Palworld’s Saddest Pal Is Weirdly Inspiring

Palworld drips with cruelty and unfairness, and no Pal wears the consequences more than Depresso. If its name leaves any doubts, its sour expression kills them. Depresso is not happy to be here. Everything from its type (Dark) to its skill (Caffeine Inoculation) speaks to its character. Being a Pal in Palworld means being subject to the whims of anyone with a Pal Sphere and the strength to catch you. Maybe you’re enslaved and put to work in an ammo factory until you go mad. Maybe you’re fed to your friends. These are not the shiny happy adventures of Ash and the Pokemon gang. Yet Depresso endures.

Sadness Plus Caffeine Equals Depresso

Depresso is a surprisingly good person for something that’s not actually a person. Though the Pal’s lore is just a couple of lines, it paints a sweet picture of the blue grump: “It has few friends because of the perpetually grouchy look on its face, but it is in fact kindhearted. Some have seen it feeding Vixy who have strayed from their pack.” Canonically, Depresso is not only smart enough to recognize a Pal in need but also empathetic enough to provide for them. Compare its behavior to that of the Rayne Syndicate and there’s a good argument for Depresso being kinder than the game’s many humans.

Put Depresso to work and you’ll see it glumly dragging stones and other resources from one place to another. Its expression doesn’t change much unless it’s eating or using Caffeine Inoculation to chug energy drinks for a boost of speed in combat. It just silently endures. There’s something weirdly inspiring about Depresso’s resilience. Of course, forced labor and Pal butchery aren’t any less horrible just because Depresso can muscle through them. It’s just encouraging that a Pal so thoroughly identified with depression that it’s literally named after it still manages to be a ray of bleak sunshine in Palworld. Everything encourages Depresso to either give up or join in the cruelty, and it refuses.

What Depresso’s Lore Says About Palworld

From lore entries like Lily Everhart’s Diary, we know that the Free Pal Alliance is committed to protecting and preserving Pals, even worshipping them. Not everyone in Palworld is a villain. Still, there’s so much awfulness it’s remarkable that anyone or anything perseveres. I don’t think Palworld cares enough about its own themes to look at the broader implications of Depresso’s lore, but I’m the kind of geek who will. If Pocketpair wants to develop Palworld in this direction, it could easily shape the game into something with an actual message. Even if that message is “Pals are better than the heartless people they serve,” that would be a win.

The game just hit early access, so there’s reason to hope that fascinating Pals like Depresso will get more lore. I don’t know if Pocketpair thought deeply about the character’s thematic implications or if the Pal just exists as a silly little joke about sad people guzzling caffeine. In my headcanon, Depresso is the main character and I’m just the clueless sidekick, bumbling along until I see the Pal’s message for what it is. The time of the Pal revolution is upon us. No more cruelty or exploitation. We save the Palpagos Islands together or die trying, hopefully clutching some coffee or an energy drink.

Palworld is available for PC in early access.