About

Palworld is an RPG survival video game from Japanese developers and publishers Pocketpair. After its first trailer was released in June 2021, it garnered attention for appearing to be very similar to Pokémon in that players will use the skills of animalistic creatures, known as "Pal," found throughout the world to complete the game, but differs significantly from Pokémon by allowing players to use their "Pal" as bullet shields, force them to work in sweatshops, arm them with weapons and even eat them. A prominent nickname for the game emerged leading up to and after its release, with people commonly referring to it as "Pokemon with guns." Following its release, Palworld garnered considerable media coverage and sparked widespread discussions and memes online.

History

Palworld was developed by Japanese indie developers Pocketpair, makers of Craftopia and Overdungeon.^[1] Pocketpair first released the trailer for the game on June 5th, 2021 (shown below). Initially, the game looks similar to Pokémon, with the player-character using the animalistic creatures known as "Pal" to complete tasks such as flying, watering plants and generating electricity. However, the trailer also showcases Pal being used as bullet shields, hunted and doing hard manual labor.

According to the game's Steam^[2] page, " Palworld is a game about living a slow life with mysterious creatures "Pal" or throwing yourself into life-and-death battles with poachers. You can make Pals fight, breed, help with farming, or work in factories. You can also sell them off or even slaughter them to eat! That however, is forbidden by law."

Reception

On January 19th, 2024, an early access version of Palworld was released on Steam and Xbox Game Preview (available with Game Pass from day one), where the game is expected to remain for at least one year. Upon the first days of early access, the phrase "Pokémon With Guns" was commonly utilized to refer to the game by both players and journalists.^[9]

Online Presence

The game quickly generated attention in the gaming industry for its contrast of gameplay elements. Many publications described the game as "Pokémon with guns."^[3][4][5] Kotaku^[6] published a bewildered piece about the game, writing:

According to Palworld’s Steam description, this is part of the game’s “Factory and Automation” gameplay, with the developers explaining that “it is essential for automation to let Pals do the manual work. Build a factory and place Pals in it. They will work forever as long as they’re fed until the end of their lifetime.” Emphasis mine, because what the fuck.

Twitter users began making memes about the trailer. For example, user @jacalope3^[7] posted a screenshot of the trailer with a Pokémon Gun logo added, referencing a joke from the Pokémon Sword and Shield release cycle (shown below, left). User @SpaceDinosaur20^[8] posted a photoshopped image of an armed Pikachu standing next to a soldier, gaining over 500 retweets and 2,900 likes (shown below, right).

Palworld Gameplay Clips

Upon the game's early access release in January 2024, several users and streamers started to post clips playing Palworld. For example, on January 21st, 2024, TikTok^[10] user @rifflop posted a clip showing a penguin creature being used as a cannon bullet (shown below, left), which garnered over 3.4 million plays and 198,000 likes in a day. On January 20th, 2024, TikTok^[11] user @garoshadowscale posted a gameplay guide for the best "starting" creature to catch in the game (shown below, right), which received more than 2.6 million plays and 237,000 likes in two days.

Search Interest

External References