"Pokémon with guns" became the go-to description for Pocketpair's Palworld because, well, the screenshots and footage shown around its initial announcement indicated that, yes, the in-game creatures look like Pokémon holding guns.
According to communications director and publishing manager John ‘Bucky’ Buckley (thanks, IGN), the "Pokémon with guns" moniker isn't particularly well-liked by the folks over at Pocketpair. In speaking at GDC last month, he said:
“We revealed the game to the world in June of 2021, so quite a few years ago. We posted a trailer at what's called Indie Live Expo, which is an indie gaming event in Japan. We showed this off to the Japanese audience initially, we had a really, really good reception. But very quickly, Western media got eyes on this little game, and we were very quickly branded, as early as 2021, as a ‘certain franchise’ plus guns. This would be something that has stuck with us to this very day, despite our best efforts to shake that off.”
He then spoke directly with IGN and said that the main inspiration behind Palworld was actually ARK, and that Pocketpair wanted to create creatures that had more personality.
“A lot of us are huge ARK people, and our previous game, Craftopia, kind of has some stuff in it that we really loved from ARK and some ideas from ARK. So we wanted to just take that and make it bigger. And one of the things about ARK, is that everything’s about the dinosaurs. Some are cute, some are cool. But we wanted to give them more personality, more abilities, more uniqueness. So that was the pitch. The pitch was, let's make something like ARK, but a lot heavier on the automation and each creature's like its own very special thing. And then we show that first trailer, and then this title kind of came out. And no, we weren't super happy about it, but it is what it is.”
He ends by saying that if people wish to keep calling it "Pokémon with guns", then he doesn't particularly have an issue with it, but he'd at least like players to give it a chance first, as they'd likely find that the gameplay doesn't reflect the description.
Pocketpair is still knee-deep in a lawsuit with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company over apparent patent infringements within Palworld. Buckley had described the day in which the lawsuit was announced as "depressing", noting that "pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a fan".
Do you think the "Pokémon with guns" description is justified? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.
[source ign.com]
Comments 53
Honestly, we could do with less if not even none of such monikers and descriptions in general as they're extremely reductive at best and even harmful at worst - even leaving Palworld aside, there are all the x-likes, x-killers and so on (not to mention the straight up pejoratives some people inappropriately use like bootleg, rip-off etc.)...
Well had no issues when people were sharing that to promote the plagiarised Monsters game though. Conveniently.
"despite our best efforts to shake that off"
This is the picture I keep associating with Palworld; Electabuzz with a minigun.
If Palworld is not "Pokemon With Guns", then what are those creatures carry?
Coconut?
Haha yeah I’m sure now that Nintendo’s lawyers are on your tail you don’t like the description. But let’s not pretend that wasn’t EXACTLY the edgey look you were going for when you first showed it. Why else would all the pals look so close to Pokémon?
If you don’t want it to called Pokémon with guns, then don’t make it Pokémon with guns 🤷♂️
I think the description is perfect.
@Anti-Matter,
Exactly.
I'm not too fond of when people use accurate descriptions of my faults om me either.
But if the boot fits.
I'm interested if they ever be allowed in the distant future to release the game on the Nintendo Switch 2 and if they will release it on NS2 if they allowed?! I know Nintendo doesn't allow games in any type test versions and not full releases yet, so that's one of reasons why I'm only own Minecraft at PC as Java and not yet at only Consoles (Nintendo) I own.
The developer is very open, almost boastful of the fact that they take existing ideas rather than coming up with new ones, and now they're bitter that people are comparing their game to an existing franchise.
Well all the pictures of this game I see monsters (who are held in your pocket) holding guns.
So......come on what did you expect.
It's not exactly "Pokémon with knives" now is it.
The game is very fun, but I felt like the guns took away a lot of potential.
I mean…they kinda brought the comparison on themselves, regardless of whether the genre is completely different.
@AlexOlney What's your view on games like Nexomon TemTem and the like? they took or used existing ideas as well.
LOL. You made this bed, now you have to lie in it.
"Tiger Isn't Fond Of The 'has stripes' Description"
If Palworld didn't sell more than Scarlet and Violet in a shorter space of time people here wouldn't care about it at all. Having to boost the performance of Scarlet and Violet on Switch 2, a whole new system going on 3 years after release really speaks volumes.
Removed - inappropriate
Stop making the creatures look like pokémon and we'll stop calling it pokémon with guns.
I agree that it can be a bit insulting to developers to be constantly compared to something else like that but in this case it is one hundred percent warranted.
maybe they should had their creatures not resemble the Pokémon so much
(don't they have their own art style for the creatures?)
Pokémon, Digimon, Dragon Quest, Yo-Kai Watch, Spectrobes, all their creatures are able to stand apart, due to the different art style of the creatures
Then don't blatantly rip off (ahem, I mean, 'make legally distinct') so many Pokemon designs and slap guns in their hands. Voila, no one will describe your game that way.
This company is so disingenuous it's insane lmao
lol I mean I hope Nintendo leaves them alone, but they absolutely knew what they were doing
I'm sure they have always hated the pokemon comparisons even when it was helping them sell games, and that this statement isn't motivated by the lawsuit at all. 😂
Lol. Lmao even. Had no problem with it until the lawyers came knocking. No one who sees Electabuzz with a damn minigun would call it anything else. Funny when the thing that makes you popular is exactly what prevents you from enjoying it. Tiger King effect.
Looking for some clicks with this article!! Despite the fact it's obvious there is no writing to state an opinion. Maybe they are supportive of the developer and think what they said was true.
They openly claim plagiarism without explicitly using that word, but don’t like it when they’re compared… Huh.
@TheBoilerman That will probably be DLC later on.
Seriously though, that was their own trailer: Conspicuously Pokemon-like creatures, with guns, what were they expecting?
It’s been too long since I have last heard about this stupid situation.
When seeing that picture, i was like: let it be on switch 2! Hahah
I think that's like the main reason why it became so successful.
What else are supposed to call it? Totally-different-and-legally-distinct-fictional-creatures-with-a-unique-gunplay-mechanic-never-before-seen? Get real.
They're just so slimy and fake. It's Pokemon with guns when they want articles to advertise for them, their trailers were full of Pokemon iconography and the monsters resemble Pokemon.
Now they got the sales and a lawsuit on them and it's inconvenient for them they're distancinf it. I Hope they never shake the label. .
I hope their community manager Bucky quits acting so disingenuous. I don't think i've seen one article where he hasn't tried to be evasive, misleading or pretending to be a Pokemon fan. He should be ashamed.
Dude…
It will always be Poke-Digimon with guns.
@RubyCarbuncle Temtem actually tried to make it's creatures semi-unique in appearance via art style. Nexomon wears its inspiration on it's sleeve and also tries to make unique designs.
Same with Coromon.
Pocketpair by comparison initially looked like they literally tried to amalgamate designs straight from Pokemon.
Lets not pretend Anubis isn't literally just Lucario slightly edited in terms of design, or that Azurmane isnt literally a legally distinct Zebstrika, among others.
There's very few Pokemon clones I've seen where you can point at a design and say "This is literally X pokemon"
And I've seen creature designs from all 3 games. Pocketpair has the largest number of blatant ripiff designs by a fair margin.
The audacity of talking about Craftopia as if it weren't a blatant Breath Of The Wild clone as well ☠️
I would have accepted being called out but the instant I was compared to a certain American I despise that's where I draw the line.
Would "Pokemon with lawsuit" be a better description?
"Pokemon but if Game freak cared about" would be a better description.
@RubyCarbuncle I don't really think it is about ideas. There have been numerous monster farming-training style games over the years and I don't think Nintendo was the creator of that whole concept to begin with. It is about the intellectual property and likeness. The Pal world monsters look like quick, crude, slightly altered versions of the actual pokemon. I'm with Nintendo on this one
Counterpoint to the dev: Just look at it.
Bro, suck it up, have you watched your own game??
There's a reason people call it that.
Their previous game Craftopia which they talk about expanding upon for Palworld they never actually completed yet you can still buy to this day and would you be surprised it's art style is trying to be BotW and whatever store bought assets they could get their hands on. Between their lack of original ideas, crypto cons, AI usage to hide their uninspired art, asset flip work, and just all around bad developer practices it only pin points how much hatred of Nintendo can fuel a fan boys to prop up these bad developers.
If you’re not fan of the label then make sure your game doesn’t give off that impression lol. Either make it less Pokemon clone or get rid of the guns period.
@JohnnyMind
Yeah while i understand how these are definitely pokemon like creatures with guns it does feel like the "pokemon with guns" label kind of gave some the idea that it was a gameplay description when from what i hear of it the game is more of a survival game (seen it compared to ARK as mentioned in the article) though havent seen too much of it so am unsure how much catching and fighting factor into the gameplay loop.
...Well, it's not Digimon with guns.
The problem with the recent statements is the blatant backpedaling.
Previously, Pocketpair were pretty open that Craftopia and Palworld were essentially clones and were riffing on the obvious franchises. They had a "so what?" attitude because they were in the market for a quick and easy buck.
Now Pocketpair have a well-received and popular game on their hands this narrative needs to change because there is marketable room to grow into a franchise.
It's pretty clear that ARK was ONE of their reference points, but it isn't how the game was marketed to the audience, not to mention how Palworld looks from a visual standpoint (and the present predicament they are under with TPC).
And this makes sense, Pokemon + Guns was an oddly bizarre and appealing head turner and got EVERYONE talking because we wanted to know if it would survive being launched or get shut down.
If they'd shown off that this was primarily a Survival style crafting game I (and I likely a few others) wouldn't have been as quick to pick it up. They knew EXACTLY what they were doing
@goldgriffin360 I just think if Palworld didn't get the media attention it did and if it didn't succeed nobody here would have cared. It doesn't really matter to me what happens in the Lawsuit now because I've already gotten my fill of the game and it pains me to say this but I got a lot more enjoyment from Palworld than I ever did from Scarlet and Violet regardless if the characters look similar or not. I hope the upcoming Pokèmon Legends ZA offers an enjoyable experience but given how mediocre Pokèmon has been during the Switch era except for New Pokèmon Snap because I loved that game I'm not going to set my expectations high. I will be optimistic at the same time though.
Wow, you guys are being so unfair to Palworld. It’s obvious the monster designs are totally inspired by ARK’s dinosaurs. And they clearly tried their best to avoid Pokémon comparisons—by not changing anything at all.
@RubyCarbuncle You are right to say that it would of not been as much ( or maybe even none ) of an issue if there was not so much attention but that goes both ways ( as everything does ) because we all know how that attention was acquired. Pal World would of never been anywhere near as hyped or played ( sold ) without the resemblance of the characters. I think most ( if not 99% ) agree on that. I don't care for Pokemon myself that much. The game concept is interesting but the characters, story, and basic rpg structure of the games does nothing for me. This is why I had all of zero interest in Pal World and will never play it. While it isn't a standard RPG there are still many better more interesting shooters to play than that. It's only hook to me was " it's Pokemon with guns" . I'm sure there was a lot more to it as well but most started playing because of " it's Pokemon with guns " .
I am glad you enjoyed it though ( as for anyone else who did ) I am no champion of Nintendo litigation either as when they go after a fan project that never tries to be sold I find that to be some B.S.
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