Highlights

  • Arkane Lyon Studio Director Dinga Bakaba shared a detailed breakdown of Palworld, defending the game against recent criticism.
  • The industry veteran said he was "baffled" to see some people calling Palworld "lazy," stating that the game is well-made and unique.
  • Bakaba also stressed the importance of respecting different opinions, noting that while no one is obligated to like any given game, that doesn't justify harassing those who disagree.

A senior official at Arkane Lyon, the developer of the Dishonored franchise, has defended Palworld against its vocal critics, all the while offering an extremely insightful breakdown of the game. His detailed thoughts on Pocketpair's latest title stand in stark contrast to the accusations that Palworld is a shameless ripoff of Pokemon.

The $30 survival game with monster taming mechanics has taken the world by storm since launching in early access on January 19. But its massive success has also invited a lot of scrutiny from some gamers who keep insisting Palworld is a lazy copy of Pokemon.

Ash Ketchum from Pokemon Anime looking angrily at Anubis from Palworld
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Dinga Bakaba, the studio director and co-creative director at Arkane Lyon, has now chimed in on the ongoing Palworld vs Pokemon controversy. Taking to Twitter, the industry veteran shared a detailed breakdown of the game spanning 21 tweets and over 2,000 words. The write-up begins with Bakaba pointing out that Palworld is first and foremost a survival game in the vein of Ark and Rust instead of a Pokemon clone. On the subject of its similarities with Game Freak's franchise, the Arkane official noted that Pocketpair's title never pretended not to be a Pokemon parody, so some overlap isn't just understandable but par for the course.

Bakaba also praised the immense effort that went into seamlessly blending all of Palworld's many mechanics, noting that he was "baffled" to see some people label the game as "lazy." Elaborating on that point, Arkane's studio director said that creating an experience that plays well and is accessible is no easy feat, especially when it comes to a project that's juggling with as many different elements as Palworld is. Bakaba also dismissed the allegations that the game's character designs might have been churned out with AI tools as baseless.

As a game designer, I'm baffled that some say [Palworld] is lazy.

Finally, the developer stated that while there's obviously no obligation for anyone to like Palworld or any other game, this does not justify bashing people for having different opinions. "Maybe let's just be tolerant," Bakaba concluded, all the while opining that Palworld is "very unique" for a game that attracted so many accusations claiming it to be a blatant ripoff.

Despite this attempt at offering a voice of reason, the online discourse surrounding the game still appears to be rather heated, to say the least. This was most recently underlined by some Palworld developers getting death threats, prompting Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe to plead with the public to stop harassing his employees.