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
They didn't even changed the shop page on Steam:
"Want to build a pyramid? Put an army of Pals on the job. Don't worry; there are no labor laws for Pals."
"Letting Pals do the work is the key to automation. Build a factory, place a Pal in it, and they'll keep working as long as they're fed—until they're dead, that is."
"With Pals on your side you can tackle even the most dangerous areas. When the time comes, you might have to sacrifice one to save your skin. They'll protect your life—even if it costs their own."
"Endangered Pals live in wildlife sanctuaries. Sneak in and capture rare Pals to get rich quick! It's not a crime if you don't get caught, after all."
All this dressed as the cutesy game with obvious intention to draw children (yes, especially 13 yo edgelords)
And the comments (at least at first, i didn't checked later) were even worse, they absolutely relished in the slavery and other shit.
Only good thing about it was the Nintendo lawsuit.