HP system where HP going to 0 makes them die and torpor going to 0 (or max, can't remember which way it fills) makes them pass out so you can tame them. It feels like I have a lot more agency, and having to protect the dino while it tames makes it feel like a huge accomplishment to capture a high level dino. The breeding system is also in dire need of some love, but I think that's more easily fixable. They just need to add some randomness when you're breeding two dissimilar species. I.e. you shouldn't be able to deterministically breed a level 43 boss (Anubis) out of two level 17 Pals. It's super cool that it can happen, but it should be like a 10% chance.

solardev 3y ago

Just another data point: I never played or watched any pokemon but thought Palworld was neat. Just got into it because I like automation games and thought this would be that, plus pets. Stopped playing cuz the AI kept getting stuck on roofs and ignoring their assigned tasks. Don't know anything about pokemon aside from some yellow lighting bunny and an egg that you capture him in.

WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago

That's why Pokemon is still popular, because it hasn't changed much The day it changes will be the day it dies Expecting an IP to change is selfish, because you want the experience to be different than the 1st time, but what you don't understand is there are new players every years who have never experienced that 1st time, that's called demography, that's what the pokemon's target audience is, they are constantly able to renew their player base, hence making it last over the decades, you are expected to play the game few times, then pass it on your kids, so they can experience the same magic too (similar to Disney) Besides, they are already trying to explore different genres with multiple spinoffs: https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_games#Spin-off_games https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_games#... That's not because the last game was met with performance issues that they have to reconsider the genre of their game, they still have sold millions of copies You mention BG 3, but Larian studios did exactly that, their games haven't changed at all, it's still is the same formula, with a modern look, and it works, that's what Game Freak should keep doing Hopefully with the Switch 2, they'll have a better time making it more modern, being held back by Tegra 1 was probably not fun for them