Developer Pocketpair has introduced Palworld! Extra Than Simply Friends, a courting sim set in its massively standard monster-catching universe — and no, it’s not an April Fools’ Day joke (this time).
The group behind 2024’s Pokémon-like survival expertise revealed its plans to inject a little bit of romance into its catalog at present, March 31. It’s an announcement that, on another day of the yr, followers would settle for with out query. Nonetheless, April Fools’ Day gags, pretend video games, and weirder bulletins from recreation builders will certainly flood the web as quickly as the brand new month rolls in tomorrow, so most followers are already taking Palworld! Extra Than Simply Friends with a grain of salt.
Pocketpair desires to be clear for the non-believers: Palworld! Extra Than Simply Friends is certainly an actual online game. The concept was seemingly born out of its 2024 April Fools’ Day stunt, which noticed the group asserting Extra Than Simply Friends as a pretend recreation for little greater than a fast giggle. Effectively, now it’s actual, and it’s coming to PC by way of Steam at an unspecified level sooner or later.
Palworld! Extra Than Simply Friends feels like an particularly out-there addition to Pocketpair’s standard universe. Its description teases an expertise that enables gamers to befriend and fall in love with a forged of pupil Friends who attend Palagos Non-public Academy. The mission’s official Steam page highlights characters just like the “cute” and “mysterious” Katress and the “timid” Chillet, with many names pulled instantly from Palworld’s library of creatures.
“You, the protagonist, enroll as a switch pupil within the prestigious Palagos Non-public Academy,” an official description from Pocketpair mentioned. “You’ll meet distinctive pals (buddies) and luxuriate in college life by friendship and romance. It’s as much as you whether or not you keep pals with the buddies, develop romantic relationships with them, and even dismember and eat them.”
This does not concern April Fools 🙂
— Bucky | Palworld (@Bucky_cm) March 31, 2025
Pocketpair’s Palworld celebrated its one-year anniversary this previous January as it continues improvement with extra updates. Its string of content material will certainly assist with the look ahead to the Palworld courting sim, as gamers most just lately bought their palms on an replace that added crossplay assist, Blueprint upgrades, photograph mode, and extra. In the meantime, these hoping for a Nintendo Change 2 model of Palworld have a little bit of hope to cling on to, however even when a Change port doesn’t work out, we will no less than hope Palworld! Extra Than Simply Friends will arrive on the console sometime.
Michael Cripe is a contract contributor with IGN. He is greatest recognized for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. You’ll want to give him a comply with on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).