Palia is a remarkably enjoyable and relaxing free-to-play MMO. It offers a solid storyline with the main storyline providing around 50 hours of content, and the completionist bundles providing a satisfying late-game challenge - attempting to find rare items. Skill levels are uncapped, allowing you to continue progressing and purchase premium furniture and decorations from the guild stores. A key strength of Palia compared to other free-to-play MMOs is that almost everything (except clothing and pets) is obtainable without spending money. These can be obtainable through in-game quests, weekly rewards, in-game currency, referral programs rewards and guild tokens. There's no pay-to-win system, and free players aren't limited in their ability to customise their plots to their heart's content. The game is incredibly cozy and relaxing as there are no punishments - you can't die or make incorrect dialogue choices.

Building relationships with the villagers is a fun experience, discovering their backstories and interrelationships. Achievements also offer an extra challenge, encouraging you to collect all the fish, bugs, minerals, hunt all the animals, and cook different sets of dishes. This gives an extra challenge on top of the completionist bundles as a wide variety of these items are not required. You can customise your house with different room combinations and extensions, and even create your own buildings and designs using generic blocks and flooring.

I find it surprising to see negative reviews from 50-100+ hours invested, especially given that some AAA titles don't offer nearly as much gameplay or as good of an experience these days in comparison with the price. While the main quests are currently somewhat short and awaiting further updates, there are regular content updates. What people fail to realise, as a free-to-play game, Palia's funding comes from in-game purchases and merchandise sales. Therefore, continued development of story content and funding of the studio depends on revenue from cosmetics and other in-game purchases.

Playing with friends enhances the experience. Partying up trying to hunt the rare chapaa, or finding the rarer items is always more fun - especially with added party loot bonuses. The social cooking aspect is also surprisingly engaging, turning a potentially tedious task into something enjoyable.

The community is generally very welcoming and helpful, with many players offering advice, items and information on the locations of rarer resources such as palium, flow trees and rare forages within the server. However, like any online community, you do have a few outliers who can be overly assertive and have a superiority complex.

There is a parkour section as well for players seeking an extra challenge, and an ability to showcase your plot off to other players and earn more in-game rewards.

While the game can be quite buggy at times, it seems the developers are actively addressing these issues with regular patches. I would love to see further use of the communities or larger parties in the future.

There are a few downsides though to Palia. Storage caps, even with the final tier chest upgrade, can be quite frustrating and restraining in the late game. Placing furniture and blocks can sometimes be finicky, with alignment issues and grass clipping through placed flooring.

Overall, Palia is a great game to play casually and relax with. The community is supportive, and the game offers 100+ hours of content if you aim to complete the current storyline, villager relationships and bundles. All completely free. After sinking many hours into this game, I was compelled to buy cosmetics to not only support the developers but give my character a unique touch.

Warning - this game is very addictive!
If you're looking for a cozy game that won't make you break your keyboard in a fir of rage, Palia is a good choice. You don't have to worry about anything - you can't die, your crops won't wither, your pretty house won't be destroyed, there are no guys wearing only underwear running around and attacking people... There's only peace, cute little village with well-written NPCs that you can romance, vast amounts of resources to gather and lots of furniture and applianced to create! Playing Palia is really refreshing and helps to relax after a long day at work. And it's a free game! If you worry that it means that there's heavy monetization in-game, rest assured that there is none. Only absolutely optional clothes, pets and skins for tools.
tl;dr - Palia is a perfect cozy online game!

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