Panthalus is hard to miss: The water elemental is by far the largest monster in Palworld. The Pal, which controversially appears to take inspiration from Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire legendary Kyogre, looks awfully familiar to Pokémon fans. Despite those similarities, developer Pocketpair designed the encounter so players who experience it won’t dismiss it as a rip-off. If anything, the Panthalus fight is a perfect encapsulation of why Palworld has seen such explosive success.
The Pal was teased in early access trailers, but Pocketpair didn’t put it into Palword until the game’s recent 1.0 release. For a while, some fans worried that the Panthalus was simply too big to properly appear in the game. In a way, these assumptions were on the money. Panthalus is so huge that players can only have one on each base.
The hype around Panthalus isn’t merely about anticipation, its large size, or its level-70 power. The excitement is also a reflection of how much players are caught up in the spectacle of the encounter. The Pal attacks the player with the full might of a tsunami wave. The song in this video is from Attack on Titan, not Palworld. It does, however, capture the grandeur of the encounter:
This particular version of the encounter is deeply silly, as the Palworld player attempts to reach the Panthalus with a Pal that may be too plump for the task. The game’s frame rate also suffers under the load, and you can see frames dropping left and right. Never mind the inherent absurdity of witnessing something this magnificent and meeting that moment with a gun.
Still, I’ve never played a Pokémon game that made a legendary encounter feel nearly as extraordinary as this. The more action-oriented titles, like Pokémon Legends: Z-A, are more evocative in their immediacy. I don’t necessarily feel awe in those cases, or feel convinced that the encounter is truly special. In the rare instances where that isn’t the case, capturing the monster also erodes any sense of wonder. What do you mean the fierce mythical bird is only as big as a middle schooler?
Meanwhile, in Palworld:
“Pokémon could never,” one commenter opined on the initial viral video.
“There has never been a Pokémon game with this level of cinematic trust these two have in this video,” another said.
Some fans aren’t fond of the encounter, and feel that Pocketpair could have designed it better. Since it’s a live-service game, improvements to Panthalus are entirely possible. Still, you’ve got to admit: What’s there is already impressive.
Palworld is now available on Mac, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.