Summary

• Journal entries in Palworld reveal a compelling backstory for the game's first major bosses.
• Knowing the Palworld lore adds context to the game and fleshes out the world.
• This boss is not actually evil, with her ideals aligning with the Free Pal Alliance.

Although Palworld isn't exactly known for lore or story, people can find interesting journal entries hidden around the Palpagos Islands. These entries add additional context about a visitor from the past and key characters and NPCs in the game. As it turns out, the game's first major bosses, Zoe & Grizzbolt, have a compelling story hidden within the entries. While most will probably dismiss Zoe Rayne as just the first Palworld boss battle, they'd miss out on a sad story that includes family abandonment, imprisonment, and an existential crisis.

Though most people in Palworld will be more concentrated on collecting the best Pals in Palworld or figuring out how to construct better, more complex production lines, knowing more about the Palworld lore gives better context and fleshes out the world around them. Unlike other titles that include lore within cutscenes, Palworld takes the soulslike approach and hides this lore in Journal entries one must intentionally find and read. Though it's certainly not at the center of gameplay for most, the story in Palworld is surprisingly interesting nonetheless.

Zoe Rayne's Palworld Journal Entries Reveal Her Story

Journal Entries Can Be Found Across The Islands

In the first Zoe Rayne's Diary - 1, Zoe explains that she is completely alone, never seeing her mother, and is a victim of abandonment by her father. Though by the time the protagonist meets Zoe, she's the powerful leader of the Rayne Syndicate, her origin story is much darker.

Raised by thugs from the syndicate, Zoe was the daughter of the organization's boss, but no one really cared about her until Grizzbolt came into the picture. According to Zoe Rayne's Diary - 2, Grizzbolt was initially a captured Pal that the syndicate planned to sell. Relating to the lonely electric beast, Zoe hatched a plan to free it from its cage.

After bonding with the giant electric Pal, she was caught by of the Rayne Syndicate and thrown into a cage with Grizzbolt. After busting free from the metal bars of the cage, Grizzbolt shocked the thugs, thus establishing Zoe and Grizzbolt as the true leaders of the syndicate.

Zoe Rayne Is Conflicted About Her Role

At Her Core, She Loves Grizzbolt

Though Zoe & Grizzbolt stand as the game's first major challenge, capping off the tutorial portion of the game, the narrative behind her motivations shifts the perspective of her defeat. In Zoe Rayne's Diary - 3, she touches on the conflict with the Free Pal Alliance. She its that she doesn't exactly know why they are fighting, just that they've been fighting for a long time. Later, she explains that she ires their love for Pals and says, "I bet they're not bad people if they love Pals that much," but goes on to say that it's "complicated" and years of tensions make a peace agreement seemingly untenable.

This could be viewed as an allegory of actual tensions between nations or cultures that have persisted for hundreds or even thousands of years. Lines could even be drawn between gang violence and the conflict between the Free Pal Alliance and the Rayne Syndicate. Sadly, the new generation born into these conflicts often doesn't understand why tensions even started in the first place, fulfilling a role in a war they don't even want to be a part of.

Zoe Rayne Questions Her Own Existence

Internal Reflection For Palworld NPCs

Later, in Zoe Rayne's Diary entries 4 and 5, Zoe continues to question her own existence and potential life outside of Palpagos Islands. She's aware there is a land outside of the conflicted territory she grew up in and wonders what the giant Tree of Life is off the coast of the islands — a destination for the previous traveler in the lore. She yearns for something different but ultimately relents to her own history and habits.

She wonders why she even protects the Rayne Syndicate Tower to begin with, with no understanding of her role or why she even fulfills it other than to protect an unknown power. This break from the game's main story is an especially interesting one; as often as players, people don't really think about why they are doing something in a game outside of it being the game's objective. In this case, Zoe is also aware of this but continues to do it for no better reason than some inherent internal drive.

Defeating Zoe & Grizzbolt No Longer Feels As Satisfying

Zoe Rayne Isn't Actually Evil

One interesting revelation upon learning about Zoe's backstory is that one realizes that she isn't actually evil. Raised around a group of unscrupulous murderous thugs and destined to run the Rayne Syndicate due to her surname, it seems like guarding Rayne Syndicate Tower isn't even something Zoe would do if she wasn't essentially forced into the role. More a victim of circumstance rather than an evil-hearted person, Zoe is put in a new light by this revelation.

According to the diary entries, it seems like Zoe would be just as happy as a solo Palworld Tamer, exploring the world and its mysteries. Even more compelling is the fact that her ideals align with the Free Pal Alliance, and if circumstances were different, she could realistically that organization to save and free Pals instead of standing as the game's first intimidating boss. This puts an entirely different context on using Palworld glitches to easily level up on her, and makes the capture glitch on Zoe & Grizzbolt especially distasteful when you consider past traumas of her being caged.

Though it's sad that one must defeat her upon knowing this to advance through the game regardless, reading her journal entries certainly puts a new spin on her role in the universe. Though it wouldn't seem like it at first glance, Palworld has a pretty interesting lore beyond Zoe & Grizzbolt, exploring what the Pals are and how they came to be on the island, making finding the Journal entries strewn across the map something worth spending some time on.