Lots of controversy around this game. Gotta say, no one really cares. Well no one who doesn't find something to complain about each day on social media anyway. Dunno about you all, though I am fucking tired. So much shit just wrong nowadays and while I do my part where I can, when it comes to games I honestly just want to sit down and have fun. Palworld is fun. Lots of potential that is likely to be built upon and just enough depth right now that I can hop into the world and actually feel just a bit of that original wonder from so many years ago. Something our old pals Game Freak and Nintendo have, much like Nvidia did years ago, purposefully opted to barely refresh the concept as time has gone on.
There have been plenty of fanmade Pokemon games that have done it better than the devs of the actual, official, licensed main games. Hell, there have been sideloaded Pokemon titles better than the cash grabs of the last few years. I for one hope Palworld lights a positive "better-than-thou" fire under Nintendo. The literal best move they could make now, imho, is run with the larger community response and release something truly mildblowing.
it's also working counter productive to their cause. I originally wasn't going to play, I came across the game soley from the posts on imitating pokemon, I tried it via gamepass and fell in love with the game so I bought it on steam. I originally was just going to skip it, the publicity on the game is what pushed me over. The saying "No PR is Bad PR" can be true at times.