…inventory management. Why bury the lede when it’s probably my one and only gripe with this game? Though, I suppose I should backup just a little. Because it’s not the only reason I dropped playing Palworld in early 2024, back when it was in early access, all the rage, and making headlines, but it’s the one reason I can’t accept it back into my life now.

The Good Ol’ Days

Back when Palworld was the new hotness, I extolled it as a fun and somewhat bizarre take on Pokémon, combining monster-collecting with survival and open-world exploration. Upon reloading the game for the first time since just recently – now in it’s full, 1.0 release – I saw that I had sunk nearly fifty hours into it initially. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to some, I’m sure, but it surprised me. And when I loaded into the game, there my survivalist was with her two established camps and numerous Pals still working tirelessly at their many tasks. For whatever reason, and despite its very good open world, I found the most enjoyment in camp maintenance, tending to the needs of all my Pals, making sure they were happy and healthy. Returning to see my Pals in full swing was wonderful and, admittedly, strangely moving.

And yet, my heart soon dropped when I opened up my character’s inventory to witness nothing less than a perfect mess. Between gear, ammo, food, spheres (used for capturing Pals), schematics, special items, and materials, it was a disaster. So, I did what I had done the first time around: I built a bunch of storage containers and dumped into them anything and everything I didn’t need in the moment without rhyme or reason. With my load lightened, I picked up with the game’s story (yes, it has something of an actual “storyline” now) and set about exploring. And for a little while, it was good.

So Much Stuff!

Soon enough, however, I was weighed down with stuff. Too much stuff! So much stuff!! And so much of it I didn’t realize I had picked up. Playing on the Xbox, there was no auto-loot function (or is there?), so I only had myself to blame, but it was annoying enough, nonetheless. In the moment, dropping or destroying things became my go-to, but sometimes I had collected unusual materials that I wanted to keep. In those cases, I’d find the nearest teleportation tower to return to one of my camps where I’d drop everything; or…build yet more storage and then drop everything. It’s that last point that (re)planted the seed of despair. Not only was I highly annoyed at having to depart from the story every time my inventory filled up too much, but I was even more irritated by how impossible it felt that I’d ever be able to properly manage my various inventories to begin with.

The solution that readily came to mind was to wipe my camps and start over, but surely that couldn’t be the only option…could it? If anything’s going to grind my gears in games, it’s inventory management, and I’ll readily admit that I’m not terribly good at it generally. But with the way Palworld works, with the caveat that one wants to follow its story, I guess, there’s a point where inventory management is the game. And that’s no fun at all. Or, maybe it isn’t until I unlock the proper storage solutions, perhaps. But getting into just how much this game locks behind ability points is a post for another day.

Moving On, Again

In ditching Palworld (again, for now) for the mechanically-similar game Once Human – collecting, looting, crafting, survival – I’m probably even more sensitive about my inventory management shortcomings. However, at least Once Human offers an actual solution to the problem in giving players the option to build a single storage terminal that manages multiple storage crates. Well, “giving” is the wrong word, as there’s a process to making the terminal available, of course, but at least it’s there. Maybe once something like that is offered in Palworld, I’ll come back to enjoy some more Pal-ing around.

All images, including lede, were captured by author during Xbox Series S gameplay of Palworld (©Pocketpair).