Recent reviews by rehmee

Been playing this on Switch Lite and absolutely love it. It's great being able to see everything in larger detail on steam. It brings that immersion to another level! Community so far is super helpful and I'm never shy to ask even a "dumb" question. Palia plays like a balanced mix of Archeage and Stardew Valley, really excited to see where it goes.

TLDR version
There are 8 main skills your character will cap at level 10. Once you pass that point, you start earning tokens for each respective skill that can be used for advanced crafting. Mining and foraging are by far the easiest to level up, for obvious reasons. Furniture making scales well. As you craft each new item, it gives you another recipe for free. Gardening can be an expensive investment with soil increasing in price as each 3x3 plot is bought. But planting the right crops next to each other can reap high rewards in bulk. Fishing will help in this after unlocking the worm farm which brings in free fertilizer to increase quality ie more income. It's also incredibly fun! There's such a variety of catches in all different areas. Hauls will sometimes bring quests or valuable items. And unlocking each tier of rod or bait brings a sense of accomplishment that begs more attention. Cooking would have to be my second favorite. Focus being your main source of "energy" in Palia, having the option to create your own meals is a big plus. I made the largest room in my house my kitchen and I regret nothing. Hopefully owning your own farm animals comes soon. Having to run to the store constantly to buy butter and eggs gets old fast. Hunting is a bit of a drag (imo). There's currently only three different species to hunt and it's frightfully glitchy. You'll hit a stag-like creature who is programmed to run back and forth before resting again, giving you another shot. However, they will sometimes simply turn and disappear. Bug catching is slightly more glamourous, with more options at least. I also truly enjoy displaying them and have devoted half of my main room to such a purpose.
Building relationships with the townsfolk has been a time suck. At first, I kind of giggled at the setup and teased a few characters. But the more you get into the story, the more you find yourself invested in the development. The spoiled rich girl has deep wishes, the town cook has a secret side, the shady manager of the general store, the single female mother who runs the blacksmith and writes dirty novels?!?! I can't stop. I'm giving them gifts and looking up guides to help me complete missions.
Which brings me to QUESTS!!! They're alright. I say with a grin on my face. This game is still in beta so honestly I'm impressed with how much they've come up with so far. Early questing is very tutorial while still allowing for enough room to figure things out on your own. After that, bets off. There is too often very little in way of guidance when a quest is assigned. You go find a sandwich for the mayor and all it gives you is "by a waterfall with flowers." Okay, I realize there are currently only two maps and it told us we only had to look in one. I STILL had to look up the cheatsheet for it. And I've hated every single quest in Windy Ruins. At first, it felt fun and challenging like the old towers in Pokemon games. Then it just got ridiculously tedious and unending. You have to revisit the same spots over and over because you didn't realize you needed something there when you were there. So you have to do the wind tunnels over and over again and heaven forbid you miss something halfway through you have to start ALL over again. Unlocking the portals doesn't make it any easier for me as there's too many to keep track of which one goes where. They're all the same color even! Maybe not a big deal for other players but I was losing my mind. I have three open quests for that location and I can't bring myself to go back.
Lastly, while I very much enjoy how readily others are to fulfill others item requests, I wonder if there's a player market in the works. Something that caps sell for at no more than the item's worth to keep it fair?

Tried the fixes for the Server Authentication error. Unfortunately, the administrator who built my computer died so I can't complete certain troubleshooting. Compared to the approx. 1hr download someone else I knew experienced, mine was over 8 hours. Only to run into trouble with additional setup and STILL not be able to play the game. To be honest, I can't think of a single game I've played on steam where I've had to even touch the support page. This was a disappointing waste of my time. Was excited to get the launch packs but probably won't deal with this until they fix.

I still occasionally play Banished, but even with mods it gets old too fast for me now. Wish there was some kind of evolution in this game - reaching achievements unlocks next gen buildings and so on. You start the game with everything available and the only real accomplishments are when merchants come by to trade or you gather resources (which requires no involvement whatsoever). Mostly, I get the basics in then end up watching my screen with speed on 10x waiting for my population to grow.

It's fun as a passive time-waster. I just wish there was more.