Into The Breach II - Key's 2024 Video Game Journal

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Palworld
Pokemon meets Valheim




The very first game of 2024 that we are talking about in this journal is Palworld, and boy this one is going to excite a lot of you. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play a game that combines the mechanics of Pokemon with games like Conan, Ark, and Valheim? Well, that's Palworld. As the name of the game would suggest, you are dropped on an enormous open world Breath of the Wild style, and off you go to craft, build, and catch 'Pals'. The game definitely wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but my god I have not seen a game bring this much to the plate as far as combining these genres go. It's not just a catch em all, it's not just a crafting / building game, and it's not just an open world survival game, it's all those combined much more. If you have game pass, the game just came out in its early preview state, so there are some kinks they will need to fix, but this is turning out to be one of my favorite games I've played in a while. I've certainly wasted my morning playing it at least and I imagine i'll be jumping back later. If you're a fan of any of the previously mentioned game and are just looking for that next one to scratch several itches at once? Definitely check out Palworld. A great start to the year!

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Palworld...A Follow-up

I've been playing Palworld for a good bit now and I've got a few more things to say about it that I don't think I really touched on in my previous post. And if I did, well I'm just reiterating it here in this one post. First things first, what is Palworld? Well, it's Pokemon, meeta Valheim, meets Ark, meets Conan, meets...Basically take what you know about survival open world games, and put it all in this one package with a Pokemon style mechanic that works surprisingly well for being provided in the way that it is. Of course, it being an open world style game really does lend itself to being an easy place for Pokemon style mechanics. But so far, from my experience, I've had a good time with the "Pal"s that you find. And some have been really hard, while others are just a way to tutorialize the game. Which is definitely appreciated.

Now, in the games current state, is it perfect? No, Palworld is still in its early access / game preview stage so while it's got a lot of work ahead of it in terms of performance and graphics issues etc, the core gameplay is already there and everything that the game has to do right in that regard, is doing it right. I'm not even usually a stickler for graphics because I feel the gameplay makes a bigger difference and in Palworlds case that is definitely true. It does look absolutely amazing when playing, but there are definitely some issues that need to be ironed out, certainly on an upcoming patch. It's pretty crazy to see how many people are playing this game, but man it is a lot of fun and I'm just about to jump in again.

The way I typically do survival games, and it's why I did a follow-up here is because once I kind of understand the basic mechanics of the crafting and leveling, i'll then start a completely fresh new world and redo everything again but in a much more...gratifying way. Like, having certain buildings for storage etc. I like to get deep into the crafting and buildings aspects so once I understand it, there's no stopping me. I've decided on this world though that I'm going to have a much more open setting with no much use for walls etc, however I will still build structures for certain things. And probably a wall to put near the water since my "Pal"s keep falling in it. Like I said, games not perfect, but it certainly is a treat.

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Palworld...With Screenshots

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I made a secondary base in Palworld that has all my 'boss' pals doing work and while I was finishing up the exterior wall, they all unleashed on an enemy that was creeping into the base

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Valheim

While spending a lot of my time in both Conan Exiles and Palworld recently, it's given me this itch for more survival / crafting / open world games. With Enshrouded coming out on PC recently, it solidifies the fact that it's a really good time for big open survival crafting games right now. And it got me thinking: "I haven't really put much time into Valheim". So, I started playing Valheim while I take a break from Palworld. I'll juggle between the two when the mood is right, but after spending most of my Sunday morning building my first base and getting an understanding of the crafting etc, I'll say that Valheim seems like it's going to be quite a fun and interesting ride. Especially because it does feel more like a game you have to immerse yourself in. It's more about taking your time and really feeling like you're in the universe chopping down trees for wood and fighting off bad guys at night. For me, it does a really nice job of adding to that immersion by making the game feel and look almost lifelike. Which is just a testament to how good the graphics are. At least for me I think they are up there. It feels like Runescape in a way with how the skills work and how you level things up, so right there it's going to feel like a natural fit for me. On top of that though, while the game is in it's early preview state, it runs surprisingly like it's a full release, which is really nice. Yeah the saving can be a bit glitchy at times, but it does always keep backups, so you never really have to worry. There's autosaving, but you do generally want to save every 10-15 minutes just to be sure you're progress is not lost. I haven't run into any crashes yet though, and by look of it, the last update to the game was in late December last year, so perhaps this is the perfect time to get into this game. It runs really well, the graphics are smooth, and the pacing is not too slow to where you'll get bored, but not too fast to where you can really allow yourself to get immersed for a few hours. Again, Valheim definitely feels like the kind of game where you're not really rushing to get to the next point on the map. Moreso, it's about just feeling like a survivor in this big open map, and doing what you can to start, and improve your base. Works perfectly with rainy weather outside.

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Brotato: First Impressions



Brotato first made its rounds back in March of 2023, but I didn't have it on my radar at the time due to other games coming out at that time. So I sort of just put it on the backburner and eventually forgot about it. Up until recently, Xbox Game Pass introduced Brotato to its ever growing collection and I jumped right in and man oh man it's got everything I want. Based on the screenshots alone before I even downloaded the game, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. It's a survivor style roguelike where you can equip up to 6 weapons whether they be melee or ranged, and you just unleash hell while also leveling up your character and making it stronger. Think games like Army of Ruin and Vampire Survivors. Brotato seems to fit right in place with the other games in this genre, and does it exceptionally well, based on my first run. I'm excited to jump in a do some more runs and really see the depth of this game because I've only played one character out of however many they have. I finished my first run this morning so I'll add a screenshot of how that went:



Definitely worth checking out!

[DJChameleon]

Don't mean to interrupt your journal entries but have you ever considered streaming on Twitch? You do sink a lot of hours into different games.

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Don't mean to interrupt your journal entries but have you ever considered streaming on Twitch? You do sink a lot of hours into different games.

Oh gosh that's a thoughtful thing to say and yeah I have thought about it. My brother says I'd be good at it. Perhaps I'll consider it

[DJChameleon]

Oh gosh that's a thoughtful thing to say and yeah I have thought about it. My brother says I'd be good at it. Perhaps I'll consider it

Start out slow don't worry about a stream schedule then as you get the hang of it. You can add that stuff in later on.

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Monster Sanctuary: First Look

I think this is again one of those occasions where I have finally decided to jump into a game to see what it's like. No more glancing at screenshots or Xbox reviews, it's time to jump in. And that's not really out of the ordinary, especially if you have Game Pass. There are so many games you can get lost in that it's hard to play all the ones that even look somewhat interesting. However, Monster Sanctuary has been on my list for quite some time. Not only does it have Pokemon style creatures and turn based combat, but it's apparently got an enormous expansive world to get lost in. It's also a 2D style metroidvania, which honestly is a really neat combination of genres to bring together. I've always loved games like Castlevania, Bloodstained, and even Blasphemous. While Monster Sanctuary seems to wear more of the Pokemon inspiration on its sleeve, it's proving to be a really fun time with all these genres put together. I have very little time in the game right now but from the little bit that I've played, I know I'm in for a treat.

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As the title would suggest, I'm going to do a few short words about a couple games I've been spending time on recently


The Evil Within II: Played the first game and absolutely loved it despite having a few issues with it. When I looked into The Evil Within II, I was seeing that everybody was saying that it's basically everything the first game wasn't, in a good way. Checked it out. Played a few hours but I'm going to hold off on playing more until it's more into the creepy season. Great game though. Highly suggest checking out this one and the previous installment.


Dauntless: What first caught my eye with this game is obviously that it was a live service game that is free with microtransactions, which to me is perfectly fine. It's all cosmetic anyway. The other thing that attracted me to it was the fact that people were saying it was a Monster Hunter-like which I absolutely love. Monster Hunter World was my very first introduction to Monster Hunter as it was for most people, so I suppose Dauntless kind of fell on the backburner a little bit. It took me a while to check it out simply because people's reviews of it aren't all that great, but I'm one of those rare breeds that appreciates a good grind in a game. Dauntless offers that in the same way Monster Hunter does where you find yourself fighting the same monster over and over to upgrade your gear and get better weapons. Won't be everybody's cup of tea, but it certainly is mine.


Medieval Dynasty: Palworld certainly got me back in the mood for survival open world games again, and I realized that I had never actually checked out Medieval Dynasty despite it looking like and coming off as a game that I would really like. For one reason or another, I just decided not to pick it up until recently. It's basically as the name of the game would suggest, you are dropped into this big open world with cities and quests and you are tasked with...well making your own medieval dynasty. Build workshops, homes, and hire villages to do your work for you. All of that comes at a price and you have to make sure your villagers are happy. If you're into a more depth filled open world survival game, I'd definitely check this one out. I was actually a bit surprised to see how much was in this game, and I've only really scratched the surface.