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
I also don't think that it's all that violent either (nor have I even played it), but I guess I'll put forth what I imagine the argument is.
Palworld might feel more violent and "edgy" because the Pal designs are intentionally designed to be charming and cartoony and cute, so combining it with guns is more of a shock than say, Call of Duty, where military guys shooting at military guys doesn't feel out of place. Obviously CoD is way more violent and M rated, but it's all within expectations.
Not to mention Pals are a blatant rip-off of Pokémon, a series where the creatures are constantly explained to be your best friends and partners.
Personally, I don't see it as very different than a lot of games, but I can definitely see this argument being made. I also don't like the devs for Palworld (to me, they seem like slop farmers looking for ragebait, which I think attracts annoying fans like nothing else) so that might influence my opinion.
Yeah, that's really what it comes down to.
The trailer has these cute critters and cozy pastoral scenes that wouldn't look out of place in Pokemon, then there's the guns, then there's a cut to scenes of Pals sweating at assembly lines and struggling to push giant wheels while cheerful music still plays, and then it cuts back to more typical scenes as though nothing happened. It appears to have been changed since then but I also remember earlier Steam summaries emphasizing the "yeah you force them to slave away in sweatshops" angle too. All of which is to say it felt very reminiscent of early Newgrounds flash games where the joke is that you're shooting Pikachu or the Powerpuff Girls or whatever.
I don't think Palworld is shockingly depraved or anything, but I think it very much wants to be seen that way, and that's why I roll my eyes hard whenever it comes up.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: