Every major franchise is bound to have its imitators.Pokemonis by no means an exception. There’s tons of other games out there that are all about collecting cute, magical monsters and leading them in battle against other monsters. Generally,Pokemonimitators stick to very similar themes, being very family friendly and focusing on adorable creatures instead of complicated stories. However, onePokemonimitator that seems determined to break that pattern just got announced. It’s calledPalworld,and in this open-world survival game, players can both collect monsters and craft guns and other realistic military equipment to wage war with other Pal owners.
There’s no doubt aboutPalworldbeing a vastly different imitator.Palworldblew up on Twitteras soon as the game was revealed, with users making all kinds of comments about the shocking blend of adorablePokemon-esque monsters with militarism and heavy weapons. That Twitter response has already definedPalworld’s reputation; it’ll always be known by potential fans asPokemonwith guns. However, that can’t be the game’s whole identity. If it markets itself that way and its mechanics really focus on that combination of two facets,Palworldmight not have enough completely unique ideas to sell players on its premise.
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Palworld Could Be Trapped in Pokemon Comparisons
On the one hand,Palworldis at risk of being the butt ofa running joke in thePokemoncommunity. The combination of guns andPokemonresults in really extreme tonal dissonance because most people never imagined that anyone would ever make a game likePalworld.The fact that someone is actually trying to do it could stay laughable to some people. On the other hand, developer Pocketpair Games risks facing criticism for attempting this blend of genres. After all, there’s certainly something unsettling about the way player characters grab their Pals and use them as living shields in spite of their obvious distress. The idea of actually shooting guns atPokemon-like monsters is a little troubling too. Some might findPalworld’s design callous or distasteful.
That means thatPalworldneeds to find a way to describe its central concept as something other than “Pokemonwith guns”. IfPalworldcan present an interesting story and a well-constructed setting that makePalworld’s seemingly incongruous building blocks make sense together, then maybe the video game community will pause for thought and givePalworlda try. After all,Pokemonhas a long historyof developing beautiful, engaging regions and fun if simple stories that draw players into the world. That’s whatPalworldreally needs to learn fromPokemonother than filling the world with cute monster companions.
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Making Palworld More Than Pokemon
Outside of that, though,Palworldneeds to establish itself as a well-rounded game in its own right. If it’s going to focus so much on players using guns, for example,Palworldneeds to come up with diverse weapon options and fun gunplay; it can’t just rely on the shock value of shooting at Pals to justify the presence of guns. The same goes for the other survival elements ofPalworld.Crafting and resource collecting seem like a great way to differentiatePalworldfromthe turn-based combat focusedPokemongames, and so Pocketpair Games should verify to create a sophisticated survival system that rewards players for doing more than fighting Pals.
Odds are thatPalworldwill never totally escape itsPokemoncomparisons. The Pals are just tooclose toPokemonin premisefor the game to ever totally stand on its own. The other ideas that Pocketpair Games is pairing with thePokemonconcept are probably the studio’s best bet in makingPalworldfeel like a truly fresh game.Palworldis a little bit of a shocking take on thePokemonconcept, but it’s also an interesting take on the survival genre. Maybe this game has more to offer to its genres than the game community expects.
Palworldreleases for PC in 2022.
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