I watched the trailer and read the steam description. I don’t like how it treats and lets you treat the pals. My 8yo was very excited to see a pokemon clone game, and asked me to stop the trailer 30 seconds in because of them beating up the pals and using them as slaves.
After seeing a few videos about it, it’s a pass for me. Pretty plainly a soulless legally distinct mishmash of random design elements with nothing to bring to the table creatively
If this was a soulless cash grab, it wouldn’t be half as optimized as it is now. I climbed a peak, and could see the other side of the map without any frame drops. AAA titles still struggle to do that.
It is bootleg Pokemon, but it’s also a well made game.
Good graphics isn’t good games though?
Like yeah someone with relatively okay skill could duplicate a famous painting, but we wouldn’t make them famous for it. Art is about making interesting choices.
the optimization is weird because yeah you can see far as hell and it looks good enough, but at the same time my entirely decent GPU can’t run it in 1080p on lowest settings
i just wish they’d implemented the resolution setting to only apply to the game world, it’s kind of idiotic to have it affect the UI as well…
Nah. It’s the Vampire Survivors of the “catch em all” genre. I thought it looked like ass in the videos - and it does! - but when you have your own hands on the controller it’s a different experience. Again, like VS, it lands in a sweet spot re: progression, expansion, new interactions, etc.
I tell people “it’s the least polished game I’ve ever played for 20+ hours”.
Then don’t play it. Also, your last sentence literally describes Pokemon. Wild animals beating the crap out of each other and enslaved by post war child army.
I said this in another comment, but the concept itself is different from the execution though. She watches pokemon, and they regularly talk about respecting the pokemon and treating them with respect. Anybody who treats pokemon as an object without love is shown in a bad light; even team rocket is shown to have great love for their Meowth that they are willing to walk away from Meowth when they think Meowth would have a better life elsewhere. On palworld steam description, they literally say pals can be treated any way you want because they thankfully don’t have any human rights issues. Kids don’t think of the bigger picture, or the deeper meaning beyond what they actually see. I’m not saying the game is bad. I’m just saying I don’t like the game for how it is, and it’s definitely not a kids game where as pokemon can be.
I haven’t played the game yet. Not sure if I will. But I’ve seen some gameplay, and, honestly, it bothers me too, and not just because beating up Pokemon feels bad. My main problem is that it could have been done in a better way that would make me feel less bad lol
The pals should be dangerous! Even the basic starter ones!
I play a Pokemon TTRPG where you can beat up Pokemon with your bare hands if you want. The difference is, they’re not helpless. A trainer without any investment in their personal combat skills is roughly a suitable match for a low level Ratata. Even in the video games, there’s a reason Professor Birch got cornered by a couple Zigzagoon. It’s the same reason you’re not allowed in the long grass without a Pokemon.
Pokemon are magical monsters that can just straight up kill you. There’s a big difference between fighting something like that, on basically equal footing, and punching a helpless stuffed animal.
It definitely takes the “Pokémon are slaves” thing and runs with it. You can kill and eat the pals. Some of them are very “human”. You basically stop short of actually whipping them, though I’m sure they’d add that in.
Edit: maybe I’ll clarify, the Syndicate is a group against the mistreatment of pals. You can capture them and force them to work for you. The player is very much the bad guy here.
The Syndicate isn’t against the mistreatment of pals. It’s the team rocket here. They keep pals in metal cages, which you release.
The pal liberation front is what you’re describing instead.
Okay, then I suppose the game is not suitable for eight year olds. That’s fine, I play a lot of games that are not suitable for eight year olds.
Yeah like I said in another comment, the game is not a kids game, and that is fine. However, the game looks cute and charming, and very like pokemon, which makes it very attractive for kids, and makes me concerned for any kid who likes playing this game.
The concern over children liking Palworld is akin to all those unfounded concerns about shooter games “causing” violence.
Humans, even small children, are VERY capable to separate fiction from reality. There’s no problem at all about a kid wanting to play a game about catching animals and using them to build your base.
Yeah because taking your pets to an arena-style fight to “fainting” is also a great model for the kids lmao
Pokémon’s dog fighting aside, Palworld has a certain cynicism that imo takes it out of the realm of a kids game. The game allows you to capture humans and then has a little blurb about how it’s “inhumane” to do so. There’s a niche for an “adult” monster capture game that Palworld is filling. I’m curious about how the game will continue to develop in early access. They have a lot of funding & hype, let’s see if they can see it through to a full release (or wallow in development like so many other Early Access survival games).
The concept itself is different from the execution though. She watches pokemon, and they regularly talk about respecting the pokemon and treating them with respect. Anybody who treats pokemon as an object without love is shown in a bad light; even team rocket is shown to have great love for their Meowth that they are willing to walk away from Meowth when they think Meowth would have a better life elsewhere. On palworld steam description, they literally say pals can be treated any way you want because they thankfully don’t have any human rights issues. Kids don’t think of the bigger picture, deeper meaning beyond what they actually see. The game is not a kids game, and that is fine. However, the game looks cute and charming, and very like pokemon, which makes me concerned for any kid who likes playing this game.
I think you’re a great parent who interrogates the media that your child is consuming!
The aesthetic of Palworld feeds that cynicism; it’s charming and colorful and awfully brutal. Parents should be aware of the game’s content and the game should probably get a Teen rating (at least in the US; not sure how PEGI does their rating).
They talk about treating them with respect… then trap them in poke balls and let them out to fight each other for bragging rights and entertainment. The people of the Pokémon world are the highest of hypocrites and that’s one of the main lessons that should be taken from that show
Other people reply by how Pokemons are being in captive is a bad thing, and even though it’s logical, I know what the Pokemon anime is. Like most anime, it teaches children kind and nice stuff, and the captive thing is ignored likely because it can’t be applied in real world. No need to doubt - Pokemon is not bad for your child.
Palworld just allows too much freedom when compared to that. You either have to be an established person to understand what you’re doing or play with your parents so they explain what your actions mean.
But at the same time, the human enemies are ones locking pals in literal cages who you can free. And none of the pals actually die when you are out fighting them in the world, they just pass out with Xs over their eyes. (Just don’t unlock the butcher knife)
Really the game lets you treat pals however you want, from never using them for work and doing everything yourself, to full on brutal working conditions. Choice is yours.
This seems like biblical levels of silly. Treating a slave creature well before you hawk it into the arena to fight for you feels a little morally nebulous.
It’s a fun game, and laughing about the pals is totally part of it. The penguins special move is getting blasted out of a bazooka, and immediately passing out. It’s hilarious, but if you think about it, it’s really not much different from Ash Catchem tossing his pokemon into cage fighting rings. Palworld is honest about it, and injects humor that clearly makes you feel uncomfortable.
The electric Pokemon were forced to work at the power plant in the first season of the anime. Pokemon have always been slaves. I totally get not liking the presentation, though. It’s far more grotesque and not abstracted away.
Considering how the steam page reads, it’s like a full blown parody by simply pointing out what Pokemon’s world must be like through the eyes of an adult.
Pals can be used to fight, or they can be made to work on farms or factories. You can even sell them or eat them!
Put an army of Pals on the job. Don’t worry; there are no labor laws for Pals.
Letting Pals do the work is the key to automation. Build a factory, place a Pal in it, and they’ll keep working as long as they’re fed—until they’re dead, that is.
Endangered Pals live in wildlife sanctuaries. Sneak in and capture rare Pals to get rich quick! It’s not a crime if you don’t get caught, after all.
I don’t use mine as slaves. I just force them to hang out with me at my camp and they just happen to do chores for me… cause they like it
That’s the way I see it. Show me a slave owner who just kinda let their slaves wander around without any kind of restraints, and let them do whatever they want
Not just slaves, but slaves people force to fight. This concept of palworld being worse is just silly.
It’s definitely not a kid game. The descriptions of the pals tells how some of them are used for torture, sex, drugs, religion all sorts of wild shit. I really hope they keep that up to because imo the game is better for it.
Pokemon always was a dog fighting economy. Growing up with it never thought about how dark it was but we old now.
Fun seeing an absurd matured version of monster catching dog fighting economy.
Idk if it’ll be living up to hype a year from now, but for now pretty fun. Also love seeing game freak miss out on all this money. You dummies have known people wanted something like this for decades!
Yeah I’m in the same boat where my time is limited and I’d honestly rather be on here arguing about feline genetic differentiation than playing the equivalent to a game made by PETA that caught on with the crowd who responds to every Nintendo Post with just the word “PalWorld”.
Nothing else, no discussion, I think some of them are actually PalWorld fans who don’t realize they’re hurting the case of PalWorld being different enough to avoid legal disputes by associating it with competitor titles.
Actually, you know what, now that I talked through it I know I would love to play this title but I want absolutely nothing to do with the community around it.
It wouldn’t be a good game if it wasn’t so much fucking fun. It has basically no coherent story, the gameplay loop is not that complex, but the many different pals, their abilities, and the exploration are all fun as heck.
If you don’t want to associate with the people, then don’t. Don’t join the discussions.
If you want to be 100% incognito, just set yourself to invisible on Steam.
It may be fun but I’ll never know because it looks very not fun.
I know I’d hate it. It looks like a mix of my least favorite game mechanics: grinding, foraging and crafting.
It’s a $30 game that looks like a $5 game but somehow plays and engages the player better than most $70 games I see these days
If you like survival games (Ark, Rust, Valheim…), you’d probably like it. It’s a pretty decent survival game, and getting it’s nice having the Pals grind your resources for you.
It looks fun, smooth, but I can’t unsee how much shit they’ve ripped off and killing Pokemon just rubs me the wrong way.
I can get over the Pokemon ripoff, my issue is their earlier, unfinished, semi abandoned game craftopia.
The little Breath of the Wild stamina meter and glider kinda drive me up a wall. They’re just adding the same shit they’ve nabbed and put into that game and threw fuckin Pokemon in it.
The more I scroll, the more of your diatribe I see.
You know that third person game mechanics was a thing before either game existed, yeah? Did they both steal that too?
Yeah imagine killing a 20+ year old franchise that pisses on their fanbase.
If you’re delusional enough to think this slop game is going to kill Pokemon I don’t know what to tell you bud
What did they rip off? There are over a thousand pokemon, most of which are very similar to real animals or mythical creatures so you’re inevitably going to have some similarities. If there were actually copyright infringement going on, Nintendo would be all over it. Don’t tell me anubis (the pal) copied lucario when lucario copied anubis (the god)
Breath of the Wild - Stamina meter in the same style, position, and orientation. Glider and air movement, (Haven’t checked if they ripped off the cliffside climbing too but probably.)
Pokemon - At least half their designs are 80% likeness to already existing Pokemon, you use ‘balls’ to capture the creatures when they’re weak enough, you use these captured creatures to fight for you, you’re considered a ‘trainer’.
Like do I really need to spell out every fucking piece of this game that was stolen to you? Taking tons of shit from other games and mashing it into a new game is not creative, shouldn’t be celebrated, and damn sure isn’t legal. Nintendo have already confirmed they’ve only recently been made aware of it and are “investigating” it. The fact it hasn’t been Thanos snapped yet doesn’t mean it won’t be.
BOTW - None of the things you mentioned were original for that game either. I remember gliding around as Spyro all the way back in the 90’s. Even the Just Cause series had them before Zelda. Stamina bars have been in so many games I think you’d need an archeologist to work out where they originated from.
The Pals are obvious rip-off Pokémon, but as Nintendo / Gamefreak don’t give a shit about making a half-decent game from their own IP, I think it becomes fair game for other companies to have a crack at it.
There’s no way Nintendo is “only just aware of it” when the trailer was from 1-2y ago. If they had anything obvious to stand on, they’d have blasted it before release.
The stamina meter with gliders. Looks like genshin. But was it really novel in genshin? Should we complain that RD ripped off witcher bc you can ride a horse? Mechanics like this are not legally protected, which is a good thing or someone would patented the minimap and the game industry would suck.
A comment I saw on another forum basically pointing out that Palworld demonstrates the gigantic demand for a real new Pokemon game that isn’t whatever Scarlet was.
Yeah Nintendo need to make better Pokemon games but it doesn’t make Palworld anything better than ripped off slop.
Narrator: It’s not.
