Palworld - Pokemon with guns.

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,262
5,697
118
Palworld is a new survival game that is going to be all over the place for the next little while as the concept is fucking wild and easy streamer bait. Essentially it's a survival game like you've seen a million times before, think Arc, Valheim, whatever your favorites are except now add Pokemon, slavery, and guns to it. Sounds wild but that's kind of what it is.

You are a survivor in a world with legally distinct Pokemon called Pals. These pals can be caught and used for various things depending on the type of Pal you caught. Some can do work for you like building your house, others can ride on your back and shoot other Pals with Uzi's, you can even murder them and cook them for food. A lot of the Pokemon tropes are there, the Pal's have types (grass, fire, water, poison, etc) and the strengths and weaknesses that go along with that. Most are weak to bullets though, and where bullets don't work, grenades probably will.

The moment to moment gameplay is gathering resources like stone, wood, food, whatever, then using that stuff to build a base. At your base you build worktables to then build weapons, armor, to take on the bigger stronger pals and turn them into your slaves to do even bigger things. Though like most survival games there really isn't much of an end-goal exactly, except I guess see how efficient you can get your base to run and I suppose taking out the biggest rarest Pals in the land.

The game is definitely a novelty coming from the brutality of mowing down Pikachu with an AK-47, so it might be one of those flash in the pan kind of games. However once you're over the goofy shock of Pokemon with Guns, the actually gameplay is actually really good. It's just one of those mileage will vary depending on how deep you get into your survival game loops.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
29,538
12,274
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
That sounds insane. I am not interested, but I am happy the gameplay loop is good.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
15,015
3,881
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
Pokemon with guns sounds like something from mid 2000s newgrounds. I like the fact you can do something with your palmon or whatever, like having them help you work, but from the trailer it sounds more like you're a cruel task master instead of a caretaker. So... meh.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,262
5,697
118
Pokemon with guns sounds like something from mid 2000s newgrounds. I like the fact you can do something with your palmon or whatever, like having them help you work, but from the trailer it sounds more like you're a cruel task master instead of a caretaker. So... meh.
It depends on how you look at it i suppose. You throw a pokeball at a task and if the Pal is capable of doing it, they just do whatever it is. Gathering, building, whatever. Not every Pal can do everything and they kind of just go about whatever like Leemings.
 

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,603
1,827
118
Apparently its doing really well, and once again I have to ask how anybody at gamefreak still have a job, sitting on probably the most valuable IP in the world and doing next to nothing with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,454
5,707
118
Australia
Apparently its doing really well, and once again I have to ask how anybody at gamefreak still have a job, sitting on probably the most valuable IP in the world and doing next to nothing with it.
Well Nintendo aren’t going to let them make shit like Palworld with it. But, with luck or planetary alignment, the new Pokémon series being a sort of adventurer style series rather than revolving around the Pokémon league means the games may change up. Or they do more spin offs in the vein of Mystery Dungeon or Darkness XD or Ranger.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Bob_McMillan

Elite Member
Aug 28, 2014
5,431
2,052
118
Country
Philippines
Pokemon with guns sounds like something from mid 2000s newgrounds. I like the fact you can do something with your palmon or whatever, like having them help you work, but from the trailer it sounds more like you're a cruel task master instead of a caretaker. So... meh.
Apparently you can also capture (and then slave/sell) human beings, so "caretaker" seems to be off the table.

Anyway, yeah it does seem like streamer bait, but surprisingly well made streamer bait. It looks like some weird mishmash of Fortnite and Pokemon, except perhaps more polished than the latest Pokemon games.
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,881
9,329
118

So Pal nr 69 is a Lopunny knockoff that wants to fuck people. Taking bets on how long until the mod that lets you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,454
5,707
118
Australia

So Pal nr 69 is a Lopunny knockoff that wants to fuck people. Taking bets on how long until the mod that lets you.
God, you know looking at what I assume are all the types there, they must be on the razor's edge of IP infringement. Because based on that small sample, the only one they've changed from what I recognise in Pokemon is 'Normal' became 'Neutral'.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,603
1,827
118
Well Nintendo aren’t going to let them make shit like Palworld with it. But, with luck or planetary alignment, the new Pokémon series being a sort of adventurer style series rather than revolving around the Pokémon league means the games may change up. Or they do more spin offs in the vein of Mystery Dungeon or Darkness XD or Ranger.
Even if you take out the gun aspect, a survival sim in a pokemon world, where you capture them and build base with them, would sell amazingly well and wouldn't be that hard to make.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

FakeSympathy

Elite Member
Legacy
Jun 8, 2015
3,509
3,243
118
Seattle, WA
Country
US
Apparently you can also capture (and then slave/sell) human beings, so "caretaker" seems to be off the table.
......you can even murder them and cook them for food.
And since human's can be captured the same way, they can also be killed and turned into hamburger.

10/10, getting this game right now
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Dwarvenhobble

Is on the Gin
May 26, 2020
6,016
665
118
Even if you take out the gun aspect, a survival sim in a pokemon world, where you capture them and build base with them, would sell amazingly well and wouldn't be that hard to make.
Even taking the survival aspect out, real time Pokemon battles that isn't some moba or Pokemon go sound good
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,881
9,329
118
Apparently this game is garnering controversy, with the dev being accused of plagiarizing, asset flipping and/or AI-generating legally distinct knockoffs of Pokemon to create its fakemon Pals









These are just a few examples. There's a lot out there

Also, the devs c-suit is apparently a crypto/NFT/AI shilling tech bro, which, you know, might explain some of the above
 
Last edited:

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,603
1,827
118
I think the only issue here is if the art asset of pokemon they're using is the actual art from a pokemon game that they ripped and added to their game before hiding it (ie its still in the code), which should be enough for gamefreak to sue them, see hot coffee case.

Otherwise having an ai generator in the game and using it to make new "pokemon" is exactly the kind of stuff ai generator should be used for, since it allow to do things that cannot be done otherwise (creating millions of variation).
 
Jun 11, 2023
2,930
2,148
118
Country
United States
Gender
Male
I think the only issue here is if the art asset of pokemon they're using is the actual art from a pokemon game that they ripped and added to their game before hiding it (ie its still in the code), which should be enough for gamefreak to sue them, see hot coffee case.

Otherwise having an ai generator in the game and using it to make new "pokemon" is exactly the kind of stuff ai generator should be used for, since it allow to do things that cannot be done otherwise (creating millions of variation).
Yeah it must make stuff like copyright a legal nightmare, because of the infinite expanse of grey. Not a good time to be an actual artist of pretty much any kind.
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,262
5,697
118

I played this game for 18 hours over the weekend and i can confirm the game is great. Also i can tell that similar designed creatures are not copyright infringement. There are a lot of "pals" in the game that are clear pokemon inspired but also not pokemon. And this is going to happen since many pokemon and pals are designed of real creatures.

If anything god should file a copyright suit because theyve stolen his ideas. I mean a bird pal/pokemon based off an eagle!? A sheep!? Jesus needs a lawyer!!!!
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,262
5,697
118
Palworld is the 5th most played game on steam, which is insane considering the game is also on Gamepass.
 

Satinavian

Elite Member
Legacy
Apr 30, 2016
1,942
805
118
Palworld is the 5th most played game on steam, which is insane considering the game is also on Gamepass.
He,
just think about how much money could be had for porting the actual Pokemon games for PC in a timely manner. But instead a half decent clone with some added gimmicks takes that market.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CriticalGaming

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
15,015
3,881
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
I think the only issue here is if the art asset of pokemon they're using is the actual art from a pokemon game that they ripped and added to their game before hiding it (ie its still in the code), which should be enough for gamefreak to sue them, see hot coffee case.

Otherwise having an ai generator in the game and using it to make new "pokemon" is exactly the kind of stuff ai generator should be used for, since it allow to do things that cannot be done otherwise (creating millions of variation).
Really the fact that Nintendo hasn't nuked them kinda implies there is no copywrite violation. We all know that Nintendo is the most litigious game publisher around and as far as I know there hasn't even been a peep from them.