Biggest Differences Between Palworld & Pokemon

Highlights

Pokemon's success in the West influenced other monster-catching series like Digimon and Yokai Watch.
Palworld takes inspiration from games like Minecraft and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Palworld offers difficulty options and allows players to directly attack and capture Pals.

Pokemon began in 1996 and was a hit in Japan, and it became an even bigger success when the series eventually crossed over into the West in 1998. Alongside the Game Boy games came comics, toys, anime, and so many other tie-ins. There was no avoiding it even if one didn’t play video games.

Flying around in and Building walls in Palworld

6 Things To Do First In Palworld

As Palworld can feel massive and overwhelming, new players should prioritize a few things to get started on the right note.

Years later, Pokemon is still the most popular monster-catching series around, but several have tried to take the throne, including Digimon, Yokai Watch, Monster Rancher, and dozens more. Palworld is the latest attempt, and it does a lot different from the latest Pokemon games. Maybe Nintendo and Game Freak could even learn a thing or two from this massive hit.

6 The Open-World Structure

Hello Minecraft And The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

While the Pokemon series has seen some open-world elements in the last mainline games, Palworld is a broader open-world experience. There’s no escaping just how much Palworld borrowed from other games and series beyond Pokemon, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Players can climb nearly any surface in Palworld, and there is a stamina gauge as well to balance this ability.

There is a cooking mechanic in Palworld too, which can lead to temporary boosts beyond refilling health. The crafting and gathering resource mechanics fall more in line with a survival game like Minecraft though. Things aren’t blocky in Palworld, and it’s a bit harder to craft and build structures, but the two games certainly share DNA. Ultimately, Palworld has more in common with these two games than Pokemon.

5 There Are Difficulty Options

A Standard Nintendo And Game Freak Have Ignored

Pokemon was always meant to be a series aimed at kids to get them into RPGs. Except for some side quests, most entries were never that challenging. However, Nintendo never implemented difficulty levels beyond making the games generally accessible. Well, in Palworld, there are plenty of difficulty options.

A machine gun nest manned by Lambballs in Palworld

Palworld: Best Pals To Catch Early

Get your base up and running pronto by catching all the best early game pals in Palworld.

Players can immediately decide to play on Casual, Normal, or Hard. Plus, they can customize their experience with a wealth of options beyond that. They can decrease how much Stamina is used up on actions like climbing. They can also boost EXP earned. It’s assist options like these that will help carry the RPG genre forward for an ever-evolving group of players.

4 You Attack Pals Directly

Cute Doesn’t Protect From Bullets

Fighting enemies with Lifmunk in Palworld

The Pokemon series leaves a lot of unanswered questions for players to figure out for themselves. For example, are there people who beat Pokemon into submission with their fists or weapons to weaken them? Do people regularly eat Pokemon? The questions can be nauseating for this seemingly innocent series aimed at kids.

Well, in Palworld, things work a bit differently with capturing Pals. Players can directly attack monsters with clubs, axes, guns, and so forth to weaken them. It’s a bit brutal, especially when Pals are directly killed, and they drop materials or even meat that can be eaten. Some of these recipes look delicious too. Also, another player character difference is that they level up alongside Pals and there are two separate upgrade trees.

3 Pals And You

From Fighting By Your Side To Working At Base

There are many more differences between Pals and Pokemon that go beyond how they are captured. For example, players don’t choose a starting Pal and can just start catching them once they make a Pal Sphere, which is like a Pokeball. Once caught, they can be used in battle, one at a time, and players can carry five at once.

The rest of the Pals will be transferred to a Palbox at home base, and they can help with crafting. Unless there is an obscure mini-game collection or spin-off lost to time, Pokemon aren’t known for doing hard labor, be it mining rocks to chopping down trees. It’s something the anime touches on, but games like Pokemon Scarlet & Violet certainly don't allow players to build bases using Pokemon labor.

2 Pals Are Like Skills

You Don’t See Ash Using Pokemon As Weapons

Fighting enemies with Foxsparks in Palworld

The last wild difference between the two creature types is that players can use Pals directly as weapons. Players can build weapons and other gear to equip themselves with, but they can also make gear for specific Pals to enhance them via Partner Skills. For example, many of the bigger ones can be equipped with saddles for exploration services. One of the best early monsters to catch in Palworld is called Nitewing and it can fly.

Fighting enemies with Foxsparks and Accessing the Palbox in Palworld

Palworld: 6 Beginner Mistakes To Avoid

A survival monster-collecting game set in an open-world, Palworld can be overwhelming. Here are some early-game mistakes to avoid.

Equipment for Pals goes beyond mounts, which the Pokemon series has attempted before. A weirder example is Foxparks, a Pal which can be wielded like a flamethrower. Tocotoco can be handled like a grenade launcher, but instead of grenades, it shoots explosive eggs. It is quite difficult to imagine Ash doing that to any of the Pokemon in the anime.

1 You Can Catch…People?

Tell That To Professor Oak

Of all the differences between the two series, this has to be the zaniest of them all: Pal Spheres can catch humans too. This can lead to raising a Wanted level like in Grand Theft Auto too. It’s not a glitch either, as NPCs and enemy soldiers have stats once caught. What kind of existence is it like to live in a Pal Sphere?

Is it comfortable for a Pal, let alone a human? Is it like a deep sleep? Fans have been wondering about this dilemma in the Pokemon series forever too. All in all, it just goes to show that the developer behind Palworld wanted to do one thing: make an engaging and fun action RPG for all to enjoy without restrictions. Based on the human catching aspect, that goal seems clear.