Highlights
- Arkane Lyon Studio Director Dinga Bakaba shared an in depth breakdown of Palworld, defending the sport against recent criticism.
- The industry veteran said he was “baffled” to see some people calling Palworld “lazy,” stating that the sport is well-made and unique.
- Bakaba also stressed the importance of respecting different opinions, noting that while nobody is obligated to like several given game, that does not justify harassing those that disagree.
A senior official at Arkane Lyon, the developer of the Dishonored franchise, has defended Palworld against its vocal critics, all of the while offering an especially insightful breakdown of the sport. His detailed thoughts on PocketPair’s latest title stand in stark contrast to the accusations that Palworld is a shameless ripoff of Pokemon.
The $30 survival game with monster taming mechanics has taken the world by storm since launching in early access on January 19. But its massive success has also invited a number of scrutiny from some gamers who keep insisting Palworld is a lazy copy of Pokemon.
Dinga Bakaba, the studio director and co-creative director at Arkane Lyon, has now chimed in on the continuing Palworld vs Pokemon controversy. Taking to Twitter, the industry veteran shared an in depth breakdown of the sport spanning 21 tweets and over 2,000 words. The write-up begins with Bakaba stating that Palworld is firstly a survival game within the vein of Ark and Rust as a substitute of a Pokemon clone. As regards to its similarities with Game Freak’s franchise, the Arkane official noted that PocketPair’s title never pretended to not be a Pokemon parody, so some overlap is not just comprehensible but par for the course.
Bakaba also praised the immense effort that went into seamlessly mixing all of Palworld‘s many mechanics, noting that he was “baffled” to see some people label the sport as “lazy.” Elaborating on that time, Arkane’s studio director said that creating an experience that plays well and is accessible isn’t any easy feat, especially relating to a project that is juggling with as many various elements as Palworld is. Bakaba also dismissed the allegations that the sport’s character designs might need been churned out with AI tools as baseless.
As a game designer, I’m baffled that some say [Palworld] is lazy.
Finally, the developer stated that while there’s obviously no obligation for anyone to love Palworld or another game, this doesn’t justify bashing people for having different opinions. “Possibly let’s just be tolerant,” Bakaba concluded, all of the while opining that Palworld is “very unique” for a game that attracted so many accusations claiming it to be a blatant ripoff.
Despite this attempt at offering a voice of reason, the web discourse surrounding the sport still appears to be quite heated, to say the least. This was most recently underlined by some Palworld developers getting death threats, prompting PocketPair CEO Takuro Mizobe to plead with the general public to stop harassing his employees.
