Palworld’s Exploration Could Benefit from One Tears of the Kingdom Feature

It didn’t take long for Pocketpair’s creature-collecting survival game Palworld to reach an unprecedented state of notoriety for borrowing features from other franchises. Pokemon is the series that Palworld is most known for mirroring, particularly in its Pokemon-like creatures known as “Pals.” In fact, since it went into early access, Palworld has received consistent backlash for its Pokemon-esque features, but Pokemon isn’t the only source of Palworld‘s inspiration.

The influence of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel Tears of the Kingdom can be found all over Palworld‘s open world, even down to its brief piano cues between loading screens. Its map is also reminiscent of the games of Zelda‘s new era, as it includes discovered fast travel points and the ability to add various markers to indicate other points of interest. However, despite what Palworld does take from BotW and TotK, there is one feature it has not included that Pocketpair should consider implementing as it continues to update the game during early access.

A Tool Like the Purah Pad Would Help Palworld Players Mark Locations

The Purah Pad is Tears of the Kingdom‘s version of the Sheikah Slate from Breath of the Wild, and the two function very similarly. Of their various functions, there is one often underutilized feature that makes exploration in Hyrule much more efficient — and it would do the same for Palworld. For starters, players can open a scope on the Sheikah Slate and Purah Pad that allows them to view long distances. They can also place up to six colored pins on the ground to mark locations on their map without ever opening it. As both BotW and TotK are full of secrets to discover, it’s easy to get distracted, so these pins are all but necessary.

Currently, players can place markers on their map in Palworld, but only while the map is open. While this is indeed helpful, it could be even more so. While exploring Palworld‘s enormous open world, players are likely to spot points of interest from a distance, like the multitude of Lifmunk Effigies that glow bright green at night. Chances are very high that they will see multiple points of interest simultaneously, but because they can only place markers on the map while it is open, they have no choice but to open the map and place a marker near each POI’s approximate location. As such, if they were able to use a scope as in BotW and TotK, they could mark the exact location of those POIs for later retrieval.

Palworld Players Could Track Items and Pals with a Tool Like the Purah Pad

One helpful feature of the Purah Pad is the ability to track monsters, materials, and even the Tears of the Kingdom‘s mini-dungeon Shrines once it has been upgraded. This would undoubtedly find a home in Palworld, as there are countless Pals and items to find. The ability to track collectibles, materials, or even Pals would make Palworld‘s sprawling open world feel a bit more manageable, especially considering there are already over 100 Pals to find and Pocketpair plans to add more as it takes the game through its early access period.

Despite the lack of certain helpful features, Palworld remains an exciting adventure for Pokemon veterans and newcomers alike, as well as fans of the survival and crafting genres. However, if Pocketpair wants to continue embracing its shameless borrowing of other games’ best features in Palworld, it might consider adding something akin to Tears of the Kingdom‘s Purah Pad to increase the value of exploring its vast and whimsical open world.

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

Number of Players

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