As someone that's only been playing for about a month or so, I've enjoyed Palia thoroughly. Its a relaxing fun game, the world is nice to look at and has a pleasing art style. The characters are well written and likable. Yes, the game does involve grinding but all crafting/building games do. The true "endgame" is designing/decorating your personal plot of land and building relationships with the villagers. The game does have micro-transactions and yes, they are costly but they are on par with every other free-to-play game out there. Overwatch, Fortnite, etc have been charging $20-50 for skins and sadly that's the norm now. I'm not going to defend the practice but the clothing micro-transactions are optional and they're not shoved down your throat unlike some games.

There are a lot of things I'd like to see added over time like a swimming mechanic, livestock, different housing styles, dynamic weather/seasons, etc and I do have some grievances with a few design choices but the game is in beta so there's plenty of time for that stuff to change. The reviews would lead you to believe that the game is riddled with bugs but honestly in my time both through the proprietary Palia launcher and the Steam launcher I've had little to no issues, its crashed twice in hundreds of hours of play, I've had one or two small UI/menu bugs and that's about it. There are certainly bugs in the game but its in beta, its not even reached the 1.0 version.

Seems most of the negative reviews are from folks that have a history with the developers or have been following the game for a long time and are frustrated for one reason or another but as someone totally new who's only judging the game based on what I see in front of me right now, its pretty good. I was addicted for weeks, playing every day prior to the Steam launch.

Its free, I'd say give it a try if you're curious and don't let the reviews talk you out of giving it a fair chance.

As someone that's only been playing for about a month or so, I've enjoyed Palia thoroughly. Its a relaxing fun game, the world is nice to look at and has a pleasing art style. The characters are well written and likable. Yes, the game does involve grinding but all crafting/building games do. The true "endgame" is designing/decorating your personal plot of land and building relationships with the villagers. The game does have micro-transactions and yes, they are costly but they are on par with every other free-to-play game out there. Overwatch, Fortnite, etc have been charging $20-50 for skins and sadly that's the norm now. I'm not going to defend the practice but the clothing micro-transactions are optional and they're not shoved down your throat unlike some games. There are a lot of things I'd like to see added over time like a swimming mechanic, livestock, different housing styles, dynamic weather/seasons, etc and I do have some grievances with a few design choices but the game is in beta so there's plenty of time for that stuff to change. The reviews would lead you to believe that the game is riddled with bugs but honestly in my time both through the proprietary Palia launcher and the Steam launcher I've had little to no issues, its crashed twice in hundreds of hours of play, I've had one or two small UI/menu bugs and that's about it. There are certainly bugs in the game but its in beta, its not even reached the 1.0 version. Seems most of the negative reviews are from folks that have a history with the developers or have been following the game for a long time and are frustrated for one reason or another but as someone totally new who's only judging the game based on what I see in front of me right now, its pretty good. I was addicted for weeks, playing every day prior to the Steam launch. Its free, I'd say give it a try if you're curious and don't let the reviews talk you out of giving it a fair chance.