This month brings some incredible news for Singularity 6’s cozy fantasy life sim, Palia, and it looks like May will be even better. The Elderwood content expansion has been announced for the game, bringing a new Adventure Zone in the form of its titular magical and spooky forest. But that’s not all. No, Palia is also coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and the console launch and Elderwood expansion will be bundled into one major release and update in May 2025. With that in mind, Singularity 6 invited us to see what’s in store and it looks delightful, to say the least.
A mysterious new forest
Elderwood isn’t just the name of the new content expansion. It’s also a new Adventure Zone coming to Palia, and with it comes all sorts of goodies. Players that have stuck with Palia’s story up this point will be able to access Elderwood right away when it launches in May. The zone is a dense and magical forest with creepy and dreary motifs that would be befitting of Halloween. Thankfully, Singularity 6 doesn’t believe spooky goodness has a strict place at a certain time of year and we’ll be exploring this Zone next month.
The developers described the Elderwood Zone as one of its most vertically designed Zones yet, and it’s easy to see why. Throughout the forest, players will find bouncing flowers to spring off of between the trees. Floating on your glider down to one of these bouncy flowers will give you a massive boost of airtime in which you can use your glider again. Not only is it good for navigating the woods with ease, but it will also lead to special discoveries that can’t be found on the forest floor. There’s a lot to discover, too. New themed collectibles are scattered through the woods, there are new hostile and elusive creatures to hunt, and players will discover all sorts of new artifacts, plushies, fish, insects, and décor with which they’ll be able to decorate their homes.
One of the biggest new additions to Elderwood is all-new gear system with Relics. Relics are completely new, and Artifacts that can hold them will be able to supply you and your group with unique party-wide buffs. Whether you want to gather better, move faster, glide further, or explore other fun effects, the Relics will provide new group-wide opportunities that players didn’t have before. Figuring out what to equip to make the best synergy with your crew is sure to be an interesting discussion once the expansion is launched.
For those PS5 & Xbox players just arriving…
As fun as it will be for long-time Palia players to discover all sorts of new things in Elderwood, this is also a huge moment for Singularity 6 as it invites two new platforms into its ecosystem. Even more fun is that the new console launches will come with full cross-platform support across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It should come as little surprise that Singularity 6 is dedicated to making sure Palia is as fun for fresh newcomers as it is for old hands ahead of the wave of new players preparing to enter its world.
Singularity 6 puts its energy into a few different prioritizations for the overall game that the developers shared with me. For one, Singularity 6 is always aiming to ensure that early areas of the game remain as polished and up to quality as anything introduced in later updates. This is especially important given the fact that these areas have resources that play into later game crafting just as well as the early game questing, crafting, and content. The team wants to make sure that whether a player is packing their bags for Elderwood or taking their first steps in Palia, it’s of equal quality at all stages.
Then, there’s sorting out the balance of challenge versus relaxation. Palia is a cozy game after all, and part of that means keeping a vibe that remains chill, peaceful, and mostly stress-free. The team certainly wants to push the player to go out, complete quests, and advance their way through the game, but Singularity 6 also works hard on maintaining a balance where all things asked of the player maintain that chill and relaxing energy, even as players are rewarded for their time. Ultimately, Singularity 6 has fine-tuned its approach since Palia launched to make sure everyone should have a good time when Elderwood hits and the PlayStation and Xbox ports launch.
A packed new chapter of Palia
The month ahead looks bright for Singularity’s cozy life sim. Elderwood looks like a bountiful collection of new content that should be exciting for existing players, and the effort going into ensuring everything is fresh and clean from top to bottom means PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players will have a lot to enjoy as they get caught up to the rest of the playerbase. Either way, everyone excited to jump in won’t have to wait long to find out for themselves when the Elderwood update comes out.
These impressions are based on a hands-off demo presented by the developer. Palia’s Elderwood update and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game will launch on May 13, 2025.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Palia comes to PS5 & Xbox Series X/S just in time for its Elderwood expansion
