When Pocketpair announces a farming game featuring its colorful crew of Pals, it’s only reasonable for people to start calling it Palworld Stardew Valley. But that’s not quite what Palworld: Palfarm actually is, according to studio publishing and communications lead John “Bucky” Buckley. It is cozier and less violent than the survival game itself, but the farming sim is still going to defy expectations.
Pocketpair has only provided a scant few details on what to expect from Palfarm, and Buckley was asked for a little extra insight as part of a recent Gamescom interview for Gaming World Interviews. Presumably struggling to come up with something to say outside of the game’s marketing plan, he notes that “Palfarm is in development. The team has grown a lot. A lot. That team has grown a lot. They’re a very funny team. Just the guys themselves, very, very, very humorous people.”
But then he adds that, “I think Palfarm is going to be a little bit different than what people expect it to be. I saw someone throw around the phrase ‘Palworld Stardew Valley’ and I would say not really, actually.”
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Now that’s an intriguing bit of mystery. It’s impossible for any cozy farming game to escape the shadow of Stardew Valley, since it defined the genre for a generation of players – well, those who hadn’t first seen Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons, anyway. What makes Palfarm different? Is it the ability to set Pals to work tending your farm? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
“One thing I will say is it’s not going to be as violent as you might think,” Buckley says. “It is more on the cozier side. It’s more like the cozy Palworld, but it definitely has that Palworld ‘tongue-in-cheek’ to it, shall we say? But it’s pretty cool.”
Valiantly finding one more thing to add for the interview, Buckley says that Palfarm is “very pretty. I think it’s very pretty. I think it’s a very, very pretty game, which I think people will appreciate.”
