I watched the trailer and read the steam description. I don’t like how it treats and lets you treat the pals. My 8yo was very excited to see a pokemon clone game, and asked me to stop the trailer 30 seconds in because of them beating up the pals and using them as slaves.
and if understand the game right one of the “bad guy” groups you fight thinks this is fucked up and wants to kill you because you make pals fight
you’re kind of explicitly playing as the bad guy, and considering the stuff the game has you do you’re basically a cartoon villain in a massive lair filled with grunts who are just sort of there and go on lunch breaks between shifts of building death rays
Yeah because taking your pets to an arena-style fight to “fainting” is also a great model for the kids lmao
Pokémon’s dog fighting aside, Palworld has a certain cynicism that imo takes it out of the realm of a kids game. The game allows you to capture humans and then has a little blurb about how it’s “inhumane” to do so. There’s a niche for an “adult” monster capture game that Palworld is filling. I’m curious about how the game will continue to develop in early access. They have a lot of funding & hype, let’s see if they can see it through to a full release (or wallow in development like so many other Early Access survival games).
The concept itself is different from the execution though. She watches pokemon, and they regularly talk about respecting the pokemon and treating them with respect. Anybody who treats pokemon as an object without love is shown in a bad light; even team rocket is shown to have great love for their Meowth that they are willing to walk away from Meowth when they think Meowth would have a better life elsewhere. On palworld steam description, they literally say pals can be treated any way you want because they thankfully don’t have any human rights issues. Kids don’t think of the bigger picture, deeper meaning beyond what they actually see. The game is not a kids game, and that is fine. However, the game looks cute and charming, and very like pokemon, which makes me concerned for any kid who likes playing this game.
They talk about treating them with respect… then trap them in poke balls and let them out to fight each other for bragging rights and entertainment. The people of the Pokémon world are the highest of hypocrites and that’s one of the main lessons that should be taken from that show
I think you’re a great parent who interrogates the media that your child is consuming!
The aesthetic of Palworld feeds that cynicism; it’s charming and colorful and awfully brutal. Parents should be aware of the game’s content and the game should probably get a Teen rating (at least in the US; not sure how PEGI does their rating).
This seems like biblical levels of silly. Treating a slave creature well before you hawk it into the arena to fight for you feels a little morally nebulous.
It’s a fun game, and laughing about the pals is totally part of it. The penguins special move is getting blasted out of a bazooka, and immediately passing out. It’s hilarious, but if you think about it, it’s really not much different from Ash Catchem tossing his pokemon into cage fighting rings. Palworld is honest about it, and injects humor that clearly makes you feel uncomfortable.
But at the same time, the human enemies are ones locking pals in literal cages who you can free. And none of the pals actually die when you are out fighting them in the world, they just pass out with Xs over their eyes. (Just don’t unlock the butcher knife)
Really the game lets you treat pals however you want, from never using them for work and doing everything yourself, to full on brutal working conditions. Choice is yours.
Other people reply by how Pokemons are being in captive is a bad thing, and even though it’s logical, I know what the Pokemon anime is. Like most anime, it teaches children kind and nice stuff, and the captive thing is ignored likely because it can’t be applied in real world. No need to doubt - Pokemon is not bad for your child.
Palworld just allows too much freedom when compared to that. You either have to be an established person to understand what you’re doing or play with your parents so they explain what your actions mean.
Then don’t play it. Also, your last sentence literally describes Pokemon. Wild animals beating the crap out of each other and enslaved by post war child army.
I said this in another comment, but the concept itself is different from the execution though. She watches pokemon, and they regularly talk about respecting the pokemon and treating them with respect. Anybody who treats pokemon as an object without love is shown in a bad light; even team rocket is shown to have great love for their Meowth that they are willing to walk away from Meowth when they think Meowth would have a better life elsewhere. On palworld steam description, they literally say pals can be treated any way you want because they thankfully don’t have any human rights issues. Kids don’t think of the bigger picture, or the deeper meaning beyond what they actually see. I’m not saying the game is bad. I’m just saying I don’t like the game for how it is, and it’s definitely not a kids game where as pokemon can be.
I mean if they really respected the pokemon they’d leave them in the wild instead of beating the shit out of them and then grooming them to do their bidding. Oh yeah, cool this guy treats his slaves better than that guy. Lol!
It’s definitely not a kid game. The descriptions of the pals tells how some of them are used for torture, sex, drugs, religion all sorts of wild shit. I really hope they keep that up to because imo the game is better for it.
Pokemon always was a dog fighting economy. Growing up with it never thought about how dark it was but we old now.
Fun seeing an absurd matured version of monster catching dog fighting economy.
Idk if it’ll be living up to hype a year from now, but for now pretty fun. Also love seeing game freak miss out on all this money. You dummies have known people wanted something like this for decades!
It was about beetle fighting. One of the core sources of inspiration is based on how groups of kids(in Japan) go into the woods to find the biggest beetle they could, bring them back and have them fight.
That’s the way I see it. Show me a slave owner who just kinda let their slaves wander around without any kind of restraints, and let them do whatever they want
The electric Pokemon were forced to work at the power plant in the first season of the anime. Pokemon have always been slaves. I totally get not liking the presentation, though. It’s far more grotesque and not abstracted away.
Considering how the steam page reads, it’s like a full blown parody by simply pointing out what Pokemon’s world must be like through the eyes of an adult.
Pals can be used to fight, or they can be made to work on farms or factories. You can even sell them or eat them!
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.
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.
Yeah like I said in another comment, the game is not a kids game, and that is fine. However, the game looks cute and charming, and very like pokemon, which makes it very attractive for kids, and makes me concerned for any kid who likes playing this game.
The concern over children liking Palworld is akin to all those unfounded concerns about shooter games “causing” violence.
Humans, even small children, are VERY capable to separate fiction from reality. There’s no problem at all about a kid wanting to play a game about catching animals and using them to build your base.
That might actually be true up to a certain age. She was really into Powerpuff girls when she was 5, and I had to switch it to something else because she was aggressive a lot. It was like a switch turned off a week after I stopped ppg. Anecdotal, but yeah some things are not suitable for some ages.
It definitely takes the “Pokémon are slaves” thing and runs with it. You can kill and eat the pals. Some of them are very “human”. You basically stop short of actually whipping them, though I’m sure they’d add that in.
Edit: maybe I’ll clarify, the Syndicate is a group against the mistreatment of pals. You can capture them and force them to work for you. The player is very much the bad guy here.
The player is the bad guy because of a mechanic that exists but isn’t encouraged? There are plenty of games that allow the player character to commit awful crimes. You only play as the bad guy if you’re playing as the bad guy.
That’s what pokemon is though. It’s cock fighting and animal slavery. I knew that as a teen when I played the original games and watched the original show. And pokemon Manga is even more violent.
The game is still in early access and has plans to officially support mods. Either the devs will make a “PG” setting or someone will mod it to be more child friendly.
I haven’t played the game yet. Not sure if I will. But I’ve seen some gameplay, and, honestly, it bothers me too, and not just because beating up Pokemon feels bad. My main problem is that it could have been done in a better way that would make me feel less bad lol
The pals should be dangerous! Even the basic starter ones!
I play a Pokemon TTRPG where you can beat up Pokemon with your bare hands if you want. The difference is, they’re not helpless. A trainer without any investment in their personal combat skills is roughly a suitable match for a low level Ratata. Even in the video games, there’s a reason Professor Birch got cornered by a couple Zigzagoon. It’s the same reason you’re not allowed in the long grass without a Pokemon.
Pokemon are magical monsters that can just straight up kill you. There’s a big difference between fighting something like that, on basically equal footing, and punching a helpless stuffed animal.
After seeing a few videos about it, it’s a pass for me. Pretty plainly a soulless legally distinct mishmash of random design elements with nothing to bring to the table creatively
If this was a soulless cash grab, it wouldn’t be half as optimized as it is now. I climbed a peak, and could see the other side of the map without any frame drops. AAA titles still struggle to do that.
It is bootleg Pokemon, but it’s also a well made game.
Like yeah someone with relatively okay skill could duplicate a famous painting, but we wouldn’t make them famous for it. Art is about making interesting choices.
I’m having terrible seeing it, but if you’re happy that’s great. I barely have time for the games I’m excited about from three years ago, so who am I to criticise?
the optimization is weird because yeah you can see far as hell and it looks good enough, but at the same time my entirely decent GPU can’t run it in 1080p on lowest settings
i just wish they’d implemented the resolution setting to only apply to the game world, it’s kind of idiotic to have it affect the UI as well…
Nah. It’s the Vampire Survivors of the “catch em all” genre. I thought it looked like ass in the videos - and it does! - but when you have your own hands on the controller it’s a different experience. Again, like VS, it lands in a sweet spot re: progression, expansion, new interactions, etc.
I tell people “it’s the least polished game I’ve ever played for 20+ hours”.
I watched the trailer and read the steam description. I don’t like how it treats and lets you treat the pals. My 8yo was very excited to see a pokemon clone game, and asked me to stop the trailer 30 seconds in because of them beating up the pals and using them as slaves.
Not for nothing but Pokemon have always been slaves
Not just slaves, but slaves people force to fight. This concept of palworld being worse is just silly.
I mean palworld has that too.
Palworld is honest about it.
and if understand the game right one of the “bad guy” groups you fight thinks this is fucked up and wants to kill you because you make pals fight
you’re kind of explicitly playing as the bad guy, and considering the stuff the game has you do you’re basically a cartoon villain in a massive lair filled with grunts who are just sort of there and go on lunch breaks between shifts of building death rays
…and sometimes food.
Yeah because taking your pets to an arena-style fight to “fainting” is also a great model for the kids lmao
Pokémon’s dog fighting aside, Palworld has a certain cynicism that imo takes it out of the realm of a kids game. The game allows you to capture humans and then has a little blurb about how it’s “inhumane” to do so. There’s a niche for an “adult” monster capture game that Palworld is filling. I’m curious about how the game will continue to develop in early access. They have a lot of funding & hype, let’s see if they can see it through to a full release (or wallow in development like so many other Early Access survival games).
The concept itself is different from the execution though. She watches pokemon, and they regularly talk about respecting the pokemon and treating them with respect. Anybody who treats pokemon as an object without love is shown in a bad light; even team rocket is shown to have great love for their Meowth that they are willing to walk away from Meowth when they think Meowth would have a better life elsewhere. On palworld steam description, they literally say pals can be treated any way you want because they thankfully don’t have any human rights issues. Kids don’t think of the bigger picture, deeper meaning beyond what they actually see. The game is not a kids game, and that is fine. However, the game looks cute and charming, and very like pokemon, which makes me concerned for any kid who likes playing this game.
They talk about treating them with respect… then trap them in poke balls and let them out to fight each other for bragging rights and entertainment. The people of the Pokémon world are the highest of hypocrites and that’s one of the main lessons that should be taken from that show
I think you’re a great parent who interrogates the media that your child is consuming!
The aesthetic of Palworld feeds that cynicism; it’s charming and colorful and awfully brutal. Parents should be aware of the game’s content and the game should probably get a Teen rating (at least in the US; not sure how PEGI does their rating).
This seems like biblical levels of silly. Treating a slave creature well before you hawk it into the arena to fight for you feels a little morally nebulous.
It’s a fun game, and laughing about the pals is totally part of it. The penguins special move is getting blasted out of a bazooka, and immediately passing out. It’s hilarious, but if you think about it, it’s really not much different from Ash Catchem tossing his pokemon into cage fighting rings. Palworld is honest about it, and injects humor that clearly makes you feel uncomfortable.
Yeah my Pikachu has severe concussion, broken bones an lung damage, but I give him little hugs and tell him I love him and it’s all good.
But at the same time, the human enemies are ones locking pals in literal cages who you can free. And none of the pals actually die when you are out fighting them in the world, they just pass out with Xs over their eyes. (Just don’t unlock the butcher knife)
Really the game lets you treat pals however you want, from never using them for work and doing everything yourself, to full on brutal working conditions. Choice is yours.
Not even Xs, they get spirals. That’s how you know they’re just unconscious lmao
most of them even keep moving
Pals out in the world definitely get killed. You get meat, leather, and organs from them.
You also get meat, leather, organs when you capture them
Other people reply by how Pokemons are being in captive is a bad thing, and even though it’s logical, I know what the Pokemon anime is. Like most anime, it teaches children kind and nice stuff, and the captive thing is ignored likely because it can’t be applied in real world. No need to doubt - Pokemon is not bad for your child.
Palworld just allows too much freedom when compared to that. You either have to be an established person to understand what you’re doing or play with your parents so they explain what your actions mean.
Then don’t play it. Also, your last sentence literally describes Pokemon. Wild animals beating the crap out of each other and enslaved by post war child army.
I said this in another comment, but the concept itself is different from the execution though. She watches pokemon, and they regularly talk about respecting the pokemon and treating them with respect. Anybody who treats pokemon as an object without love is shown in a bad light; even team rocket is shown to have great love for their Meowth that they are willing to walk away from Meowth when they think Meowth would have a better life elsewhere. On palworld steam description, they literally say pals can be treated any way you want because they thankfully don’t have any human rights issues. Kids don’t think of the bigger picture, or the deeper meaning beyond what they actually see. I’m not saying the game is bad. I’m just saying I don’t like the game for how it is, and it’s definitely not a kids game where as pokemon can be.
I mean if they really respected the pokemon they’d leave them in the wild instead of beating the shit out of them and then grooming them to do their bidding. Oh yeah, cool this guy treats his slaves better than that guy. Lol!
Brother every pokemon is a slave. You force them into a ball by beating them and then force them to fight other pokemons until they pass out.
So the dog-fighting ring of Pokémon battles is fine but making the Pokémon manufacture pants is too far?
It’s definitely not a kid game. The descriptions of the pals tells how some of them are used for torture, sex, drugs, religion all sorts of wild shit. I really hope they keep that up to because imo the game is better for it.
Pokemon always was a dog fighting economy. Growing up with it never thought about how dark it was but we old now.
Fun seeing an absurd matured version of monster catching dog fighting economy.
Idk if it’ll be living up to hype a year from now, but for now pretty fun. Also love seeing game freak miss out on all this money. You dummies have known people wanted something like this for decades!
It was about beetle fighting. One of the core sources of inspiration is based on how groups of kids(in Japan) go into the woods to find the biggest beetle they could, bring them back and have them fight.
I don’t use mine as slaves. I just force them to hang out with me at my camp and they just happen to do chores for me… cause they like it
That’s the way I see it. Show me a slave owner who just kinda let their slaves wander around without any kind of restraints, and let them do whatever they want
the default setting is literally called humane, too, where the pals will just stop working if they feel cranky
if’s effectively a commune with extremely suspect recruting methods
https://imgb.ifunny.co/images/92ca0a1a37c871b0f8132d8a68c42251887faae185aa082547503460c84d4a5d_1.webp
Prisoners with jobs? Lady, you’re not making it any better. “Entrepreneurs and collaborators with restricted rights”, that’s what they are!
The electric Pokemon were forced to work at the power plant in the first season of the anime. Pokemon have always been slaves. I totally get not liking the presentation, though. It’s far more grotesque and not abstracted away.
Considering how the steam page reads, it’s like a full blown parody by simply pointing out what Pokemon’s world must be like through the eyes of an adult.
Okay, then I suppose the game is not suitable for eight year olds. That’s fine, I play a lot of games that are not suitable for eight year olds.
Yeah like I said in another comment, the game is not a kids game, and that is fine. However, the game looks cute and charming, and very like pokemon, which makes it very attractive for kids, and makes me concerned for any kid who likes playing this game.
The concern over children liking Palworld is akin to all those unfounded concerns about shooter games “causing” violence.
Humans, even small children, are VERY capable to separate fiction from reality. There’s no problem at all about a kid wanting to play a game about catching animals and using them to build your base.
That might actually be true up to a certain age. She was really into Powerpuff girls when she was 5, and I had to switch it to something else because she was aggressive a lot. It was like a switch turned off a week after I stopped ppg. Anecdotal, but yeah some things are not suitable for some ages.
Not entirely a dismissable concern, admittedly, but also not relevant for me for deciding whether or not I should give that game a try.
Obvious bait is obvious
It definitely takes the “Pokémon are slaves” thing and runs with it. You can kill and eat the pals. Some of them are very “human”. You basically stop short of actually whipping them, though I’m sure they’d add that in.
Edit: maybe I’ll clarify, the Syndicate is a group against the mistreatment of pals. You can capture them and force them to work for you. The player is very much the bad guy here.
The Syndicate isn’t against the mistreatment of pals. It’s the team rocket here. They keep pals in metal cages, which you release.
The pal liberation front is what you’re describing instead.
Oh sorry. My bad. I guess I don’t feel bad about enslaving those guys.
Well, yes I do, but they’re darn handy.
The player is the bad guy because of a mechanic that exists but isn’t encouraged? There are plenty of games that allow the player character to commit awful crimes. You only play as the bad guy if you’re playing as the bad guy.
Wtf?! I guess that’s part of the charm.
That’s what pokemon is though. It’s cock fighting and animal slavery. I knew that as a teen when I played the original games and watched the original show. And pokemon Manga is even more violent.
Stop parroting media lines. Its not a fucking slavery sim, nor has any game that uses the mechanic of Help ever been.
The game is still in early access and has plans to officially support mods. Either the devs will make a “PG” setting or someone will mod it to be more child friendly.
I haven’t played the game yet. Not sure if I will. But I’ve seen some gameplay, and, honestly, it bothers me too, and not just because beating up Pokemon feels bad. My main problem is that it could have been done in a better way that would make me feel less bad lol
The pals should be dangerous! Even the basic starter ones!
I play a Pokemon TTRPG where you can beat up Pokemon with your bare hands if you want. The difference is, they’re not helpless. A trainer without any investment in their personal combat skills is roughly a suitable match for a low level Ratata. Even in the video games, there’s a reason Professor Birch got cornered by a couple Zigzagoon. It’s the same reason you’re not allowed in the long grass without a Pokemon.
Pokemon are magical monsters that can just straight up kill you. There’s a big difference between fighting something like that, on basically equal footing, and punching a helpless stuffed animal.
After seeing a few videos about it, it’s a pass for me. Pretty plainly a soulless legally distinct mishmash of random design elements with nothing to bring to the table creatively
If this was a soulless cash grab, it wouldn’t be half as optimized as it is now. I climbed a peak, and could see the other side of the map without any frame drops. AAA titles still struggle to do that.
It is bootleg Pokemon, but it’s also a well made game.
Good graphics isn’t good games though?
Like yeah someone with relatively okay skill could duplicate a famous painting, but we wouldn’t make them famous for it. Art is about making interesting choices.
I said nothing about graphics.
The game mechanics are interwoven pretty well, the performance is great, and the pal fights are unique and full of personality.
The people who made this game busted their asses. That’s the opposite of soulless.
I’m having terrible seeing it, but if you’re happy that’s great. I barely have time for the games I’m excited about from three years ago, so who am I to criticise?
the optimization is weird because yeah you can see far as hell and it looks good enough, but at the same time my entirely decent GPU can’t run it in 1080p on lowest settings
i just wish they’d implemented the resolution setting to only apply to the game world, it’s kind of idiotic to have it affect the UI as well…
Nah. It’s the Vampire Survivors of the “catch em all” genre. I thought it looked like ass in the videos - and it does! - but when you have your own hands on the controller it’s a different experience. Again, like VS, it lands in a sweet spot re: progression, expansion, new interactions, etc.
I tell people “it’s the least polished game I’ve ever played for 20+ hours”.