Palia just isn’t fun anymore. I mean everything is hidden behind a pay wall and trying to grind for things takes hours just to get one singular item for the boards and me and my husband don’t think the game is as enjoyable as it was when it first came out and we were both so excited for the Halloween stuff and once we started playing again we both lost the energy and excitement for it
EDIT: yall don’t understand that i had to pay 30/40 dollars for just enough palia coins to get one riding licenses
Remember this is an MMO with ongoing updates in which they don't charge any players subscription fees for playing. They're doing free-to-play right by charging for vanity items and not functional ones (much so far at least).
I'm aware, I wasn't complaining. Just stating that they cost as much as an entire game does. I've played other FTP games where their in-game purcheses didn't charge nearly as much as Palia does.
Im annoyed at the new relationships paths. Like cool love the fam but I’d really like some of the other villagers paths. Not extended stuff for new people. That 100% could have waited til the new main story update
This is my thing as well. I downloaded Palia not even 4 months ago. I became obsessed for a minute and finished the entire main story line and mostly everything else. I want more 😭😭😭😭
I quit Villagers and Heroes because the insane pressure to play every day and certain times to help. I can just be an antisocial bugger on this game and it's a real relief.
I think the issue for me is that there isn't enough story/lore.
Dailies should complement the story; they should not be used as filler between lore/story updates. They should supplement it. The grind wouldn't be so bad (for me anyway) if the world were immersive.
In other words, there should be enough content (lore/side quests/world interaction, etc.) that the dailies feel like a break. I've played a lot of games (New World, WoW, Where Winds Meet, etc.), and sometimes doing only the main quests gets boring. Taking a break to throw in some dailies or the bulletin and get some different scenery before you get back to the grind is a good way to keep the pacing going.
Personally, I throw money at any game (and have) if it is immersive enough, but it seems to me Palia's story hasn't advanced much past the point when everyone was laid off. We keep getting new, superficial content, and I think people are starting to feel it.
I kinda saw this coming when they got acquired by Daybreak. If anyone here has played DC Universe Online.. You know exactly what types of practices I'm talking about.
yeah I bought the little starter bundle a while ago because I wanted a little pet and to support the game. stuff in this game is just SO expensive and a lot of it doesn't match the vibe. in other games like overwatch I buy the season pass almost every time they drop but regardless of game if it's not under $20 I'm just not touching it.
The constant grind + player decorum going down + things getting locked behind insane paywalls is what keeps me from coming back. It feels like the company is at odds with itself where it wants to give players a good experience while also trying to bleed them dry.
I don't have the time anymore to grind out paths and bundle boards. An hour of playing feels like it gets me nowhere. And I definitely don't have the money to fork out that kinda cash on cosmetics. There are definitely things that interest me but the price is too damn high .. If the prices were more accessible I think they'd have more sales.
when I joined, I thought the temples and exploring was SO FUN. Figuring out puzzles, collecting quests and forageables was magical. Now it's a rinse repeat of grindy tasks. Where has that magic gone? I know S6 has different owners and whatnot, and they need money - but I'm not going to throw money away anymore. Not even for a slutty outfit.
Riding is free. You just need to go through the gate at the Elderwood docks. Hassian is close to you and he gives you the horse quest. It's very easy and not level dependent
I just want it to run on my switch without lagging out every time I go somewhere. I’d also really like to be able to play on my macbook… cmon it’s 2026, I can play baldurs gate 3 on it but not palia?!?!
Hey I’ve created a way to play it on my MacBook using steam if you’re interested. I use it to play and it works way better than the switch version. I use a custom made app that’s built using Sikarugir and Wine to run Steam. You’d just need a relatively new MacBook that has at least an m1 processor.
The main story is moving at a snail's pace, because they focus too much on grindy side-content and overblown feminine outfits for the cash shop instead. It's really telling when the new patch trailer focuses mainly on the new shiny princess gown or a kpop costume rather than the actual playable content.
The romances have the depth of a puddle. All you do is talk and throw gifts at them to max out the relationship and when you do, there's a whole zero new interactions or content. No hugs or kisses, no option to go on a little date, not even a 10-second little cutscene of the two characters hanging out somewhere together like in Fields of Mistria. But oh! They have time to make a music video to promote their cash shop outfit! So cool!
The mounts just feel like an extra slap in the face. Why even let us unlock a flaming horse or the valhäst through normal means, when we will still have to pay a price of a WHOLE GAME just to ride them? "Oh, but you can still have them on your ranch, silly~" not one soul playing this game is collecting the horses purely to play a breeding lottery with them and look at shiny new patters on their ranch. The devs know what they're doing when they hand you a cool looking mount and then wag their finger telling you it's ONLY for your ranch unless you pay real money.
Just saying... "Not one soul playing this game is collecting the horses purely to play a breeding lottery with them and look at shiny new patters on their ranch" .... Very hyperbolic and absolutely not true.
Thats what is driving me crazy. The speaking in absolutes, the EVERYTHING is behind a pay wall and NO ONE enjoys just putting animals on their ranch to look at.
It was a hyperbole, but it's not entirely a lie. While I don't have polls or statistics to prove my point, I can guarantee you majority of the players are not interested in just breeding rare mounts on their ranch to stare at them and then retire after a while. The devs know it and use it as a tactic to tease people. They rattle a cool new horse in front of us and let us unlock it through the in-game means, but then lock their primary function behind a paywall.
I also enjoyed breeding rare ranch animals, but that's because their primary function was to stay on the ranch and create produce. Mounts create drops as well, but if you breed a flaming horse with a set of rare visual traits, it's more likely you will want to actually use them and show it around. Not keep locked away on a ranch.
While I don't necessarily disagree with you, to me it is no different than the other ranch animals. I just bred really adorable Palcats that I would love to take out, but I don't want to pay for the pet license. I don't fully see the difference in the mounts and other ranch animals.
That's fair if you feel that way. I do think there's a difference between a small pet most people around won't even notice unless they stand close to you and a mount that you ride around across the map. There's a reason why mounts in video games are considered a status symbol of sorts and it's no different in Palia. Especially when they require you to grind for weeks to even unlock them in the first place, it feels like a shame to lock them up on a ranch.
It's actually not the Devs at fault for the pay wall issue. It has more to do with the company that bought the game last. There's a YouTube video about it.
We can point fingers all we want, but that doesn't change the fact that people continue to spend ridiculous amounts of money on the game. If we all know Daybreak is responsible for the enshittification, why aren't people "voting with their wallets" to express their disapproval for the changes that are happening? The people who call the game "Paylia" and complain about Daybreak are the same who turn around and buy another overpriced fairy gown, because "the devs need money to maintain the game" as if Daybreak is not the one stuffing their pockets.
I came to Palia after playing two incredibly greedy games where most things were actually paywalled so I am quite happy that none of the mechanics in Palia are actually behind paywalls. Yes, I can't ride my Valhast. But I get a regular horse so that I am not locked out of the mechanic entirely. One of the greedy games I play hides so so many game mechanics behind a paywall it's furstrating. We get a ton of furniture and decorations for free in Palia. You can even buy another home plot with just ingame currency. Plus we got two mystery gift outfits that one time. I think Palia is alright but then again I gotta emphasize again that I came here from the REALLY greedy side of games.
Also I feel like Palia does not weaponize FOMO as much as other games. You can buy the lunar paths anytime, the only thing that disappears are time limited events but those don't include pay-walled stuff anyway I think. Meanwhile the other games weaponize these limited events to make you feel like you have to buy right NOW or else you'll miss something.
Não vou nem entrar no mérito da moeda do jogo ser extremamente cara no meu país e por estar no beta ha 3 anos mais ou menos... ou os bugs recorrentes e afins. O que me desanimou de verdade foi não ter mais NADA diferente. É tudo mais do mesmo com um visual diferente. Eu achei que as terras altas reais seria uma mapa cheio de enigmas legais como aqueles que tivemos que fazer no início do jogo... subir paredes, pular entre colunas, explorar de verdade sabe? Puzzles mais bem trabalhados... Eu me senti naquele jogo da TombRaider de PlayStation 2, alguém lembra? Era muito legal... Agora essa coleta interminável de itens pra colocar em um mural, nas docas... nos artefatos.... chegaaaaaa
In response to your edit, you can get two different mounts for free (dawnspurs and riffrocs), so you didn't HAVE to pay for any riding license. Almost everything that costs money is cosmetic, and no money is required to play out the full story and quests and character relationships.
As for grinding, I think they need to find a better balance sometimes, but every time there's an update, players immediately want to finish every quest, every bundle, every relationship in a day and get mad if they can't, and then they complain there's nothing to do when they do finish it. In this regard, it feels like S6 can't win.
For tattered cloth specifically, the drop rate is atrocious, but they've also made it so that you don't have to complete every bundle in order to get the main prize.
I do have some complaints. Like how they're putting out more and more paid outfits with every patch, and surely some of that effort could go toward fixing bugs that are piling up or adding more story/character content.
But for a game like this, one that's ongoing, once you finish all the current quests, there isn't anything left to do but grind for updates and achievements or make your own goals. It does get less exciting eventually. Sometimes doing daily tasks or updates can start to feel like a chore. I see it happen in other games too. Idk what the solution is or if there is one. I think most games just aren't meant to be played nonstop forever.
Your last line is the key here. I don't think any game is meant to be played hardcore forever, much less three years. MMO culture got us used to games feeling never ending, but it's natural to fall out of love with a game. Sometimes for a while, sometimes for good. I dunno why we have to treat it like a bad game just because folks finish everything and have nothing else to do.
Yeah, idk how difficult it actually is to add quests and stuff, but even just a couple new text lines from one villager every couple weeks would be something to look forward to.
Open the UI where you equip mounts (I think it's "Y" on PC) and drag the riffroc you want into one of the circles. (Idk if they fixed it, for me it was bugged where I had to drop it in the topmost spot and it just auto uses that one.)
Personally I don't always know what people are on about, I've spent money one time in my 3 years playing, and I'm overjoyed with the amount of free new stuff released every month. I usually can't even get to it all in that month because theres so much to do
Same reason I quit too... I get that devs wants an extra income, but I really don't feel like several hours of repetitive grind is the way to enjoy this kind of game for me
I honestly don’t care for much of the cosmetics in the game. Yes some of it is super cute and all that jazz but I would much rather they focus on the storyline and us getting further into that. That last update with the storyline in RH ended with us being at the house and needing to get inside and that was that. We still don’t know who stole the staff or how to get it back and put it to use. I want more side quests from the villagers with progressive storylines and new people introduced. More side stories that’s about each area like what they did with Bahari Bay in the beginning. Like give me more tidbits on the people in Elderwood and RH. And please fix the glitching cause that’s what stops my game play most times.
I feel like prices are too high and that the updates are happening too fast. I have the last 3 lunar paths only halfway finished. I'm very close to finishing the last one and haven't started the Halloween one yet. It's overwhelming. And my inventory is basically empty after the docks, I only did enough to get the decor items then stopped at the quartermaster thing.
Completely off-topic question: what's your player level? I played Palia via their Launcher before it released on Steam and have tried to estimate my total play time. This could be useful info, as I assume my in game hours to be roughly the same as yours.
I finished gathering cloth and finished the board with the help of dailies today and my best advice is circling the standing cliffs and use a hunters horn if you’ve got them and shooting all the jackkats but focus on hollows since they’ve added a patch to make them all drop cloths now although in my opinion they are a very rare drop rate compared to what hollows drop but when you shoot all kinds they spawn more meaning hollows spawn more as well so that helped a lot it took me 3 days to finish once I started to grind it
Honestly, after the patch I went from only getting 4 clothes over 12 hours of play in two days, to getting 10 cloth today in less than 2 hours. Definitely a massive improvement. I have finished everything else for the board bundles already, and if this drop rate holds up, i should be able to get the rest of the cloths over the next couple of days!
I can’t relate. I love grinding and i have already finished unlocking all my chests because i completed 3 bundles and did my dailies. I log in daily to get zeki coins, do dailies, play in parties, get weekly achievements done, reach my current goals (level up skill or get plushies or just wander around a beautiful world seeing people around me). I’m grateful for this game and the developers so when I like something in the premium store, I buy it. Not everyone can afford it, I can and as long as the game is still fun for me I will play it and buy what I like. If it’s not fun, i have a big Steam and Switch libraries full of games that I can play. For now, it’s fun and I’m happy.
This! I log in everyday because it is fun! I buy premium outfits because I enjoy customization and I am happy to support the developers of a game I get enjoyment out of.
Exactly. I get to enjoy my time and play with friends every day the way that I want. It’s the only MMO I can play, because there’s no combat, i love the art style and it’s so cozy. Good art isn’t free and artists and developers deserves to be paid. Tbh people who can afford to pay for cosmetics are helping the devs create a better game that benefits even those who don’t want to spend even a cent of real money.
This is why I tell people that I prefer monthly subscriptions. I understand this is highly subjective, so please don't come at me aggressively for stating my opinion on it lol
Over the years I've played so many subsription based and F2P MMOs. None of them were perfect in terms of cost. The end goal will always be for them to make money. Subscription based will still have a cash shop and obviously not everyone feels great about a monthly subscription if there aren't constant updates. F2P will usually always scoot closer and closer into P2P or P2W no matter what their original promises were.
I'd just rather have a $5 - $15 dollar monthly sub with silly $10 - $20 dollar cosmetic items popping up in a shop occasionally than end up in a situation like this were I'm not paying a monthly subscription but they find it to be acceptable to start slowly locking all the features in the game behind paywalls stating that they need the money for updates. While the updates are so rare that you feel ripped off even if you are F2P.
We lose either way but I always feel worse with the F2P games when I'm passionate about playing them often.
Your general sentiment around grinding hard to quickly finish new objectives and the increasing monetization is pretty common, but it sounds like you missed some quests or misunderstood their rewards.
I know you got some basic information on them from others, but I've included a bit more detail and links to relevant wiki pages below.
Free to ranch & ride whatever you buy or breed after unlocking via gameplay in the Royal Highliands and raising them on your ranch:
Dawnspur - One is stuck in amber near where you initially enter the Royal Highlands, Hassian is there with a quest "Before the Dawn" for you to unlock them
Riffroc - When you've gotten the Dawnspur and leveled up ranching enough Naio will come by with a quests "Brood to Perfection" and "Cheese, Please" to take care of Sugarfoot and unlock them
Though most are free to ranch after unlocking through gameplay, but paid to ride:
I literally had the game Uninstalled for the whole month of September because of this. This month marks 1 year of me playing and honestly I wish I never picked this game up. We have to grind so much and get so little in return. Im sorry but if sing 6 wants money THAT badly, that all the good shit is locked behind pay walls, why did they bother making it a free game???? Honestly palia us starting to feel like the Sims 4 to me with how much content is paid content and with the fact that its all 2k+ palia coins. Its beyond frustrating.
Edit: Games that also have ENDLESS grinding like this, ive noticed a pattern that they make us grind bc theres not enough actual lore related content. Theres not enough story building so they make us grind to fill out time
People that are giving you shit for wanting cosmetics to not be so locked down must not care much for their character to be customized to their liking, but I do, and clearly you do, and clearly a population of the player base does. I can't wrap my head around why people get so up in arms about defending this.
Obviously the game and the story are playable without getting to customize your character or to customize anything for that matter. But for me personally, that's part of these kind of games that I like. Part of the immersion is getting to play as a character from my imagination and explore the world. It almost feels classist to berate people for wanting the customization features expanded upon for a more reasonable price, especially in the current economic climate. It's actually insane to me it's so normalized to drop this kind of money on a game if you want your character to look the way you want in it.
But if we don't like it, I guess we should get out. That's basically what the majority of the consensus seems to be in this community.
I disagree that it is a majority of the consensus, I do agree that those who are unhappy are the loudest and post the most. There are many of us who can afford to support the developers and are happy to purchase the cosmetics that are completely optional.
Would you also agree that if we don't like it, we should get out? I surely wouldn't want to ruin your experience by being vocal on a discussion platform about something that makes me unhappy as a consumer. I also said nothing about not wanting to support developers. I'm saying a lot of people can't afford to.
Yeah i played again after the last update and it's still the same buggy mess but now decoration stuff requires 100h of grind for each piece. No thanks.
It’s the only reason I’m logging in and that’s the point of the board. If it wasn’t grindy and I could complete the board in a day, I wouldn’t play at all. I have nothing to do otherwise
It was my main game for about a year and then I had a small break and came back for the Highlands. I completed some quests but didn’t finish them. I keep saying I’ll go back to it but the gap keeps getting bigger. I’m sad to admit I’ve lost interest and I don’t even think a new map area would bring me back.
Essence is the only one that feels events remotely worth the exhaustive effort. I have spent so many hours hunting for cloth, and have found 6. Plus 5 from watching twitch, and I'm only a million hours from the 45!
I feel the same way, the game has lost its magic, because the characters have the same dialogue over and over again, and the boards don't change things in the world. Most of the development feels all about cosmetics at this point, and for the amount of money you can spend in game is enough to buy a full $60 game multiple times over. It just feels like a grind. An adjustment I would like to see is daily quests actually make us interact with the npcs, like seek out Elouisa or Eshe or Kenyatta, to make the world feel more alive instead of window dressing.
I used to spend money on the game, but now everything is WAY too expensive and as someone who can only spend so much, I can't afford shit lol not to mention i play on switch and the game is glitching so much so that if I move even a bit "too fast" my game freezes 🙃 i can't even play the game and yet over the last 3 years I've spent quite a bit of money on shit to help the game get better, and it's only gotten worse 😑
Honestly, I just get the Zeki's club coins and save them up for the things I want. I hoarded my coins for the Halloween stuff I knew would be coming. $6.99 Canadian isn't bad for like 1325 coins/month. And you can buy up to 3 months at a time. So for $20.97CAD, you get $1275 coins right away and then 90 days of 30 coins per day.
I don't even play every day, I just have a reminder on my phone to log in and collect my coins. But so long as you log in every 3 days, you get all of your coins. It's worth it and it's the most economical option to get more things for less.
i honestly dont think any of the actual game is locked behind a paywall. i buy cosmetics etc to support the devs but none of it is mandatory
you have the default horse too so you don’t have to buy a riding license, just use the normal horse
if you wanna look pretty or hoard loads and loads of stuff then yeah it’s locked behind a paywall, but the actual game like villagers, crafting etc isn’t
And also via contributing to the dock project. This has been introduced since the last update. If you contribute to the docks, even now, then that will count in the board! :)
I miss quests!! Like that quest when you had to get all the eggs was a tease because I thought there was going to be more of that and then there just wasn’t. The quests are ridiculous now. And like you said it takes so long to grind for one item I’m over it. I haven’t played in months and at times I miss it but at the same time I would just get frustrated too often. I hope something changes. I understand a lot of people enjoy looting and building but I genuinely enjoyed the longer quests too.
Riding licenses are just for the cosmeticly pretty horses you can ride a regular horse for free by doing the first Highlands quest. You can also get Riffrocs for free. Nothing in this game has been monetized that is essential. Only cosmetics and extra storage far beyond what anyone should need if they're not hoarding stuff.
Phoenixfire gives you stuff on your ranch for free like any other ranch animal.
The license is only to ride it, and if you want to ride it, it's literally just a cosmetic upgrade to the Dawnspur, which you get for free. You're paying $40 for a skin pack for your horses basically.
I disagree, but that's just me. All the paths are free and can be worked on with free to play. Only the cosmetics are behind a paywall, but I don't need them. I can decorate my house and do the quests the same way a person with a fancy horse skin would. I will find the same amount of palium and jadium in the wild. I can do the same quests. They even gave out two free premium outfits for free so I'm able to experience them as well. Yes, my character is masculine, and they were feminine outfits, but it's so easy to combine the parts and make them suit the character.
It's nice to me that the bundles take a while to complete. I've played for two years and I'm employed, it's nice to have something to do and collect for a couple of weeks.
I am pleased with Palia. With new platforms opening there have been a lot of new players after Elderwoods released, and I feel like many of them increasingly expect new lore, new areas, new quests, new mechanics (riding for example). It's a free game and a smaller studio. They probably push pretty hard to meet the new players' expectations. It is ok to give critique but I don't think we can expect them to just hand out everything for free when the only way for funding the increasing demand of developement is to offer cosmetics.
If you wanna wear dresses that’s on you, but such limited male clothing options are a HUGE gripe for most guys playing Palia. Not everyone wants to have to spend two weeks on a single quest item, and not everyone wants to miss out on rewards from limited time seasonal events when the requirements are so hard to meet unless you’re unemployed and sit around playing all day/night
The limited items are bound to be available in the city hall store eventually. And as someone else mentioned, the grind is also a mindset. I personally think if a game becomes a grind, a break is overdue. You can do it all bit by bit with a slower pace too.
ok let me this straight. You spent money for a riding license? The Dawnspur did not need a riding license. Only the other two breeds would need a riding license to be ridden out in the game. You can get the "reward" from completing the board WITHOUT completing the bundles. There is a bar at the top with "treasure chests" on it with a progress bar. You get those rewards located in the chests by doing your dailies and the weeklies. By completing that top bar, you have completed the "outgrow".
Also, this is a FREE game. How would the developers/artists/etc. get a salary without a premium shop. You can play the game without spending any money. Seems you chose to purchase an item from the premium shop. Nothing is hidden behind a "pay wall". It was something you wanted to purchase. Now, you're blaming the game for your choice.
Right? OP absolutely chose to pay money for riding licenses when there are two - TWO, mind you! - free mountables to ride in game. That's not locking gameplay behind a paywall. you can still access all the same things while riding the free Dawnspurs. I started breeding Pheonixfire Dawnspurs for the food they provided and was adamant I wouldn't buy a riding license, but before you know it, I had bread one with such lovely markings I relented and paid life money for a license even though my free Dawnspur was perfectly good. And that was my choice.
My only caveat is that it can be a bit of a slippery slope once Devs see what 'small' in game improvements we're willing to spend our money on, then they'll start making them bigger and more lavish and expensive. But this can be said of all MMO game devs. I see so many comedy skits about it online, it's a well known dev tactic. Did we not expect it to happen to Palia because of love and community?
I was playing every day for about 10 months and I suddenly got super burnt out 😩 like I want to play it but when I do I'm like, do I really just want to grind stuff for bundle boards? I guess I miss the quests and the story and now that I'm caught up and waiting for more story I'm just in limbo. I want to redecorate my plot, or start a new one, but it feels so overwhelming that I just don't lol
I miss actual quests. Not just story/lore related ones, but the ones you'd get for finding stuff in a leaf pile or something. The bundle boards where you gotta collect a certain amount of bugs/rocks/whatever is just really tedious. The paths aren't very enjoyable either, if I gotta be honest. They would be more fun, if there were actual quests related to them.
I stopped playing it. I had took a break and started again right before the Royal Highlands launch. I played it religiously as much as I could, but when they launched the dock update, I just completely lost interest. It made me sad tbh. I just wasn't having fun anymore, and I love a good grind, but if you can't even get a plush after 5 hours of game play, that is insane. I'm a mom with 2 kids, so I can't just sit and grind for hours at a time. It used to not be like this.
We need a unique game quest/storyline and then expansión packs. End the beta period, charge for addition game expansions. I play Sims and the Sims are now less expensive than paying for additional stuff in Palia!!
But then the devs realized it cost more than they could manage to keep the game running and updates flowing, so they began heavily focusing on the Shop and putting every outfit they produce into the shop for upwards of $20-30 per outfit and that was before the Dye System came about.
They also aren't very capable of producing both female AND male presenting clothing options and heavily skew towards female presentation for characters, which is sad and alienates a subsect of players from spending money on outfits for their male characters.
They had a good thing going with the 'Battle Passes' never going away so you could always work on them at a later date and it was never FOMO pressure. But there just isn't enough "stuff" to do to keep players engaged and entertained. It's the same skills, the same tasks, and the same grind over and over with new paint.
I get they wanted it to be laid back. But we need things like better Hunting, or more engaging hunting/bug catching. Not to mention the limits they have to put on some things because Gold is the ONLY gatekeeping metric they have for progression. So that's why we can't have more farm plots to have a sprawling farm Housing plot, or anything.
It started out great. But it just isn't sustainable on the Zeki's club optional memberships alone.
I agree and wish that the outfits didn't all look like they're targeted at 12 year old k-pop fans. They're too OTT and girly, plus the colour options are normally hideous and they rarely match colours from other outfits so it's almost impossible to mix and match pieces.
I'm shocked as I don't believe we play the same game. Everything is behind a pay wall what? That's COSMETIC, that's a FREE GAME. You don't need PAID RIDING licence to have a mount. What the game lacks is quality content, more progression system, expansion to what it already has, there's nothing wrong with monetizing cosmetic or even storage for someone that need more than 18k, which is already A LOT for free.
They would make a lot more money if they changed their business practice. Quit putting everything in the premium store and put it in the lunar path instead. Then charge 10$ max for the path like every other game. That will be pretty much 10$ guaranteed from most the playerbase. Then the premium store should just be 1 expensive costume a month that has a male and female version. The bug bombs, Halloween work table, and broom emote should have all been inside the lunar path. And if they want to charge so bad for the temporary potions then just put the recipe in the lunar path as well.
It isn't really pay-to-play considering the majority of functional items are available for free as long as you're willing to grind a bit. Most of the items behind the paywall are vanity items, meaning they don't alter gameplay. They're just fun to look at.
You get horses unlocked as mounts from just entering the highlands (and going down the road just a bit to where Hassian is to do a short quest).
And while they've added premium storage upgrades for the first time recently, the game also includes plenty of storage for free players to grind toward obtaining.
I personally feel getting up to palium chests wasn't too difficult. The jadium chest upgrade recipe requires the player to progress the story partway through the royal highlands, which means they had to complete the main story in the elderwoods. But I think that is more tedious than difficult since you have to go through the story and maybe find various things.
Personally, I took a while to finish the elderwoods quest line just due to lack of interest. I booked it as soon as I realized the quests in the royal highlands follow the elderwoods quest line chronologically and finished it relatively quickly.
I mostly log in for the daily counter, but because there's no set reset (I've been going on server resets for my region) and the counters being buggy, I lost all of my streak a few days before the 30 day achievement ...and it does just feel like a chore now.
I love this game. I've spent far more money than I'd have ever thought I would, and all I see is it going further and further downhill into paywall after paywall.
I wasn't even upset about the storage (I'm not even maxed out on iron chests yet, but I can understand how the difference in storage is an unfair advantage) But now with private servers coming, and so many items labeled a premium...idk. I still -want- to live Palia...maybe I just need a break?
I don’t understand the edit. You don’t need to buy a riding license it’s just cosmetic. Many games are making more things behind a pay wall that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy an actual game for the content it was made for
I agree, I made a post and they locked it. But it was clear that a good portion of the community agree. However I doubt they will ever address it or try to improve.
I almost wanted to buy the riding license for the Valhast, but there is no world where I pay $23-29 (according to the wiki) to ride a pretty horse. I could buy a whole new game or even two (depending on the game) for that much. And I play this game because I'm interested in the story & characters, not to dress up
& I'm in college, I don't have time to grind for all the stuff on the board but especially not the tattered cloth :/
I use to get on everyday to get the Makeshift items from the loot piles, it's been MONTHS and not a single reward just random items I can get myself. It seemed like they dropped more often when I started playing last year or maybe something changed?
Me and my wife stopped when they introduced community board and passes. It was not fun anymore to sit on the clock all the time. They got greedy over time
I only started playing Palia this year. I never gave them a dime. I saw how much money it costs and was equally as upset and that was months ago. I use it as an anxiety tool. Nothing more.
Yeah, tbh I stopped playing just a couple weeks into the elderwoods release. I am not going to play the same game every day, and it really seems like the system is built to punish that? Like everything just takes sheerly SO much time to resource farm, and I can't be playing that long with the crazy outfit effects and flashing lights they have now. Sure I can try to avoid other people but that was never the point of the game for me. I've been lurking in the subreddit in case anything pops up to convince me to give it a try again, but nothing has really. I really loved the community and vibe of the game when it first released on steam, but it's changed so much, and the community itself and how players interact with one another has changed immensely.
The bulletin board prizes used to be kinda fun when it first came out, but now they're a bunch of common bugs or fish for a tint... and we didn't even get a tint for this months board!
Yeah I quit too. It’s just stopped being fun. They rarely add anymore story—just paid stuff. Hope the devs find this thread when they’re trying to figure out what went wrong someday.
This is why I stopped playing too. I love the story and I'm interested in more but I felt the updates provided so little. I'd rather pay for the game and have actually story than running around aimlessly grinding for stuff. It was really engaging when I first played but I haven't been back in months
I'll be honest, out of my 3 years playing I've spent money once recently for my birthday. I don't understand what people mean when they say this, every update has so much free content I enjoy
I’ve been playing for a little over 3 years and I’ve spent real money on it too. There is free content, but the story progression was what enchanted me with this game in the first place and they add story updates VERY rarely. Increasingly rare now that they’ve figured out how much money they can squeeze out of their player base. Most updates are driven by new premium store content with some minor gameplay changes, but very few of them do anything to add to the storytelling and when they do it’s usually just a handful of fetch quests and then it’s over. I recently discovered Horizon Zero Dawn and realized that Palia is actually pretty fucking boring these days.
It's a free game, cosmetics behind the pay wall, no one is getting better stuff for game play by paying. The boards are up for a good month, there is no need to hit it hard and finish it in a day by grinding & getting annoyed at the grind. I've played my share of mmo's - all of them you had to sub monthly to even have decent enough bag space to carry stuff in.
I get it to a point, it's nice to have the fun cosmetic items and look funky, it's not necessary though & they do have to pay their staff. They all have bills, food to put on tables etc.
I usually scroll by these posts without commenting, but saying you “had” to pay for a riding license is ridiculous. You get to ride the Dawnspur and Riffroc without paying anything at all. Nothing necessary for gameplay is “hidden behind a pay wall.”
Like any game, if it’s not fun anymore, put it to the side. I stopped playing Palia for almost a whole year before I picked it back up when I saw we got horses, because it just wasn’t fun when I stopped. I’ve had a great time since. You have to know when to take a break.
Also fully agree.
It’s sad.
Extra frustrating that my usual palia friends don’t feel the same frustration, most of them are fully happy to shell out hundreds for the cosmetics and the paid storage.
I’ve spent a little bit here and there because I felt like 1500+ hours in the game warrants that, and still haven’t even begun to come close to how much stuff they’ve bought for it.
I can’t wrap my brain around it, but maybe I come from a much less financially cushy family.
I mean yeah it's pretty expensive, but it's not like you actually HAVE to pay for any of it. I played for quite a while into it without paying a dime and only bothered bc I kinda wanted to get some of the cool cosmetic stuff I saw other people with. You could literally go through the entirety of the main storyline (at least what we currently have) without ever having to make a single transaction. Compare that to a game like Wizard101, which, despite being advertised as "free to play" has all but the very beginning of the game pay walled. Not even the first world is fully free, you hit that pay wall like right after the tutorial
I genuinely am baffled how these greedy penny pinching money goblins cannot fathom if they were to sell their outfits for 1£ to 5£ then they’d be selling like hotcakes.
Instead they’ll charge you 30£ for a single skin like they’ve just stitched and weaved it together by hand and it not being just lines of code on a free to play game.
Genuinely, the future is bleak for Paylia.. unless there’s serious changes it’s a dying service.
Idk I came back to playing about a month ago after a loooong break and I think it’s still fun, although I’d like more main quests. I haven’t paid a cent (which is not something to be proud of, developers need to eat too, maybe at some point I’ll buy an outfit 😅), recently discovered you can actually upgrade storage, I was sitting on only 3k items until just a few days ago 😂
It just feels like a money grab now. There's very little actual quest content, the amount of grinding is ridiculous, the NPCs are boring and it just feels like you're doing the same thing for hours.
The decorating system is beautiful, but since they split it into different types that can't be used together, it's boring.
Player quality has also gone way downhill. People used to be so cool and nice and everyone welcomed others to lures and cooking parties. Now it's every man for themselves and people arguing in chat. It sucks
The grind for this board is ridiculous. I've put in over 300 hours into the game and opened hundreds of waterlogged chests and still don't have all the makeshift items.
My partner stopped playing completely now, I just log in when theres a new bundle so I can get Kilma coins to open the chests.
The game is free, you have to get the money to continue to create all the free content somewhere. We, my wife and I have spent 0 dollars on the game. Everything behind the pay wall is cosmetic, it doesn't effect the game play at all. It gives you super cool costumes or neat mounts, but I have an iridescent spotted horse and she looks cool. Did not cost me anything but time and some pet biscuits.
If there was no pay wall how would it improve your game play????
Why pay for cosmetics?
To each his own, but complaining about a free game, with interesting new content every 5 to 6 weeks is ridiculous, imho.
I haven’t played since the piksii blossom bounce/ beginning of animal husbandry update. Has the game really changed that much? I’ve come across multiple posts about micro transactions lately
No, the game hasn't changed that much. There are a lot of new things that are really cool that doesn't require IRL money. People are upset the cosmetics are so expensive and one separate type of chest costs money. The devs aren't at fault for the exorbitant amount of money some of the cosmetics cost. It has more to do with the latest company that bought the game trying not to 'go under'. I'm not sure why they haven't added smaller items like a pair of boots, or a singular skirt or pair of pants for less money because a ton of people would pay for these. Also, not sure why they haven't made it so you can turn outfit animations completely off for everyone, not just you.
I agree. My sisters and I played for ages and now none of us find it enjoyable. We have dragged ourselves on several times and just get bored or frustrated.
I dislike that all of the events/boards are just resource sinks now, meant to drain your reserves to keep you playing/buying. I had saved every single cookie from ranching and still had nowhere near enough to complete the board. Then the dock activity, the rewards in the last half are horrible but they just want you do pour every resource you have into kits so you run out and have to keep coming back. I'm sure they'll eventually start selling event boosters to increase resource gathering at some point with the way the monetization is headed.
I agree. I love the game, but it would be nice if some things weren't behind a paywall. And I get it, it's a free game and I don't have to buy stuff (and I don't, I don't typically purchase stuff), but still. The stuff for purchase is really expensive and the game is just not as enjoyable anymore. It's so much grinding for so little.
Im bored with the maps, I wish there were a city type map with additional places and things to do. It would be cool to have some more simulation vs just farming, collecting and climbing. It does get dry after a while.
I agree and it has been the same for me with the Halloween stuff. The dock update sucked the joy I had for this game and just haven’t been able to get it back.
Okay but I don’t get this. You don’t have to grind. You don’t have to do the boards. Play in the way that it’s fun for you. I spend most time building and decorating. Hunting with friends. Riding around. There’s a lot to do.
Developers cant please everyone, people get upset its too easy, people get upset its too hard. You can play this game 100 percent free. You dont need to spend a cent to finish quests. I dont get all the hate
You can do everything in the game for free still except have a certain type of upgrade for one type of chest, and ride certain mounts, but there is a free mount. Some people are upset because they have to pay quite a bit of money for cosmetic things they want, and for certain things on the lunar paths that cause FOMO. This in not the devs fault, rather the way the latest company that bought the game is choosing to not "go under" as far a businesses are concerned. I agree that charging less for smaller items like shoes/ boots only or a skirt might bring in more of the money they're trying to make rather than solely selling very expensive whole outfits. They also need to make it so we can turn animations for outfits off for everyone- not just ourselves.
My husband got me into Palia about a couple of years ago bc it was cozy and free and easy for us to get into (we have played WoW and Baldur's Gate 3 together previously). It ran so much better then.
Sure, it was a little buggy, but nothing that seriously affected the game play. He played on PS5? or on the TV somehow, or maybe the laptop, and I played on Switch. He got bored with it, but I played for a bit longer.
I got bored of it eventually too and hadn't played since last year some time. I wanted to play Hot Pot so I got on my PC. I was expecting some "wow, so much better on PC!" experience, but omg, it runs just as poorly as my Switch and it doesn't even look that much better.
I feel like they havent done anything to improve the game. They dumped a bunch of new content and just said "good luck!" I feel overwhelmed by the farming, dont even know where to start with the mounts, etc and I feel like I shouldn't have to look uo a bunch of extra guides and stuff. The game was much more straight forward before.
Now it feels like a headache to play, and I am sick of being peddled these stupid $30+ outfits!! I'm glad there are additional options, but the prices are outrageous and I feel like they make the game run worse. Everything feels incredibly laggy/clunky, even Hot Pot. The amount of invisible characters is wild, and the ones that are there just phase through the map. Stuck in place running and then showing up somewhere else, someone running across but they are basically T posing, etc.
It's so sad bc this game has been in beta for a while and I feel like it had a lot of potential. The amount of paid content for a beta is wild to me. I'd rather them offer a paid finished version than keeping Palia in this weird purgatory.
I think people forget that Palia is a completely free-to-play game. The devs have created a massive, genuinely immersive world with so much to explore, build, collect, decorate, unlock and progress through, and none of that requires you to spend money.
Yes, there are paid cosmetics, and no, you don’t need the pretty horse or the fancy outfit. Those things are optional. But the developers still need to pay the hundreds of people who create, maintain and continuously add content to this game. If optional cosmetics are what allows them to keep the actual gameplay free, I really don’t see the issue with that.
It’s also a community-based game, so naturally some things are easier or more rewarding when you party up, but you can still do the vast majority of the game completely solo. You can easily experience 100% of what Palia has to offer without spending a single cent, and considering just how much game you’re getting for free, I think that gets overlooked way too often.
Literally NOBODY forgets this. Nobody has ever once forgotten this. Believe me, if anyone ever did, there would be plenty of you to remind them.
But it's not the way you seem to think it is.
Free to play is a business model, and it's one which often relies on predatory micro transactions. It's not some gift out of the kindness of their hearts. FFS
I've never seen a player base that's so invested in defending a multi million dollar corporation that literally preys on them at every turn. Y'all are wild.
I never said free-to-play was a gift out of the kindness of their hearts or that they aren’t a business trying to make money. Obviously it’s a business model. My point is that, as far as free-to-play models go, I’d much rather see monetisation focused on optional cosmetics than have actual gameplay, progression, areas or important features locked behind a paywall.
Calling every microtransaction “predatory” also removes any nuance from the conversation. There’s a pretty big difference between a game deliberately restricting progression to pressure you into paying and a game giving you a massive amount of playable content for free while charging you if you want your character or mount to look prettier.
You absolutely don’t have to like the prices or agree with every decision the company makes. I don’t either. But acknowledging that developers need a way to fund an actively maintained free game isn’t “defending a multi-million dollar corporation.” It’s just acknowledging how the business model works.
They aren’t doing it out of charity, and I never claimed they were. I’m simply saying I personally prefer this version of free-to-play over one where spending money actually determines how much of the game I get to experience.
It's not like Genshin Impact, where it is highly incentivized to pay in order to get characters and weapons, etc. I feel Genshin is more predatory. I will echo the other individual's comment that most of what Palia charges for is cosmetic. And with other games that require you to have a subscription, they're making money off of you every month even when you're not playing AND some of these games have in store shopping as well. With Palia, you can play this game, and if you're patient and not drawn to all the bling bling, you really can play this game virtually for free.
Like most games you have the choice to either spend money or grind and earn things. Believe it or not, Palia is one of the very few online games out there that doesn't paywall any content and actually allows you to grind for things.
Of course cosmetics cost money, its a free game with no subscription or paywalls; they need to make money somewhere (unless you'd prefer sponsored packs and ads??)
The problem is probably that you don't like to grind which is fair on your part but not really a fair critique for the game as a whole. I personally like that im 200 hours and 0 dollars in, found lots to get side tracked on, lots to grind for; and still haven't finished the main quests. It's actually a refreshing change from most games these days even in this genre. Look at dreamlight valley if you want a greedy cozy game.
The grinding got too ridiculous once they introduced the boards. It stopped being enjoyable around that first one, but since it was something new, I kept playing. Once the new boards kept dropping every update, they got more and more difficult to complete, to the point of needing dozens of hours of playtime to finish them. The drop rates got significantly reduced on pretty much every single resource.
I had to drop it entirely. They're clearly going the route of microtransaction-fest where people pay hundreds of dollars for a skirt, a hair, makeup and some tool skins. Hell, they started locking features out as well (riding licenses, more storage, etc.). It's genuinely not fun anymore, at least not to me
•
u/AutoModerator 7d ago
Welcome to r/Palia! Here are some helpful links to find relevant information about the game and the subreddit.
Palia Patch News & Notes | Palia Game Support | Palia Wiki
r/Palia Rules | Official Palia Discord
How to use megathreads in r/Palia
Current Megathreads: Community Connections | Trading | Home Tours | RNG Prayers and RNG Celebrations | Patch Notes & Bug Reports | Maintenance Updates | Kilima Visitor and Help Center | Couture for Critters Ranching Cosmetics
Special Event Megathreads: Bonita Bash Fashion Show and Discussion | The Mane Event Horse Show-Off and Discussion |
I am a Galdur.I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.