I noticed some Palworld players complaining about Helldivers 2 this weekend. They weren’t complaining about the game itself. I don’t think they’d even played it. They were complaining about the reception it got from players.
You see, Palworld was hit with countless plagiarism accusations when it launched into early access last month. The reason for that was because all the Pals look exactly like Pokemon. There’s the PiplupPal, the LucarioPal, the GyaradosPal, the LuxrayPal, the DecidueyePal, and more. That’s before we get to the designs that smash multiple Pokemon into one Pal.
Whether it’s guilty of plagiarism or not, Palworld rode the coattails of Pokemon to great success. However, the gameplay couldn’t be further from Game Freak’s series. The catch mechanic is vaguely similar to that of Legends: Arceus, but how many ways can you change throwing a ball at a monster? From a gameplay perspective, Palworld takes liberally from Valheim, Breath of the Wild, and Fortnite. It’s unoriginal to the extreme, but its specific blend of influences makes it somewhat unique, and ultimately fun.
I don’t really care whether the Pals look like Pokemon or not, but it feels cheap and lazy. I’d be much more engaged if the developer had come up with its own cool designs, but its method clearly worked. Palworld broke every record, players love the grind, and the community is thriving. So why aren’t its players happy for its success?
I know I should have better ways to spend my time than browsing Reddit, but as I was looking at obscene 0.3 percent Mammorest captures and sprawling bases, I couldn’t help but notice the complaints about Helldivers 2. Palworld players are getting annoyed that it wasn’t hit with similar accusations of plagiarism, thanks to its similarities to cult satirical action film Starship Troopers.
I’m not ashamed to admit that Helldivers 2 takes liberally from Paul Verhoeven’s classic movie. Helldivers 2 clearly isn’t either. It feels like an homage more than a rip-off. Could you say the same about Palworld, when the CEO of developer Pocket Pair is so brazen about making derivative games in order to turn a quick profit with no love for the art itself? I’m not saying that’s inherently wrong, and it’s clearly a business plan that works, but it’s a little disappointing to say the least. Designing Not Pokemon for viral marketing just feels iffy.
Another aspect that Palworld fans don’t take into account is the fact that Palworld fails to innovate or iterate. Look back to Temtem, which was widely touted as a Pokemonlike when it launched in 2020. It wasn’t alleged as copying or stealing. It was just another game in the same genre. That’s because it was a competent game that didn’t so much copy Pokemon’s ideas but iterate on them. It took the monster-catching genre and did things differently. People forget that Pokemon itself copied liberally from Dragon Quest 5. It just improved the genre in a way that captured the imagination of millions.
Temtem took the Pokemon formula and turned it up to 11. It added an MMO flavour that urged you forwards, stuck to an interesting aesthetic that will hold up over time, and made battling far more strategic and exciting. What it didn’t do, crucially, was copy any Pokemon designs and stick them on the poster.
While Palworld has its boons, the game is derivative and rote. Maybe it’s just not to my tastes. But the Pokemon aspect is such an unimportant aspect of its gameplay loop that it feels cheap to copy Nintendo’s poster child so brazenly. It’s a marketing gimmick. That, more than any other reason, is why people complained. Helldivers 2 is an homage. Temtem is an elaboration. Palworld is none of those things, but it’s still winning. That’s great, but fans need to stop tearing down any other successful game in order to feel better about themselves and the game they support. If you can overlook a cheap marketing gimmick – which is hardly the end of the world, all things considered – then enjoy the game. Don’t complain about Helldivers 2’s plagiarism as if there’s some kind of anti-Palworld vendetta. It’s really not that deep.
