After investigating Elderwood’s minerals and infected plants in Palia'sThe Nature of Shadows quest, you’ll talk to Subira once more to show your interest in learning how to hunt infected creatures. Soon after, the Shot in the Dark quest begins.

Whether you’re heading to this year’s Biennale, planning a future visit, or simply daydreaming about Venice, this guide—contributed by Hamilton-based architect Bill Curran—offers insights and ideas for exploring the canal-crossed city. Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go. – Truman Capote Venice is my mystical addiction and I soon will make my 26th trip there, always for about 10 days or more. I keep getting asked why, and asked by other architects to share what to do and what to see. Only Italo Calvino could have reimagined (in ‘Invisible Cities’) such a magical, unique place, a water-born gem forged from 120 islands linked by 400 bridges and beset by a crazy-quilt medieval street and canal pattern. Abstract, dancing light forms dappling off water, the distinct automobile-less quiet. La Serenissima, The Most Serene One. Most buildings along the Grand Canal were warehouses with the family home above on the piano nobile floor above, and servant apartments above that in the attics, in a sea-faring nation state of global traders and merchants like Marco Polo. Uniquely built on a foundation of 1,000-year-old wood pilings, its uneven, wonky buildings have forged a rich place in history, literature and movies: Joseph Brodsky’s Watermark, Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees, Don’t Look Now starring Donald Sutherland, Mann’s Death in Venice, The Comfort of Strangers with Christopher Walken, Henry James’ The Wings of the Dove and The Aspern Papers, Kate Hepburn’s ‘Summertime. Yes, yes, Ruskin’s Stones of Venice is an option, as are Merchant of Venice and Casanova. Palazzo Querini Stampalia (Venice): Photo via Wikipedia THE MODERN ARCHITECTURE OF VENICE Much of Venetian life is lived in centuries-old buildings, with a crushing post-war recession leaving it preserved in amber for decades until the mass tourists found it. Now somewhat relieved of at least the cruise ship daytrippers, it is a reasonable place again, except maybe in peak summer. The weight of history, a conservatism for preservation and post-war anti-Americanism led to architectural stagnation. So there are few new, modern buildings, mostly on the edges, and some fine interior interventions, mostly invisible. For modern architecture enthusiasts Venice is a challenge. Carlo Scarpa (Giardini, Venise) – Photo via Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license Here is what modern architects should see: Carlo Scarpa‘s Must-See Works: Go see any of Scarpa’s interventions, demonstrating his mastery of detailing, materials, joinery and his approach to blending with existing fabric. He is Italy’s organicist, their Frank Lloyd Wright, and they even worked together (on the Masieri Foundation). Negozio Olivetti: The tiny former Olivetti typewriter showroom enfronting Piazza San Marco is perhaps the most wonderful of his works. It is open now to visit as a heritage museum. ”God is in the details”; Scarpa carefully considered every detail, material and connection. Le magasin Olivetti de Carlo Scarpa (Venise). Photo via Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license The Fondazione Querini Stampalia is a must see, a renovated palazzo with ground floor exhibit spaces with tidewater allowed to rise up inside in one area you bridge across. The former entrance bridge is a lovely gem of exquisite detailing, rendered obsolete by a meh renovation by Mario Botta. A MUST is to have a coffee or prosecco in Scarpa’s garden and see the craft and detail of its amazing water feature. The original palazzo rooms are a lovely semi-public library inhabited by uni students; sign up as a member on-line for free. Walk up the spiral stair. The entry gate to the UIAV Architecture School in Campo Tolentini  is an unexpected wonder. A brutalist yet crisply detailed sliding concrete and steel gate, a sculpted concrete lychgate, then an ancient doorway placed on the lawn as a basin. Main Gate of the Tolentini building headquarters of Iuav university of Venice designed by Carlo Scarpa. Photo via Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license OTHER MODERN ARCHITECTURE TO SEE: Minimalist Dave Chipperfield expanded an area of suede-like concrete columbariums on the St. Michele cemetery island. Sublime. Extra points if you can find the tomb Scarpa designed nearby. The Ponte della Costituzione (English: Constitution Bridge) is the fourth bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava. (Image via: Wikipedia) Calatrava’s Ponte della Constituzione bridge is an elegant, springing gazelle over the entrance to the Grand Central. But the glass steps are slippery and are being replaced soon, and the City is suing Calatrava, oops. The barrier-free lift pod died soon after opening. It is lovely though.   Le Canal della Giudecca, la Punta della Dogana, la basilique Santa Maria della Salute de Venise et le Canal Grande à Venise (Italie). Photo via Wikipedia Tadao Ando’s Punte Della Dognana museum is large, with sublime, super-minimalist, steel and glass and velvety exposed concrete interventions, while his Palazzo Grassi Museum was more restoration. A little known fact is that Ando used Scarpa’s lovely woven basketweave metal gate design in homage. An important hidden gem is the Teatrino Grassi behind the Museum, a small but fabulous, spatially dramatic theatre that often has events, a must-see! Fondaco dei Tedeschi: At the foot of Rialto Bridge and renovated by Rem Koolhaas, this former German trading post had been transformed into a luxury shopping mall but closed last month, a financial failure. Graced with a stunning atrium and a not well know fabulous rooftop viewing terrace, its future is now uncertain. The atrium bar is by Phillipe Starck and is cool. Try it just in case. Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo via Wikipedia Procuratie Vecchie: This iconic 16th storey building is one of Piazza San Marco’s defining buildings, and David Chipperfield’s restoration and renovation of this building, which defines Piazza San Marco, is all about preservation with a few modern, minimalist interventions. It operates as a Biennale exhibit space. Infill housing on former industrial sites on Guidecca Island includes several interesting new developments called the Fregnans, IACP and Junghans sites (look for fine small apartments such as by Cino Zucchi that reinterpret traditional Venetian apartment language). A small site called Campo di Marte includes side-by-sides by Alvaro Siza (disappointing), Aldo Rossi and Carlo Aymonino (ho hum); some day there will be a Rafael Moneo on the empty lot.     View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Denton Corker Marshall (@dentoncorkermarshall) AT THE BIENNALE: At the Biennale grounds there is much to see, with the only recent project the Australia Pavilion by Denton Corker, a black granite box hovering along a canal. Famous buildings include the Nordic Pavilion (Sven Ferre), Venezuela Pavilion (Carlo Scarpa), Finland Pavilion (Alvar Aalto), former Ticket Booth (Carlo Scarpa), Giardino dell Sculture (Carlo Scarpa), Bookstore (James Stirling) and there are some fab modern interiors inside the old boat factory buildings. Canada’s Pavilion by the Milan firm BBPR (don’t ask why) from 1956 is awkward, weird and much loathed by artists and curators. Le pavillon des pays nordiques (Giardini, Venise). Photo via Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Just outside the Biennale on the Zattere waterfront is a stirring Monument to the Women Partisans of WWII, laid in the water by Augusto Maurer over a simple stepped-base designed by Scarpa. Venezia – Complesso monastico di San Giorgio Maggiore. Photo via Wikipedia,  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. BEYOND THE BIENNALE The Vatican Chapels: In 2018 the Vatican decided to participate in the Biennale for the first time for some reason and commissioned ten architects to design chapels that are located in a wooded area on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, behind Palladio’s church. The architects include Norman Foster, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Smiljan Radic, and includes The Asplund Pavilion, like the Woodland Chapel  that inspired it. It is intended as a “place of orientation, encounter, meditation, and salutation.” The 10 chapels each symbolize one of the Ten Commandments, and offer 10 unique interpretations of the original Woodland Chapel; many are open air. These are fab and make you think! Chiese San Giorgio Maggiore was designed by Palladio and is fine. But its bell tower offers magnificent city views and avoids the long lines, crowds and costs of Piazza San Marco’s Campanile. Next to San Giorgio you should tour the Cini Foundation, with an amazing stair by Longhera, the modern Monica Lunga Library (Michele De Lucchi) and a lovely Borges-inspired labyrinth garden. Behind San Giorgio en route to the Chapels is the Museo del Vetro (Glass Museum) and the fabulous Le Stanze della Fotografia (contemporary photography gallery) featuring a Mapplethorpe retrospective this year. (If you’re visiting this year, join me in Piazza San Marco on July 7, 2025, for his ex Patti Smith’s concert.) An unknown MUST DO is a concert in the stunning Auditorium Lo Squero (Cattaruzza Millosevich), with but 200 comfy seats in an adapted boat workshop with a stage wall of glass onto the lagoon and the Venitian cityscape. La Fenice Opera House in Venice, Italy. Image via: Wikipedia La Fenice Opera House: after burning down in 1996, Aldo Rossi supervised the rebuilding, more or less ‘as it was, as it is’, the Italian heritage cop-out. There is no Rossi to see here, but it is a lovely grand hall. Book a concert with private box seats. Venice Marco Polo Airport is definitely Aldo Rossi-inspired in its language, materials and colours. The ‘Gateway Terminal’ boat bus and taxi dock is a true grand gateway (see note about Gehry having designed an unbuilt option below). Venice Marco Polo airport. Photo via Wikipedia HIDDEN GEMS Fondazione Vendova by Renzo Piano features automated displays of huge paintings by a local abstract modernist moving about a wonderful huge open warehouse and around viewers. Bizarre and fascinating. Massimo Scolari was a colleague or Rossi’s and is a brilliant, Rationalist visionary and painter, renown to those of us devotees of the Scarpa/Rossi/Scolari cult in the 1980’s. His ‘Wings’ sculpture is a large scale artwork motif from his drawings now perched on the roof of the UIAV School of Architecture, and from the 1991 Biennale. Do yourself a favour, dear reader, look up his work. Krier, Duany and the New Urbanists took note. He reminds me of the 1920s Italian Futurists. You can tour all the fine old churches you want, but only one matters to me: Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a barrel-vaulted, marble and wood-roofed confection. San Nicolo dei Mendicoli is admittedly pretty fab, and featured in ‘Don’t Look Now’.  And the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello has an amazing mosaic floor, very unusual stone slab window shutters (and is near Locanda Cipriani for a wonderful garden lunch, where Hemingway sat and wrote). For the Scarpiani: There is a courtroom, the Manilo Capitolo, inside the Venice Civic Tribunale building in the Rialto Market that was renovated by Scarpa, and is amazing in its detail, including furniture and furnishings. You have to pass security to get in, and wait until court ends if on. It is worth it! The Aula Mario Baratto is a large classroom in a Palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal designed by Carlo Scarpa with amazing wood details and furniture. The room has stunning frescoes also. You can book a tour through Universite Ca’ Foscari. The view at a bend in the Grand Canal is stunning, and you can see the Fondazione Masieri (Scarpa renovation) building off to the left across the side canal (see Missed Opportunities). Within the Accademia Galleries and Correr Museum are a number of small renovations, stairs and art stands designed by Scarpa. Next to the Chiesa di San Sebastino decorated by Veronese is the Scarpa entrance to a linguistics library for the Universita Ca’ Foscari. Fondation W – Wilmotte & Associés: A French architect who is not shy and presumably rather wealthy runs his own exhibition space focused on architecture; ‘…it is both a laboratory and shop window…’,  so one of those. Worth a look. There is a recent Courthouse that is sleek, long, narrow, black and compelling on the north side of Piazzalle Roma, but I have not yet wandered in.   FOOD AND DRINKS FOR ARCHITECTS Philippe Starck’s lobby bar at the Palazzina Grassi hotel is the only cool, mod bar in town. Wow! Ask the barman to see the secret Krug Room and use the PG bar’s unique selfie washroom. I love this bar: old, new, electic. Also, Starck has a house on Burano, next to the pescheria (sorry, useless ephemera). He wants you to drop by. Restaurant Algiubagiò is the only cool, modern restaurant and it has fab food. It also has a great terrace over the water. Go! Zanze XVI is a nice clean mod interior and Michelin food. Worth it. Ristorante Lineadombra: A lovely, crisp modern interior and crisp modern Venetian food. A great terrace on the water also. Local Venice is a newer, clean, crisp resto with ‘interesting’ prices. Your call. Osteria Alla Bifora, while in a traditional workshop space, is a clean open loft, adorned modernly with a lovely array of industrial and historic relics. It is a lovely bar with charcuterie and a patio on the buzzy campo for students. Great for late night. Cicchetti are Venetian tapas, a standard lunch you must try. All’ Arco near Rialto has excellent nouveau food and 50m away is the lovely old school Do Mori. Osteria Al Squero in Dorsoduro overlooks one of the last working gondola workshops, and 100m away is the great Cantino del Vino già Schiavi. Basegò has creative, nouveau cichetti. Drinks on a patio along the Grand Canal can only be had economically at Taverna al Remer, or in Campo Erberia at Nanzaria, Bancogira, Al Pesador or Osteria Al Cichetteria. Avoid any place around Rialto Bridge except these. El Sbarlefo San Pantalon has a Scarpa vibe and a hip, young crowd. There is a Banksy 50’ away. Ristorante Venissa is a short bridge from Burano to Mazzorbo island, a Michelin-starred delight set in its own vineyard.   Since restaurant design cannot tie you up here, try some fab local joints: Trattoria Anzolo Raffaele : The owner’s wife is from Montreal, which is something. A favorite! Pietra Rossa: A fab, smart place with a hidden garden run by a hip, fun young restauranteur, Andrea. Ask for the Canadian architect discount. Oste Mauro Lorenzon : An entertaining wine and charcuterie bar run by the hip young restauranteur’s larger than life father, and nearby. Mauro is a true iconoclast. Only open evenings and I dare you to hang there late. Anice Stellato: A great family run spot, especially for fish. Excellent food always. La Colonna Ristorante: A nice, neighbourhood joint hidden in a small campo. Il Paradiso Perduto: A very lively joint with good food and, rarely in Venice, music. Buzzy and fun. Busa da Lele: Great neighbourhood joint on Murano in a lovely Campo. Trattoria Da Romano: Best local joint on Burano. Starck hangs here, as did Bourdain.   Cafes: Bacaro aea Pescaria is at the corner by Campo de la Becarie. Tiny, but run by lovely guys who cater to pescaria staff. Stand outside with a prosecco and watch the market street theatre. Extra points if you come by for a late night drink. Bar ai Artisti is my second fav café, in Campo S. Barnaba facing where Kate Hepburn splashed into the canal. Real, fab pastries, great terrace in Campo too. Café at Querini Stampalia: get a free visit to Scarpa’s garden and wander it with a coffee or prosecco. Make sure to see the bookstore also (and the Scarpa exhibition hall adjacent). Carlo Scarpa à la Fondation Querini Stampalia (Venise). Photo via Wikipedia, A lesser known place is the nice café in the Biennale Office next to Hotel Monaco, called Ombra del Leone. The café in the Galleria Internationale d’Arte Moderna Ca’ Pesaro is great with a terrace on the Grand Canal.   Cocktail bars: Retro Venezia: Cool, retro vibe. The owner’s wife dated a Canadian hockey player. You must know him. Il Mercante: A fabulous cocktail bar. Go. Time Social Bar:  Another cool cocktail bar. Vero Vino: A fab wine bar where you can sit along a canal. Many good restaurants nearby! Arts Bar Venice: If you must have a cocktail with a compelling story, and are ok with a $45 pricetag. Claims Scarpa design influence, I say no. But read the cocktail stories, they are smart and are named for artists including Scarpa. Bar Longhi in in the Gritti Hotel is a classic, although cheesey to me. Hemingway liked it. It has a Grand Canal terrace. The Hilton Stucky Hotel is a fabulous former flour factory from when they built plants to look like castles, but now has a bland, soulless Hilton interior like you are in Dayton. But it has a rooftop bar and terrace with amazing sunset views! While traditional, the stunning, ornate lobby, atrium and main stair of the Hotel Danieli are a must-see. Have a drink in the lobby bar by the piano player some evening.   STAYING MODERN Palazzina Grassi is the only modern hotel in Venice, with a really lovely, unique lobby/bar/restaurant all done by Philippe Starck. At least see the fab bar! Johnny Depp’s favourite. Generator Hostel: A hip new-age ‘design-focused’ hostel well worth a look. Not like any hostel I ever patronized, no kegs on the porch. Go visit the lobby for the design. A Euro chain. DD724 is a small boutique hotel by an Italian architect with thoughtful detailing and colours, near the Peggy Guggenheim Museum (the infamous Unfinished Palazzo), and they have a small remote outpost with fabulous apartment called iQS that is lovely. The owner’s brother is the architect. My fave! Avogaria: Not just a 5 room hotel, it is ‘a concept’, which is great, right?  But very cool. An architect is one of the owners. German minimalist architect Matteo Thun’s JW Mariott Venice Resort Hotel and Spa is an expensive convent renovation on its own lagoon island that shows how blandness is yawningly close to minimalism. The Hotel Bauer Palazzo has a really lovely mid-century modern section facing Campo San Moise, but it is shrouded in construction scaffolding for now.   SHOPPING MODERN FOR ARCHITECTS It is hard to find cool modern shopping options, but here is where you can: Libreria Acqua Alta: Used books and a lovely, unexpected, fab, alt experience. You must see and wander this experience! It has cats too. Giovanna Zanella: Shoes that are absolute works of art! At least look in her window. Bancolotto N10: Stunning women’s clothing made in the women’ prison as a job skill training program. Impeccable clothes; save a moll from a life of crime. Designs188: Giorgio Nason makes fabulous glass jewellery around the corner from the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Davide Penso: Artisan made glass jewellery on Murano. Ferrovetro Murano: Artisan made jewellery, bags, scarfs. (on Murano). Madera: All the cool designer housewares and jewellery. DECLARE: Cool, modern leathergoods in a very sweet modern shop with exquisite metal detailing. A must see! Ottica Urbani: Cool Italian eyewear and sunglasses. Paperowl: Handmade paper, products, classes. Feeling Venice: Cool design and tourist bling can be found only here. No shot glasses.   MISSED OPPORTUNITIES, MEMORIES AND B-SIDES The Masieri Foundation: Look up the tragic story of this project, a lovely, small memorial to a young architect who died in a car accident on his honeymoon en route to visit Fallingwater in 1952. Yep. His widow commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a small student residence and study centre, but it was stopped by anti-American and anti-Modernism sentiments. (Models and renderings are on-line). This may be Venice’s saddest architectural loss ever. The consolation prize is a very, very lovely Scarpa interior reno. Try to get in, ring the bell (it is used as offices by the university)! (Read Troy M. Ainsworth’s thesis on the Masieri project history). Also cancelled: Lou Kahn’s Palace of Congress set for the Arsenale, Corbusier’s New Venice Hospital which would have been sitting over the Lagoon in Cannaregio near the rail viaduct, Gehry’s Venice Gateway (the airport’s ferry/water taxi dock area). Also lost was Rossi’s temporary Teatro del Mondo, a barged small theatre that tooted around Venice and was featured in a similar installation in 1988 at the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. All available on-line. Teatro del Mondo di Aldo Rossi, Venezia 1980. Photo via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 Itches to scratch: Exercise your design skills to finish the perennial favorite ‘Unfinished Palazzo’ of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, design a new Masieri Foundation, design the 11th Vatican Chapel or infill the derelict gasometer site next to Palladio’s Chiese San Francisco della Vigna.   FURTHER AFIELD Within an hour’s drive, you can see the simply amazing Tombe Brion in San Vito Altivole and the tiny, stunning Giptotecha Canova in Possagna (both by Scarpa), the Nardini Grappa Distillery in Bassano del Grappa by Maximillio Fuksas, and a ferry and taxi will get you to Richard Meier’s Jesolo Lido Condos on the beach. A longer drive of two hours into the mountains near Cortina will bring you to Scarpa’s lovely and little known Nostra Signore di Cadora Church. It is sublime! Check out the floor! Zaha Hadid’s stunning Messner Mountain Museum floats above Cortina, accessible by cable car. The recent M-09 Museum on mainland Mestre, a quick 10 minute train ride from Venice, by Sauerbruch + Hutton is a lovely urban museum with dynamic cladding. Castelvecchio Museum. Photo via Wikipedia The Veneto region is home to many cool things, and fab train service gets you quickly to Verona (Scarpa’s Castelvecchio Museum and Banco Populare), Vicenza (Palladio’s Villa Rotonda and Basillicata). There are Palladio villas scattered about the Veneto, and you can daytrip by canal boat from Venice to them. Go stand where Hemingway was wounded in WWI near Fossalta Di Piave (there is a plaque), which led to his famous novel, ‘A Farewell to Arms’. He never got to visit Venice until 1948, then fell in love with the city, leading to ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. He also threatened to burn down FLW’s Masieri Foundation if built (and they both came from Oak Park, Illinois. So not very neighborly).   OTHER GOOD ARCHITECTURAL REFERENCES Venice Modern Architecture Map The only guidebook to Modern Architecture in Venice   These architectural guide folks do tours geared to architects: Architecture Tour Venice – Guiding Architects Venice Architecture City Guide: 15 Historical and Contemporary Attractions to Discover in Italy’s City of Canals | ArchDaily Venice architecture, what to see: buildings by Scarpa, Chipperfield and other great architects The post An Architect’s Guide to Venice and its Modern Architecture    appeared first on Canadian Architect.

There’s something uniquely satisfying about putting down roots in a sleepy town in games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or Disney Dreamlight Valley. Palia evolves this tradition to great effect, injecting large-scale multiplayer into that tried-and-true formula. After more than 70 hours of chopping down trees, hunting woodland critters, decorating my home, and hanging out with my fellow Palians, I’ve had a fantastic time catching up on all I’ve missed since the early days of the beta. There are beautiful regions to explore, interesting items and artifacts to craft or collect, and lots of compelling quests to complete – and the new content in the Elderwood expansion that arrived alongside its console launch added quite a bit to what was already a life-consuming vortex of coziness. That said, Palia still feels quite unfinished in some ways, with a story that abruptly cuts off right in the middle and some pretty serious bugs and performance issues plaguing it, but it’s easy to forgive much of that when you and your friends are enjoying a quiet evening of fishing together.Palia is a cozy life sim with one major tweak: you’re in an online world that occasionally compels you to come out of your shell and interact with other humans – a sometimes Herculean task for the introverts often drawn to this genre. As you explore, you’ll encounter others out in the shared world going about their business, and are encouraged (or sometimes required) to cooperate with them. For example, you’ll get a buff for fishing with others and will find magical trees that can only be chopped down with the help of one or more friends. This has led to a community that’s astoundingly positive and helpful, with the vast majority of the public chat being PSAs from players who have found a valuable resource they’d like to share with strangers, then waiting for minutes on end for everyone to assemble before collecting it as a group. I spend a lot of time playing multiplayer games defined by the community’s potent toxicity and savage greed, so this kind of culture was truly a shock to my system that took me a long time to adjust to.PlayAlthough multiplayer is its signature twist, you can still do the vast majority of Palia’s activities by yourself. There’s also just a whole heck of a lot for you to do however you decide to tackle it, all in service of building up your home and improving your relationships with the NPC townsfolk. The usual zen-like staples of cooking and catching bugs are all here and actually quite good – the fishing minigame, for example, is less mindless than you usually find in the genre, having you tug and pull on your rod as the fish leaps into the air and puts up a fight. There’s even a few less common options like hunting, where you’ll pick off poor critters who burrow into the ground and leap into trees as you pepper them with arrows. While an absence of stress is an intentional focus of Palia’s design, it sometimes tries a bit too hard to accomplish that goal, like in how your arrows will magically home in on your target incredibly aggressively, sometimes turning corners to aid your aim. I’m all for a laid back experience, but it can be a bit obnoxious when you’re trying to line up a shot and the magnetism training wheels curve your arrow toward a different creature altogether, frustrating what’s supposed to be a chill activity.Palia has a surprisingly full-featured main story as well. It has you exploring ancient ruins to uncover the truth about a world which was once populated by humans who are curiously gone now, and the dark history of magic that seemingly caused the collapse of society. This adventure is much more light-hearted than that might sound, though, and you’re mostly just given opportunities to learn about the world and hang out with the characters who accompany you on quests while you platform around and solve simple puzzles. Per Palia’s adherence to cozy virtues, none of this is particularly demanding, and the mainline quests can be completed in a matter of hours if you focus on them, but I enjoyed diving just a tad deeper into the world and the break from grinding for iron ore to craft the next piece of furniture I just couldn’t live without.The usual staples of cooking and fishing are all here, and quite good.“That said, while I quite enjoy the tale Palia tells, it feels disappointingly incomplete compared to every other aspect of the adventure – even after the Elderwood expansion arrived. The original cliffhanger ending was replaced by yet another hanging chad just an hour or two later, with a handful of chores and a brief new major dungeon spread across a surprisingly short bit of story. You’re telling me I’ve got this massive new map to explore, new creatures to hunt, and new characters to romance, but we still haven’t finished even one arc in the main plot.Thankfully, there are plenty of distractions and minigames to mix things up, like a hotpot-themed card game I spent way too much time playing, or a surprisingly intricate platforming puzzle that took me hours to master. Sometimes these experiments exceed Palia’s grasp, like the platforming sections in particular, which are held back by clunky controls that don’t seem like they were designed with precision in mind – climbing can be quite an irritating experience as your character will let go of surfaces inconsistently, sending you plummeting to your death. But the stakes in taking these spills are always very low, so there’s not much to lose aside from a bit of your time wasted. Other times, you’ll find yourself doing a sliding picture puzzle and think “y’know, this is pretty nice,” so I mostly found myself happy they took these shots nonetheless.TieGuyTravis' Favorite Cozy GamesIf you're looking for a game that pairs well with a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea, look no further than these TieGuyTravis-approved recommendations.See AllOf course, the purpose behind all these undertakings is to gain as much gold as you can to upgrade and decorate your home, and Palia’s got one of the better home building systems I’ve seen. Rather than giving you no control over the blueprint of your house like in Animal Crossing or Disney Dreamlight Valley, or making you monkey around with a building mode that has you placing individual walls like The Sims, Palia favors a modular system: You unlock schematics for pieces of a home that you can freely snap onto various parts of your building, making it easy to design the general layout without having to get lost in the weeds. Then, once you’ve built your place, you can decorate it down to the most minute detail, dragging furniture, dolls, and cups around on a grid to make it just so. I could probably spend dozens of hours on this part of Palia alone, were it not for my insatiable need for cold hard cash to fund my homestead expansion. But that desire to make your place exactly as awesome as you want it to be is a serious motivator that sent me out in search of lumber and iron ore time and time again.Those resource grinds each have their own progression systems as well, as you level up by repeatedly going out into the world and bringing back your haul of raw materials and collectibles to sell. As you plant trees and craft furniture, you’ll unlock new equipment like a loom for creating fabric or a furnace for creating glass. You’ll also get better tools to perform cozy chores with, like a hoe that lets you till land faster or a bow and arrows that will let you take down prey in fewer shots, each of which feels like a handy upgrade that shows up at exactly the right moment you start feeling a need for it. The timegating that sometimes boxes you out of marathoning through everything in other life sims is mercifully absent here for the most part, so you can move as fast or as slow as you care to.Palia has one of the better home building systems I’ve seen. “The other major pursuit in Palia is in getting to know and develop relationships with its 26 NPC residents, most of whom are really well-written and have a lot more to them than meets the eye. Most have an arc that takes place over several quests where they let you see a bit more of their personality as you forge a friendship. I quite enjoyed hanging out with the sarcastic and moody daughter of the mayor, Kenyatta, who worked the front desk with all the enthusiasm of April from Parks and Recreation – but after helping her down the extremely chaotic path of discovering what she’s passionate about in life, I grew to appreciate her in a less superficial way. Even characters I really didn't jive with like Elouisa, a cryptid-obsessed hippy who annoyed me to no end, was at least entertainingly irritating, and I’ve learned to appreciate how much her personality bothers me over time. (We’ve all got a friend like that, don’t we?) And, of course, if you’re looking for more than friendship you can partake in Palia’s quite strong dating mechanics to get yourself a girlfriend or boyfriend, or several of them – no judging here.Unfortunately, this is one area where timegating gets in the way of a good time, and is one of the only places Palia boxes you out. You’re only allowed to chat with each character once per in-game day (a 30-minute period of real time), which improves your social links a very small amount, and you can only give each character a gift once per real world day. So if you’re trying to finish a particular character’s story, you’ll have to log on with regularity and be subjected to the same rotation of brief banter before you’re able to make any real progress. This is especially painful early on when your citizenship in Kilima Village is dependent on having someone in town to vouch for you – a task that’s made impossible to do in a short span by timegating. When every other area of Palia lets you play to your heart’s content, it’s pretty annoying to see such an essential part of this slice of life block you from progressing at your own pace.The Elderwood ExpansionThe Elderwood expansion is the most recent addition to Palia, and the biggest content update since its 2023 debut by far. It adds a substantial map with several small regions to explore and interesting new enemies to hunt (like really good frog-like creatures that spit reptilian phlegm at you), and some neat gadgets and quality of life improvements to enjoy. The Elderwood region is filled with color and weird creatures, which are quite unlike the two base maps, injecting some much needed variety into the world. Some of the additions, like relics that make tracking down materials easier and new resource nodes like palium and platinum, are fantastic things to pursue if you’re like me and have already accumulated hundreds of copper and iron. There’s even a new NPC to meet, Ulfe, a wild child who has a very different vibe than the rest of the cast so far, and who I enjoyed having a series of communication breakdowns with. Elderwood certainly doesn’t rock the boat in any major way, but it’s a nice, and overdue supplement that simply offers more of the Palia I already know and love.Palia has come a long way since I first played it over a year ago, but one thing that remained true after this latest update is that it’s still missing quite a bit. Even with the beefy new Elderwood map joining the original two, the number of areas to explore is fairly small, and though they’ve got nooks and crannies for you to discover, you can more-or-less see most of what’s available in a few hours. Social features, though awesome when they happen, still feel quite slim for a game where the killer feature is supposed to be its online functionality, and there aren’t enough activities that encourage group play. And although there are quite a few options for decorating your house, surprisingly little of it can be interacted with once placed. You can’t lie in bed, turn on the sink, or really do much of anything with most objects, which sometimes made me feel like I was building a museum rather than a home. (They did add the ability to flick the light switches on and off, which is at least something.) Elderwood isn’t planned to be the final update or anything, so these are shortcomings that will hopefully be built out in the future, but I’m a bit surprised that some of them aren’t farther along all the same.The other major issue with Palia has been its bugs and performance issues, which have gotten remarkably better but are still pretty common. I quite frequently see NPCs sink into the floor, sometimes altogether hidden underground to the point where I can’t interact with them, there’s a bunch of very visible pop-in that happens while you’re running around, and loading times when traveling between each section of the map feel far longer than they should. Playing on the Nintendo Switch is especially eyebrow raising, as everything looks pretty awful and runs significantly worse, to the point where I really can’t recommend it on that platform in the same way I enthusiastically would elsewhere.

Image: Austin VoigtAt PAX East, we had a chance to sit down with the lively Nico Papalia and Top Hat Studios - developer of Athenian Rhapsody, and its newly-announced prequel, Tales of Tuscany (releasing on “whatever you play games on,” including Switch, in 2026). We wanted to learn a bit more about what inspired such a mad-cap universe, and where the WarioWare / EarthBound / Pokémon-esque ideas all stemmed from. While it was a bit of a challenge to talk over the raucous laughter coming from the crowd gathered at the demo booth, we managed to get an inside glimpse at Papalia's surprising backstory and his work on both games.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube813kWatch on YouTube Here is our interview with Nico, which was just as entertaining and zany as the universe these games are based in... Nintendo Life: So, let's start from the top — what was the inspiration behind the universe of Tales of Tuscany and Athenian Rhapsody? There seem to be some Earthbound vibes in there... Nico Papalia: Honestly, I didn't even play Earthbound until AFTER I started Athenian Rhapsody - fun fact! I bit into it and was like, 'I feel like this meshes with me,' and I felt like it looked like what I was making. Definitely inspired by Pokémon on Game Boy Advance, played a lot of that. I also played a lot of Castle Crashers - The Behemoth are my friends, so I talked to them a lot, and we're actually discussing working on something together too — very slapstick-y, you know — but they're so tight about their IPs, so... we're still talking. I had big ideas - but I never knew programming, I went to school for art, I was doing traditional pencil art and stuff - I didn't know what I was doing. So it built over time, and I'm very fortunate and lucky that I was able to share this at the scale that I did, and turn it into my job. It's very personal. "Slapstick-y" is definitely the right word for these games, they're hilarious. Yeah, it doesn't take itself too seriously, so the inspiration for the world is just basically my life, my friends, and what I think is funny at the moment. I'll just throw funny things in there as I think of them - and the players seem to love it. I'm a solo dev, so I can kind of have the final say and just do whatever I want. It's fun. In the first game, I took some risks and had this 'invisible grilled cheese' in the map, like an item, and I thought nobody was going to find it - but someone found it within eight hours of launch! I crashed out on social, I bugged out. Will there be any secrets or easter eggs to find in Tales of Tuscany? There aren't too many secrets yet - I'm still developing it, and I just finished the main story, so now I have to do the 'evil' story, and I'll kind of just throw some extra stuff in there before it releases, probably around spring 2026. Tell us a little more about how the two games differ. You know, making Athenian Rhapsody was kind of slow. I started with GameMaker, and it just kind of snowballed. So I honestly didn't really know what I was doing, going into the first game. It was in 4:3 ratio, like Game Boy Advance - because I'm a big GBA guy. So at first I was like, "Yeah, this is awesome!" Then, you know, it comes to porting it and I'm like... "Oh no." So, Tales of Tuscany is in the RIGHT resolution. It's also got more control customisations, quality-of-life stuff like that. Round 2: bigger, better, stronger. I like to say, Athenian Rhapsody is like Pokémon Emerald, and Tales of Tuscany is more like Pokémon Black & White - based on the battles and stuff, with the camera movement, sprite work, stuff like that. So you're clearly a big Pokémon fan too! What are some of the different games you played growing up? I played a lot of Game Boy Advance games - Madagascar, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Minish Cap, and things like that. My grandma would just go buy them for me. Or I played Crash Bandicoot on the PS2, and I would just stay in the starting area and mess with stuff - I never progressed in the game, and that was actually probably what I do with most of these games. I never progressed; I just did things. And I guess it all kind of just formed that inspiration for me. Image: Top Hat Studios Interesting - so are you a bit of a completionist then? Because this game — with all of the different choices and storylines — seems a bit overwhelming for a completionist, like you could never *actually* complete it entirely. You know what, when I was a teenager, I was more of a completionist; I would 100% complete Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze and stuff like that. But a lot of times, I was just kind of a stupid guy who didn't know what I was doing. I couldn't advance through the plots, I never got Rayquaza [in Pokémon Emerald] - so I would just go and do random things. And now, I'm actually kind of the opposite of that. So making Athenian Rhapsody and Tales of Tuscany, I want a kid to be able to just go around and have fun. The games seem to be designed almost like a constant dopamine hit. Players are allowed to just be mischievous and do whatever they want. And there's probably no way you could experience every single choice available to you in the games. That's exactly it! That's kind of what me and my friends like. You kind of have to get in there a few times, and the way it worked out, some players like that, and some don't. Some people are that objective, numeric, "I'm done, check the box" thing - but with these games, the experience is always going to be different, depending on who you have in your party and the choices you make. Another thing is that, it doesn't feel 'perfect', and a lot of people like that. Did you always intend for the game to be a 'choose-your-own-adventure' style like that? Yeah, I always intended for it to be like that, but I didn't exactly know how to do it at first. I couldn't figure it out. So, Athenian Rhapsody was not programmed very well... Tales of Tuscany is programmed much better, I was able to pull it off better. But I just had to start small and build off of it, because I had big ideas - but I never knew programming, I went to school for art, I was doing traditional pencil art and stuff, I didn't know what I was doing. So it built over time, and I'm very fortunate and lucky that I was able to share this at the scale that I did, and turn it into my job. It's very personal. Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube813k As someone who studied art and went to school for it, did that help with the development of the game itself - at least, the art aspect of it? That's actually a sick question - it must have! I went to SUNY Oneonta, awesome school, I had a lot of great teachers. I was all into anatomy — transformational anatomy — and it took me kind of a while to figure it out, using space and character design. So when I started Athenian Rhapsody, my pixel art was very poor - I didn't have these fully-saturated colours yet, I didn't figure that out yet. My sprites, I was doing the pillow shading... so it took me a while to get it. There's some kind of interlink, but that skill definitely wasn't immediate; I had to learn to access that part of my brain, learning the basics of pixel art. Even in Athenian Rhapsody, when you play it, you'll see there are 10 things going on in one room; that's because I didn't know what I was doing with the space! That honestly led to this feeling of extremely hyper pace, things around every corner... But it works! The absurdism is what makes it all so endearing. Part of it sounds like it was accidental, trial-and-error, but that actually became a really cool thing. Exactly! And I was just doing what I wanted to do. I got lucky that people liked it. Some people think it's a little too much, but I've also heard from a lot of players who really like it, saying they love the story. Another publication, the reviewer said he thought the story "changed vibes too much," and that's where he wrote me off for points. But I've got other people — especially younger kids, but a lot of adults, too — saying they love that about the story! And I personally think it's very needed. A lot of times in this industry, people can take themselves a little too seriously, and I appreciate that you're just doing what you wanna do. It seems like people are drawn to that. Yeah, I try and get very personal and show myself as I am. That's how I built this, doing tutorials online and building a following just being myself. I just took my phone and filmed my screen showing "Today I did this," and I was just being real. But I'm lucky, I still just get to do whatever I want. Like for Tales of Tuscany, the team thought it was a little bit of a risk, making the main character a sheep... Lambypoo - it reminds me of my dog's toy, Lambchop! Oh my god, YES! That's exactly it! I have a hundred of those laying around my house, ripped up! That's where it came from, I'm so glad you said that! So I was just like... yo, what if I had a button, where the lamb just started "baaa"-ing? And that's where the idea for the 'Baa' button came from. You know, it doesn't always have to be this "Hold X, charge your sword..." - you can just have fun with it. So the 'Baa' turned into an interaction tool - you can break plants and cars and stuff, because people just wanna do fun stuff, like the dopamine hits we talked about earlier. So I'm trying to hone in on that. Images: Top Hat Studios I'm still shocked you hadn't played the Earthbound / Mother games prior to starting your first game. It feels like such a spiritual successor to those games. Right? And when it comes to the flavour text in those games, like the options are: "Yeah", or "I'm lactose intolerant" - that's exactly how I write, too. It almost unlocked something, when I saw that. I was like, 'Okay, so this is okay what I'm doing, this irreverence.' I watched a documentary on Earthbound, and the director was saying he had a very intuitive approach - he didn't plan it all out, he just did it block-by-block, and that's exactly what I do, too. So I guess it's that same brain type, maybe? And I had friends from my school who were trying to tell me: "Yeah, you have to block the whole game out" and all of this stuff, and I was like: "Dude, but I'm changing it every day?". So there are a lot of differences between the two games and how much I planned out Tales of Tuscany, but they're the same spirit. Speaking of Earthbound, I've heard you refer to your games as "JRPGs" a few times - what does that label mean to you specifically? Honestly, I've been saying "JRPG" lately just because I think of a long-narrative-based game, and "RPG" is too broad. But I don't know... I also call it an "IRPG" sometimes — "Italian RPG" — because I'm Italian, and Italians do like long conversations. For someone who's never heard of either of your games, what's the one thing you would say to get them to take a look at this series? Out of all of the RPGs and JRPGs out there, there are a lot, and a good one that really makes it to the finish line is hard to find. This game has a lot of love in it, there's something to love in it for everybody, that's a big part of how I made the game. I loved Game Freak's early philosophy of trying to strike a balance between 'cute' and 'cool', and how everyone has a favourite pokémon. And with Athenian Rhapsody, I tried to make one follower that everyone could love. It's the game that conforms to what you like, and everyone will get something out of it. The 'rhapsodies' are like Gen 1 trading; I wanted everyone to get something out of it. In Pokémon, you can port your Pokémon across all of the consoles, and that's kind of what I was trying to do. We'll see how that works! So, the 'munchkins' are making a comeback, too, only this time, the weasels are watching you and ruining everything. This new feature seems pretty cruel, and I'm wondering what happened to you as a child that made you want to torture people? HA! So, in the first game, I had a debug option in the 'pause' menu — just a placeholder — and it was called 'munchkins', and all these stupid things. And I was like, eff it, I'm gonna make 'munchkins' a real thing. So basically, you have to wait, like, 8-10 hours to download them, and you have a 50% chance of failing... and if it works, it's just a picture of some art of mine that says like, "Congratulations" - but I didn't realize everyone was going crazy over that! So with Tales of Tuscany, I thought 'Okay, I won't have a random 50% chance of failing at the end... but there WILL be weasels... and the weasels come and slowly go across the screen, and when they tell you, you have to press an input, otherwise they'll corrupt the munchkin.' I thought, 'I can't just do the same thing again', so I changed it up a little bit. Nobody else is doing munchkins! Nobody else is doing something to the player where they're like, 'No, you do it the way I want you to do it, or else you fail, and I'm not making it easier because you're complaining.' @athenianrhapsody Revolutionary new gameplay mechanic. Wishlist Tales of Tuscany on Steam #pixelart #indiegames #undertale #deltarune #earthbound #nintendo #athenianrhapsody #pokemon #indiegame #gaming #jrpg #omori #yumenikki #fearandhunger #lisathepainful #chainedechoes #talesoftuscany #warioware ♬ original sound - Athenian Rhapsody You're just going to make the game you want to make, and purposely live outside of the box. Was there anything too crazy in Tales of Tuscany that ended up getting vetoed yet? Yeah, there are a few things my publishers tell me I have to edit... I know more how to skirt the line now, but there were a few parts that might have to change. There's this character from Athenian Rhapsody called Uncle Billiard, and he's in this one again because he's a great character - and he has this hot dog place, but they all call the hot dogs 'wieners'... and there's this one character who's like, "Oh yeah, my double wiener sandwich..." and looking back on it, I'm like, "I can't just be throwing 'wiener' around like that." Or like, I wanted to have an enemy with a plumber's crack, and a mechanic where you have to throw things in it. And I actually vetoed that for Athenian Rhapsody, because it was kind of disgusting. ...Ask forgiveness, not permission? Yep, that's my motto! Image: Top Hat Studios Do you have plans to add any more to this universe, or do you think you'll go in a totally different direction? Honestly, I think this IP was a good one, it's strong. I did specifically want to do three RPGs. Why three, because of Earthbound? Oh, I didn't even think about that! I just thought it would be a nice number. You should do three, and just never release the final one here. HA, yeah, I'll just say there's a third! You know, I did originally want to do three, but making this game, I'm nearing the end of the creative development, and I kind of want to take a break from RPGs for a bit. We're doing the mobile game, too - it's called Goobie Garden, and Thunder Goober is in it, he obviously hit something, so even if I do decide to take a break with the IP, I'll always come back to it. But I think for my next console game, I'd like to do something a little more simple, mechanic-based... maybe a battler? I'd like to do a roguelike game. Not sure yet though! This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Thank you, Nico Papalia (@AthenianRhapso1 on X) and the team at Top Hat Studios, for taking the time to answer our questions. Tales of Tuscany will be coming to PC and consoles in 2026. Will you be playing Tales of Tuscany when it releases? Did you play Athenian Rhapsody? Let us know in the comments below. Plenty of new Switch (2) offerings See Also Share:0 2 Austin started gaming at 2 years old and has been addicted ever since. Her Zelda, Mario, Pokémon & Animal Crossing obsessions freak people out. She habitually carries a mini projector around to play her Switch in console mode in weird places. Her favorite gaming snack is pizza rolls, because greasy controllers are her bugaboo. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles Nintendo Unveils Diddy Kong's Brand New Design Cap's off The First Review For Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Is In A fantasy score? 12 Switch Games Are Getting Free Switch 2 Upgrades, Here's What You Can Expect Nintendo's free updates arrive next month Review: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (Switch) - A Cracking Collection Of Top-Class Arcade Fighters A Dream(cast) collection