Pokemon fans slam Palworld over alleged “stolen” designs

Pokemon players are calling out Palworld, the new Xbox and PC exclusive release from Pocket Pair, over copying Game Freak and The Pokemon Company’s designs to create their “Pals.”

The concept of “Fakemons,” or fan art made by Pokemon fans where they imagine new creatures has been around for many years. A lot of designs can be found online, and many wonder if The Pokemon Company actually take these into account when designing new creatures.

Games that look or play like Pokemon have come and gone, with a lot of positive feedback surrounding any that achieve the classic “Pokemon feeling.” Others, simply are slammed by fans for allegedly “stealing” Pokemon designs and creating monsters that resemble the Nintendo creatures.

Such is the case of Palworld, Pocket Pair’s new release, which is coming exclusively to Xbox consoles and PC on January 19.

People told me that there are hundreds of original designs and not everyone was a blatant copy of a Pokémon.
Guess what? I've seen the rest and with no surprise, 90% of them are definitely a copy of existing Pokémon, with some of them literally having parts of their models.
Damn. https://t.co/2109NvZy6c

— Barbie-Élite4 (@Barbie_E4) January 18, 2024

Pokemon fans on X have claimed that many in-game models of the “Pals,” creatures the players control in Palworld, not only resemble Pokemon designs but are “definitely a copy of existing Pokemon, with some of them literally having parts of their models.”

User ‘Barbie_E4’ took its findings to X, and made a thread about all of the lookalikes, with a lot of members of the Pokemon community supporting their claims. “There’s one that’s just literally Eevee. Like, almost a 1-1 copy,” a user commented.

“I don’t understand why so many people are defending this with tooth and nail. Truly,” said a user, while adding that “this is as shameless and blatant as it can be. Is it the guns, I wonder? Is that rlly it?” The OP quickly jumped in their post to reply: “Guns and Unreal Engine default assets combined with Pokemon.”

While pointing out that one “Pal” looked exactly like a Galarian Meowth, user ‘Barbie_E4’ made an edit where the use of the Pokemon’s face can be seen, stating that it is “definitely not a coincidence.”

Others also jumped into the post, but to clarify that this was “super obvious since the first trailers,” and to call out Pokemon fans for a “pointless blowback.” “I give it a month before ppl just forget and the devs stop supporting it,” said a user who also stated it was “pointless” to slam the Palworld devs.

It remains to be seen if Nintendo or The Pokemon Company will take legal action over these designs, as the Japanese company is well known for taking down any inappropriate use of their intellectual property.

For more on Pokemon or the upcoming release of Palworld, check out if Palworld will have crossplay between PC and Xbox, or how some Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players found more evidence of a possible Gen 5 remake.