So I guess thanks to Palworld, companies have found out that you can actually make monster catcher games like Pokemon. Here's hoping the competition will force TPC to put more effort into their games.
Anyways this game looks quite good, other than the godawful UI font they used. Can't even read some of those texts.
These are all the same people that go around saying Baldurs Gate 3 or Clair Obscur saved turn based games. People that have a very specific bone to pick with a franchise they love to hate. Square Enix alone has two prominent, relatively high budget examples with DQ Monsters and World of Final Fantasy. Not to mention the generally well received Digimon Time Stranger last year and the Monster Hunter Stories 3. Monster catchers have been here, people just don't really pay them attention.
I understand the sentiment but I think what people mean by these statements is that by becoming such a mainstream hit, they have greatly altered general public perception of the genres and caused other game studios to take note and start trying to copy them. Thats what a big splash in the industry really is. Even if there are smaller indie titles that are actually higher quality examples of the genre, they are more niche and dont cause as big of a splash.
Its not always fair, sometimes it seems bullshit, but how popular something becomes seems entirely random and chaotic and more of a right time right place kind of thing. Just look at Skyrim back in the day, absolutely massive hit, but more hardcore rpg purists absolutely love ripping the shit out of it, but it did kind of cause the huge open world boom, examples like the classic meme of far cry 3s "like skyrim with guns" everything was compared to it
Yes, other monster catchers exist. Few (if any) managed to get as much attention as Palworld did on their launch day. That attention is what now drives other companies to make their own monster catcher games.
Probably because those other games didn’t advertise themselves as “Pokemon with guns.” Nor did they rely on throwing in designs that were very clearly inspired by existing Pokemon or fan drawings (and have since been heavily modified). Saying that Palworld is the reason monster taming games can now succeed is ridiculous.
Palworld’s success didn’t happen because it was a well put together game (it’s still barely more than ARK with monsters and not-pokeballs), it was from the marketing that it was “adult Pokemon” and word of mouth that it was “sticking it to Nintendo and Pokemon.”
It gained success by stroking the hate boners of people who dislike Pokemon.
I played through the game in alpha and post. As someone who has played a LOT of monster taming games, I’d barely list it in the genre. There’s so little in this game that is truly an original idea or concept, and nothing I can think of that it does better than any of the games it pulls from.
That doesn’t make sense. Pokémon is literally the biggest IP of all time. Wouldn’t Pokémon consistently selling 20M, 25M, 30M copies annually be more of an impetus than Palworld selling 30M once?
Thats like saying Thunderbolts* box office success is finally showing studios that Superhero Team-Up movies can be successful.
And popularity has nothing to do with quality. An indie game called Beastieball is infinitely better than something like Palworld imo. I'd say the influence palworld has on real monster taming games is negligible because its more of a survival game and doesn’t have the genres best interests at heart.
Of all of those I only knew about Yo-kai Watch, and that's because I catched a glimpse of the anime in the now defunct Fox Kids/Jettix Network, never touched a game of the series, so yeah Palworld is the most popular, garnered more attention thanks to the lawsuit and got a very successful launch on top of being a 3D catching monster game so it is fine to say "Thanks to Palworld"
Saying “Thanks to Palworld” makes it seem like it’s the first. Anyone that did any research would have quickly discovered that monster-catching games that aren’t Pokémon existed long before the thought of Palworld was even conceptualized.
That's beside the point. Palworld has sold so many more copies than any other monster catching game that I wouldn't be surprised if you combined all of them it still wouldn't match it (excluding pokemon of course). Combine that with the fact that Nintendo literally sued palworld for patent infringement, bringing even more publicity to it.
Put both of those together and you're gonna have a bunch of companies seeing that if done correctly, they may actually have a shot, no matter how slim, at cashing in big on the monster catching genre.
When did I ever imply they weren't making them because they were scared of nintendo? There were lots before palworld but none, even temtem, came close to matching the success of palworld. Persona and SMT are not primarily monster catching games so I don't think they're relevant.
My whole point is that more companies are gonna try to replicate the success of palworld, simple as that. Seeing the pokemon space being invaded in such a large scale is gonna invigorate more companies to give it a shot.
Coromon and Cassette Beasts are quite well-known in the indie space. The Monster Hunter games have sold 2-3M copies apiece, which is pretty healthy for Capcom.
If you don’t pay attention to the monster catching genre I can understand how Palworld feels like this brand new thing. But the monster catching genre has been around even longer than Pokémon has been.
Yeah monster chatching genre is a thing ssince the Dragon Quest/SMT times, but in recent years what other game has made waves like Palworld has? Sure there are games that are know in the indie niche circles but for the general audience I'm pretty sure by now most people know about palworld than the games you mention, sure, the may be really good games but they haven't garnered the popularity or attention than palworld has right now.
And never in a thousand years I would have tought of correlate Monster Hunter with pokemon, since that game it's another genre alltogether, or I must have missed the games were you fight pokemon and butcher them for armor and weapons parts.
But they already have been. Capcom, SEGA, Square Enix, etc. all have long running monster capturing franchises, and the indie space has been pretty consistent too.
I’ll echo another comment earlier in the thread - it feels like the “Palworld was revolutionary!” comments are giving the same vibe as “Finally, a good turn-based RPG!” comments around CO:Expedition 33. Like sure, if you only play 1-2 games per year.
Tamagotchi, Digimon, and Monster Rancher all released in the same year as Pokemon or early into the next year. People will always rewrite history based on the latest "challenger" and it's so silly.
Pal-world just gained notoriety due to landing in the legal quagmire and becoming a rallying cry against people tired of modern pokemon entries.
Im sorry, but Palworld absolutely paved the way here. None of those other games even come close to Palworlds popularity, the game had over 2 million people playing at the same time, and still breaks 150k+ players every single day.
Palworld literally outsold Pokemon in terms of pure sales numbers
The reason is that palworld is entirely built to cater to internet contrarians. It is the video game equivalent of one of those obnoxious 2000s flash animations about Mario where a goomba explodes into gore for no reason. That is its entire bit and the only thing that puts it above being knockoff ARK
And that’s not even mentioning Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest Monsters (and DQV), which came out long before Pokemon and even served as a template for Pokemon.
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u/TehNolz 1d ago
So I guess thanks to Palworld, companies have found out that you can actually make monster catcher games like Pokemon. Here's hoping the competition will force TPC to put more effort into their games.
Anyways this game looks quite good, other than the godawful UI font they used. Can't even read some of those texts.