Highlights

  • Some Pokemon fans are accusing Palworld of blatantly ripping off Game Freak's monster designs.
  • While their complaints appear numerous, the overall reception to the game's early access release is largely positive, with Palworld already boasting hundreds of thousands of players.
  • Some Palworld fans even acknowledged the similar creature designs but said they don't care about them, arguing that the Pokemon franchise badly needs a rival.

A number of vocal Pokemon fans have taken to social media to offer some harsh words about Palworld, arguing that the game is quite blatant at ripping off Game Freak's character designs. Their criticism gained online traction shortly after Palworld was released in early access on PC and Xbox consoles, in addition to reaching Xbox Game Pass.

First announced in June 2021, Palworld has long worn the "Pokemon with guns" label, even though its developer—Pocketpair—consistently tried to distance itself from such descriptions. But given the current state of the monster taming genre, comparisons with Nintendo's iconic franchise appear impossible, as non-Pokemon games of this sort are an exceedingly rare breed.

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It is hence unsurprising that Palworld invited quite a bit of scrutiny from the Pokemon fandom immediately following its early access launch. That ongoing interest has so far yielded a substantial wave of accusations alleging that the game brazenly stole Game Freak's monster designs. Cinderace, Espurr, and Meganium are just some of the many creatures that the fandom accused Palworld of ripping off, as are Lucario, Flairees, and Galarian Meowth.

This wave of criticism is far from unprecedented; concerns about Palworld creature designs being too close to Pokemon started circulating online as soon as Pocketpair began sharing gameplay footage from its latest title. And while even some of the game's biggest advocates agree that Palworld is walking a thin line with its character designs, its roster of creatures still appears to be distinct enough to minimize the chances of copyright infringement litigation.

Palworld Is Off to a Strong Start in Spite of Polarizing Monster Designs

None of that is to say that the online reactions to Palworld are largely negative. On the contrary, the game started leading the Steam Top Sellers chart immediately after reaching early access and has over 370,000 concurrent players on Valve's platform as of this writing, circa noon ET on January 19. With the weekend being just around the corner, it is conceivable that Palworld will further improve on that player peak figure over the next 48 hours.

Moreover, while a vocal section of Game Freak's fandom appears to be unhappy with the game's creature designs, such opinions have already been met with some online ridicule. A number of Palworld fans have thus cheekily opined that their Pokemon-loving colleagues are more concerned with criticizing other monster taming games than holding their favorite developer accountable when it delivers lazy new entries in the franchise. Meanwhile, others have acknowledged the similarities between Palworld and Pokemon but insisted that they don't care about them, arguing that Game Freak's series is in dire need of competition.