You see, in Palworld, you still capture animals, you still force them into fighting other animals, and you even work them to the bone in a home base that is depicted as something closer to a sweatshop or even a labor camp for political prisoners. It's dark. Darker than Pokemon, or TemTem, or any of the many creature collectors that have come before it.
[...]
I look at Palworld and I don't see a case of "edgelord" humor seeking to derive laughs from an especially disquieting fantasy world, as some have put it. Neither do I see a biting satire on this genre's penchant for cognitive dissonance, nor the video game industry's current obsession with morally gray anti-heroes who do bad things but sometimes feel bad about them. I don't even think it's meant to say something about the economic systems and the exploitation of the workforce that comes in different flavors around the globe and which it is, incidentally, portraying in every corner of its open world. I don't think Palworld wants to say anything at all.
I think Palworld is a game that takes elements from major games and genres--Pokemon, modern Zelda, and survival-crafting, namely--and throws them into a pot in an attempt to tally Steam wishlists and sell copies. That's it. Palworld doesn't suggest its development team has thought about the severity of its story universe except for the fact that removing a lot of the moral considerations directly benefits the gameplay loop. It's more fun to automate the farming system, so if you can cast your Pals as slaves to that end, the game is better for it, developer Pocketpair seems to believe.
God if anyone ever writes something like this about something I've made, especially something existing overtly as satire, just spare me my fuckin misery and put me in the dirt. Good fuckin lord, I don't even think the article author realizes just how badly he's ethered the game here. Fuckin ice burn
"Here we have the world-famous author of the bestselling sci-fi novel, 'The Torment Nexus is Cool and Good and You Should Totally Build It.' Mr. Author, inquiring minds want to know: why did you write this novel, and did you imagine it would result in the proliferation of Torment Nexuses like it has over the 40 years since the book was first published?"
"-says nothing, just stares at the camera dead-eyed, as if he's been asked this exact question a thousand times, and takes a long sip from a hip flask rather than try to explain, once again, that he intended the book and its perfectly uncritical depiction of the Torment Nexus as a warning-"
