this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Kinda a controversial opinion.....but I kinda don't like Palworld (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 days ago by NoahFuel@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
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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

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[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 43 points 2 days ago (3 children)

My main issue with Palworld is that it feels like it caters to sophomoric edgelordism. "Hey this game has cute critters, but - get this - you blow them apart with assault rifles and work them to death in sweatshops! Isn't that shocking and hilarious?" No, because I'm not 13 anymore.

[–] marxisthayaca@hexbear.net 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It’s really gross and it’s the type of game kids that used to set their cat on fire play.

Then again, pokemon is literal cockfights so 🤷‍♂️

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It’s really gross and it’s the type of game kids that used to set their cat on fire play.

... what? It's not any more violent than other games and when a pal dies they just get little X's on their eyes

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yeah I dont think most folks outside of Hexbear would consider Palworld particular edgelordy. I think its pretty tame.

[–] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dwarf fortress, a game hexbear loves, features detailed combat simulations where you can read step by step descriptions of combatants biting out each others' hearts.

It features child abduction and indoctrination and torture, cannibalism, corpse desecration, carnism etc.

Rimworld has slavery, nonconsentual surgery/organ harvesting, cannibalism, corpse desecration.

Violence is normal in videogames, in general the main way players interact with a world is by destroying it, and anything creative is more often colonialism than anything else.

Palworld has some cringey writing on some of the pal descriptions, and a bit of misogyny. I wouldn't say it's much worse than other games it's just a bit tongue in cheek grimcute

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think the difference is how these features are presented

[–] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How are they presented in palworld that's so egregious? In game you can select "work hard" and pals get sad and need more time in a spa.

If you butcher a pal you equip a tool then click a button, swing it at them, and loot pops out while the body ragdolls. That's pretty much the same as every game with carnism.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're focusing on specifically carnism while on top of that they play up the slavery and exploitation for laughs and cater to a fascist fanbase.

[–] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What playing up? As I said you can select work hard and they get cartoon sad faces and need to eat better food and use sanity facilities more.

I really don't see how it's different to a tax slider in a sim lol.

Compare to rimworld where the game asks you to put slave uniforms on, terror furniture, make an ideology around it, and put down revolts it's just goofy.

If you're saying it glorifies slavery to cater to fascists then factorio glorifies pollution and colonialism to appeal to facists, StarCraft glorifies war to appeal to facists, serious sam glorifies shooting sprees etc.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Whatever this ain't a hill to die on. I personally think it's lawsuit bait edge lord cashgrab garbage. If you like it this is not an indictment of you personally.

To be clear I have a ton of criticism for Pokémon too. Cutesy animal cruelty cockfighting sim.

[–] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

I think the focus on palworld is a moral panic. It's immature and mediocre with some cute graphics. That's pretty reflective of gaming broadly.

There are interesting discussions to have about why games gravitate towards violence and destruction as the modes of interaction but holding up something extraordinarily average seems like pearl clutching.

It's not even games exclusively. We're positively drowning in films and books about (or heavily featuring) murder, war, torture, and oppression.

Palworld spends about 1000x more effort on cute base decorations than any being mean to pals.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago

That's what's so weird about the edgelord stuff in the game to me. It isn't even an edgy game. It's a cute cartoony game, that just says it's horrible and bad, they don't show anything horrible, they just tell you "yeah, this cute little guy singing a song as he grows plants, he's actually your slave and is in constant pain and suffering even though you'd never suspect that if you didn't read this text." It's weirdly tacked on edgelord shit, it feels really shallow, like they got a lot of unexpected attention from edgelords from their ads and decided to just shoehorn in more edgy text to appeal to them or something.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I feel life in missing something tbh. It really is more tame than most games with guns

[–] worlds_okayest_mech_pilot@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] 389aaa@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago

I think Palworld isn't worth much, personally, but yeah it's pretty strange to me seeing so many people in here act like it's particularly depraved.

Then again I've seen people genuinely advocate banning violent video games entirely on this webbed site, so I shouldn't be too too shocked. There's a biiiiiiiig contingent of people here with rather puritan morals.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 day ago

To be fair, they seemed to have identified the limited novelty of the edge and have leaned away from that idea over the course of development.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

When this game was new, someone on here posted an article that said it was like that one guy who based his entire personality on an image of Bugs Bunny smoking weed, and that’s been the first thing on my mind whenever anyone brings up Palworld.

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

based his entire personality on an image of Bugs Bunny smoking weed

yeah but it’s cool when i do it ok

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

based and blinged-out-Tall-Tee-pilled

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

that one guy who based his entire personality on an image of Bugs Bunny smoking weed

Didn't even pick Gansta Spongebob. sadness

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 30 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The game does seem like it sucks, but I do really like the concept of a game where Pokemon actually exist in the world and do things, which I think is the main "this is what pokemon fans always wanted". Pokopia tries to have that appeal but it's very much a dollhouse in the sense that the Pokemon each do very little or sometimes functionally nothing.

Edit: Also, not to bat for the palworld devs too much when I fundamentally just don't really respect them, but I sincerely appreciate their defense of their crass plagiarism undermining Nintendo's litigiousness. I'd rather live in a world where people can rip off Pokemon 100% and get away with it.

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Pocketpair is not only taking Nintendo on in the courts but have a goated working culture with far more time off available than other Japanese studios, and fully flexible policies. Despite the crass product they developed, I think they are a pretty respectful studio.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

Fair enough

[–] MiraculousMM@hexbear.net 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

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

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You can craft a butcher knife for fucks sake.

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?

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] MiraculousMM@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 16 points 1 day ago

2004 newgrounds flash game level stuff

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.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I disagree with you that it is a controversial opinion.... on Hexbear at least. The game is beloved by millions of people and super successful but there are loads of folks on Hexbear who dont like it.

I like it quite a bit and I would agree that its not a good replacement for Pokemon but I do consider it strictly speaking superior from a gameplay perspective. At least compared to the last Pokemon game I played which was shield...which yeah was really not that great. (Not saying Palworld is a 10/10 just that Pokemon feels kinda low effort in the modern era)

And finally I have to say I really dont loose sleep over someone "sticking it to gamefreak" (your words)

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

It's an Ark Survival evolved clone pretending to be a pokemon clone. It's an ok game that some people insist is the greatest game of all time, and those people are incredibly unpleasant and hostile. It doesn't help that the ultra-edgelord "You enslave these creatures and make them suffer with guns and violence" that a lot of the advertising focused on resulted in the fanbase being full of incredibly toxic edglords, who like you say, are more interested in "owning the normies" or whatever than actually playing a fun game.

It's not even really a pokemon game, if the "Pals" were just generic fantasy monster looking things literally no one would've cared about this game, it's only got any attention because of the fake pokemon designs, there's something kind of sickening about that. The game just strikes me as a lazy cash grab, with no real "heart" of its own. It's ok, but doesn't do anything to be unique, it is only noteworthy for how blatantly it rips off other stuff.

If you're looking for a fun creature catching game that does things differently to pokemon without just trying to imitate it, I'd recommend Monster Sanctuary, it's got a really fun 3v3 battle system and a metrovania style exploration system, where you can get to pretty late parts of the game early if you know what you're doing, so it rewards exploration really well.

[–] average@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Pokémon with guns was automatically the least appealing game ever to me.

It also felt like a rug pull was the intention. Early access game with questionable legality around IP. Make quick money before the lawsuit from Nintendo.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To their credit, they have continued developing the game even with the ongoing lawsuit, if it was just a rug pull they probably would've made the money, settled out of court with Nintendo and then ran.

[–] average@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

That’s very fair. I definitely didn’t keep up with it after that initial surge. I’m out of the loop about it at this point.

[–] ClownPrinceofFools@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago

Pokémon with guns was a truthful clickbait few outlets could resist. I wasn't aware the hype continued after the realisation that gameplay wise it was more of a survival/campbuilder game.

Haven't looked into it since then, but does it have a dragon made out of guns? Digimon has a Gundramon

[–] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

Eh it's ok. It's just survival crafting slop with some fun little minigames around collecting and optimising pals.

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

also digimon and columbo are better

[–] Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Maybe it would be better to say it has aspects that people have always wanted: it definitely isn't a Pokémon-like game, in that its mechanics and focus aren't remotely the same, but it falls under the same basic monster taming fantasy while having realtime, open world battles that the player can actively participate in. A game with Pokémon rather than a Pokémon game if you will.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago

I really enjoy the survival crafting genre and really enjoyed ark and rust but palworld isn't really a great example of that either. You can accomplish everything with a big flat platform with all the crafting stations on it. The best part of survival games is the pvp and it's basically non existent in palworld.

I understand thinking it's mean to the pals but gameplay wise it's suboptimal to give the pals bad working conditions and they are just pixels to me idk

[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

One thing that I found odd and I tried to investigate it but I'm dumb and found nothing but there is this pal that looks like delphox(just google "delphox palword") and they don't look exactly like delphox but it's exactly like a fan-made art of delphox that some online pokemon fan made game use it. If they contacted or hired Pokemon fan-artist to work on this game cool as fuck actually but if they stole not only Pokemon company designs but fans too that's sucks.