Palworld: It didn’t steal from Pokemon!

Palworld is a tiny indie game from a Japanese indie developer that has taken the world by storm, selling millions in less than a week. Why? Because it looked like Pokemon with guns. And that is the center of this editorial, the debate over whether Palworld stole from Pokemon, because let’s be honest, some of the designs are similar. But if Nintendo was going to sue, they’d have sued them into oblivion before the game was released. They did with the Pokemon mod in hours. Meanwhile it took them damn near close to a month to take down straight porn on the E-Shop, but I digress. Regardless, if publishers were going sue every time a game ripped off another or used AI, half the E-shop would get taken down. This including most of Midnight Works and crappy hentai games .I mean a game called Jigsaw Ice Princess rips off Frozen, but that’s still up.

But that did not stop people crawling out of the woodwork to tell me how playing Palworld was evil. It was as if I was literally taking food out of a Pokemon designer’s mouths. Over and over I’ve seen people try to equate Palworld with theft. Except, similarities aside, there is absolutely no evidence anything was outright stolen. Evidence to the contrary was tossed aside and people held to their beliefs, not unlike console warriors. It honestly was kind of odd, as if one of the largest franchises on Earth needs any defending. In fact, quite the opposite, I stopped playing Pokemon years ago because its the same game every time and got boring. Game Freak needs to innovate. and if this game forces them too, the better.

A short Palworld review!

So what is Palworld? Palworld is a survival game not unlike Ark, Conan: Exiles and the like. You run around, capture pals, and enslave them to fight or slave away on your bases. You need to eat, craft, deal with temperatures and placate your slaves with food in slop buckets. Many pals have items you can craft, like riding harnesses, and weapons they can use. And yes, there are guns. Interestingly, most of you leveling XP comes from capturing Pals, the game will give you xp bonuses for capturing up to ten of the same pal. The game play loop of catching Pals is fun and addicting.

If Palworld stole from anyone, its Breath of The Wild. The use of sound and the font are direct implants. Even the world in itself bears a lot of resemblance in subtle and not-so-subtle ways(Get to the Sea Breeze Archipelago Church to see what I mean). But its fine. The game overall is derivative as hell, but its just plain fun. This Eurogamer Journalist is on crack. He claims that it’s rubbish, but it seems it played it for 10 minutes and went to write the review.

Instead, the thrill in Palworld – and admittedly I’m yet to get too far, or set anything elaborate going – seems to come from the bottomless font of engagement that is false progression.

He admits he didn’t get very far. SHAME ON YOU!

I plan to keep playing Palworld for a long time, and keep coming back every few updates to see what’s new. A few quality of life issues aside, the game is solid, and its easy to see why its so popular. It good and the kind of game Pokemon should be more like. The formula is old, its time for a refresh.

Conclusion

Palworld has drawn a lot of controversy in a short amount of time. But those who are railing against it by and large haven’t played it The theft charge should be leveled with them stealing from a completely different game other than Pokemon. In the end, the controversy will disappear and the game will get better over time and you really can’t ask for anything else. Good job developers!