Pocketpair’s Palworld: More Than Just Pals dating sim saga continues, as it went from a 2024 joke to a 2025 announcement with Steam product page. Now for April Fools’ Day 2026, there’s a new gameplay video that begins with CEO Takuro Mizobe and Head of Publishing John “Bucky” Buckley discussing the project. This is also paired with an update to the game’s listing that confirms there will be a horror element to the visual novel.
The first half of the video is a more lighthearted segment that explains how Palworld: More Than Just Pals started as an April Fools’ Joke that is on its way to becoming an actual game. While Mizobe plays Slay the Spire 2 on a handheld gaming PC, Buckley goes over how they plan to make the game even though the 1.0 version of Palworld will appear this year and it meant hiring additional staff.
At the 1:20 mark of the video, actual Palworld: More Than Just Pals gameplay appears. This means seeing some of the human and Pal love interests. Zoe is the first to show up, with Chillet Ignis, Tarantriss, Katress, and Saya showing up after that. This video marks our first peek at the horror elements of the game, as a strange memory seems to surface when discovering a Sphere at the 1:47 mark and a time loop seems to kick in.
Here’s the full 2026 Palworld dating sim trailer. While the horror elements are teased, there are no major spoilers in it.
There are some additional screenshots showing off some of the other characters and romance options too. Here’s how all of those humans and Pals look:
Palworld: More Than Just Pals is in development for PCs, and Palworld is in early access for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.