Palworld vs. Pokémon Comparison: Just How Similar Are the Designs?
As a lifelong fan of Pokémon, I’m used to seeing other games in the “monster tamer” genre that are clearly inspired by it, from Temtem to Ni no Kuni, but nothing made me do a double take quite like Palworld, aka Pokémon With Guns. The first trailer of what looked like a heavily armed Pokemon Trainer using a terrified little pocket monster as a bullet shield was like a meme come to life. While the ridiculous concept is good for a laugh, what’s not so much of a laughing matter is how developer Pocketpair has seemingly copied elements of more than a few Pokémon designs when making its own creatures for Palworld, called Pals.
Well I’ve got a bone to pick with you, pal, because making a game with creatures inspired by Pokémon is one thing, but ripping them off – which, as I’ll demonstrate, is the case in some examples – is too much. I’m not a game designer but the inspiration for Pokémon comes from all around us. See those keys on the counter? That was an actual idea for a new Pokémon. And that ice cream cone? New Pokémon. That literal pile of trash? You get the idea. The fact Palworld doesn’t have wholly original designs, for whatever reason, seems wild to me. What’s more, by not coming up with its own designs, it potentially opened itself up to legal action from The Pokémon Company and, even worse, criticism from rabid Pokémon fans like me.
The CEO of Pocketpair, Takuro Mizobe, has denied allegations of plagiarism. While Pikachu doesn’t appear in Palworld exactly, there’s no denying that many of the designs are strikingly similar, whether it’s elements of different Pokémon thrown together to make a Pal that’s a bit Frankenstien’s monster, to more wholesale similarities. It’s at least enough to get on The Pokémon Company’s radar. The company made a statement saying, quote, "We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon." Well, lets do our own research and you can be the
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