One thing that has always bothered me is how people kept calling Palworld "the game Pokémon fans have always wanted." I put around 30 hours into it, and I just don't agree:
well at first it sucked me in mostly due to the novelty of being a new Game but once the shock value wore off it just became old. There's no real story and progression sucks, and the game is just Ark with Pokemon and I already hated Ark, not to mention this game is also buggy and unoptimized as hell even with 1.0 and while it's more excusable than Pokemon for being in the same state, it's still inexcusable
Oh and also the creature designs are not the best . Like even when I first played the game I was like "some of these designs are basically asking for a lawsuit slap from Nintendo". Like I cannot name a single Pal aside from Chillet bc it's basically the mascot now, Grizzbolt cuz I kept losing to it, or Lovelander cuz it was the mascot of that weird dating sim they released "as a joke" . I don't even blame people for thinking they used Al to create these dudes because some of them genuinely look like Pokemon processed through ChatGPT. This game basically copied and regurgitated Pokemon's art style...I know that dragon quest comparison image is floating around but you need to have serious cognitive dissonance to think that they're similar in any way.... Nobody's mistaking Pokemon for dragon quest monsters and vice versa
Plus, its fanbase is based less around their love for it but rather a huge circlejerk that pat themselves on the back for "sticking it to gamefreak" and "how superior they are to the normies" (their words, not mine)
The sad reality is that Almost nobody outside of Pokemon and SMT/persona fans care about the Monster Tamer genre, One of The reasons Palworld gained traction so much is because IGN/media, haters, and gaming influencers saw it as something they could use against Pokemon.
Overall, Palworld is not a good replacement for Pokémon. What I want is better replicated in Persona/SMT, Cassette Beasts, Monster Hunter Stories and certain ROM hacks
The game could exist with basically all the same fun concepts without the edgelord slavery simulator shit tacked on. You can craft a butcher knife for fucks sake. This is 2004 newgrounds flash game level stuff.
Whats also silly is the gameplay isn't even that focused on the creature collecting aspect. Like when I tried it with some buddies, we spent 90% of the time at our base building and crafting the shit we needed to even progress! Its definitely a survival craft game first and foremost and I've played better
You can kill animals (and people) for meat/food in so many games it seems like giving examples would be pointless.
I don't understand why this game in particular gets treated like the point of the game is so heinous when your can do far worse in so many games.
You can capture, cage, and kill chickens for meat in minecraft, too. Is that better somehow?
I think the (long abandoned) pokemon bootleg cruelty aspect just didn't sit right with some people, despite the fact you probably have more opportunity to care for the Pals than Pokémon offers their creatures.
As others have articulated better, its more about how the devs (and much of the wider player base) revel in the edginess. Its not a uniquely brutal game by any means, and the cartoony style means you're not gonna see much depicted anyway
Oh, i guess. I don't really see any of that stuff myself so idk.
As in i don't exist in online spaces where palworld news and discussion would come up
I've spent some time trying to articulate why exactly I find Palworld off-putting and I think you've captured the essence of it with a single phrase.