From our other sites
The story
The craftsmanship of Palworld’s booth at the Tokyo Game Show became a hot topic online, with people saying “the quality is way too high for what’s basically a one-off exhibit,” sparking a thread on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board. The discussion ranged from astonishment at the exhibit’s polish to comparisons with Pokémon, the headcount at developer Pocketpair, trends in concurrent player numbers, and even the names of the artists behind the character designs. Opinions never converged, with voices questioning Game Freak’s development structure clashing against views that Palworld’s popularity has already cooled off.
What people said
The Pal (or Pokémon?) on the right looks like it'll be popular
It's not really a Pokémon-lookalike design anymore
Did they finally learn their lesson?
So they gave up on becoming a Pokémon-style hit that appeals across genders and generations, and shifted to raking in money from creepy otaku with lewd furry (kemono) designs instead?
That's a franchise in decline right there
The top hat and cane on its head is a classic trope that's been around forever
And the way it's holding it, like some cheap magic trick — that's how low-effort it is
No, the concept literally is a magic trick, lol 😅
Meanwhile, Pokémon
https://twitter.com/thejimwatkins
They need to do this in China or America instead
There's no point spending money on promotion here
Something like this, maybe?
Re: #16
That's the kind of success they ended up having
They're clearly aiming for a second Palworld here
They've got Craftopia, and they're working on a 2D action game too
Once they bring in someone who can actually write a story, they'll be complete
Why does Pocketpair flat-out have more development muscle?
Even Pokémon Pokopoke was outsourced to Koei Tecmo
Are they trying to sink the company by resting on Pokémon's laurels?
Bunch of useless employees
If you're talking about "development," you mean Game Freak, right?
They did put out stuff like Rinkane (fan nickname for a Pokémon spin-off), didn't they
Though this just reconfirmed they're coasting on that "Beast of Whatever" thing
I want Palworld to steal their customers
Honestly, Z-A's quality is rough
They had a massive amount of floor space but it was totally empty, no one around
There were a bunch of those mascot costumes — Jibanyan, was it? — but nobody went near them either
An event that made Pal's lack of popularity crystal clear
This guy's a Game Freak employee lol
That happened faster than expected
Yeah, it's back down
Kizu Daiki and Katsuzaki Ayana
You mean a wannabe-indie studio that can only make ripoff games
Animo's human character designs are too creepy, can't get into it
What exactly did it copy?
They ripped off literally everything
Pretty impressive for a self-proclaimed "small indie studio" — must have a major company backing them
As of this July they had 109 employees
Probably a bit more by now
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Palworld is the survival-crafting game released by Pocketpair in January 2024 that became a worldwide hit, and it has been compared to Pokémon since launch. In this thread as well, when someone asked “what exactly did it copy,” no one could give a concrete answer, showing how vague the basis for the criticism remains. The thread also shared the fact that as of this July, the company had 109 employees, setting up the discussion’s premise about how small its development scale is compared to major studio Game Freak. There’s also talk that concurrent player numbers have dropped back to pre-launch levels, but that’s based on data only some posters cited — it would be hasty to judge shifts in popularity purely from eyewitness impressions of how crowded the TGS venue looked.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry) thread “[Good News] Palworld’s Quality Is So High It’s Going Viral! This Quality for a One-Off TGS Exhibit?“.
Leave a Reply