The Palworld Trailer Has Everyone Saying The Same Thing

Have you ever sat down to play some Pokémon and found yourself thinking, "I'd enjoy this so much more if I was just straight-up shooting things with guns." Say no more. "PalWorld," a Pokémon clone that's more violent than "Monster Hunter," has got you covered. Developed by Japanese studio Pocket Pair, this unexpected open-world multiplayer survival game will be offering players plenty of collectible critters and ways to take advantage of their powers when it releases later this year.

The latest trailer for "PalWorld," shown during the recent Future Games Show, offered a new, bizarre look at the game as well as a handful of its unique creatures known in-game as "Pals." While none of the critters shown have been able to rival the internet's new favorite Pokémon, there's been no shortage of similarities between "PalWorld" and one of the most valuable media franchises in existence. In fact, some of the Pals in "PalWorld" look suspiciously familiar.

While all of the Pals we've seen at this point are dissimilar enough from Pokémon to avoid being destroyed by Nintendo and one of their legendary lawsuits, some of the resemblances between the new creatures and specific Pokémon are uncanny.

In the latest trailer, a bounding deer Pal bears a striking similarity to the legendary Pokémon known as Cobalion. Immediately after, the trailer introduces us to what looks like a fluffy fusion of Wooloo and Whimsicott, and a grassy, green dinosaur that could easily be a distant cousin of Meganium.

These similarities didn't go unnoticed by audiences either. YouTube user Tsunami Wombat remarked that one moment in the trailer looks like, "Wooloo on the .50 cal" likely referring to a trio of fluffy pals mounting a heavily-armed defense. Similarly, Twitter user Sylphik described a screenshot of Pals rushing into battle saying, "Lucario, Zoroark, Primarina, Cobalion, Charizard, and Pikachu all duke it out." 

Not only does the list go on in terms of similar creature designs, but certain mechanics feel familiar as well. Players can use their captured Pals to battle, traverse the open world, and even trade them with friends. How are Pals transported? Well, at one point in the latest trailer, the player character takes aim at a Pal and throws a handheld, blue sphere in order to catch a Meganium look-alike.

Thanks to the game's Steam page, however, we know that there are a few key differences between "PalWorld" and the good, old Pocket Monsters. Your Pals can be placed in a factory where they will "work forever as long as they're fed, until the end of their lifetime or beaten to a pulp by the factory boss." You likely won't see that in Pokémon anytime soon.