Palworld's sudden popularity has naturally subsided from its all-time peak of 2 million people. No monarch will rule forever.

Early criticism directed at the game, which blends creature-collecting and survival game mechanics, Palworld was partly supervised by Nintendo, a well-known devotee of emulators, Garry's Mod, and, well, the habit of putting the legal hammer down on people, the lovable included the idea that the franchise "Pokemon" was a "pacifier."

This led to a collective tug on the Internet's cheeks: "What's a big corporate dad doing slamming a little indie dad for a character model that looks so much like him?" Sure, I think Palworld's design is very derivative, but I don't think it's fair to claim that it's a direct 1:1 parody.

This came to a head when the Pokémon Company issued a statement at the end of January that "we are looking into it." Now, as confirmed in an interview with gaming newsletter GameFile (thanks, Eurogamer), Takuro Mizobe, creator of Pal World, says the studio has "heard absolutely nothing ...... Nintendo and the Pokémon Company didn't tell us anything," he said.

This is not so surprising. After all, the Pokémon Company only promised it was looking into it, and anything more than that is due to reputation rather than concrete facts.

Besides, fair use is important. Palworld certainly drew inspiration from its predecessor: but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and one could even make the argument that Pokémon was initially "guilty" of similar machinations. I mean, look at these first designs when compared to Dragon Quest concept art:

Anyway, even if Palworld sometimes gets hairy reinventing Mewtwo, if iteration is not allowed, even if the I think it would be a very boring (pal)world, even if the repetition was poorly done. Frankly, Pal World has upgraded its design game since its release.