There are many questions one does not ask of a pokémon. Questions about what society will do with creatures that can generate endless fire and electricity on demand and monsters that, despite being clearly smarter than ordinary creatures, are treated as subservient to 10-year-olds who have a habit of fighting in pitfalls.

This weekend, the trailer for Palworld, an open-world Pokémon-like RPG, was released.

It starts off very cutesy. It's a gorgeous open world a la Phantom of the Wild or Breath of the Wild, populated by free-roaming Pokémon (Pals). Idyllic scenes of construction and farming are seen, suggesting that one can build one's own home on this idyllic land.

Then comes the gun. [A firefight with armored soldiers ensues as giant lightning bears charge. The player character uses one of the pals as cover, Gears of War style. A rat jumps on your character's head, pulls out his gun, and starts shooting and killing bandits with you.

The best (and worst) shot of the entire trailer is when the hero picks up the adorable sheep, absorbs the bullets with its shaggy belly, and then tosses it. The sheep cries the whole time.

The cruelty is not limited to the sheep's shield. In a particularly harrowing image, pals are shown working in a sweatshop making firearms, followed by adorable monkeys doing menial labor in a quarry. This is, to say the least, a very evocative image, and the accompanying Steam description does not exactly help.

"Letting the pals do manual labor is essential to automation. Build a factory and place the pals there. They will work forever as long as they are fed until the end of their life span."

Worth noting is Palworld's high ambitions (craft! Breeding! Poaching! Online multiplayer!) ), whereas the developer, Pocketpair, has not had a great track record. Its first game was reportedly left unfinished, and last year's Craftopia shows all the red flags one would expect from a Palworld trailer.

Palworld is slated for release in 2022.