Pocketpair, the developers of the controversial upcoming survival game Palworld, feel misunderstood by the feedback on their game. The game is supposed to be a survival game like ARK and not a brutal Pokémon game where you have to kill and eat cute animals.
What is Palworld? Palworld looks in the trailers on Steam like a game where you run through the wilderness with guns and encounter Pokémon (called “Pals” in the game). The creatures look very similar to the little monsters from Nintendo’s franchise, and in Palworld, you can catch and tame them.
But what follows does not fit the cute flair of Pokémon at all:
- Pals are used as labor slaves
- In one scene, they toil as enslaved forced laborers on an assembly line, where they assemble assault rifles
- Other scenes show how Pals are shot in the wild
- Particularly disturbing is a situation where a player uses a Pal as a living shield in a shootout
- You can even slaughter and eat the creatures!
What does the community say? All of this has led to a controversial discussion. Many players found the idea of shooting with Pokémon like in CoD and experiencing intense action quite cool. Other players, however, responded with sarcasm to the idea of the game, like user Top Kek:
Finally, a Pokémon game with forced labor, slavery, war crimes, weapons, eugenics, poaching, and destructible environments. Thank you Pocket Pair.
Developer feels misunderstood
What is Palworld according to the developers not? Takuro Mizobe, the lead developer at Pocketpair (known from Craftopia), is pleased with the significant support his game is receiving, but is also somewhat puzzled by what players ultimately expect from the game:
I appreciate the many positive feedbacks we have received, but I have mixed feelings about it. That’s because Palworld is actually completely different from Pokémon.
According to the developer, the game is a hardcore survival shooter that is much closer to games like ARK than to any Pokémon game.
The big difference compared to games like ARK or Conan Exiles is that in Palworld you use your Pals to accomplish tasks.
However, you are still bound by your conscience. Just because you can enslave, kill, and eat the cute Pals, doesn’t mean you have to. No one forces the player to engage in such questionable actions:
People talk about Palworld as if it were an evil game without heart, but that is not our intention. However, if you are hungry and about to die, you would do anything to survive, right? Palworld is a game where we implement a high degree of freedom, and it’s up to the players what they do.
The only question left is what players will do in the game when unleashed in a world full of cute little critters. Perhaps different player factions will form that will fight for the freedom of the Pals and defend them against exploitative slave traders?
If you are looking for more survival games, you should check out this list: The 25 best survival games of 2021 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
