Before Palword, there was Craftopia. Are they basically the same game?
Palworld isn’t just a hit; its sales numbers are nothing short of insane. It has sold more than 8 million copies on Steam in less than six days. Over on Xbox, the number of concurrent players briefly surpassed Fortnite. By the time you’re reading this, Palworld will have probably found a few more records to break.
These numbers are great news for Pocketpair, the Japanese studio behind Palworld, but this isn’t their first rodeo. Before Palworld-mania took over the world, its developers released another game that might seem a little familiar: Craftopia. It’s an open world survival and base-building game with catchable monsters, automated workstations, and online co-op, and it came out more than three years before Palworld did.
Craftopia never reached Palworld levels of success, but it wasn’t a bomb either. VG Insights estimates it’s sold around 583,000 copies, which is pretty solid for an indie game. While Craftopia is still in early access, it hasn’t been abandoned. It’s still getting regular updates, and the latest patch was released after Palworld’s launch.
How does Craftopia compare to Palworld?
So is Palworld just an unofficial Craftopia sequel? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Both Palworld and Craftopia take concepts from popular games and squeeze them into a single package. Palworld’s Pokémon-like monsters have gotten a lot of attention, but the games also have Ark-style base-building, paragliders like Breath of the Wild, and even conveyor belts like Factorio.
This approach to game design might come across as cynical, but there’s enough genuine enthusiasm behind it to make the whole thing work. Palworld and Craftopia feel like they were designed by kids, and I mean that as a compliment. They assemble pieces from different games without worrying about whether or not they fit together. Catching monsters is fun. Building bases is fun. Why wouldn’t they be fun combined?
In Craftopia, this mix-and-match approach feels extremely disjointed. There are tons of fun systems to play around with, but these systems barely interact with each other at all. Nearly every part of the game—crafting included—can be ignored. Since Craftopia used store-bought assets, even its visuals don’t really go together. The whole thing is ultimately an entertaining mess.
But Palworld succeeds where Craftopia fails, and it manages to make its weird mishmash of features feel like they actually belong in the same game. Monster catching and base-building blend together seamlessly, and the open world is a great complement to the game’s crafting-heavy progression system. Even the guns don’t really feel like they’re out of place.
There’s been a lot of chatter about Palworld’s derivative qualities, but it’s connecting with audiences because it’s actually unique. Plenty of games have base-building or monster taming, but are there any titles besides Palworld and Craftopia that put these concepts together?And Palworld isn’t just borrowing from popular games; it’s actually improving on their mechanics.
In Pokémon, monsters are battle partners, but in Palworld, creatures can fight, farm, and keep your settlement running smoothly. Speaking of settlements, Palworld’s base-building mechanics are extremely accessible. Since monsters can gather materials, there’s minimal grinding, and the casual survival mechanics are easy to manage. It’s a ridiculous game, but it rewards creativity at every turn. In Palworld, anything goes, and that makes the game’s weirder aspects a lot easier to swallow.
Palworld vs. Craftopia: Are they actually different?
Craftopia hasn’t been abandoned, but players aren’t exactly thrilled that the devs have released another game with the same basic concept. It’s currently being review-bombed on Steam, and some people are pressuring Pocketpair to stop selling the game.
On one hand, I get why players are upset. Palworld is essentially a refined version of Craftopia, and it already feels smoother and more polished than its predecessor. On the other hand, I don’t think these two games are quite as similar as they seem.
Sure, they offer the same basic features, but they use these features in very different ways. Palworld is laser-focused on its building and monster taming mechanics, but Craftopia is a grab bag of different concepts, and that messier approach makes it easier to pick and choose which parts of the game you want to engage with. If you want, you can totally ignore the monster catching and focus on crafting or dungeon crawling.
And while I’d definitely recommend Palworld over Craftopia, there are a few things that Craftopia does better. Its building tools are much more complex, allowing players to create some impressive structures. Craftopia also puts more emphasis on its dungeons and character builds, which makes it feel less like a base-builder and more like a sandbox RPG. Pocketpair has released content roadmaps for Craftopia and Palworld, so the two games may wind up feeling more distinct as time goes on.
It’s clear that Palworld wouldn’t exist without Craftopia. Not only did the revenue from Craftopia fund Palworld’s development, but it was a pretty invaluable learning experience. Pocketpair took the chaotic, fragmented ideas behind Craftopia and used them to create a genuinely good game. Palworld might not be a sequel in the traditional sense, but it’s a legitimately impressive follow-up. Pocketpair has stirred up a lot of controversy, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do next.
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