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Palworld has quickly become the most viral game of 2024 since its recent Early Access release. With that fame is naturally going to come a degree of detraction, but what Pocketpair and Palworld have found is the Pokemon comparisons the game has been reaping since early development have turned into straight-up plagiarism allegations.
The question is how much these plagiarism allegations actually stick. Certainly, the gameplay of Palworld is drastically different in comparison to Pokemon, being more comparable to other survival-crafting titles like Ark: Survival Evolved or Valheim, but it’s primarily in the creature models where observers are finding remarkable similarities. Let’s look at a handful of Pals and their similar Pokemon to determine how credible this all may be.
Sparkit/Raichu
The bodies of Sparkit and Raichu aren’t too terribly similar aside from some similar coloration. The types are definitely identical, they’re clearly both meant to be small electric creatures. The primary, and possibly most damning, similarity comes in the tail. That lightning bolt symbol at the end of its long tail is, frankly, identical to Raichu’s design. It’s a small case, especially considering how different the rest of both creatures look, but it’s hard to believe nobody at Pocketpair noticed this, especially when Raichu is the evolved form of the most iconic Pokemon in history, Pikachu.
Tanzee/Pansage
Tanzee and Pansage are both grass monkeys utilizing similar shades of green and pale yellow on similar points of their bodies. From a design standpoint, it’s hard not to recognize the similarities there, however, Pansage doesn’t have the ability to wield an AK-47, so that clearly gives Tanzee the upper edge. It’s notoriously known among Pokemon fans that Game Freak just won’t stop putting monkeys in the series, so Pocketpair would be a little hard-pressed to design a monkey Pal that doesn’t overlap with at least one of the Pokemon monkey designs.
Pengullet/Piplup
The white section on the head that stretches under the mouth and around both eyes is certainly the most eyebrow-raising similarity between Pengullet and Piplup. they are both blue penguins that utilize water typing as well, which could also be considered a bit of a copy, but simultaneously there is a natural logic that would follow making a penguin a water-type and therefore blue.
Gumoss/Ditto
The little black dot eyes and gooey, amorphous bodies are the main points of uncanny similarity between Gumoss and Ditto. Aside from that, there are a few more notable differences between this Pokemon and Pal than most of the other pairs on here. Gumoss isn’t a normal type and it can’t transform into anything else while maintaining its thousand-yard stare like Ditto can.
Cremis/Eevee
The head of Cremis is immediately recognizable as being remarkably similar to Eevee, one of the most iconic Pokemon in the entire series’ canon. Can Cremis take on any number of other typings? No, Cremis is, frankly, a fairly underpowered Pal without much utility around the base or in battle (Not one of Palworld‘s more promising starter Pals), but similar to the Raichu/Sparkit comparison, it’s just hard to imagine someone at Pocketpair not realizing this looks like something else so iconic as Eevee.
So, Is Palworld a Shameless Clone? Maybe Not
There are more than a few examples here where an onlooker could say “This seems shamelessly taken from a Pokemon design,” and it seems as though The Pokemon Company has officially taken notice, as indicated by the company’s recent statement intending to investigate Palworld and any potential plagiarism in a close comparison with Pokemon.
To an extent, there’s also an argument to be made that’s rooted in the logic of the South Park “Simpsons Did It” episode. In a similar fashion to The Simpsons, Pokemon has been around forever and Game Freak has created more than a thousand different creatures in that time. So how would one make a creature-catching video game in 2024 without some Pokemon overlap? Maybe it’s simple and Pocketpair intentionally tried to align itself with the “Pokemon aesthetic” or maybe it’s just not possible.
