Reviewing Monsters: Palworld, Part 4

And here's our final part of Palword monster coverage, which... isn't going to be the most exciting thing to be honest. This was originally split from the first 'part 3' due to length, but I'm doing this in order of the numbering in the game. 

Anyway, I don't really feel like I had much to say in this part. I feel like the bestiary's last leg was just a collection of cool-but-generic designs that... the game needs. I acknowledge that, for sure! But I'm just not sure they do anything particularly interesting with the concepts they put into the game. But I am a completionist, so I will finish this up.

What's next? I do have some other 'mons' monster reviews that I want to do, particularly the spiritual successor to Pokemon Uranium -- Pokemon Flux. I'm also thinking of taking a crack at Yo-Kai Watch, or at the very least its first game. Another potential one would be Horizon: Zero Dawn, which always intrigued me in terms of monster design if not for the plotline. One thing that's stopping me is that I kind of want to experience these games to have more context for their monsters? I might just do the DMC-V method where I review the monsters and proceed to review it a while later after I play it. Other games I'm kind of looking at include  Undertale, the Binding of Isaac, and maybe the Dark Souls or Elden Ring series. 

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#096: Blazamut

• Cursed Tyrant
• Type: Fire

We get a burning demonic dragon-dinosaur thing, most likely based on the Bahamut design popularized by Final Fantasy. I need to do another Final Fantasy monster review series, but those games take so long to complete! Ahem. Anyway, Blazamut is an all right design, for what it is. It's got giant molten magma-rock fists, and a huge mane around a humanoid tyrannosaurus body. Not a whole ton to say about that. He's pretty impressive-looking visually, but I don't have much to say about it. It's like... I've seen similar concepts done in other games, y'know? I think that's why Pokemon sometimes does some wacky stuff with their legendaries. It's to make them distinct. 

#097: Helzephyr

• Wings of Death
• Type: Dark

Helzephyr's got a pretty cool name, and interestingly, despite looking like a lightning-type Pal, he's actually fully Dark. I think it's those blue lightning bolts on his wings. His head's made up of like a mask, and a mass of eldritch, otherworldly fire. Pretty neat, but... didn't we already have a lightning bird in this game already? I'm sometimes not really clear on what makes Helzephyr different enough from, say, a Beakon that he's not folded in as a variant. 

#098: Astegon

• Ravager of Stars
• Type: Dragon/Dark

Oh, this one is pretty interesting. A very kaiju-esque design -- reminds me visually of Aggron from POkemon, at least with how the main body and the awkward limbs are structured. He's got crystals for fingers and toes, and a huge set of jeweled wings. Astegon's description notes that he is a "savage beast born of the abyss", his title is the "Ravager of Stars". To quote the description, "thou shall not stand before the beast. Thou shall not heed the beast." That's ominous, but... and I checked with someone who completed the game... there's nothing about any of these interesting lore bits. You would think that Astegon might have had, like, some kind of questline related to him, which would've made him more than just 'generic Aggron/Godzilla ripoff', but... eh. Honestly, there's some mystery to this guy, but there's not enough context to make me care about him beyond being a big metal kaiju. So close. 

#099: Menasting

• Unstoppable Stinger
• Type: Dark/Ground

Ha! I like the pun on Menasting's name here, and... the descriptions actually tell a bit more of a story about him. Despite looking like just a robotic or metallic scorpion, Menastings are actually 'beings made out of pure energy', with completely hollow bodies. So this thing is actually more of a golem or something, powered by eldritch flames, and it just happens to look like a scorpion. I do like that is 'head' is actually something more akin to a knight's helmet, and its tail looks like it's cobbled together from medieval torture devices. Menastings apparently would cram living prey into its hollow body, and "hellish screams of pain can often be heard coming from inside this Pal." Creepy! 

#100: Anubis

• Guardian of the Dark Sun
• Type: Ground

I mean, it sure is an Anubis? I don't... I don't have much to say here. I guess they wanted to hone in on Lucario's very vague alleged Anubis inspiration, but it kind of doubles back to being kind of... boring? For me, at least. I know there's probably a huge market for Furry Anubis jackal-man, but I felt like they went for the boring design instead of going for something more 'death god'-y. Instead, it's just Lucario in an Anubis cosplay, right down to the martial arts animation, making this design honestly kind of underwhelming to me overall. 

#101: Jormuntide

• Emperor of the Sea | Volcanic Emperor
• Type: Dragon/Water (normal) | Dragon/Fire (ignis)

From Anubis onwards, we're basically getting a bunch of Pals based on all sorts of common mythological beings that show up in RPG's, and Jormuntide here is based on Jormungandr of Nordic mythology. He sure is a big sea serpent, and... I'm trying very hard not to make Gyarados (from Pokemon) and Seadramon (from Digimon) comparisons here, but the colour scheme is blue and yellow, there are two very prominent whiskers, and the beak-like head... okay, at least this one isn't quite as obvious as some of the others that Palworld's done. The end result is cool enough on its own merits that I really don't mind at all. 

Jormuntide is another watery mount, and he comes in regular sea-serpent version and a kickass black-and-red lava version. Interestingly, both Jormuntide and Jormuntide Ignis note that they were "once a wise man, wrongfully convicted, cast into a whirlpool/volcano and returned as this Pal to destroy those who wronged him". Even if the origin story applied to only to the Jormuntide species as a whole and not to each individual Jormuntide, it is kind of hilarious that this reincarnation story apparently happened twice with a different "cast into X" origins. 

#102: Suzaku

• Ruler of Crimson Dawn | Ruler of Cobalt Dusk
• Type: Fire (normal) | Water (aqua)

Going to the Japanese mythology now is Suzaku, the Vermillion Bird, and... it's got an interesting anatomy, at least! I initially didn't care for Suzaku all that much, but after talking in-depth one-by-one about the very generic bird-of-prey Pals in the middle of the dex, Suzaku being a total weirdo is a nice breath of fresh air. It's got a weird, alien-like head with horns, and three tail-feathers that almost look like a clasping set of claws or a tripod. 

Suzaku and Suzaku Aqua are both tied to the dry and rainy season respectively, and... well, in a bit of dark comedy, apparently due to this association, if there is a heavy drought or heavy flooding, humans would go around and cull the opposing type of Suzaku to try and get the drought or flood to subside quickly. It's... it's pretty fucked up, but you can't say that it's not something humans wouldn't do with their superstition and mob mentality. 

#103: Grizzbolt

• Claws of Lightning
• Type: Electric

Kind of the main mascot of the game, Grizzbolt can kind of be described as "My Neighbour Totoro meets Pikachu, high on crack". You can see a lot of the visual designs of Grizzbolt being drawn from Pikachu as a bright yellow electric mascot, but they also very clearly want to avoid lawsuits, so they made him a big burly bear instead of a tiny cute rat. He's got some menacing-looking claws and a psychotic grin. Despite being located near the end of the Paldeck, Grizzbolt is actually one of the first mandatory story boss quests under the usage of one of the antagonists of the game, Zoe. 

Grizzbolt is normally quiet and docile, but its partner skill is being ridden, at which point Grizzbolt pulls a big fuck-off minigun out of nowhere and starts going full-on psycho, shooting the shit out of anyone in its path with its giant minigun. I think I made enough 'mons with guns' jokes throughout this review series, so I'm not going to make another one here. 

Taken on its own? Eh. I feel like it's all right as a design, even as I try to ignore the obvious 'Pikachu ripoff' design prompt. 

#104: Lyleen

• Lily Empress | Empress of the Abyss
• Type: Grass (normal) | Dark (noct)

We have a grass/flower fairy before in Petallia, so Lyleen is like, the not-evolution 'boss' of them, I guess. It sure is a lady with leaves and flowers for hair and as a huge skirt. I don't have a whole ton to say about it. It's pleasantly drawn? There's some kind of a parental theme to the regular Lyleen, where it basically adopts Pals that have lost their parents, and its method of discipline is a full-powered Solarbeam Solar Blast (which is a totally distinct thing, Nintendo lawyers!) to the face. Again, Lyleen seem to be another 'let's redraw this with slightly different details' problem that I have with Pokemon's own parade of flower-leaf-ladies.

Lyleen Noct seems to be a similar theme, initially, just with dark, night-themed flowers... but then when it comes to the discipline part, we get a 'hit me harder daddy' joke thrown in because apparently some Pals actively seek to be slapped by Lyleen Noct. Yyyyyyyeah.

#105: Faleris

• Sentinel of Dawn
• Type: Fire

It sure is another bird of prey. Faleries actually looks significantly different from a lot of the others, though, looking like it's fully armoured with some interesting detailing on the front side of his wings. A combination of the name, the head-crest and the black/red/gold colours seems to indicate that Faleris here is based on Roman soldiers... but the original Japanese name for Faleris is straight-up just "Horus", another Egyptian god. Which... which kind of explains Faleris's whole fire theme, and the fact that you have to specifically breed with an Anubis to get a Faleris. Silly English localization team!

I like the absolutely random non-sequitur in its deck entry talking about how it uses its fire breath to turn its enemies into ashes... and then it goes on to describe how the fire breath has a pleasant, nice scent. Okay. 

#106: Orserk

• Roaring Thunder
• Type: Dragon/Electric

I'm... I'm not sure what this guy is supposed to be? He's like a bipedal dragon/dinosaur-man, sure, with butterfly wings made out of electricity. But then I just find his anatomy kind of unpleasant to look at. There's a chunk of fur that juts out of his chest, and he also has like a pronounced belly? That end result makes his main torso/abdomen segment look so awkward looking to me. Add that to the weird 'rubber boots' that he seems to naturally have, and I'm just not entirely sure what they're going on here. 

A quick look through google tells me that Orserk is apparently Palworld's answer to Garchomp, using an orca as the marine animal basis instead of Garchomp's hammerhead shark. And swapping the elements. I... I don't see it. "Lightning orca dragon-man" isn't a terrible concept, but this doesn't really sell it to me at all. 

#107: Shadowbeak

• Unknown Life Form
• Type: Dark

Silvally? Is that you? Yeah, we've basically got a Silvally from Pokemon, right down to the silly head-crest, only this one is painted entirely black, it's got Zekrom's butt-engine attached to its back, and actually has wings so he's an actual gryphon. Shadowbeak's name is very non-indicative of what it actually is, though, because its title is "Unknown Lifeform", and its Japanese name is "Xenogriff". Just like Silvally, Mewtwo and Genesect, Shadowbeak is actually an artificially created Pal biological weapon! There's apparently enough debating going on whether a Shadowbeak should still be considered a Pal anymore, and unlike Astegon, there's actually some lore behind one of the organizations that leads to the creation of Shadowbeak. 

And... honestly? I'm very disappointed here. I don't mind the idea of having a monstrous genetic experiment. It's a nice homage! It's a common enough sci-fi trope! But the fact that they put zero effort into something that could take full advantage of the "we acknowledge the death and the fucked-up things in a Mon genre that Pokemon glosses over" thing that's supposed to make Palworld different... I dunno. A black gryphon just doesn't scream "forbidden existence born of madness" with no genetic relationship with the other pals, I'm sorry. 

#108: Paladius

• Holy Knight of Legend
• Type: Neutral

We're going down the 'legendary Pals' from here on out, and we start off with Paladius. He's a centaur knight! Apparently, Paladius and Necromus below used to be a single entity, but Paladius was 'freed from all negative feelings'... but his eyes still has some kind of resentment. Okay. 

I mean, he sure is a nice golden knight enemy with a lance and a shield. I don't have anything bad to say here, but I don't find much interesting to say about Paladius here. 

#109: Necromus

• Dark Knight of Legend
• Type: Dark

And Necromus here is the 'dark knight' to Paladius's 'holy knight', dual-wielding two blood-red lances. Or are his arms merged with the lances? Necromus's Deck entry is basically the reverse of Paladius, where it's supposed to have purged all positive feelings from itself, but it's got traces of compassion in his eyes. You fight Paladius and Necromus together, but apparently there's an exploit to be made here where Paladius actually needs to sleep, so you can bypass this requirement by fighting Necromus alone at night. 

Eh, okay. I normally like the badass, edgy ones when given a choice, but I actually find Paladius to be the more cooler looking of the two this time around. I think it's because his horse parts are more elaborately armoured? Also I do find it kind of appropriate considering how the game's gameplay revolve primarily around your player character in what's essentially a FPS setting, so the ultimate legendaries are all the best mounts. 

#110: Frostallion

• Legendary Steed of Ice | Legendary Steed of Darkness
• Type: Ice (normal) | Dark (noct)

Another duo of legendaries, Frostallion and Frostallion Noct are actually considered the same kind of species, unlike Paladius and Necromus. What makes these 'repaints' considered the same species or not is really kind of on the whims of the designers, huh? These guys are the guardian deities of Palpagos Island, known as Winter Caller and Night Caller respectively, and they've both saved the island by casting it into "eternal winter" and "eternal darkness" respectively. However the heck that works, that seems that it would plunge the Palpagos island into an even worse crisis. 

Not much to say here, they sure are pegasi. I think I'm obligated to compare them to Glastrier and Spectrier from Pokemon, a pair of ice and ghostly legendary horses, but... eh. I don't find these two to look interesting at all. They sure are flying horsies.

#111: Jetragon

• Legendary Celestial Dragon
• Type: Dragon

And the final Pal in this game is Jetragon, who also guards Palpagos but from the skies. When the 'calamity' (whatever it is) awakens again, Jetragon will apparently destroy it with a 'glare of complete obliteration'. Okay, sure. Jetragon was featured a bit in the promotional trailers, and this is a nice, creative remix of the 'jet dragon' concept that informed the design of something like Latios and Latias from Pokemon. Jetragon takes the same concept, but does something interesting with it, like putting turbines into the dragon legs, and... and whatever that harness with neon-lightsaber wings are. 

This is basically the 'ultimate' Pal to get in the game, requiring you to basically be at the max the game allows you to get in order to subdue and ride Jetragon. I would love to be proven wrong, but none of the information I can find online really tells me why a legendary, ancient guardian of Palpagos is a robotic dragon.