In the new year where we’re at a point when not many standout games have been announced yet, one game released this year has risen as a top competitor, alongside the title for most controversial game of the year.
Palling Around With Controversy
Palworld is a simple premise, an evolution-based role playing game where you capture monsters called “pals”, who you can capture to help battle other pals, explore the world, or do tasks alongside you to help with some of the simple farming tasks that come from an RPG.
Oh, and also the fact you can also have them not just create guns, but even shoot, or become a gun themselves.
Pocket Pair’s latest RPG game has skyrocketed in popularity online as traction for its release back in Jan. 19 has lived up to the three-year long wait. How successful? Eight million copies in less than a week, according to IGN, alongside being the second-highest all-time peak in Steam history.
The game itself just off watching the trailers alone is exactly what it sounds like: a Pokémon knock-off.
From the monster capturing elements, the pal designs, and even some of the riding aspects that are reminiscent of Legends Arceus. But once you start playing the game, there is a lot more than just what is on the surface.
The game acts more like an Action-Adventure game than it does a Monster-Capture game. From the way you unlock better items as you level up, to the strategy and gameplay when attempting to capture pals, and even including the boss fights... It is unlike any other game of the genre there is.
And as people get more familiar with the games, people have been debating, is this game too similar to Pokémon?
Just looking at some of the pals alone, they are heavily “inspired” by some of the Pokémon from Game Freak's large catalog of creatures. Some based on similar schemes, others with very, very close resemblance to the very pixel with minute details such as a color swap and minor shifts.
Some of the die-hard Pokémon fans go as far as saying Game Freak should sue Pocket Pair for copyright infringement.
Even with the argument being there regarding the similarity of the pals to the ‘mons, it is a tough legal battle to pursue, especially with referencing something for parody being a loophole when using copyrighted work.
How the Pokémon Company plans to pursue the situation and Pocket Pair’s legal arguments if this were to go to court is beyond my level of understanding.
Pals and Plagiarism: The AI Generation Argument
AI has been a hot topic in the entertainment space, especially after the near year-long strike that struck the cinema and gaming industries alike.
And, after seeing some of the character designs of the game, people online were left wondering if the pals themselves were created with AI.
Editor’s Note (1/25, 10:16 p.m.): Twitter/X user @ttvPalmer released a series of screenshots showing proof of Palworld’s creatures not being 1:1 recreations of Pokémon designs and claims the designs were not run through AI.
This is backed up by the support of the use of AI from Takuro Mizoke, the CEO of Pocket Pair. With Mizoke even once tweeting his appreciation of AI in creating Pokémon very close to the style of the Pokémon Company.
Here is the rundown though, whether you are in support of the potential plagiarism allegations or the possibility of AI for generating the Pokémon in the game, one thing is for certain… This game is good.
From someone that played both Legends Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet, this game is what Game Freak is afraid of doing in an Open World game. Being able to use almost any animal and travel around on the pals, utilizing pals in different ways to battle or capture different animals.
Even with the evolution system that Palworld gives you, there is a goal to continue to level up. This, many online are saying, is outstanding and brings freshness with each level to get continuously better.
From Craftopia’s Glitchy Past to Palworld’s Smooth Early Access
With the game only in early access, it is surprisingly clean.
I played and grinded through Pocket Pair’s previous game Craftopia. Similar to Palworld, it was an Open-World RPG, while more similar to Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild, it also has unique elements that make it different.
In Craftopia, you can build structures, use abilities that can enhance your experience, and was a preview to Palworld due to the monster capturing aspect in the former game as well.
But the game on release was… clunky.
With a lot of bugs and glitches, Craftopia wasn’t necessarily high definition. A lot of features in the game were left waiting for further updates. For instance, the skill tree is large, but a lot of the skills are unusable due to the team not developing those skills for the game.
Why do I bring up Craftopia? Because Craftopia is the reason I heard of (and wishlisted) Palworld a year and a half ago.
Getting closer to release, I was nervous about how buggy the game was going to be, knowing the previous history of Craftopia. But to my surprise, I got what I was hoping for and thensome.
The game is smooth, the pal designs are fantastic, the mechanics capitalize on what was in Craftopia and made it even smoother. Even the similar evolution system in Craftopia is translated into Palworld and is (from my current position in the game, 40 hours in at the time of writing) not missing a single element in its current state.
As I stated earlier, a lot of fans of Nintendo and Pokemon are criticizing the game and hope for Palworld’s downfall. But after the past couple of releases from Pokemon, I would imagine that at least some of the fanbase will praise the game.
Not for the plagiarizing allegations obviously, but for showing that the genre can succeed in a true open world environment. That a game in this genre — when done correctly — can run smoothly when not rushed and done properly. That a game in this genre, even if on the edgy side, can be appreciated.
Keep in mind, Palworld is running in with a team that has only about 10% of the workforce that Game Freak has.
Will the phase of continuous growth Palworld is experiencing continue? No, likely not.
We have seen it in a world where our most popular social media site is home to videos that are only 15 to 60 seconds: Gaming these days comes in phases.
A game can be popular one moment and die within months, even weeks of mass popularity (Seriously, when was the last time you saw a Lethal Company post or TikTok on your feed?).
But Palworld brings something different and hilarious to play that is bringing out the inner child of a lot of people.
And hopefully the people at Nintendo and Game Freak see the success and realize that now the bar has been set, and it's up to them to step up.