ha that's so funny I just heard about this from my friends a few days ago. They are all pretty loyal Pokemon fans despite being in their 30's.
They were all excited for this game, and as a fan myself, I have to agree that it does look pretty cool.
There's already several copycat franchises that are obvious knock-offs of Pokemon, the biggest of which is probably Digimon.
How is this any different than Digimon?
> the biggest of which is probably Digimon
Digimon is more about "other self", with exception of Cybersleuth and like Season 4 (which was Digimon but Power Rangers transformations). Only Cybersleuth (and other more recent games) were Pokemon "catch them" like plot-lines.
Digimon are fully sentient beings equal to humans (or even in some cases, divinely inspired angels, devils, or gods). In many cases, they are the representation of a person's soul and the "other self" reflected in the digital-world. This is why when Tai feels courageous (his Crest is Courage), Agumon gets powered-up. Because Agumon is specifically connected to Tai.
Palworld seems to be closer to Pokemon if anything, though the crafting stuff makes it look closer to Minecraft if anything. Some of my friends compare it to Ark:Evolved.
"Pokemon but more grimdark" was probably Monster Rancher, if I were to pick a 90s clone series.
Or the Persona series even.
I feel like this is all beside the point, though.
Game and story mechanics can't be copyrighted. Art—including character design—can be copyrighted. And that is where I think Palworld might have a problem, because at least to me, many of the models look very similar.
Yeah. No one will ever confuse "Lucemon" (Digimon) with anything from Pokemon, its very distinct.
But Palworld's Fenglope is *damn* close to Cobalion (same animal, same color scheme, same subdivisions with the same color on those subdivisions).
> pretty loyal Pokemon fans despite being in their 30's
Pokémon is 28 years old, so people now in their 30s would have been the core demographic of Pokémon fans at the start. I would expect them to be the most loyal fans, no "despite" needed.
> How is this any different than Digimon?
The criticism I've seen is of specific creature designs that look very close to those of specific Pokémon. I don't particularly care about that either – but the criticism is not just that it's another mon collection game.
I found the borrowing from Zelda (Sounds, Fonts) to be more concerning than the Pokemon similarities. Like you mentioned, there are a ton of capture game clones that are similar. The Zelda lifts are the area where I feel they may be flying too close to the sun. Either way, the game has a fun loop and I'm not a Pokemon player more of a survival games enthusiast. Been a good time with friends I hope they are able to navigate the IP issues.
> There's already several copycat franchises that are obvious knock-offs of Pokemon, the biggest of which is probably Digimon.
Yeah no. The only thing similar about them is the name and that they are monster-based games. Art is HEAVILY distinct, gameplay is distinct (original V-Pets were LED toy monster care simulators while Pokémon was rip-off Shin Megami Tensei with Dragon Quest designs), and the animes cannot even be compared (Pokémon is episodic with very little plot, Digimon Adventure is a monster-of-the-week with dedicated character growth episodes and an overarching plot that features the pains of divorce, adoption, child abuse, and finally growing up from the eyes of children.)
So to wrap this all back to Palworld, it’s different than Digimon because Palworld is mimicking Pokémon while Digimon did its own thing.
Personally, I think the visual designs in Digimon are significantly more distinct from Pokemon.