Pokemon is soon celebrating 28 years since the franchise was first established, probably releasing new trailers and announcements about upcoming games on Pokemon Day. Pokemon games are monster-collecting at its finest, and for a long time, some fans wanted the series to have competition – enter Palworld, a new title from Pocket Pair that uses cute Pokemon-like critters to help players build structures and survive in the wilds. While Palworld and Pokemon games are hardly comparable on a gameplay level, with the former gaining the nickname of "Pokemon with guns," Pocket Pair's new early access release does share quite a lot of DNA with Nintendo's franchise, to the point that there's a huge controversy brewing.
Palworld's Pals can be caught in the wild much like Pokemon would, even having items that are not too dissimilar in terms of functions to the classic Poke Ball, but there is no turn-based strategy component to the game or other typical gameplay features of the Pokemon franchise. Where these games collide, however, is in the design of their creatures, and Pocket Pair is currently seeing quite a lot of plagiarism accusations thrown at Palworld. In various cases, there do seem to be a bit too many similarities between Pokemon and Pals, and it may be hard to call all of them coincidences.
Palworld's 'Stolen' Pokemon Designs Explained
Every Palworld Pal and Pokemon Similarity Explained
Since Palworld started showing more marketing material leading up to its early access release, several Pokemon fans started noticing uncanny similarities between some existing pocket monsters and the new Pals. Now that the game is out and most of the Paldeck has been made available, those similarities have started to pile up, and some Pokemon players are calling for boycotting actions against Palworld. Pocket Pair recently released a statement saying that it just became aware of the Pokemon with guns nickname for Palworld, declaring it didn't mean to share anything with Pokemon games.
However, there are quite a few Pals that do look a lot like Pokemon. At times, these similarities are 1-on-1 between a Pal and a Pokemon, whereas other times Pals can look like two Pokemon fused together. The critters that share similarities between them are the following:
Palworld Pals | Pokemon |
Lamball | Wooloo |
Cattiva | Zorua |
Lifmunk | Leafeon |
Tanzee | Grookey and Pansage |
Jolthog | Togedemaru and Shaymin |
Depresso | Espurr |
Cremis | Eevee |
Direhowl | Lycanroc |
Tocotoco | Xatu and Toucannon |
Bristla | Bellossom and Mareanie |
Woolipop | Alcremie and Mareep |
Nitewing | Staraptor |
Robinquill | Decidueye |
Grintale | Galarian Meowth |
Dinossom | Meganium and Ivysaur |
Verdash | Cinderace |
Wumpo | Pangoro and Tangrowth |
Fenglope | Cobalion |
Anubis | Lucario |
Grizzbolt | Electabuzz |
Lyleen | Lilligant |
Jetragon | Latios and Latias |
Boltmane | Luxray |
Dumud | Clodsire and Sobble |
It's hard to determine if Pocket Pair did draw inspiration from existing Pokemon for its Pal designs, but some do seem to share far more than mere appearance. An example that many fans have brought up is how Verdash shares multiple elements that compose Cinderace's model, placing both critters side by side and highlighting their similarities. The same holds true for several other Palworld Pals, and if not only in terms of design and appearance, then also in regard to general themes.
For example, Jetragon is a jet-like dragon Pal, and that is pretty much what both Latios and Latias from Gen 3 Pokemon games are. Not only that, but Jetragon also looks a lot like a fusion of Latios and Latias, with multiple design elements in common. The same goes for Depresso, which shares eerily similar ears and body structure with Espurr, whereas Dinossom seems to be based on the same design philosophy used for Pokemon like Meganium and Ivysaur. Ultimately, Pokemon fans are being vocal about these resemblances, but it remains to be seen whether this will affect Palworld and how, if so.
