Positives
- beautiful and diverse locations throughout the entire world
- impressive character designs and animations
- consistent frame rate in graphics and performance mode
- amazing soundtrack; with Let's Go, Mt.Corel! being a personal favorite
- charming and likeable cast of characters
- the story is mostly faithful to the original while expanding upon certain elements and adding fascinating twists to keep fans speculating
- great sense of humor during the more lighthearted segments
- side quests are satisfying and generally provide useful rewards
- boss battles are frequently challenging and exciting
- all playable characters are balanced and offer different styles of play
- new materia, folios and weapon skills offer more customization options
- synergy skills and synergy abilities add more depth to combat
- pressure mechanic encourages using a wider variety of abilities, as well as evading or blocking certain attacks
- exploration is rewarding, due to the presence of cache locations and transmuter chip dig sites
- some mini-games, such as Queen's Blood and Chocobo Racing, are interesting and deep

Negatives
- excessive amount of mini-games that are more frustrating than fun
- certain open-world activities are underwhelming; particularly sanctuaries and remnawave towers

Positives
- pals fulfill multiple roles, which include combat companion and at least one base-related function, such as watering or harvesting
- an impressive amount of options for customizing bases
- every level increase feels impactful, due to the technology tree granting access to recipes for new weapons, equipment or base structures at each level
- custom difficulty options are expansive, allowing various aspects of the game to be adjusted, including stamina and hunger reduction rates
- exploration is encouraged and rewarding
- catching multiple copies of a pal provides numerous benefits; mainly bonus experience and potential access to powerful traits
- partner skills assist in keeping several pals relevant; particularly those that amplify the damage output of specific elemental attacks
- breeding allows for incredibly potent combat or work-focused pals
- legendary pals and tower bosses provide a decent challenge


Negatives
- occasional crashes and bugs
- noticeable performance issues during auto-saves and while flying on certain mounts
- pathing issues for larger pals severely limit base-building options
- the realistic aspect of the world clashes with the design of the pals
- randomly generated dungeons are too similar in appearance and layout for all regions
- forgettable soundtrack, with a complete lack of music outside of combat
- the overall story is currently incomplete
- castaway journals are too vague and fail to answer many questions regarding the Palpagos Islands
- neutral-type pals are mostly ineffective for combat purposes compared to other elemental types
- encumbrance is a constant issue, even after assigning several skill points to weight
- increasing the partner skill level for pals is unnecessarily time-consuming


Since Palworld is in early access, a score will not be given until version 1.0 is released.
The current review is for version 0.1.5.1.

Positives
- character and monster designs are detailed and well-animated
- consistent frame rate in both standard and enhanced mode
- charming and likeable cast of characters
- story missions possess an adequate amount of variety, preventing the overall game from becoming too monotonous
- boss battles are frequently challenging and exciting
- vocations provide Lazarel and Teresa choices for both playstyle and role
- monster medals have been improved by introducing a third type that transforms any character into that monster, temporarily granting access to an assortment of new abilities

Negatives
- reused animations for all returning characters from the original Dragon Quest Heroes
- invisible walls occasionally obstruct the player in unusual locations
- forgettable soundtrack, comprised of an excessive amount of reused tracks from previous Dragon Quest games
- mostly uninteresting and predictable main story
- several side quests involve obnoxious conditions; the most egregious being those that request defeating a bulky enemy with a specific ability
- AI-controlled characters are unable to handle certain mechanics and generally avoid using damage-dealing abilities, causing some battles to be unnecessarily frustrating and overly drawn-out
- some playable characters are underwhelming in terms of performance; particularly Torneko and Ruff
- experience and gold obtained from enemies are insufficient, which discourages the usage of different characters and vocations
- upgrading accessories requires an inordinate amount of grinding for insignificant stat boosts