Palworld's trailers showcased a darker twist on the Pokemon formula‚ with Geoff Keighley outright calling it "Pokemon with guns!" during Summer Games Fest 2023. Opinions got a bit heated‚ with some claiming "Pokemon killer"‚ and other histrionic voices claiming plagiarism. I wasn't as drastic but did originally side closer to the latter as the trailers only showed Pals with more direct homage to popular Pokemon designs. Now I've been playing the game however‚ I discovered the homages were just that; homages. The rest are mostly generic yet appeasing cute monsters‚ clear parodies of the monster types you find in JRPGs.