Upsetting Palworld Glitch Inspires Terrifying Fan Theories
From the outside, "Palworld" looks like a winking play on "Pokémon" and survival games, but real fans know that's not the case at all. Even setting aside the gunplay and forced labor, "Palworld" is a much darker game than the art direction would lead you to believe. Some of the Pals have unbelievably messed-up backstories that really are the stuff of nightmares. Fans have also discovered another horrifying detail in the game, but this time it might be something that Pocketpair never intended for anyone to see.
Some eagle-eyed fans have spotted a little inconsistency in the texture the game uses for its skybox. If you take a look up through the clouds at just the right angle, you can sometimes see a large seam where the sky appears to be stitched together. There isn't much of a reason to think that the seam is anything more than an unintended visual glitch, but that hasn't stopped some fans from taking it more seriously. The theory train has left the station, and it's loaded with thoughts that will haunt you.
The line in the Palpagos Island sky
It's just a little line in the sky, right? It's nothing more than a glitch in the texture, something that Pocketpair might fix in an afternoon. Well, if that's the case, some players wonder why the developer hasn't done anything about it yet? Sure, we could assume that since "Palworld" is just getting started, Pocketpair has bigger concerns than randomly occurring sky seams, but some fans are happily ignoring that fact and speculating wildly about what the great big line in the sky really means.
That's exactly what's happening in the Reddit thread where this little glitch was first pointed out. Some mention having seen the sky line since the day "Palworld" launched, claiming it's always been a part of their own headcanon for the world. For some, the line could be an arrow pointing to a mystery location that hasn't been uncovered. Others have darker theories.
Some think the line proves that the Palpagos Islands in "Palworld" aren't real. Maybe the entire game world exists inside a Palsphere, and players are really unwilling captives. Or, another theory goes, the seam is a sign that the islands are enclosed in a massive dome. Outside the dome is a post-apocalyptic hellscape, and the Palpagos Islands are the only bit of the world that's survived some cataclysmic event. Some think "Palworld" is a "Truman Show" scenario, in which the protagonist is unknowingly being watched by millions of viewers from outside of their prison. None of the theories are pleasant.
Don't forget the real mystery of Palworld
Odds are good that there will never be an official answer for what the line in the sky really is. The fact that fans are so hungry for theories is actually a helpful reminder about one of the things we ignore in "Palworld" – the fact that there's a bigger mystery playing out in the game.
The Palpagos Islands really are the game's big question mark. It seems like people are arriving at the Islands from different points in time, but we have no idea how or why. We also don't know the true origin story of the Pals, but in various journals and Paldeck entries, the implies there's a darker history to them. Some of the sky glitch fan theories point to the Pals being part of an elaborate simulation that has trapped the game's protagonist for some unknown purpose.
We know that we're going to get more content and story added to "Palworld" at some point in the future. Right now, Pocketpair has simply seeded the game with all the key ingredients for a great mystery. The sky glitch is probably just a glitch, but it brings so many of the game's other eerie and mysterious elements to the front of players' minds. Until Pocketpair has anything to say on the matter, we'll be keeping our eyes on the sky.