Palia: Elderwood Preview
The Elderwood is a pleasingly ethereal locale that manages to combine spookiness with the game’s usual cosiness with lots of little elements that bring it to life.
Since its initial open beta release on PC a little over a year and a half ago, online fantasy life sim adventure Palia has received a strong cadence of varied updates and feature additions, averaging more than one a month, as well as a release on Nintendo Switch. With the game now set to launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S next month, developer Singularity 6 is ready to give Palia a full fledged expansion update with Elderwood. Launching alongside the new console versions will full cross-platform support on May 13, 2025, Elderwood aims to give players new ways to explore in a notably different location to those they have ventured before, and RPGamer was able to get a quick look at what awaits within.
To give a base introduction to the game for newcomers, Palia is set in a world where humans are considered a legendary race that disappeared thousands of years ago. Players control a human who suddenly appears in a small village, where they are given their own personal plot of land as they investigate the world and create a life for themselves. Activities include gardening, fishing, bug hunting, crafting, building, forming relationships with NPCs, and more, with extensive crafting and building options to let players design and build their own dream home. The game purposefully embraces the cosiness aspect of life sims, giving players plenty of opportunity to embrace creativity, particularly when it comes to decor, with a lot of interactivity in its systems making use of mini-games, such as when chopping or mixing ingredients for cooking. It is fully playable solo, though the developers say that they consider it “even better with friends” and that the game has surpassed six million lifetime players so far.
The Elderwood is a new ethereal zone that adds touch of spookiness to the game’s usual cosy nature.
Elderwood adds the new eponymous Adventure Zone, which is a dense magical forest. It features new story quests, collectibles, creatures, and a new type of item: Relics. The Elderwood zone gives off a distinctly different vibe with its density and twisting paths that means it is lit in a vastly different manner to other areas in the game; its use of colours with ethereal lighting and glows really make everything come together and make the environments pop. However, the team has gone a great job making it feel distinct within the game’s world, but keeping its look and feel consistent and right at home with Palia’s art style. It’s a locale that manages to combine spookiness with the game’s usual cosiness with lots of little elements that bring it to life, aided by the understated audio work that adds a subtle extra layer on top of the look. The Elderwood features is own hub area called the stables, where many of the NPCs will show up, and where players turn in new Relics.
The Relics system sees players explore the Elderwood to find hidden artifacts, which unlock the new Relics. These Relics can be equipped and apply a buff for the entire party, letting players provide further assistance to their friends. Relics can themselves be levelled up. The Relic system works alongside the new Echo essence currency, which is obtained from magically tainted objects in the Elderwood indicated by a glowing substance or aura on them. Initially, players will be unable to interact with these tainted objects, such as being unable to cut down afflicted trees, but will later unlock the ability to collect that essence and will. The Elderwood is also intended to take on some of the game’s endgame content.
The Elderwood has a bit more verticality than other zones in the game.
When creating the Elderwood, the development made an effort to utilise verticality more than other areas in the game. It makes for some great views and definitely helps give the area that sense of being winding and interconnected. Players have plenty of ways and reasons to explore, such as climbing trees, glidings, and bouncing off mushroom-like growths, and will be rewarded for doing so with treasures scattered around. The Elderwood is also naturally home to a large variety of new fauna and flora for players to collect and hunt, some of which bring their own twists, such as a mushroom-like creature that almost turns hunting it into whack-a-mole if player doesn’t defeat them quickly enough, and a creature that spits slowing goo at the player.
Palia’s housing system is definitely one of its highlights, allowing players to show their creativity with its powerful placement options. It gives players many ways to share their collections — including plushies, collected bugs, fish, and more — and engage in the creation systems. The developer is very proud of the community that the game has fostered; there are community-driven events where up to twenty-four players will happily get together on a single plot simply to cook together, letting them all share in the in-game benefits while also having fun together. Naturally, Elderwood will come with its own new sets of themed decor for players to obtain, including a new method of being able to pay Echo to obtain recipes for items found in the Elderwood.
Palia’s housing system is very robust, with lots more decor to obtain in the expansion.
Singularity 6 has been very pleased with how the game, and particularly its community, has grown. Along with the cooking and other community events, the developer has been pleasantly surprised with how its four-player Hotpot tabletop card game has taken off, as well as the reception to the game’s NPCs and players’ interactions with them. The emergent community has been very welcoming and looking to work together by creating their own emergent play within the endgame. Elderwood looks primed to help build out the narrative of Palia for those looking for expansion on that side, while also adding plenty of extra content to its other elements. During this extended open beta, the team has largely been focused on ensuring the game has been receiving the necessary depth for existing players to keep enjoying, but is ensuring that it adds the necessary level of breadth so that exciting new content isn’t pushed to endgame and is available for everyone to enjoy; the studio has used the time to understand the different player personas in the game and what they are looking for and enjoy.
Elderwood looks set to offer a very welcome expansion to the Palia experience. The new area should offer something refreshing for players to explore, alongside plenty more of what has successfully attracted its fanbase so far. The game’s release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S should also help bring in plenty more players looking for a relaxing and cosy experience that they can enjoy on their own, with friends, or by becoming part of the community.
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