Palworld has quickly become the most popular, and controversial, game of 2024 so far. In a bizarre twist of fate, “Pokemon With Guns” has turned around and become a worldwide sensation, with over 1 million concurrent players on Steam and over 5 million unique players venturing into Palworld over the game’s first three days of early access. Palworld’s developer, Pocket Pair, has somehow stumbled onto 2024’s biggest release, putting them under a massive spotlight.
However, with success comes scrutiny and Palworld has been the subject of much debate. From accusations of AI-generated creatures to concerns about Pocket Pair’s previous handling of early-access titles, the internet has been ablaze with arguments over the last few days. One of the most prevalent discussions coming forward has to do with the idea that Palworld has, at least partially, copied some of its monster designs from its contemporaries, with the main victim being the largest creature capture franchise in the world, Pokemon. What started as a few Tweets pointing out some eerie similarities has snowballed into some calling Palworld a complete asset flip of a game. In return, this has also led to a resurgence of Palworld defenders, people who are quick to write off any comparisons with rallying cries.
Well, the truth of Palworld’s monster designs seems to lay somewhere in the middle of this discourse. It’s not a messy asset flip where the entire Paldeck is a fiendish abomination of stitched-together limbs and silhouettes, nor is it perfectly innocent and without any Pikachu-shaped skeletons in the closet. In a genre where so many creations are based on similar ideas, how can you tell the difference between inspiration and plagiarism and how does this relate to the future of Palworld?
Inspiration in Palworld
To start our inspection of Palworld, let’s go over how the game handles the topic of inspiration when it comes to its creature designs.
In the depths of Twitter threads between warring Palworld and Pokemon fans, you’ll often see this comparison image posted as some rebuttal against the claims that Palworld is doing anything wrong: in it, several Pokemon are being compared against creatures from Dragon Quest, a series which predates the first Pokemon games by at least two years, as a way to show that even the mighty Pocket Monsters is capable of copying from its contemporaries.
However, this image, and the argument it puts forward, are all made in rather bad faith. The difference between the comparable creatures in this image and the accusations facing Palworld is that these monsters are all inspired by the same or similar things and not by each other. By that I mean Dracky and Zubat may both be based on a bat as a starting point, leading to some inevitable conclusions in their final designs, but they clearly have their own distinct features which set them apart: Dracky plays into the vampire stereotype associated with bats, whereas Zubat plays far more into the whole “bats are blind” myth. They may have both started as bats but they became something very different down the line.
Dragon Quest and Pokemon
Almost all of the creatures featured in this comparison image are like that – two monsters who had the same starting point but went in completely different directions – making any attempt to use them as a “Gotcha” pretty weak. And, admittedly, most of Palworld’s monsters are like this, too.
For example, Foxparks and Vulpix are both fire foxes. However, they are distinct and different enough that one hasn’t copied the other: like with Dracky and Zubat, Foxparks and Vulpix started at the same point and evolved into very different things. Another example is Lamball and Wooloo. Both of them are based on sheep and Pokemon didn’t create the idea of a sheep. Yet another is Grizzbolt, arguably the mascot of Palworld, and Electabuzz, with both sharing a colour scheme and lightning bolt motif: yellow and black are simply an overwhelming common colour combination, as is the idea of having a lightning bolt pattern on a creature’s body to denote their association with electricity.
Most of Palworld’s monsters are this way. With over 122 Pals currently in the game, it was a near inevitability that some of them were going to be compared to creatures from other series. That’s always the way with games like this. And that isn’t even talking about the creatures which seem to be solely original. However, that only makes the ones which do have problems stick out all the more clearly.
Vulpix and Foxparks, Same Inspiration, Different Outcome
Copying in Palworld
This is where the waters begin to get muddy. We’ve already gone over the fact that the majority of Pals in the Paldeck are unique enough to pass most plagiarism accusations without issue, especially when a lot of them are simply inspired by the same things which have inspired many famous Pokemon. However, there is a not-so-insignificant portion of the Palworld roster who look blatantly like monsters from other series.
For some, the copying seems rather light. Dumud is a Ground-type Pal whose head fin is very similar to Sobble’s head fin. Similarly, Grintale is a Neutral-type Pal you’ve likely seen all across social media because it shares a face with the Galarian version of Meowth. Another Pal who has come under a lot of fire is Fenglope who, at a glance, seems like a replica of Coballion (although, in this case, it just seems like a poor choice in colouration as the designs are quite different). Then there’s Verdash who looks like a Grass-type version of Cinderace.
Cinderace and Verdash
The two worst offenders here are Dinossom and Azurobe. The former looks like they took the Pokemon Goodra, painted it green and then slapped a big flower on its head. It even has the same head antenna, which is only a part of Goodra because its evolutionary line is based on snails and slugs. As for Azurobe, it has the body and head of a Serperior and the hair of a Primarina. That last point about the hair is really enlightening as (1) Azurobe’s hair has the same shape as Primarina’s even though it doesn’t have the pearls which made it that way and (2) it also has the same stray hairs as Primarina, which are even in the same locations.
If you want a more exhaustive look at the comparison between these Pals and their Pokemon counterparts, check out these posts by Twitter users @covingtown, @Barbie_E4 and @onion_mu for more.
This "pal" from #Palword seems like it was probably a rip of serperior and primarina from #Pokemon pic.twitter.com/g8L8vBjbDG
— byo (@byofrog) January 21, 2024
The reason why these Palworld designs are being called plagiarism and not just inspiration is that it seems as though they began with the Pokemon instead of beginning with a general idea or theme: it’s like they started with an already finished design and then made adjustments. It means that the final designs have a lot of weirdness, especially to do with things that shouldn’t reasonably be there. Dinossom having those snail-like antennae doesn’t make sense unless it was copied from Goodra because nothing about the things which inspired Dinossom should have resulted in it having those antennae. Similarly, unless someone copied Azurobe’s hair from the Pokemon, it shouldn’t be a 1-to-1 match with Primarina’s hair.
In Goodra and Primarina, those features have a purpose and a place, there is a reason why they are the way they are. That intention just isn’t there with the Pals and certain design decisions simply don’t make sense on their own. Those design elements that were crudely transplanted onto the Pals – whether it be Goodra’s antennae or Primarina’s hair – have no rhyme or reason being there.
If creature collectors like Pokemon, Digimon, Temtem and even Palworld itself have been able to create unique and interesting designs based on the same core ideas, why should Palworld get a pass for blatantly copying certain monsters from other games? At best it shows a lack of thought or creativity about the Pals’ final designs and, at worst, shows a shocking level of negligence.
Dinossom, Grass-Type Goodra
Where to Go From Here?
Looking at the entire Paldeck, there is a solid case of copying, both light and extreme cases, for about 10 to 20 Pals. While that may not seem like a lot, it’s still a not-so-insignificant amount and it’s enough that you can’t really chalk it up to coincidence. The most pressing thing about that figure is that it raises one simple question: why?
Pocket Pair is clearly full of creative and inventive people, artists who are capable of making Pals like the wonderful Kingpaca, the goofy yet adorable Sweepa, the wicked Blazamut and the simple yet endearing Relaxaurus. If they’re capable of making tons of distinct Pals, why have this handful of bad apples spoiling the batch? Having such clear and blatant rip-offs in the game – with some, like Azurobe, being down to the literal stray hair – just gives ammo to those looking to discredit Palworld.
At the moment, all conversations about Palworld are tainted by this overwhelming echo about whether they’ve copied this or stolen that, blocking out any real discussion on the actual game itself, and it will so long as these copy-cat designs remain. Palworld is an early access game, meaning that Pocket Pair has a lot of freedom when it comes to making tweaks or changes to their title before it hits 1.0: if they altered designs like Dinossom or Azurobe, designs who, at the very least, tip-toe far too close to the plagiarism line for many, it would eliminate the main stain on Palworld’s name.
Soaring the Skies of Palworld
It seems that Pocket Pair may already be conscious of this. Boltmane, a Luxray look-alike who featured in this model-comparison Twitter post, isn’t in the current version of Palworld. While this may just be a coincidence and it has the potential to show up in later patches, it does show steps in the right direction. However, this is only speculation and does go against much of what we’ve seen from Pocket Pair’s other titles, where they also faced accusations of copying enemy designs from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Genshin Impact.
Yesterday, Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe commented on X that Pocket Pair were receiving “slanderous comments against our artists, and we are seeing tweets which appear to be death threats” (translated from Japanese). There is no reason to harass Pocket Pair employees, even if the accusations are true. So far, there hasn’t been any direct admittance or denial to the idea that Pocket Pair copied design elements from specific Pokemon for their Pals.
With over 5 million Pal Tamers in the first 3 days of release and over a million concurrent players on Steam, Palworld is already punching well above its weight. We all love an underdog story (just look at last year’s Baldur’s Gate 3) but many would be far happier to endorse and support Palworld if it got rid of these bad actors.
Palworld needs far more Kingpacas and way less Azurobes or Dinossoms.
Survival Pokemon With Guns
