The Most Messed-Up Thing You Can Do In Palworld

There's no cutesy way to say this: You can capture and enslave human beings in "Palworld." Pocketpair's game has garnered a good bit of controversy since it was launched in early access on January 19, but as more players have started to discover this particularly upsetting mechanic, the outrage over handing guns to Pokémon-esque creatures has really started to feel quaint.

One of the earliest and most-widespread clips of this mechanic was posted by Twitch streamer Coney, who reacted with a mix of shock, horror, and amusement as he set a human enemy on fire, chucked a Palsphere at it, and captured the aggressor in quick succession. Upon doing so, a pop-up on the screen informs players that this is not an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence in the hellscape that is "Palworld," but it's also not a terribly popular move. The note reads, "On Palpargos Island, capturing humans in Palspheres is considered inhumane." No kidding! If it weren't for this bit of text, it would be easy to write this off as a glitch. But no, you can literally enslave fellow humans in "Palworld." It's part of the gameplay.

You can capture human beings in Palworld pic.twitter.com/nUg7mJw2h6

— Coney (@CONEY) January 17, 2024

After catching a human NPC, you can then set them to work in one of your bases, putting them on the assembly line and using them to build your empire — the same as if they were one of your captured Pals. You can even sell or butcher the captured human beings, increasing the ick factor even more. Needless to say, this hasn't sat particularly well with a large number of gamers.

You didn't misread that last part. Much like you can chop up and consume your Pals when they've outlived their usefulness, you can also bring your human enemies to a violent end. Thankfully, there's no cannibalism in "Palworld" at this time, but that hasn't stopped players from trying to see if the game will allow it. When you release a human Pal, you can still choose the "Butcher" prompt from the menu, but it just results in a pixelated attack and a dead NPC. Typically, all you'll get in return is a now-vacant Palsphere to put back in your inventory — well, that and the feeling that you've done something uniquely horrifying in a pretty cutesy-looking game.

The existence of a human slavery mechanic in "Palworld" has inspired even more debate about the game, with some finding this to be their ultimate breaking point with the entire enterprise. "It's all very f***ed up, and it's not something that enemy NPCs do, it's done by the player themselves," noted one user on X (formerly Twitter). "There also literally exists a passive skill that pals can have named 'Work Slave.' It's important to consider this when choosing to put your time and money into the game." Even some of the gamers who have been actively enjoying "Palworld" have admitted that this part of it leaves a bad taste in their mouths. Another X user said, "I don't know why people like 'Palworld' ... the guns/slavery aspect of the game is entirely shock value – I hope public perception of the game tanks."

On the other hand, some "Palworld" players have noted that this is not a mandatory mechanic, and people can still play the game without participating in this behavior. Some have also pointed out that management sims like "RimWorld" and even action games like "Middle-earth: Shadow of War" have used slave labor as a gameplay mechanic and plot point. However, this last point hasn't exactly quelled the controversy, but instead has raised further questions and debate about ethics and gaming trends on the whole.

Some fans have argued that the so-called "sweatshops" in "Palworld" — the bases in which players set their capture Pals and humans to work — feel like a pointed parody of the darker elements that have always been present in the "Pokémon" series. After all, that's a franchise in which you take creatures from their natural habitats and then force them to fight and breed, which feels upsetting when you put it in those terms. The debate keeps coming back around to the question of whether "Palworld" is a successful satire of "Pokémon" or just another example of edgelord humor taken to an uncomfortable extreme. As noted by Patrick Armstrong at The Nerd Stash, 'Palworld" doesn't offer much in the way of a plot or themes, and therefore, it's hard to pick out what the game's stance is on all of this, if it even has one.

As "Palworld" continues to sell through the roof and Pocketpair pushes out new content updates, these debates are likely to grow in volume. But for a vocal section of the gaming community, this mechanic was more than enough to convince them to keep their distance.