Star Wars is an awkward example because it’s already pretty well tainted itself with mediocre films.

But yes, unironically I would actively stop looking for the shreds of good among the carnage that is the once-beloved franchise if I knew its creator, whose name is still tied to it and who financially benefits at least from the propagation of successful entries under that IP, would be just a little bit more able to get their awful views out there thanks to that success.

Honestly? I think they should be more disposable. You can do stuff like sell, butcher, overwork or fuse away your Pals (all of which are rather deliberate on the player’s part), but I genuinely think if there was some threat of permadeath or having them stolen by the Syndicate baddies if you get sloppy, it would give the adventure a greater sense of threat/risk. People seek out Nuzlocke rules for a reason, and currently I find the options for dropping your items and Pals on death don’t really make compelling gameplay sense (you just walk back and get them).

Setting/story-wise, Palworld supports that kind of thing so I figure it’s most likely coming as an option eventually. The game is on track for some interesting things, and as half-baked as parts might seem now, it’s already fairly fun. Definitely an addictive formula.

It’s worth waiting to see where they take it if the journey and developing those bonds with the creatures are a big part of the draw for you. I doubt you’ll get compelling turn based combat at any point, though.

I’m convinced that your average hardline “Roguelike means strictly ‘like Rogue’” player would even leave Mystery Dungeon games off the list. It’s such a useless genre definition if you can only point to a handful of games that would even meet its criteria.

Ultimately it’s a term that has long exceeded its original use case. Maybe to some it feels like calling certain modern shooters “Doom clones” again, but it’s just not generally useful as terminology if the only games it “should” define are reskins of Rogue.

Genuinely, people are shitting on it because it sells itself on a meme, is made by a dev with shady history, and likely has its creature designs aided strongly by an AI model trained on Pokemon.

With all that in mind, it punches WAY above its weight class. There’s shockingly little jank for an early access game this massive (it legitimately feels like a complete game worth paying for right now), the designs look super derivative but they’re nearly as well executed as the original Pokemon that inspired them so I’m still falling in love with everything I see, and the uniquely dark way they handle the subject matter gives it some sense of danger to the journey without getting in the way of critter companionship people seek out in a Pokemon game. I honestly can’t find much to fault at all. And any concerns that it won’t get future updates to smooth out rough edges, add more options and content are nuts, IMO. With the momentum this game has going, no chance the dev pulls out before making good on promises.

I wouldn’t say that anything Palworld is doing is groundbreaking on its own. Most critters feel like Pokemon parts and colors reassembled into new combinations. Exploration is a jankier clone of BOTW. The environment is way nicer looking and more interesting than anything from the last few Pokemon games but that’s hardly a high bar. Survival mechanics are uninspired. Base mechanics and managing active pals are pretty similar to Cult of the Lamb. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I’d reach out to grab my smartphone only to realize there’s now two of them on my desk. I’m about to have a very bad day~

You really should!

I was big into Starbound pretty early but never quite felt the highs I got from Terraria. I would say if Starbound is up your alley, Terraria is a must-try. It’s great with friends, too, and if they’re anything like mine, the moment someone brings it up after a year or two, they’re always down for another Terraria playthrough~

I think what appeals a lot about Terraria is the world. It’s like a living thing in its own right. Biomes don’t just sit in place, and the world doesn’t just spring up on creation and stay static except for what you do to shape it to your liking. Building is less convenient than Starbound, but also more central. As you stretch out into the world, it quickly becomes your home. It’s so comfy and pleasant to come back to and build a new place. Upgrades and progression are kind of nuts, too. You’re always moving forward on some game-changing new accessories, new crafting items, new NPCs to buy neat stuff from. Even when it’s starting to feel like you’ve explored everything, your progression is set to change the world and make it feel new again.

Starbound felt like more of a streamlined story/experience built around the bones of freely exploring terrain as you like. Worlds have this No Man’s Sky effect of being mostly the same across the whole surface and populated by randomized variants of the same recognizable critters, but ultimately not feeling like there’s much unique to make them distinct from each other. They feel rather disposable, like you have all this space but it only makes it harder to determine where you want to set down your roots and develop a personal connection to a place. Ultimately it was challenging for me to keep pushing through when it was so optimal to leave systems behind once I got what I needed there.

While we’re on the subject of DS classics, here’s an even more obscure one: Over the Hedge.

While admittedly it never quite got the time in the oven it deserved, being a release tie-in with the movie and put out alongside all the console versions, this one in particular was something special. It’s a third-person over the shoulder perspective stealth game with tank controls, sneaking into the hilariously well-protected homes of humans to steal their junk food. And if that wasn’t enough, it had you managing two characters in real-time by swapping back and forth between them, using their varying strengths to defeat the ridiculous laser alarm systems and traps along the way. It’s slow paced and relatively simple, and I used to have a blast finding ways to completely break the game because the devs didn’t have enough time to iron out all the kinks entirely, but it never quite got the attention it deserves for being such a unique labor of love.

I have to give it massive props for having so much creative heart when a tie-in for a mediocre animated movie has no right to be that good. The developers saw the opportunity to make something that put its source material to good work instead of just another hack-and-slash romp (like the console tie-ins were) or a minigame collection (like the later DS game (???) was) and their dedication to the craft of game development really shines through some of the jank involved in its presentation and sometimes wonky physics. By now, a unique take on a stealth game is nothing all that special, but at the time this was one that really grabbed me.