Palworld makes an impressive start. But Pokémon fans are angry. They see blatant copies of their beloved pocket monsters.
The concept behind Palworld has a strong appeal at first glance. Similar to genre representatives like Pokémon or Digimon, you can collect numerous peculiar creatures called Pals. However, they are not just your friends and companions in battle – there are also firearms, the enslavement of the creatures, and base building.
In short: A lot of ideas come together that make you at least curious and make you want to take a look.
However, a group of fans is now speaking out loudly, calling Palworld a blatant copy. They claim that some of the Pals have simply been taken from Pokémon.
What is the criticism of Palworld? Even though the basic principle of “monster collecting” has been adopted by many games, fans are particularly concerned about the similarity of many Pals to well-known Pokémon. The accusation here is that the creators of Palworld have used the most popular designs and incorporated them into their own game with minimal changes.
Is there evidence for this? Several users on social media are sharing their concerns and comparing the designs of the Pals to Pokémon, such as AutomnRaptor1 on X (formerly Twitter), who compares a whole series of creatures. Sometimes the entire design is said to have been taken over, other times mainly the color palette and the basic idea. A certain similarity is at least hard to deny, but see for yourself:
The post has sparked a number of additional comments where more users compare the Pals with Pokémon and point out further parallels in design.
Is Palworld harmful? Currently, the criticism of Palworld seems to be largely fading. Since the launch of early access on Steam, the game has been doing quite well. At the current time (January 19, 2024, 12:30 PM), over 210,000 players are enjoying Palworld, and the reviews are 85% positive.
However, whether the proximity to Pokémon will have long-term consequences and if Nintendo might try to assert copyright violations remains to be seen. So far, it seems to be mainly the Pokémon community that is fighting this battle.
