Palia is a chill, cozy, free MMO fantasy farming/life sim where you play as a human in a world where humans have disappeared but are re-emerging. Farm, mine, hunt, fish, decorate your home, befriend and romance NPCs, work together with other players (if you want), and discover a magical new world.

Official Description:

Discover a welcoming world in Palia, a free-to-play fantasy life sim adventure where you can craft, explore, and create the life and home of your dreams. With nearly endless ways to make Palia your home, you’ll find relaxation and joy in every corner of this vibrant, heartwarming world.

Long Review:

I have been loving this game! I’ve already played over 700 hours of it. The vibe is so chill and nice, the NPCs are wonderful, and the gameplay is fun. It feels like the devs have either played a lot of farming sims themselves or actually paid attention to all the quality of life stuff people complain about in other games. The game does have a lot of grinding, all these kinds of games do, but it is, for the most part, just a joy to play!

*Note: The game is in-progress, so things could change. My review is being posted in May 2026.*

Characters/Story:

– The NPCs are so fun and have so much personality, and I love them! They all feel unique and lovable once you get to know them (well, there’s one I find less lovable, but YMMV). They have backstories and pasts and things going on in their lives and relationships with each other. They also sometimes have different dialogue at different locations or times of day and reactions to choices you’ve made, who you’re romancing, and quests you’ve done. Altogether, it makes them feel alive, and like they have depth, and like you are actually part of the world.

– You can romance all the romance options without breaking up, and they’re ok with it. In some cases, there’s even unique dialogue if you’re wearing pins for certain characters at the same time. Also, one of the romanceables is an adorable robot! (Tbh, I headcanon my relationship with him as platonic, but his flirting is so terrible that it’s amazing, and I adore him.)

– There’s interesting lore and stories about the world and the history. You learn some through dialogue and quests, but also letters and logs and journals. I was weirdly invested in the love lives of the people who ran the control centers, and the logs at the air temple about the situation there were chilling.

Gameplay:

– Pretty much what you’d expect from a farming life sim. There’s a main questline with a story element. You do quests for NPCs. You explore the worlds. You forage, farm, mine, fish, hunt, catch bugs, craft furniture, cook, and take care of ranch animals.

– You have to do all the skills to an extent in order to progress quests and relationships, craft things, and unlock certain decor. But when it comes to making money, most of the skills are viable.

– Hunting and bug catching are well-designed. The aiming system is easy and intuitive. At least, on PC with keyboard and mouse (or in my case, trackpad). It does glitch out sometimes, but changing keybindings mostly fixed that for me. (If you accidentally press any of the keys that select things in your hotbar, e.g. E and Q, it stops you from shooting/throwing until you cancel it.)

– Running and jumping and gliding and climbing is fun and feels smooth and natural.

– So far there are four maps, each with its own bugs, animals, forageables, and daily recurring events.

– At first, it’s overwhelming and some things are hard, but it all got easier for me with practice, gear upgrades, crafting recipes, foods that give you buffs, etc.

– No combat, no HP, nothing hurts you.

– No sleep. There’s a day and night cycle, but you can just keep going.

– You do have a focus bar, which can be filled by eating, and having focus gives you more XP. But you can still keep doing stuff if it’s empty.

– No real competition for resources with other players. Multiple players can talk to NPCs at the same time. Everyone can grab the forageables and ore; when you grab it, it’s not removed for other players, they can still grab it, it will just despawn after a certain amount of time once someone grabs it. Fishing bubble spots work similarly. When hunting, bug catching, and chopping trees, everyone who hits the animal/bug/tree at least once will get the loot.

– Very accessible inventory/storage. Your full storage is available from every storage chest and crafting machine. And while you’re out, if you get something while your inventory is full, the extra will go to a waiting bin or to storage (to an extent, you can’t just keep going forever). You do have a storage limit, but certain things, like furniture, don’t count.

– It’s an MMO, so there are other players around. You can just do your own thing, but it is nice to be mindful of others and the unwritten etiquette, and you have to accept that sometimes people might scare off an animal or bug, or someone might see you try to jump across a river but fall in and respawn five times in a row. I was nervous about the “other people” element at first, but I’ve come to love it. I enjoy working together to chop groves or catch bugs or hunt the more difficult animals. It makes some things easier, and it’s nice to share the excitement when we all get a rare drop. I’ve had a lot of nice interactions with strangers in the game.

Decorating:

– All the decor is cute.

– You can grow so many types of flowers.

– Every item can be moved once placed (including flowers, trees, crop squares, crafters, chests).

– There is a decor limit.

– It’s all done in the same camera mode, so sometimes your character is blocking your view, or you have to stack crates to reach things.

– It has the basic “each item has a footprint, can’t overlap things, can’t put certain things on top of tables, can’t put certain things indoors” etc. limitations most games have.

– Some of the cutest items, you can only get one copy of because they’re rewards. And a lot of cute items can only be gotten through random chance by fishing or with prize machines that take a lot of time or gold to earn coins for.

– Changing colors of items requires ingredients.

– A lot of the cutest builds are done using glitches, and that’s a lot of work, and then it’s also so hard if you want to move anything again later. But glitch tutorials are online and do ultimately offer more options for making really unique stuff, or you can still make something cute in a more simple way.

Everything Else:

– Chill and peaceful vibes.

– It’s a beautiful game. Beautiful art style and landscapes. (I’ve heard graphics are worse on some devices. Play on PC if you want the prettiest experience.)

– Character creator is basic. There are two body options, some face options that look pretty similar, hair, facial hair, and clothes/accessories.

– The game is free. Paid stuff is cosmetic (outfits, pets, etc.). I’ve spent a bit because the clothes are cute, and the game has earned some of my money. (The Founder’s Pack and Zeki Loyalty Club are good deals.)

– No mini map in the corner. I have to constantly open the full-screen map.

Overall:

Again, the game is in-progress, so the main questline isn’t finished, but there’s still a lot to do once you finish that, like side quests, relationships, achievements, acquiring plushies, and more. And even if they stopped updating now, I’ve had a great time regardless. Overall, just really enjoying this!

Short Review:

– Wonderful NPCs who feel alive.
– Interesting lore and history.
– Chill farming life sim gameplay.
– Fantastic quality of life features.
– Decorating is cute and great in some ways but frustrating in others.
– Beautiful environments.
– Overall, a chill and fun game!

Accessibility:

(May not include everything)
– Can change keybindings, including for tool use (chopping trees, etc.) if you don’t want to mouse click.
– Fishing requires moving brackets side to side to keep the fish within them. Could be difficult with some disabilities.
– Could cause motion sickness. That being said, I normally can’t play this type of game (camera that closely follows the character but you swing it around to look different ways), and I don’t get sick from this one. At the start, I was careful with camera movement and couldn’t play too long, but it was still a mild issue, and then I fully acclimated. For me, it helps that everything is very clear and easy to see, good contrast. There is FOV adjustment, but it doesn’t do much and creates a fisheye look, so didn’t adjust it much (mine is at 100 I think). I also play on PC, where my character doesn’t take up too much screen, and I look out to where I’m going, rather than at the character. There is also a setting for a center reticule, which apparently can help.

More Info:

If you decide to play, here’s where you can make an account, and I’d love if you’d use my referral code so I can get a couple little in-game items!

Steam

Miscellaneous:

I’ve also been posting about the game (mostly Reth, Jel, and Einar) on Tumblr!