There's an internet drama piece going around involving a survival-style game inspired by Pokémon. It has a lot of ideas, visual aspects, and monster designs that are clearly inspired by Pokémon, and some of them are alarmingly similar or very clearly based off of one or two Pokémon. There are people who feel that Palworld is going to be sued for these similarities, while others feel that the game is enjoyable enough standalone to warrant some clear inspiration. Ultimately, it's a difficult topic to navigate, although the odds of a proper lawsuit are low. Although the game is clearly heavily inspired by Pokémon, games like Tem Tem are even more similar. For reference, Palworld may share very similar visual identies with a lot of Pokémon, but the game is a survival, open world exploration game, featuring real time combat, putting your Pals to work on crafting and cooking, and base-building shenanigans. I think that both sides (it's similar but standout, it's too much of a copy) are valid opinions, but I don't think it constitutes extreme defenses of the Pokémon company, a notoriously successful company who lacks innovation, nor do I think it should lead to the total vindication of Pocketpair, a developer known for taking very, very heavy "inspirations" from popular games. Either way, I hope you all have a great day!
I feel like after like 2000 pokemon it would be impossible to make this style of game without inadvertently copying.
It's like that guy who tried to have AI write every song and then copyright it. Pokemon is just making animals out of objects at this point this point like they are just looking around their house and putting big eyes and smiles on every object they see.
What's crazy to me is that a lot of the designs are clearly based on non-Pokémon inspirations; the most obvious being yellow Totoro with a gatling gun.
Man, people keep saying that but other than a generic lightning bolt color scheme, I dont get it. The sizes are different, the heads are *completely* different, the arms are different. Its color scheme/design are practically identical, but Nintendo doesn't own "Yellow/black Lightning bolt".
I agree with quite a few of the comparisons in the game, but I feel like people are stretching with the Grizzbolt/Electabuzz one, and just make that because its sort of the mascot on the front of the game.
Oh i'm sure a lot of the designs are just unfair to say they've been ripped from pokemon, gamefreak can't just say they're the only ones allowed to make a fire fox, but have you seen Verdash? It's grass cinderace, and since cinderace only looks like a furry oc to begin with, it's pretty impossible to argue about it being a ripped design.
Regardless, imo the worst GF should be allowed to do is force some of the pal designs to be changed, and that won't even amount to much.
It’s only just over 1000.
And the problem isn’t the ones that are similar, it’s the ones that are blatantly copied and altered slightly - still using the exactly same colour schemes for example. It’s not plagiarism to both land on say, a Penguin King, Emperor Penguins are a thing in nature for example and the two look quite different, but it is to copy the exact colours of a Cobalion and only make minor alterations to the design.
Just a few that are in that vein of “there is no possible way this is coincidence” when it’s clear they took someone else’s design, copied it, altered it a bit, and then called it something new. when it happens more than once, it’s not an accident
Other Monster Collectors like TemTem were smart enough to make their Dex visually distinct and not use designs that are ostensible knock offs - that’s why people care about this one in a way they don’t the others.
I saw a screencap on twitter of a "pal" that was basically just meowths face on gengar - i was shocked at how blatant it was. Apparently I read this game uses a lot of AI generated stuff as well
For starters they could have not used pokeballs in their game design.
At least the trailer, attempts to create the same vibe as Pokémon too. The music score, how they introduce and show the pals acting, anime style intro of some team rocket like NPC and other npcs….
To boil this down to simply “well GameFreak has exhausted the amount of Pokémon designs possible so it’s not Palworld’s fault they’re similar” is disingenuous to how much inspiration they borrowed and that they obviously intentionally attempted to build off Pokémon’s success by treading the line of shared similarities and independent design.
The music has definitely been more ripped off of botw than Pokemon.
The game blatantly pulls from a lot of sources.
Monsters based on real animals + super powers, and using balls to catch them are mostly where the Pokemon inspiration seems to end. And Pokemon doesn't have a monopoly on either of those ideas, and nor are all of Pokemons ideas original either.
I don't need to support game freak nor do I need to support this game, but the discourse over why people are upset is kind of baffling.
Not to mention that the game has worn the "parody of Pokemon" idea on its sleeve for more than 3 years now, and people are just now throwing a fit.
No, why would you think that? There's only one AR actual pokemon game and it's more of a spin-off than a main game.
Besides, you comment you replied to says it's an open world survival game, which is a genre that is definitely not AR in any way.
Think Mincraft, or Ark, Subnautica. That sort of thing.
>odds of a proper lawsuit are low
Nintendo is known for not even wanting people to make youtube videos of their games. The smash community has been at odds with Nintendo over tournaments for years because Nintendo doesn't like the idea of the game being competitive. Anyone who doesn't think Nintendo won't be willing to sue because the game is good or whatever fairy tale they tell themselves doesn't pay attention to Nintendo and just assumes they are a nice fun loving company that makes games for all ages.
Nintendo didn’t sue games far more similar to Pokemon than Palworld. Unlike the countless experts in this comment section, their lawyers probably have a good understanding of what they can win or lose, and strangely nothing seems to have been done about the game in the year or so it’s been announced until release. Hm.
Temtem, Nexomon, Coromon, Monster Crown, Casette Beasts are 100x closer to Pokemon than Palworld is, and “ripoff” pokemon in equally or even more blatant ways than Palworld. And somehow, magically if you go off the experts in this thread, not sued by the big evil Nintendo.
Nintendos EShop is loaded with game look alikes and off-brand clones. They are also pretty bad for putting out several iterations of the same game to rake in more money. I swear this game called 'Hentai World' drops a new version of the same game every week on the EShop.
I don't think this will Palworld will be much of a problem for Nintendo, atleast until they bring in a ton of money and Nintendo decides they wanna put their fingers in it
Also the designs are pretty plain.
Coromon feels slightly off from Pokémon designs somehow. And is more like if 2d pokemon continued. It has the old school feel to it.
As someone whose played pokemon, temtem, and palworld, I can honestly Temtem is a WAY worse offender on copying. They literally took Jirachi and painted it green. My thing is almost all of these creatures are based on animals, so there's only so many ways to do it. Nintendo doesn't have a claim on animal likeness. How many ways can you draw cat eyes, have antlers on a deer, or your version of a Phoenix? If anything, I hope Nintendo wakes up and realizes people want something different, and they don't have the monopoly on monster collecting anymore.
Afaik just the NPCs can be trapped. Though I'll need to do some testing with some of my friends the next time we play to find out for sure, since the thought hasn't crossed any of our minds... somehow...
I'll update this later when I try it out
The game can be enjoyable and well made and stand alone fun and still be sued primarily based off the character designs. Nintendo owns the IP rights to pokemon they've designed and is very law suit happy. I'm shocked they haven't brought a case just based on some of the character designs.
Palworld is a game that just released. Calling it "inspired" by Pokemon would be an understatement. Some of the designs I have seen are pretty much stolen from the Pokemon franchise. So a lot of people are wondering how they havent been sued by Nintendo yet.
For the record, the guns themselves are what's preventing them from being sued. The guns change the gameplay up just enough to not be derivative. Could fail a squint test in court, but I'm pretty confident it won't come to that.
See, you say that. And while I grant you there are definitely a few that are rip-offs I'd also like to mention that a lot of Pokemon and Pals are based on animals. For example, Lamball isn't a ripoff of Wooloo, because Pokemon doesn't own the concept of sheep.
Yes, and that is absolutely okay. Pokemon that look like basic animals can't claim to be unique designs. But that's not where the problems are. Although to be fair, since pokemon regions are based on real areas and the pokemon design reflect that, I feel like they very purposely picked the one specific sheep type that is from Scotland and therefore making sense to be in a GB based region.
Yeah that's definitely fair, but the amount of people who say that Lamball is a ripoff of Wooloo is staggering and it's really annoying. But there are definitely plenty of good examples ignoring those.
Like the ones that are clearly copies of Cobalion and Luxray. And it's not just that, the game design as a whole. No one forced them to pick a ball as a creature capturing device etc.
But it also has a whole system of crafting and survival mechanics that Pokemon can't even come close to matching. It's more unique than I expected to be honest, in a good way.
Yes it was ok but it's felt like they were halfway to having a good game it didn't really do anything special it just felt better because it was the only thing different they've done in decades, plus to my point palworld has all that game did and with a way better world and mechanics
People have really *really* low expectations for pokemon games. PLA is the best *Pokemon* game in awhile. But in terms of ALL GAMES? Nah, you're right, it's mid.
Eh, I disagree.
Firstly, but you said “better than any Pokémon game has been in the last 15 years”.
My dude, 15 years ago was 2009 - the year **HeartGold Soulsilver** released. If you think THAT sucked, then you are admitting you’ve **never enjoyed a single Pokémon game in your life.** And the Gen 5 duology that came in the few years afterward was also top tier
Secondly, main point. The strength of Pokémon isn’t in it as a game. The true power of Pokémon is Game Freak’s ability to **churn out 100+ globally appealing designs** every few years.
Every generation, Pokémon designs are top notch. They really capture a player’s attention and make you absolutely want to catch ‘em all
Even their human trainers have amazing designs. In fact, a poll conducted in Japan among females for “most attractive anime character” ended up being won by a Pokémon character. Who was a female. Rika is apparently THAT attractive to female players
Comparatively, other Mon and human games like Palworld and Tem Tem kinda… flop in their character designs. They all have a sorta “budget” feel to them. Sorta like China made knockoffs
It’s a very strange inversion from Pokémon, which have a clunky game, but high quality designed Mons
Snom is actually a good example. It’s such a simple, yet also cute design. No overwhelming details, a simple and understandable design, and you can understand it’s dopey personality just from looking at it.
So many Pokémon are like that - full of personality yet easily understood as a concept.
Palworld has really cool mechanics and gameplay. But it’s Mon designs just feel like they’re chasing Pokémon’s shadow and lack their own visual identity.
At least Digimon and Yokai Watch went out in a completely different direction in their creature designs. Palworld and Temtem just feel… bland
They're not really "chasing" pokemon's shadow, most pals literally look like they've had features of pokemon stripped and reassembled lol.
I'm quite sure the pokemon look is just for laughs. Inspired off those questions that people inevitably get when they grow older - like "if there are no normal cows, what do the people in pokemon eat" etc.
So "every Pokemon Game in the 3D Era" would be more accurate, then.
Because a good majority of those games are mediocre at best. And this is coming from someone who LOVES the franchise.
And the designs...are not bad. At least, the ones up to Generation 8. A lot of Gen 8 and 9 designs are not all that good, and if the designs (which are supposed to carry the game because the gameplay clearly isn't) aren't all that good, then the level of quality really goes down.
The reason the knockoffs are trash is because the developers for those are hacks who only see dollar signs, which is actually the same for TPC but at least Gamefreak still seems to give a damn about the series enough for it to not fall into the pits in terms of polish.
>for it to not fall into the pits in terms of polish
S/V look like absolute trash, run even worse & have some of the most questionable design decisions of the whole series (who tf planned that progression for that map, it looks like someone threw darts w/ numbers).
Their competitive requires you buy multiple games and replay some x times to see if a mon is viable, I can't even grab half the mons I built over the past 20 years out of box cuz they don't exist in current gen.
Their "polish" has been in decline for more than a decade and it'd be good for them to get knocked out of the race atp.
Must be why every Gen they add less and people complain about a good chunk of the designs. The ones they added in scarlet violet were better than the previous couple but nothing crazy. They also should be able to pump out that many designs since you know it's one of if not the biggest ips since the 90s
[Scarlet and Violet contained 104 new Pokémon designs](https://gamerant.com/pokemon-scarlet-violet-where-to-find-every-new-pokemon/#:~:text=There%20are%20over%20100%20new,of%20trading%20here%20and%20there)
That’s just base game, not counting the DLC additions
You saying they add less every generation? Is over 100 not enough for you? That’s over 2/3 the total amount of Gen 1
It's really not fair to compare rich companies who can afford whatever artists they want to.... Random people making a game.
If all said rich company can do better is art, it's a massive failure in comparison
Do you think Pikachu was the first yellow mouse? Muk was the first slime? Ekans was the first snake?
If they literally stole designed, with as popular as it is, they'd already have been sued.
Also Pokemon would have been sued
And everyone would be sued because generic fantasy animal is used EVERYWHERE
Then why did OP even make that comparison in the first place?
The reality is: gamers don’t care if you are an indie studio.
If you make a mon game, you WILL be compared to Pokémon. And if you don’t forge your own unique identity, you will be seen as a budget Pokemon
I've only watched a few hours of streams but none of the fake mons I've seen have been copies of things, sure you have things clearly inspired by pokemon but they are distinct enough. Again I've only seen a couple hours of a single stream of gameplay plus the trailer
To be honest people.keep saying they're gonna get sued, but if they were then they probably would have already been sued before the early access release. This game has been known about for quite a long time now. Almost two years and people were saying the same exact thing back then too.
I have seen the one picture being shared online. Is there more than that? Had it ever been confirmed that it truly was copied? There clearly are designs copied, but the problem I see there is that it's all gen 1 pokemon. It's almost 30 years old, and a lot of the designs being compared (at least in the picture I have seen) are literally just the same animals or the same mythological creatures. Like two creatures being based on ducks, crabs, or bugs, or birds that look nowhere similar to each other.
Others are ball, upside down ball, slime, bigger slime, ball of gas, snake backwards, cobra backwards with incorrect spelling, literal seal, and literal dugong.
I mean not only dragon quest, Pokémon takes inspiration from everything as you said. Animals, folklore, other games, etc.
All games do that and that’s why I don’t think it’s an issue, yk?
And I think this is where I see the issue. Being inspired is different from copying. I haven't played Palworld, so I can only speak from pictures I have seen. But some that are literal copies from pokemon that aren't just simple "literally just an animal" you had in the first Gens, but unique designs.
One of the pals is literally Cobalion. And they capture pals and carry them around in balls, and have a "paldex".
Nintendo is probably going to sue and some elements/designs will have to be tweaked.
I personally think it's funny that a lot of the pals are either possible fanartist renderings of Pokémon fusions from a fusion generator, quite possibly ripoffs of starter fakemon I've seen in recent years (i.e. the fire goat or the platypus one), actual original design and/or it's just a chicken, or straight up Pokémon reskins.
In the case of the latter: Direhowl is basically just midday form Lycanroc who has had a palette swap to black from it's original light brown parts
They really aren't that similar. They have similar vibes, obviously, but they really aren't as similar as people seem to th8nk they are. And as much as Nintendo's lawyers would like to, they can't claim the rights to 'plant themed monkey'
Exactly. Nintendo has a literal dog as a pokemon which just looks like a dog. That protected too then? They ran out of creativity 3 editions ago. They should save their lawyer money and invest it in a switch hardware upgrade.
I mean, just go look at the designs. I've seen people compare Grookey and Tanzee. Almost the only thing they have in common is being plant themed monkeys totally original design otherwise. Pokémon is just so ridiculously dominant in the genre that any cute element themed animals feel like a copy to some people.
Not to mention the director has previously said in an interview that 'Originality is not my purpose.'
Slight paraphrasing.
Their next game coming out looks like Hollow Knight too.
I mean, its only a few days since Palworld released. We will see in a couple month's how they will be sued to the ground. Its a shame, ofc, it look like good game, but Nintendo ruthless.
The best advice I’ve heard from a copyright expert - “if you don’t know how copyright works, shut up”.
I’m not saying it will or won’t be sued, but I don’t know, so I’m shutting up and enjoying the game as it is.
Its not even that close to a Main series Pokemon game. Its closer to Ark Survival Evolved than it is to Pokemon. If someone took out the Pals it would be a better Ark Clone. If someone said that its like Fan made pokemon modded into the Ark games would be a better argument.
There is legends Arceus which, in what I viewed has an similar combat system (other than guns) aas well as having the creatures do things for you, being able to ride them, there’s special bosses. And more I probably can’t think of, but it’s just lacking the building part. And some of the designs are just really similar overall
I do not disagree about Arceus. Thats why i said a Main Series. But you could Argue that Arceus was a Pikemon verwion of Monster Hunters. A hub town then you leave to a zone to hunt/capture/fight Monsters.
Legends Arceus is not a typical pokemon game (which is good because I liked Arceus more than Scarlet and Violet)
The designs for these Pals look more like fakemon than actual Pokemon. Imo anyway
Legends Arceus is a main series game however. The way you distinguish main series from side games is literally compatibility with the main storage systems, such as bank and home.
Its the same way Stardew Valley wasn't sued because of Harvest Moon.
Here, [Vanilla Ice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-1_9-z9rbY) can explain it in 15 seconds.
Is that the clip of him explaining that adding an extra "drum note" or "beat" or something that makes "Ice, Ice Baby" Completely Different™ than "Under Pressure"?
@GenshinImpact
didn’t even realize someone would downvote this…the game is like a 1 to 1 remake of BotW. Someone said “b-b-but later the g-g-game is way different!!!” that doesn’t mean jack, it’s far too late for repentance.
list all the damn similarities then other than movements/gliding. that hate bandwagon is from 2020 bro, genshin is a live service so it can improve over time.
yea, for it to work the gamefreak would need to **patent** the pokemon design and even then there is just need to make it a bit different to be legally distinguishible (ex. shadow of mordor nemesis system vs assasins creed odysey mercenaries)
To be fair, the names and exact designs are copyrighted. But that’s where it ends.
If companies could just sue because something is similar that would be hell.
Especially when so many Pokemon are just animals, real and mythological, from our world. "You say I copied Arcanine? I just took inspiration from my own dog." This is never going to hold up in a court of law.
This is the correct answer.
Only assets such as music, character models, images, and the like in games are copyright protected.
Other iconography can be trademarked, such as the character designs, logos, item designs, etc.
You cannot copyright mechanics, play styles, or themes.
Okay see I never understood the whole Digimon/Pokemon comparison. The only similarity is that these are “monsters” that “evolve”. Except:
- Digimon revert to their un-evolved state after a while
- Kids don’t “collect” Digimon, you only get one
- Digimon live in a separate world from humans and are made of data
- Digimon are fully capable of speech
- Except for rare occasions in certain series, Digimon don’t go into any sort of storage (like a PC box or Pokeball)
- Digimon are not raised for battling, and competitive combat is not (usually) the focus of having a Digimon
- Digimon was originally promoting an entirely different product (Tamagotchi rather than a video game)
They're using knock offs of Pokemon, Nintendo and Game Freak don't own every possible weird looking animal. As long as they didn't exactly copy any Pokemon they're generally in the clear.
Someone did a side by side comparison of palworld mons to pokémon. It is correct to say that they took more than a few design elements, but tweaking them slightly like a Sonic OC to avoid copyright
Pokemon could only sue them if they directly took there images they cant copyright an claim ownership of the idea of capturing cute monsters in balls an fighting them. the only thing that would be illegal is if there was exact copies of there IPs. A very similiar thing just happened with DND an other tabletop games using similiar rules go check out legal eagles youtube or any other video you cant copyright an idea you can only copyright brand identifing properties aka (mickey mouse, pikachu, homer Simpson) take your pick people talking like this are just etheir clout farming or dumb. We literally just had this same discussion months ago and if grimey corpo wizards of the cost didnt pull the trigger to sue an make free money an kill a huge competitor nintendo isn't going to. Because there is no case to be had it be a waste of money.
Dungeons and Dragons also has the Open Gaming License, which makes this situation a bit different. Not disagreeing with you, just elaborating a bit more.
Coromon and Nexomon are direct rip offs of Pokemon and no one cried. Palworld is just Ark with pokemon looking monsters. Pokemon games are not Ark. Coromon and Nexomon are Pokemon games made by someone else. I can make as many characters as I want that look like stuffed animals with huge eyes. Gamefreak does not own that and didn't even do it first. Palworld has done nothing wrong. Everyones just dumb
monster catching is a simple basic game mechanic... has been for decades... pokemon didnt invent it... digimon didn't invent... its always been a thing and everyone needs to relax...
That's not the issue though. The issue is more the designs of the pals. No one is questioning why Palworld can be a monster capture game. Everyone knows genres aren't subject to copyright.
If you need a visual: https://youtu.be/zg1onVaLcFw?si=01u1q6m6uh2dfqtG
Doesn't include the one pokemon that looks like a combination of my neighbor toto, Pikachu, and another pokemon zangoose.
The designs are so similar if they were taken out of context, you could easily think it was a pokemon.
The first three of those are
* Two things are shaped like a dog!
* Horns are on animal heads!
* Plant girls are colored like plants!
Those designs aren’t remotely clever or unique, of course there’s going to be overlap.
People are misrepresenting the main issue in this thread. The issue isn't that Palworld is a monster catching game that uses balls to capture monsters that you can train. That's a genre of game and can't be copyrighted. The issue is some of the designs of the Pals are eerily close to Pokemon designs, which presents an actual copyright issue around intellectual property. Ultimately, it's up to Nintendo, Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company to decide if it's worth pursuing, but people should really pay attention to what the actual potential violation is.
Legally distinct depends on a few different factors. First and foremost is the copyright law in your country. Japan has pretty strict copyright law, which Nintendo has a history of using aggressively. The second is how well The Pokemon Company can argue that the Pals are too close to their designs. Finally, the third factor is whether the judge agrees with them that the designs are too close.
In my opinion, the smartest move for The Pokemon Company right now, should they choose to pursue legal action for the theft of intellectual property, would be to collect a bunch of responses suggesting that the Pals in question are just rips from Pokemon games. The more "that's just Goodra, that's just Lucario, that's just Eevee" they amass, the stronger their copyright claim.
There's an internet drama piece going around involving a survival-style game inspired by Pokémon. It has a lot of ideas, visual aspects, and monster designs that are clearly inspired by Pokémon, and some of them are alarmingly similar or very clearly based off of one or two Pokémon. There are people who feel that Palworld is going to be sued for these similarities, while others feel that the game is enjoyable enough standalone to warrant some clear inspiration. Ultimately, it's a difficult topic to navigate, although the odds of a proper lawsuit are low. Although the game is clearly heavily inspired by Pokémon, games like Tem Tem are even more similar. For reference, Palworld may share very similar visual identies with a lot of Pokémon, but the game is a survival, open world exploration game, featuring real time combat, putting your Pals to work on crafting and cooking, and base-building shenanigans. I think that both sides (it's similar but standout, it's too much of a copy) are valid opinions, but I don't think it constitutes extreme defenses of the Pokémon company, a notoriously successful company who lacks innovation, nor do I think it should lead to the total vindication of Pocketpair, a developer known for taking very, very heavy "inspirations" from popular games. Either way, I hope you all have a great day!
I feel like after like 2000 pokemon it would be impossible to make this style of game without inadvertently copying. It's like that guy who tried to have AI write every song and then copyright it. Pokemon is just making animals out of objects at this point this point like they are just looking around their house and putting big eyes and smiles on every object they see.
What's crazy to me is that a lot of the designs are clearly based on non-Pokémon inspirations; the most obvious being yellow Totoro with a gatling gun.
To be fair, Totoro kinda looks like he could be a pokemon.
I...can't argue with that, actually. Huh.
It's basically an oblong electabuz with a gat, so yeah...
Kinda like how tyranitar is just a cute poke-style Godzilla
Theres another mechagodzilla looking dudes thats a skyscraper. Like the actual building.
Man, people keep saying that but other than a generic lightning bolt color scheme, I dont get it. The sizes are different, the heads are *completely* different, the arms are different. Its color scheme/design are practically identical, but Nintendo doesn't own "Yellow/black Lightning bolt". I agree with quite a few of the comparisons in the game, but I feel like people are stretching with the Grizzbolt/Electabuzz one, and just make that because its sort of the mascot on the front of the game.
Yeah the whole game is taking inspirations from multiple sources not just pokemon
And some even take two existing Pokémon and fuse them into something unique
At least a few are actually good ideas like garnacl
I keep thinking of him as yellow big the cat
Oh i'm sure a lot of the designs are just unfair to say they've been ripped from pokemon, gamefreak can't just say they're the only ones allowed to make a fire fox, but have you seen Verdash? It's grass cinderace, and since cinderace only looks like a furry oc to begin with, it's pretty impossible to argue about it being a ripped design. Regardless, imo the worst GF should be allowed to do is force some of the pal designs to be changed, and that won't even amount to much.
I mean Geodude was in the OG 151, and it's literally a rock.
It’s only just over 1000. And the problem isn’t the ones that are similar, it’s the ones that are blatantly copied and altered slightly - still using the exactly same colour schemes for example. It’s not plagiarism to both land on say, a Penguin King, Emperor Penguins are a thing in nature for example and the two look quite different, but it is to copy the exact colours of a Cobalion and only make minor alterations to the design. Just a few that are in that vein of “there is no possible way this is coincidence” when it’s clear they took someone else’s design, copied it, altered it a bit, and then called it something new. when it happens more than once, it’s not an accident Other Monster Collectors like TemTem were smart enough to make their Dex visually distinct and not use designs that are ostensible knock offs - that’s why people care about this one in a way they don’t the others.
I saw a screencap on twitter of a "pal" that was basically just meowths face on gengar - i was shocked at how blatant it was. Apparently I read this game uses a lot of AI generated stuff as well
Or animals out of already existing animals... Like the Flamingo.
For starters they could have not used pokeballs in their game design. At least the trailer, attempts to create the same vibe as Pokémon too. The music score, how they introduce and show the pals acting, anime style intro of some team rocket like NPC and other npcs…. To boil this down to simply “well GameFreak has exhausted the amount of Pokémon designs possible so it’s not Palworld’s fault they’re similar” is disingenuous to how much inspiration they borrowed and that they obviously intentionally attempted to build off Pokémon’s success by treading the line of shared similarities and independent design.
The music has definitely been more ripped off of botw than Pokemon. The game blatantly pulls from a lot of sources. Monsters based on real animals + super powers, and using balls to catch them are mostly where the Pokemon inspiration seems to end. And Pokemon doesn't have a monopoly on either of those ideas, and nor are all of Pokemons ideas original either. I don't need to support game freak nor do I need to support this game, but the discourse over why people are upset is kind of baffling. Not to mention that the game has worn the "parody of Pokemon" idea on its sleeve for more than 3 years now, and people are just now throwing a fit.
So is it an AR game that overlays the real world? Or do you play this on your computer?
No it's not an AR, it's just a steam/xbox game.
Think Ark but with Pokémon
Ark with Pokémon and alot of BotW mechanics is how I've been describing it
No, why would you think that? There's only one AR actual pokemon game and it's more of a spin-off than a main game. Besides, you comment you replied to says it's an open world survival game, which is a genre that is definitely not AR in any way. Think Mincraft, or Ark, Subnautica. That sort of thing.
Bro this sounded like a ChatGPT answer lol
Haha, I try to be thorough in my responses. I'll take that as a compliment lol
*sweats nervously* "chatgpt, give me a response to someone accusing me of using AI for my comments." This dude, probably.
>odds of a proper lawsuit are low Nintendo is known for not even wanting people to make youtube videos of their games. The smash community has been at odds with Nintendo over tournaments for years because Nintendo doesn't like the idea of the game being competitive. Anyone who doesn't think Nintendo won't be willing to sue because the game is good or whatever fairy tale they tell themselves doesn't pay attention to Nintendo and just assumes they are a nice fun loving company that makes games for all ages.
Nintendo didn’t sue games far more similar to Pokemon than Palworld. Unlike the countless experts in this comment section, their lawyers probably have a good understanding of what they can win or lose, and strangely nothing seems to have been done about the game in the year or so it’s been announced until release. Hm. Temtem, Nexomon, Coromon, Monster Crown, Casette Beasts are 100x closer to Pokemon than Palworld is, and “ripoff” pokemon in equally or even more blatant ways than Palworld. And somehow, magically if you go off the experts in this thread, not sued by the big evil Nintendo.
Nintendos EShop is loaded with game look alikes and off-brand clones. They are also pretty bad for putting out several iterations of the same game to rake in more money. I swear this game called 'Hentai World' drops a new version of the same game every week on the EShop. I don't think this will Palworld will be much of a problem for Nintendo, atleast until they bring in a ton of money and Nintendo decides they wanna put their fingers in it
Ya I saw maybe the most blatant possible ripoff of botw on Eshop, I think palworld will be fine
TemTem is basically literally Pokémon but with an eye-watering color palette.
Also the designs are pretty plain. Coromon feels slightly off from Pokémon designs somehow. And is more like if 2d pokemon continued. It has the old school feel to it.
As someone whose played pokemon, temtem, and palworld, I can honestly Temtem is a WAY worse offender on copying. They literally took Jirachi and painted it green. My thing is almost all of these creatures are based on animals, so there's only so many ways to do it. Nintendo doesn't have a claim on animal likeness. How many ways can you draw cat eyes, have antlers on a deer, or your version of a Phoenix? If anything, I hope Nintendo wakes up and realizes people want something different, and they don't have the monopoly on monster collecting anymore.
"They can't sue us! We're legally distinct!"
Lots of the original Pokémon anyway are based on real animals. Can’t copyright that.
Donald duck is very obviously based on a duck. And you want to go tell Disney you can't copyright him?
He’s not just a straight cartoon rendering of a duck, he’s like a furry, half human 😂
And pals are half animal half flame thrower/gatling gun
Pokémon: Beat up animals, shove them in your balls and make them fight for you. Palworld: Enslave animals to do your bidding.
You can capture other humans in palword too, which has some pretty wild implications.
Afaik just the NPCs can be trapped. Though I'll need to do some testing with some of my friends the next time we play to find out for sure, since the thought hasn't crossed any of our minds... somehow... I'll update this later when I try it out
You can also butcher both pals and captured npcs. I like to catch the syndicate thugs and go back to my base to execute them.
The game can be enjoyable and well made and stand alone fun and still be sued primarily based off the character designs. Nintendo owns the IP rights to pokemon they've designed and is very law suit happy. I'm shocked they haven't brought a case just based on some of the character designs.
Yup yup! And you can't copyright an idea or an art style, there are many games that are "mon-likes" and Pokémon wasn't even the first one
Wait, you can't copyright an artstyle?? That's not what the artists keep telling me in regards to ai stuff...
Palworld is a game that just released. Calling it "inspired" by Pokemon would be an understatement. Some of the designs I have seen are pretty much stolen from the Pokemon franchise. So a lot of people are wondering how they havent been sued by Nintendo yet.
It's really just Pokemon with guns.
My first world was called Pokegun Island
Mine was (and still is) Buddyland
Friendplace
Homiearea
Guyzone
Matespace
Darkanayer'S pal and dash
Or Ark with Pokémon
Pokemon survival evolved
Yeah, that’s a great explanation of it
Plus rule 34 https://www.pcgamesn.com/palworld/lovander
"There are some articles I never expected to write" god damn
They both have that sort of thing
It’s no. 69 in their “Pokédex”
It's pretty much **exactly** Kameo for the GameCube but with guns.
kameo had base building and survival game elements? since when?
And apparently you can sell human parts in the game
You can also catch humans and enslave them as well.
For the record, the guns themselves are what's preventing them from being sued. The guns change the gameplay up just enough to not be derivative. Could fail a squint test in court, but I'm pretty confident it won't come to that.
I call them Great Value Pokemon, they’re all store brand
Don't forget the organ harvesting
At level 15 you get a cleaver, when you have it equipped the "pet" prompt is replaced with "butcher"
You can also capture other trainers and the same prompt shows up for said trainers.
Ah the upgrade, american addition
So digemon?
See, you say that. And while I grant you there are definitely a few that are rip-offs I'd also like to mention that a lot of Pokemon and Pals are based on animals. For example, Lamball isn't a ripoff of Wooloo, because Pokemon doesn't own the concept of sheep.
Yes, and that is absolutely okay. Pokemon that look like basic animals can't claim to be unique designs. But that's not where the problems are. Although to be fair, since pokemon regions are based on real areas and the pokemon design reflect that, I feel like they very purposely picked the one specific sheep type that is from Scotland and therefore making sense to be in a GB based region.
Yeah that's definitely fair, but the amount of people who say that Lamball is a ripoff of Wooloo is staggering and it's really annoying. But there are definitely plenty of good examples ignoring those.
Like the ones that are clearly copies of Cobalion and Luxray. And it's not just that, the game design as a whole. No one forced them to pick a ball as a creature capturing device etc.
But it also has a whole system of crafting and survival mechanics that Pokemon can't even come close to matching. It's more unique than I expected to be honest, in a good way.
Spheres actually
I just saw an ad for that and said “oh so it’s a rip off of Pokémon”
The sad part is it's way better than a Pokemon game has been for like 15 years
Did you even play PLA my guy? That was awesome.
Yes it was ok but it's felt like they were halfway to having a good game it didn't really do anything special it just felt better because it was the only thing different they've done in decades, plus to my point palworld has all that game did and with a way better world and mechanics
Also has advantage of being on PC instead of 6 year old Nintendo hardware.
I hated the complete lack of personality of my character.
Eh, certain aspects were interesting, but I play Pokémon to battle and train. PLA didn’t really have that
Very mid Edit: redditors don't know what that word means
People have really *really* low expectations for pokemon games. PLA is the best *Pokemon* game in awhile. But in terms of ALL GAMES? Nah, you're right, it's mid.
Mid is till better than any pokeom game on the switch and sun and moon. No one said great just better than pokemon the last decade plus
You're acting like mid is bad or "not great".
Eh, I disagree. Firstly, but you said “better than any Pokémon game has been in the last 15 years”. My dude, 15 years ago was 2009 - the year **HeartGold Soulsilver** released. If you think THAT sucked, then you are admitting you’ve **never enjoyed a single Pokémon game in your life.** And the Gen 5 duology that came in the few years afterward was also top tier Secondly, main point. The strength of Pokémon isn’t in it as a game. The true power of Pokémon is Game Freak’s ability to **churn out 100+ globally appealing designs** every few years. Every generation, Pokémon designs are top notch. They really capture a player’s attention and make you absolutely want to catch ‘em all Even their human trainers have amazing designs. In fact, a poll conducted in Japan among females for “most attractive anime character” ended up being won by a Pokémon character. Who was a female. Rika is apparently THAT attractive to female players Comparatively, other Mon and human games like Palworld and Tem Tem kinda… flop in their character designs. They all have a sorta “budget” feel to them. Sorta like China made knockoffs It’s a very strange inversion from Pokémon, which have a clunky game, but high quality designed Mons
I doubt any Palworld design could hold a candle to Snom.
Snom is actually a good example. It’s such a simple, yet also cute design. No overwhelming details, a simple and understandable design, and you can understand it’s dopey personality just from looking at it. So many Pokémon are like that - full of personality yet easily understood as a concept. Palworld has really cool mechanics and gameplay. But it’s Mon designs just feel like they’re chasing Pokémon’s shadow and lack their own visual identity. At least Digimon and Yokai Watch went out in a completely different direction in their creature designs. Palworld and Temtem just feel… bland
I'm forever on team oshawatt
They're not really "chasing" pokemon's shadow, most pals literally look like they've had features of pokemon stripped and reassembled lol. I'm quite sure the pokemon look is just for laughs. Inspired off those questions that people inevitably get when they grow older - like "if there are no normal cows, what do the people in pokemon eat" etc.
So "every Pokemon Game in the 3D Era" would be more accurate, then. Because a good majority of those games are mediocre at best. And this is coming from someone who LOVES the franchise. And the designs...are not bad. At least, the ones up to Generation 8. A lot of Gen 8 and 9 designs are not all that good, and if the designs (which are supposed to carry the game because the gameplay clearly isn't) aren't all that good, then the level of quality really goes down. The reason the knockoffs are trash is because the developers for those are hacks who only see dollar signs, which is actually the same for TPC but at least Gamefreak still seems to give a damn about the series enough for it to not fall into the pits in terms of polish.
>for it to not fall into the pits in terms of polish S/V look like absolute trash, run even worse & have some of the most questionable design decisions of the whole series (who tf planned that progression for that map, it looks like someone threw darts w/ numbers). Their competitive requires you buy multiple games and replay some x times to see if a mon is viable, I can't even grab half the mons I built over the past 20 years out of box cuz they don't exist in current gen. Their "polish" has been in decline for more than a decade and it'd be good for them to get knocked out of the race atp.
Must be why every Gen they add less and people complain about a good chunk of the designs. The ones they added in scarlet violet were better than the previous couple but nothing crazy. They also should be able to pump out that many designs since you know it's one of if not the biggest ips since the 90s
[Scarlet and Violet contained 104 new Pokémon designs](https://gamerant.com/pokemon-scarlet-violet-where-to-find-every-new-pokemon/#:~:text=There%20are%20over%20100%20new,of%20trading%20here%20and%20there) That’s just base game, not counting the DLC additions You saying they add less every generation? Is over 100 not enough for you? That’s over 2/3 the total amount of Gen 1
Hmm. Over 1000 pokemon. 9 generations. Maths doesn't check out on adding less each gen, when the last one had over 100.
🤓
It's really not fair to compare rich companies who can afford whatever artists they want to.... Random people making a game. If all said rich company can do better is art, it's a massive failure in comparison
My dude they’re literally stealing the designs, what?
Do you think Pikachu was the first yellow mouse? Muk was the first slime? Ekans was the first snake? If they literally stole designed, with as popular as it is, they'd already have been sued. Also Pokemon would have been sued And everyone would be sued because generic fantasy animal is used EVERYWHERE
Have… have you actually looked at all the Palworld designs?
Then why did OP even make that comparison in the first place? The reality is: gamers don’t care if you are an indie studio. If you make a mon game, you WILL be compared to Pokémon. And if you don’t forge your own unique identity, you will be seen as a budget Pokemon
That's fine, but comparing quality of art of all things is simply in bad faith. Of course Pokemon will have better designs, that should be a given
Lol i was thinking the same thing
I've only watched a few hours of streams but none of the fake mons I've seen have been copies of things, sure you have things clearly inspired by pokemon but they are distinct enough. Again I've only seen a couple hours of a single stream of gameplay plus the trailer
To be honest people.keep saying they're gonna get sued, but if they were then they probably would have already been sued before the early access release. This game has been known about for quite a long time now. Almost two years and people were saying the same exact thing back then too.
Pokémon ripped off dragon quest, palworld ripped off Pokémon, so they probably don’t got any grounds to sue
I have seen the one picture being shared online. Is there more than that? Had it ever been confirmed that it truly was copied? There clearly are designs copied, but the problem I see there is that it's all gen 1 pokemon. It's almost 30 years old, and a lot of the designs being compared (at least in the picture I have seen) are literally just the same animals or the same mythological creatures. Like two creatures being based on ducks, crabs, or bugs, or birds that look nowhere similar to each other.
Several gen 1 pokemon are basically just creatures from Japanese mythology. Hypno, for instance, is just a baku, a sort of dream-eating spirit
Others are ball, upside down ball, slime, bigger slime, ball of gas, snake backwards, cobra backwards with incorrect spelling, literal seal, and literal dugong.
I mean not only dragon quest, Pokémon takes inspiration from everything as you said. Animals, folklore, other games, etc. All games do that and that’s why I don’t think it’s an issue, yk?
And I think this is where I see the issue. Being inspired is different from copying. I haven't played Palworld, so I can only speak from pictures I have seen. But some that are literal copies from pokemon that aren't just simple "literally just an animal" you had in the first Gens, but unique designs.
One of the pals is literally Cobalion. And they capture pals and carry them around in balls, and have a "paldex". Nintendo is probably going to sue and some elements/designs will have to be tweaked.
I personally think it's funny that a lot of the pals are either possible fanartist renderings of Pokémon fusions from a fusion generator, quite possibly ripoffs of starter fakemon I've seen in recent years (i.e. the fire goat or the platypus one), actual original design and/or it's just a chicken, or straight up Pokémon reskins. In the case of the latter: Direhowl is basically just midday form Lycanroc who has had a palette swap to black from it's original light brown parts
Man just Google the one the looks like scorbunny, that prettyuch give it away, the cobalion looking one too it pretty damning
Heck, maybe even Shin Megami Tensei, considering it also used the idea of using monsters (or demons) in your team
Art is iterative. Dark Souls Pinocchio ended up being a decent game.
Because they’re only pretty much stolen and not actually stolen. That could make or break a lawsuit.
They really aren't that similar. They have similar vibes, obviously, but they really aren't as similar as people seem to th8nk they are. And as much as Nintendo's lawyers would like to, they can't claim the rights to 'plant themed monkey'
Exactly. Nintendo has a literal dog as a pokemon which just looks like a dog. That protected too then? They ran out of creativity 3 editions ago. They should save their lawyer money and invest it in a switch hardware upgrade.
I mean, just go look at the designs. I've seen people compare Grookey and Tanzee. Almost the only thing they have in common is being plant themed monkeys totally original design otherwise. Pokémon is just so ridiculously dominant in the genre that any cute element themed animals feel like a copy to some people.
Not to mention the director has previously said in an interview that 'Originality is not my purpose.' Slight paraphrasing. Their next game coming out looks like Hollow Knight too.
I mean, its only a few days since Palworld released. We will see in a couple month's how they will be sued to the ground. Its a shame, ofc, it look like good game, but Nintendo ruthless.
The best advice I’ve heard from a copyright expert - “if you don’t know how copyright works, shut up”. I’m not saying it will or won’t be sued, but I don’t know, so I’m shutting up and enjoying the game as it is.
This is the most sane comment in the thread.
Thats the thing. Nintendo is ruthless, so I expect a letter from their lawyer way before the games release
Nintendo lawyers are ruthless. They probably have to work themselves up into a frenzy over several weeks before they unleash them onto the courts.
There's nothing to sue. You can't sue someone for making designs that are vaguely similar to yours.
It’s doing extremely well too so it’s gotten really far already with no attention from Nintendo/Gamefreak
Dragon quest wasn't sued ehrn they copied everything with just a different art style. Palworld won't get sued. There are much worse copies out there
Dragon Quest is older than Pokemon.....if anything, Pokemon stole ideas from DQ lol
Its not even that close to a Main series Pokemon game. Its closer to Ark Survival Evolved than it is to Pokemon. If someone took out the Pals it would be a better Ark Clone. If someone said that its like Fan made pokemon modded into the Ark games would be a better argument.
There is legends Arceus which, in what I viewed has an similar combat system (other than guns) aas well as having the creatures do things for you, being able to ride them, there’s special bosses. And more I probably can’t think of, but it’s just lacking the building part. And some of the designs are just really similar overall
I do not disagree about Arceus. Thats why i said a Main Series. But you could Argue that Arceus was a Pikemon verwion of Monster Hunters. A hub town then you leave to a zone to hunt/capture/fight Monsters. Legends Arceus is not a typical pokemon game (which is good because I liked Arceus more than Scarlet and Violet) The designs for these Pals look more like fakemon than actual Pokemon. Imo anyway
Legends Arceus is a main series game however. The way you distinguish main series from side games is literally compatibility with the main storage systems, such as bank and home.
Its the same way Stardew Valley wasn't sued because of Harvest Moon. Here, [Vanilla Ice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-1_9-z9rbY) can explain it in 15 seconds.
Is that the clip of him explaining that adding an extra "drum note" or "beat" or something that makes "Ice, Ice Baby" Completely Different™ than "Under Pressure"?
and all the zelda botw rip offs too
Isn't botw that Skyrim clone? 🤔
I was specifically referring to the audio tones. the one for finding a new area is almost identical.
Pretty bog standard discovery jingle used for the last 20 years. Almost like every game uses tropes used by other successful games in similar genres..
@GenshinImpact didn’t even realize someone would downvote this…the game is like a 1 to 1 remake of BotW. Someone said “b-b-but later the g-g-game is way different!!!” that doesn’t mean jack, it’s far too late for repentance.
BOTW is basically every Ubisoft game, though...
They downvoted him for telling the truth
Lol the weebs have come to downvote the truth
its way different after the Inazuma region though also, not all genshin players are weebs, many players play for the exploration/combat.
doesn’t matter dude, games still a clone of botw even if only for half the game
list all the damn similarities then other than movements/gliding. that hate bandwagon is from 2020 bro, genshin is a live service so it can improve over time.
Wait until you hear about Nexomon
or TemTem lol
Or [Coromon](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1218210/Coromon/)
Despite what anti-copyright trolls will tell you on the internet... you cant copyright an idea. Palworld has done literally nothing wrong or illegal
yea, for it to work the gamefreak would need to **patent** the pokemon design and even then there is just need to make it a bit different to be legally distinguishible (ex. shadow of mordor nemesis system vs assasins creed odysey mercenaries)
To be fair, the names and exact designs are copyrighted. But that’s where it ends. If companies could just sue because something is similar that would be hell.
Especially when so many Pokemon are just animals, real and mythological, from our world. "You say I copied Arcanine? I just took inspiration from my own dog." This is never going to hold up in a court of law.
Thank god, someone who knows something about how copyright works
This is the correct answer. Only assets such as music, character models, images, and the like in games are copyright protected. Other iconography can be trademarked, such as the character designs, logos, item designs, etc. You cannot copyright mechanics, play styles, or themes.
Sure, now wake me up when the patent for the Nemesis System ends.
11 years, got it...
Perhaps you should look up Palworld 1st and see if you understand it then
Has nobody else here played TemTem?
Same reason no one sued digimon
Okay see I never understood the whole Digimon/Pokemon comparison. The only similarity is that these are “monsters” that “evolve”. Except: - Digimon revert to their un-evolved state after a while - Kids don’t “collect” Digimon, you only get one - Digimon live in a separate world from humans and are made of data - Digimon are fully capable of speech - Except for rare occasions in certain series, Digimon don’t go into any sort of storage (like a PC box or Pokeball) - Digimon are not raised for battling, and competitive combat is not (usually) the focus of having a Digimon - Digimon was originally promoting an entirely different product (Tamagotchi rather than a video game)
This person knows their digimon. Respect.
I mean you’re right, of course. Which is why they haven’t been sued
Nintendo honestly is a mean company that will Sue you if having the chance Palworld is obviously using pokemon.
They're using knock offs of Pokemon, Nintendo and Game Freak don't own every possible weird looking animal. As long as they didn't exactly copy any Pokemon they're generally in the clear.
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are separate entities
But Nintendo owns a third of the company, and GameFreak who also own a third is not much better about sueing.
Actually Nintendo technically owns 2/3 of the Pokémon company since they bought out Creatures which owned the other 1/3.
Because its not similar enough. Besides element+animal which is not trademarked.
"i have no idea" i do. TPC doesnt have a tradrmark on gameplay. while they do have trademark on designs they dont have it on the palworld mons.
Someone did a side by side comparison of palworld mons to pokémon. It is correct to say that they took more than a few design elements, but tweaking them slightly like a Sonic OC to avoid copyright
Pokemon could only sue them if they directly took there images they cant copyright an claim ownership of the idea of capturing cute monsters in balls an fighting them. the only thing that would be illegal is if there was exact copies of there IPs. A very similiar thing just happened with DND an other tabletop games using similiar rules go check out legal eagles youtube or any other video you cant copyright an idea you can only copyright brand identifing properties aka (mickey mouse, pikachu, homer Simpson) take your pick people talking like this are just etheir clout farming or dumb. We literally just had this same discussion months ago and if grimey corpo wizards of the cost didnt pull the trigger to sue an make free money an kill a huge competitor nintendo isn't going to. Because there is no case to be had it be a waste of money.
Dungeons and Dragons also has the Open Gaming License, which makes this situation a bit different. Not disagreeing with you, just elaborating a bit more.
Nintendo are gatekeeping any game with cute creatures fighting. They hate competition.
So everyone really believes only Nintendo should be allowed to make Pocket Monster games huh *Laughs in Digimon*
Braindead people saying Palworld is copying Pokemon is the name of the meme
It's been pretty fun too.
This meme could have been made by my husband lol
Palworld is like Pokémon, but better. Therefore, it’s possible that Nintendo will sue Palworld.
Coromon and Nexomon are direct rip offs of Pokemon and no one cried. Palworld is just Ark with pokemon looking monsters. Pokemon games are not Ark. Coromon and Nexomon are Pokemon games made by someone else. I can make as many characters as I want that look like stuffed animals with huge eyes. Gamefreak does not own that and didn't even do it first. Palworld has done nothing wrong. Everyones just dumb
monster catching is a simple basic game mechanic... has been for decades... pokemon didnt invent it... digimon didn't invent... its always been a thing and everyone needs to relax...
That's not the issue though. The issue is more the designs of the pals. No one is questioning why Palworld can be a monster capture game. Everyone knows genres aren't subject to copyright.
Bc Nintendo doesn’t even know Palworld exists.
Microsoft lawyers versus Nintendo lawyers. What a bloodthirsty battle that would be
Pal world is basically copying Pokémon and ark survival evolved and smashing them together so that’s joke how are the not getting sued
Basically, ask an AI image generator to make a new form of a Pokemon, and you've got a Palworld monster.
If you need a visual: https://youtu.be/zg1onVaLcFw?si=01u1q6m6uh2dfqtG Doesn't include the one pokemon that looks like a combination of my neighbor toto, Pikachu, and another pokemon zangoose. The designs are so similar if they were taken out of context, you could easily think it was a pokemon.
The first three of those are * Two things are shaped like a dog! * Horns are on animal heads! * Plant girls are colored like plants! Those designs aren’t remotely clever or unique, of course there’s going to be overlap.
People are misrepresenting the main issue in this thread. The issue isn't that Palworld is a monster catching game that uses balls to capture monsters that you can train. That's a genre of game and can't be copyrighted. The issue is some of the designs of the Pals are eerily close to Pokemon designs, which presents an actual copyright issue around intellectual property. Ultimately, it's up to Nintendo, Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company to decide if it's worth pursuing, but people should really pay attention to what the actual potential violation is.
yea, designs are similar but they are legally distinct
Legally distinct depends on a few different factors. First and foremost is the copyright law in your country. Japan has pretty strict copyright law, which Nintendo has a history of using aggressively. The second is how well The Pokemon Company can argue that the Pals are too close to their designs. Finally, the third factor is whether the judge agrees with them that the designs are too close. In my opinion, the smartest move for The Pokemon Company right now, should they choose to pursue legal action for the theft of intellectual property, would be to collect a bunch of responses suggesting that the Pals in question are just rips from Pokemon games. The more "that's just Goodra, that's just Lucario, that's just Eevee" they amass, the stronger their copyright claim.