UPDATE: The comments section under this review is now closed. I don't feel like constantly pushing back against uncharitable characterizations of me or my position every few minutes of my day. I have more important things to do with my time. A lot of you really don't like that I consider the worst reviews of this game on here to be petty and vapid. I get it. But name-calling and misrepresentation is not the way to win me over to the other side of this conversation.
In a good faith effort to address some of the criticisms of my review that actually made sense to me, I have revised some passages to be clearer in their intent. Beyond that, I can't do anything else. I can't lie and claim to also think this game is garbage when that isn't how I feel. If you want a Palworld hate circlejerk, you can find plenty of those under the scads of one- and half-star reviews bombarding this page. Enjoy. But that's not what I want my review page to turn into.
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Palworld is not an original game. It also doesn't claim to be. It relishes in its influences, giving intentional nods to the likes of Breath of the Wild, Ark: Survival Evolved, Pokemon, Digimon, Shin Megami Tensei, Minecraft, and others. Through its art style, musical cues, creature designs, and gameplay mechanics, Palworld serves as a joyous love letter to all of these prior games without which it would not exist.
But originality alone is not what makes or breaks a gaming experience for me. Above all else, a game must make me want to keep returning to it, and make the hours pass by in an instant as I have an amazing fun time getting lost in its virtual world. If a game can do that, then it's succeeded at its most important job.
And for me, Palworld is very much a success by those standards.
Equal parts open world adventure game, RPG, fort defense, survival crafting game, monster catcher, and raid-based MMO, Palworld manages, somehow, to balance all of these and function as a game unique enough in its play experience to earn its own place among the gaming canon. I have put over 100 hours into it so far, and the sense of adventure, exploration, wonder, and accomplishment that it gives me is comparable to those same feelings I got from playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. I kid you not.
Is it for everyone? Of course not. But it scratches all of the exact itches I need.
The review bombing this game is getting is really a shame. Because this is one of the very best games of its kind to ever release, and it does not deserve this hate campaign. While there are plenty of actual reasons to dislike this game, the lowest scores for it right now seem to almost always accompany reviews that strike me as somewhat disingenuous and unlettered. Even some reviews go so far as to admit that they haven't even played the game but that they're giving the lowest score possible anyway because want to Fight the Power (TM) and take a stand against what they perceive as a lazy reskin of Pokemon. From this, I can determine that a majority of these most vapid and pointless negative reviews seem to be coming from disgruntled Pokemon fans who feel like their beloved franchise is being plagiarized by or unfairly compared to Palworld.
What I need to clarify, based on the comments on the initial version of this review, is that I am not endorsing the narrative that Palworld is a "Pokemon killer," or that Pokemon as a whole IP sucks, or that Nintendo is awful, or that Palworld is superior to Pokemon in every aspect, or any other claim if this sort. I do, however, believe that Palworld is a more enjoyable gaming experience than any of the mainline Pokemon games in recent memory. That doesn't mean Palworld is innately superior to Pokemon, but it does mean that the programmers and developers behind Palworld have, for whatever reason, managed to make a game that is much more fun to play than current offerings from The Pokemon Community have been. That could change tomorrow, but today, that is a true statement. Whether you think it's derivative as hell, Palworld is, first and foremost, incredibly fun.
The reality is that this game is not ripping off or plagiarizing Pokemon. It is simply too different a game to ever have a claim like that stick. In Pokemon, you catch monsters, bring them out for key battles against other monsters, and traverse fairly linearly from town to town, gym to gym, until you collect them all and beat all the bosses. The end.
In Palworld, you collect monsters, build bases, level up your character, craft outfits, weapons, decorations, armor, more production devices for even more crafting, farm for resources to do the crafting in the first place, give your collected monsters their own weapons and armor, ride them like mounts, employ them as workers around your base, use them in battle, fight alongside them in battle, explore dungeons, traverse an expansive open world, defeat bosses to unlock key upgrade items, complete side missions to expand your base and build even more bases, customize your character's appearance, join other player's games for online co-op, have them join yours as well, form guilds with your online friends and join in raids, defend your own base against other raids, and countless other things that the developers will continue to add through regular updates.
The two games are almost nothing alike. The only similarity being that in both games you collect monsters. But in Palworld, you can do so much more than that. It pulls elements from Minecraft, Harvest Moon, Breath of the Wild, ARK: Survival Evolved, Fortnite, and LEGO, just to name a few. And it isn't coy about these influences. But it also isn't merely a haphazard stitching together of those different game types, either. Palworld manages to take these influences and blend them in such a way that a game with its own distinct identity and play style still emerges from the primordial soup. And the game's huge success is, in my book, completely deserved and earned. People worked hard on this game.
But do not misunderstand me: I was going to give this game five stars anyway. Even before the naysayers started shouting so loudly by the beginning of the new week. Over the weekend I became absolutely obsessed with Palworld's freedom, customizability, and charm, and I was already prepared to declare it my current frontrunner for game of the year. I am not giving it such a high score merely as an attempt to balance out to unfair, review-bombed rating. I am giving it such a high score because I genuinely believe it deserves it. And the fact that the game has sold over 4 million copies in just 3 days shows that I am not alone in enjoying the hell out of it. If that makes me a fool, so be it. I don't stare at my video games on walls in museums. I play them as interactive adventures. Fun factor is king when it comes to how I evaluate games. And Palworld has that in droves.
As for the claims of plagiarism... As of this writing, no proof of this claim has been found. But even if the (very small team of) developers had to use AI generation for some of their assets (as of this writing still unproven, but possible), I do not believe that would lessen the legitimacy of the game's accolades as an incredibly well made gaming experience on the whole. Do some of the creature designs look a bit derivative of Pokemon's art style? Sure, but so does Digimon, Dragon Quest Monsters, Monster Sanctuary, Monster Crown, Monster Hunter, Coromon, Ni no Kuni, Nexomon, Shin Megami Tensei, or any other of the countless creature collection games that exist today and are presented in an anime style. It is inevitable that similarities will occur. And Nintendo and The Pokemon Company do not own the sole rights to the creature collection genre at large. That isn't how this works. You can't patent a style or a genre. It's far too broad a category, and doing so would snuff off creativity and influence, which are key ingredients in art.
I for one am happy that such influences were put to such amazing use in order to create the beautiful art (yes, video games are art, even if you don't personally like them) that is Palworld. Long may it reign.
In a good faith effort to address some of the criticisms of my review that actually made sense to me, I have revised some passages to be clearer in their intent. Beyond that, I can't do anything else. I can't lie and claim to also think this game is garbage when that isn't how I feel. If you want a Palworld hate circlejerk, you can find plenty of those under the scads of one- and half-star reviews bombarding this page. Enjoy. But that's not what I want my review page to turn into.
-------
Palworld is not an original game. It also doesn't claim to be. It relishes in its influences, giving intentional nods to the likes of Breath of the Wild, Ark: Survival Evolved, Pokemon, Digimon, Shin Megami Tensei, Minecraft, and others. Through its art style, musical cues, creature designs, and gameplay mechanics, Palworld serves as a joyous love letter to all of these prior games without which it would not exist.
But originality alone is not what makes or breaks a gaming experience for me. Above all else, a game must make me want to keep returning to it, and make the hours pass by in an instant as I have an amazing fun time getting lost in its virtual world. If a game can do that, then it's succeeded at its most important job.
And for me, Palworld is very much a success by those standards.
Equal parts open world adventure game, RPG, fort defense, survival crafting game, monster catcher, and raid-based MMO, Palworld manages, somehow, to balance all of these and function as a game unique enough in its play experience to earn its own place among the gaming canon. I have put over 100 hours into it so far, and the sense of adventure, exploration, wonder, and accomplishment that it gives me is comparable to those same feelings I got from playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. I kid you not.
Is it for everyone? Of course not. But it scratches all of the exact itches I need.
The review bombing this game is getting is really a shame. Because this is one of the very best games of its kind to ever release, and it does not deserve this hate campaign. While there are plenty of actual reasons to dislike this game, the lowest scores for it right now seem to almost always accompany reviews that strike me as somewhat disingenuous and unlettered. Even some reviews go so far as to admit that they haven't even played the game but that they're giving the lowest score possible anyway because want to Fight the Power (TM) and take a stand against what they perceive as a lazy reskin of Pokemon. From this, I can determine that a majority of these most vapid and pointless negative reviews seem to be coming from disgruntled Pokemon fans who feel like their beloved franchise is being plagiarized by or unfairly compared to Palworld.
What I need to clarify, based on the comments on the initial version of this review, is that I am not endorsing the narrative that Palworld is a "Pokemon killer," or that Pokemon as a whole IP sucks, or that Nintendo is awful, or that Palworld is superior to Pokemon in every aspect, or any other claim if this sort. I do, however, believe that Palworld is a more enjoyable gaming experience than any of the mainline Pokemon games in recent memory. That doesn't mean Palworld is innately superior to Pokemon, but it does mean that the programmers and developers behind Palworld have, for whatever reason, managed to make a game that is much more fun to play than current offerings from The Pokemon Community have been. That could change tomorrow, but today, that is a true statement. Whether you think it's derivative as hell, Palworld is, first and foremost, incredibly fun.
The reality is that this game is not ripping off or plagiarizing Pokemon. It is simply too different a game to ever have a claim like that stick. In Pokemon, you catch monsters, bring them out for key battles against other monsters, and traverse fairly linearly from town to town, gym to gym, until you collect them all and beat all the bosses. The end.
In Palworld, you collect monsters, build bases, level up your character, craft outfits, weapons, decorations, armor, more production devices for even more crafting, farm for resources to do the crafting in the first place, give your collected monsters their own weapons and armor, ride them like mounts, employ them as workers around your base, use them in battle, fight alongside them in battle, explore dungeons, traverse an expansive open world, defeat bosses to unlock key upgrade items, complete side missions to expand your base and build even more bases, customize your character's appearance, join other player's games for online co-op, have them join yours as well, form guilds with your online friends and join in raids, defend your own base against other raids, and countless other things that the developers will continue to add through regular updates.
The two games are almost nothing alike. The only similarity being that in both games you collect monsters. But in Palworld, you can do so much more than that. It pulls elements from Minecraft, Harvest Moon, Breath of the Wild, ARK: Survival Evolved, Fortnite, and LEGO, just to name a few. And it isn't coy about these influences. But it also isn't merely a haphazard stitching together of those different game types, either. Palworld manages to take these influences and blend them in such a way that a game with its own distinct identity and play style still emerges from the primordial soup. And the game's huge success is, in my book, completely deserved and earned. People worked hard on this game.
But do not misunderstand me: I was going to give this game five stars anyway. Even before the naysayers started shouting so loudly by the beginning of the new week. Over the weekend I became absolutely obsessed with Palworld's freedom, customizability, and charm, and I was already prepared to declare it my current frontrunner for game of the year. I am not giving it such a high score merely as an attempt to balance out to unfair, review-bombed rating. I am giving it such a high score because I genuinely believe it deserves it. And the fact that the game has sold over 4 million copies in just 3 days shows that I am not alone in enjoying the hell out of it. If that makes me a fool, so be it. I don't stare at my video games on walls in museums. I play them as interactive adventures. Fun factor is king when it comes to how I evaluate games. And Palworld has that in droves.
As for the claims of plagiarism... As of this writing, no proof of this claim has been found. But even if the (very small team of) developers had to use AI generation for some of their assets (as of this writing still unproven, but possible), I do not believe that would lessen the legitimacy of the game's accolades as an incredibly well made gaming experience on the whole. Do some of the creature designs look a bit derivative of Pokemon's art style? Sure, but so does Digimon, Dragon Quest Monsters, Monster Sanctuary, Monster Crown, Monster Hunter, Coromon, Ni no Kuni, Nexomon, Shin Megami Tensei, or any other of the countless creature collection games that exist today and are presented in an anime style. It is inevitable that similarities will occur. And Nintendo and The Pokemon Company do not own the sole rights to the creature collection genre at large. That isn't how this works. You can't patent a style or a genre. It's far too broad a category, and doing so would snuff off creativity and influence, which are key ingredients in art.
I for one am happy that such influences were put to such amazing use in order to create the beautiful art (yes, video games are art, even if you don't personally like them) that is Palworld. Long may it reign.
33 Comments
Bro has not seen the meganium/goodra fusion
not really review bombing if the game is just a copy and paste of their previous run of the mill survival crafting game but with fake pokemon in it.
@Snigglegros The final results of their work highly suggest otherwise.
@noimjory not surprised considering what the creator said
it takes like two seconds of research to learn how creatively bankrupt pocketpair are lol
Yup, theres the statement I was looking for
@ANerdList i got like 4 hours into the game, its just ark survival evolved with fake pokemon in it. It's a fine game for what it is if you like survival craft stuff but it's nothing special.
The dev's work at huge ass company, if they are not putting in their work, they are probably getting fired. So I think its safe to assume that most of the dev's are working. Plus just Japanese work culture anyways, they work their ass off. It's planning and management that's getting in the way of Pokemon Games (and deadlines), the dev's are probably busting their asses to meet demands of the higher ups.
Gamer don't defend cynically-derivative skinner box games challenge (impossible)
@theia comparative screenshots showing similarity in art style doesn't add any contrary information to what I've already addressed in my review. And saying they're creatively bankrupt because they're making a Metroidvania also isn't a very strong argument. Is Axiom Verge creatively bankrupt? Is Hollow Knight creatively bankrupt? Is Blasphemous?
Again, a gameplay style or mechanic itself cannot be copyrighted. If you're going to accuse this game of being a rip-off, then you're also saying that BioShock is a rip-off of System Shock, that Hades is a rip-off of Diablo, that Skyrim is a rip-off of Ultima, that Uncharted is a rip-off of Tomb Raider Legend, and on and on it goes.
Again, a gameplay style or mechanic itself cannot be copyrighted. If you're going to accuse this game of being a rip-off, then you're also saying that BioShock is a rip-off of System Shock, that Hades is a rip-off of Diablo, that Skyrim is a rip-off of Ultima, that Uncharted is a rip-off of Tomb Raider Legend, and on and on it goes.
@Snigglegros That's a completely valid but separate conversation. Overworking employees is rampant in many gaming companies and it's shameful and shouldn't be allowed. But that isn't necessarily hard work on new creative breakthroughs; it's half-asleep devs going through the motions to finish the project because they're absolutely spent and want to finally get home in time for dinner for the first time in weeks.
I'm not saying the actual programmers at Game Freak are lazy; I'm saying the Pokemon Company puts out half-baked games. You can have true artists working at a company that still forces them to put out rushed garbage.
I'm not saying the actual programmers at Game Freak are lazy; I'm saying the Pokemon Company puts out half-baked games. You can have true artists working at a company that still forces them to put out rushed garbage.
@Tegiminis Great argument.
Thanks! Instead of allowing your reactionary feelings to control you, and defending a company that has explicitly stated their goal is simply to copy other games, perhaps consider being normal instead.
@tegiminis true!
yeah im just gonna be a stickler cause you said "far harder than anyone at TPC has ever worked...", which just comes off as inflammatory for no reason.
I dont even disagree with that paragraph cause I fucking love when people have the ability to fuse shit together and it comes out. One of my favourite albums is a Mash-Up album because they somehow got all that shit to fit together into beauty, but they weren't working harder than any other musician.
I dont even disagree with that paragraph cause I fucking love when people have the ability to fuse shit together and it comes out. One of my favourite albums is a Mash-Up album because they somehow got all that shit to fit together into beauty, but they weren't working harder than any other musician.
@Snigglegros That's fair. I was being a tad frivolous with my word choice, there. Appreciate the clarification.
This comment was deleted
@Tegiminis They have "explicitly stated" nothing of the sort. People like yourself are cherry-picking and reading into every little thing possible in an attempt to give yourselves a moral high ground excuse for shitting on the game. All I'm doing is stating that the game is amazing and crazy fun to play (which it is). Whatever shady shit the bosses at the company are up to, if it amounts to exploiting their employees, I'll speak out against it. But that won't change the fact that I love the game and think it's great.
"Be normal" is fascist dog whistle shit. I'm not going to tolerate othering language on my page.
"Be normal" is fascist dog whistle shit. I'm not going to tolerate othering language on my page.
no cause this game is also just corpo slop, rather people play good monster catching games instead of shitty ones
"Telling someone to be less reactionary is fascist dogwhistling" is a new one lol. The irony! And yes, the CEO of PocketPair said as much in an interview about their new search action game that is directly aping Hollow Knight. You're welcome to go look it up. Or look up what happened to Craftopia, their previous low-effort shitfest. I don't need any moral high-ground because there's no morality involved here; I simply do not enjoy factory-assembled games designed to ship units, last a week, and promptly be forgotten. Your reactionary hatred for Pokemon and Nintendo has blinded you and made you incapable of understanding why people might hate such a nakedly-manipulative game. The fact that you compare Pokemon to SMT of all things in particular is extremely funny.
"Beautiful art that is Palworld." Buddy, you deserve the slop they are shoveling into your trough if you think this game is anything more than a cash grab.
"Beautiful art that is Palworld." Buddy, you deserve the slop they are shoveling into your trough if you think this game is anything more than a cash grab.
@Tegiminis As you have read far more into the CEO's quote than is actually there, so too have you misrepresented what I said. Your claim, that I said it's fascistic to stand against reactionary people, is false. What I actually said was that it's fascistic to use someone being "not normal" as a slur or to otherwise bolster your position. Whatever you think "normal" is has nothing to do with the points being argued, here. Please stick to the points themselves, and avoid othering language. That's all I said. You're not very good and understanding the meaning of people's words, it would seem.
As for me having "reactionary hatred" for Nintendo, that's simply not true. Breath of the Wild is my second-favorite game of all time, and various other Nintendo titles, new and old, are all over my favorites list. The one who seems reactionary here is you, from what I can tell. You were triggered by my positive review of a game you hate, so you assumed immediately that I must be a Nintendo or Pokemon hater. I am not. I simply say, again, that Palworld is among the very best games of its kind, that it's terrific fun to play, that the ideas it takes from other games have been worked into the gameplay incredibly well, and that I'm loving my time with it. If the CEO of the company did outright say that he likes ripping off other games, then his company failed at that mission this time around. Because it is not a blatant rip-off of anything. It's heavily influenced by plenty, but it has its own identity as a game. You obviously don't like that. But jumping onto positive reviews of the game to lash out and accuse the reviewers of being haters is pretty damn ironic. And it goes to prove my point that the Pokemon fans who have a problem with Palworld are behaving quite extreme.
As for me having "reactionary hatred" for Nintendo, that's simply not true. Breath of the Wild is my second-favorite game of all time, and various other Nintendo titles, new and old, are all over my favorites list. The one who seems reactionary here is you, from what I can tell. You were triggered by my positive review of a game you hate, so you assumed immediately that I must be a Nintendo or Pokemon hater. I am not. I simply say, again, that Palworld is among the very best games of its kind, that it's terrific fun to play, that the ideas it takes from other games have been worked into the gameplay incredibly well, and that I'm loving my time with it. If the CEO of the company did outright say that he likes ripping off other games, then his company failed at that mission this time around. Because it is not a blatant rip-off of anything. It's heavily influenced by plenty, but it has its own identity as a game. You obviously don't like that. But jumping onto positive reviews of the game to lash out and accuse the reviewers of being haters is pretty damn ironic. And it goes to prove my point that the Pokemon fans who have a problem with Palworld are behaving quite extreme.
"But jumping onto positive reviews of the game to lash out and accuse the reviewers of being haters is pretty damn ironic" well considering this isnt just a positive review and is like half talking about the games and half bashing people for rightfully criticizing this game, it's not really that ironic
@Eggsandwich but, Palworld IS a good monster catching game. Over a million concurrent players online, constantly coming back to it, demonstrates that it is scratching an itch for an enormous amount of people. What about it makes it "corpo slop" to you? The fact that it's derivative? Because the numbers prove that it's fun to play. And to me, that's the most important aspect of a game. If it's fun to play, I don't care if it took ideas from other places. Hell, just look at Bioshock.
@NOWITSREYNTIME17 The review has a bit of a rebuttal tone to it because I saw the obvious hate campaign being led against it and felt it disingenuous to not address it. But I absolutely stated my reasons for loving the game as well.
And the irony I'm talking about, that you apparently missed, is that I stated that the Pokemon fans were angry and forceful, then I got comments from Pokemon fans, forcefully saying "WE'RE NOT ANGRY, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS ANGRY! THIS GAME SUCKS! AGREE WITH US OR BE CALLED NAMES!"
So, yes, if they don't want to be characterized in such a way, perhaps they should behave differently.
And the irony I'm talking about, that you apparently missed, is that I stated that the Pokemon fans were angry and forceful, then I got comments from Pokemon fans, forcefully saying "WE'RE NOT ANGRY, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS ANGRY! THIS GAME SUCKS! AGREE WITH US OR BE CALLED NAMES!"
So, yes, if they don't want to be characterized in such a way, perhaps they should behave differently.
tbf, I havent seen many "angry pokemon fans bashing others for liking it" and more just people calling the game out for being reused asset slop and calling out others saying this will kill pokemon as a franchise which is very fair. The backlash against that then is silly, you can find it fun but cmon use your brain. It's no wonder people think this game is artistically bankrupt when it literally has an incredibly blatant meganium/goodra monster comprised of reused models.
lol you're coming after me for reading comprehension and yet you're completely ignoring the part where i suggest you be less reactionary to instead tone-police over saying "normal" and calling me a fascist. you then proceed to say "triggered" (which is a real fascist dogwhistle! mocking PTSD victims!) and draw a conclusion about me (that i like pokemon, which i don't, which i state in my palworld review lol) that is straight up wrong. comparatively, i "assume" you hate modern Pokemon because you imply as much in your review ("actually good modern monster-collecting game", "unhinged Pokemon fans being disingenuous"). am i wrong? do you love scarlet / violet or legends arceus?
i came to this review because i thought it would be funny to engage with someone suffering from such reactionary delusions that they constructed a ridiculous justification and reaching comparisons for liking a cash grab game. palworld will be forgotten about in a month like all other games of this ilk, and your breathless defense of it will be for naught.
sorry for saying the n-word (normal).
i came to this review because i thought it would be funny to engage with someone suffering from such reactionary delusions that they constructed a ridiculous justification and reaching comparisons for liking a cash grab game. palworld will be forgotten about in a month like all other games of this ilk, and your breathless defense of it will be for naught.
sorry for saying the n-word (normal).
@NOWITSREYNTIME17 yeah lol. i haven't played a pokemon game since diamond/pearl and have no particular love for the series or developer, i just think the reactionary adulation for a game that's barely half a step above an asset flip (and might even get in legal trouble over ripping models from scarlet/violet lol) is ridiculous. if people wanna enjoy the slop game for babies that's their prerogative, but personally, i prefer to not allow my feelings towards unrelated corporate entities influence whether i like something or not. console war shit all over again.
@tegiminis very well put, also humorous now that I think about it they think people rightfully calling out slop is "unhinged and disingenuous" lmao, especially since from what I've seen...the people bashing others calling the game out are way more unhinged
Snigglegros
4 months ago