The Big ‘Palworld’ Controversy, Explained

New monster-taming game Palworld was dismissed as “Pokemon with guns” from the moment it was announced, but the early access version of the game has proved explosively popular, sparking heated backlash online.

What is ‘Palworld’?

Palworld is an open-world survival game developed by Pocketpair that tasks players with collecting resources, crafting tools, building (and defending) bases, and catching a range of Pokemon-like monsters known as “Pals.”

While the monster design is strikingly similar to Pokemon, the gameplay is not — Palworld borrows from a range of other titles, such as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Fortnite, and Minecraft, mashing these influences together to create a uniquely chaotic world.

Gamers have described Palworld’s approach to monster-taming as a more “realistic,” or more “American” version of Pokemon, with an emphasis on exploitation. Pals can be butchered for meat, enslaved, and armed with rifles to defend the player’s base — even humans can be captured and enslaved by the player.

So far, gamers love it; the early access of Palworld sold 5 million copies in 3 days, an extraordinary success, particularly for a small developer like Pocketpair.

Palworld certainly isn’t the first monster-taming game accused of being a Pokemon-clone (and it won’t be the last), but it is the first to reach mainstream success, and possibly challenge the dominance of Pokemon.

What Is The ‘Palworld’ Controversy?

Palworld has been accused by critics of plagiarism, with many noting a strong similarity between certain Pokemon designs and Pals.

Others have accused the developer of using generative AI to create the creature designs, a controversial topic in the creative industries.

While there is no conclusive evidence (so far) that the game’s assets were AI-generated, critics pointed to a game previously developed by Pocketpair, AI: Art Imposter, that uses generative AI as a core mechanic.

Many artists and game developers have taken a strong stance against the use of generative AI, citing potential job losses, copyright issues, and sloppy, derivative work as an inevitable consequence of the technology.

Pocketpair’s CEO, Takuro Mizobe, is an “AI guy,” and has expressed enthusiasm regarding the potential of generative AI in the past.

In a December 2021 tweet, Mizobe even posted pictures of Pokemon-like creatures generated by AI, which made many critics suspicious.

Did ‘Palworld’ Copy ‘Pokemon’ Designs?

At a glance, Palworld’s creatures certainly look like Pokemon; the casual gamer could easily mistake them for official Pokemon designs.

To add to the confusion, the violence and exploitation of Palworld could be read as a parody of the sanitized, cutesy world of Pokemon, but the game doesn’t appear to lean into a direct parody of the Pokemon world.

Other commentators argued that the line between parody, plagiarism and inspiration is always murky, and that monster designs from competing franchises (like Digimon) often resembled Pokemon. Others pointed out that small differences can be heightened by contrasting art styles, citing examples from other monster-taming games.

Palworld doesn’t really have a distinctive aesthetic — the open world is fairly generic, inhabited by anime-eyed humans that kinda resemble the models of Fortnite, but the Pals have the bright colors and cartoony proportions of Pokemon.

Altogether, it doesn’t quite mesh into a coherent visual identity.

That lack of visual identity could be explained by the small size and relative inexperience of the development team. In a blog post published last week, Mizobe claimed that Palworld’s 100 creatures were designed by a single graduate student.

“She was a new graduate and had applied to nearly 100 companies, but failed them all,” he wrote. “And she is now drawing most of the characters in Palworld.”

Later in the post, Mizobe discusses how Pocketpair’s previous game, Craftopia, was built almost entirely with off-the-shelf assets. This prompted commentators to debate if the game’s astonishing success was something to be celebrated.

Is Palworld an inspiring story of a small development team triumphing, despite the limited tools at their disposal? Or is Palworld a depressing success, built by piggybacking on the work of other artists?

Regardless, many commentators stated that the game deserved to find success at the expense of Pokemon, as Pocketpair at least managed to create a fun, interesting game that breathes new life into the monster-taming genre.

Pokemon fans have long complained that their favorite franchise is stagnating, and that the developer, Game Freak, has failed to experiment or innovate with the latest Pokemon releases.

Pocketpair CEO Responds To The Controversy

On Sunday, the “plagiarism“ accusations intensified, as an anonymous user on X (Twitter) claimed that the proportions of some of Palworld’s in-game 3D models appear almost identical to models from the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet games on Nintendo Switch.

Pocketpair CEO Mizobe responded to the controversy on Monday on X (Twitter), but did not confirm or deny the allegations.

Translated by Google, Mizobe’s post reads:

“Currently, we are receiving slanderous comments against our artists, and we are seeing tweets that appear to be death threats. I have received a variety of opinions regarding Palworld, but all productions related to Palworld are supervised by multiple people, including myself, and I am responsible for the production. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slandering the artists involved in Palworld.”