Palworld has been controversial from the get-go. With strikingly similar aesthetics and game mechanics to Pokémon, the game has been accused of plagiarism by fans and lawyers alike. And according to ex-Capcom dev Yoshiki Okamoto (Monster Strike, Folklore), you–yes you–shouldn’t even be playing Palworld until and unless the lawsuit is settled in Pocketpair’s favor. “I don’t want the world to think [Palworld] is acceptable,” Okamoto said, urging folks not to play the game.
It was only a matter of time before Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, ever-quick to use legal means to shut down anything they consider a misuse of their IP (unless, of course, that IP is used to promote the rounding up and abuse of real humans), would sue developer Pocketpair. And in a recent video (h/t PC Gamer), Okamoto said Pocketpair has committed such a grave sin in their creation of Palworld that it “transcends the boundaries of war” and that “by playing the game you are supporting it, so please don’t buy it.”
Okamoto has been torched in the comments over this assertion, especially considering his suspected use of the term “anti-social force,” which is not a punk band name, but rather an actual term used to describe fraudsters and yakuza-owned businesses. (It’s not entirely clear if he actually used this term, as he deliberately obfuscated the final kanji in both the video’s audio and its subtitles.)
Folks in the comments of this wild video have rightly argued that many of Okamoto’s own games involve monster battling and the capturing of your foes to do your bidding, mechanics which are also at the core of Pokémon. Others are just voicing their frustrations with Nintendo’s now-predictable behavior when it comes to the alleged misuse of their ideas.
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Telling folks that they shouldn’t play a game until the courts deem it okay to do so (as if courts, in 2025 of all times, are rational machines of truth) is a bold move. And it doesn’t seem to be paying off for him, Cotton.