When it comes to gaming, 2024 shows much promise with upcoming releases such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. January alone came out swinging with The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Tekken 8. However, none of these releases compare to the juggernaut that is Palworld. Developed by Pocket Pair, Palworld is an early access survival game where players can capture creatures called “pals” to help them along the way. The game launched on Xbox and PC on January 19, 2024 and proceeded to break the Internet. Within its first week, Palworld reached a peak of over 2.1 million players on Steam, sold over 8 million copies, and achieved over $5 million in sales. With its quick success, Palworld has also been the center of controversy due to some pal designs being criticized as for looking similar to designs from properties like Pokémon. Because of the strange place Palworld is in right now, I decided to give it a shot and see what the hype was about. I created my character, Hatsune Mikey, and started my Palworld journey.