When Palworld launched its early access, it took everyone by surprise with its sheer success. Crafted by an indie team from Japan with a modest budget, this monster-catching survival game took off on both Xbox and PC, selling at an incredible pace. To add to its triumph, it set records as the most successful third-party launch on Xbox Game Pass at the time. Despite mixed reviews from critics, fans praised the game, drawing in tens of millions of players. Today, it still enjoys a robust player community.
Last year, Palworld made headlines, though not all were favorable. After its release, some online gamers accused its developer, Pocketpair, of allegedly lifting assets from the Pokémon games to form their Pals, the game’s equivalent creatures. Most of these claims were dismissed, yet Palworld faced another challenge when Nintendo filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, citing similarities between Palworld’s Pal Spheres and Pokémon’s iconic Poke Balls.
Despite these accusations, Palworld and Pokémon are quite distinct from one another. They belong to separate genres—Palworld being a survival game and Pokémon a JRPG—and their gameplay mechanics differ significantly. For one, their breeding systems aren’t as alike as they initially seem.
The breeding process in Pokémon has been a cornerstone since Pokémon Gold and Silver appeared on the Game Boy Color in 1999. Players use Pokémon Day Cares or Nurseries to breed Pokémon of opposite genders, resulting in eggs that hatch into new Pokémon. Almost all main Pokémon games have featured breeding, save for Let’s Go Eevee and Pikachu. It’s a strategic method to acquire Pokémon with desirable traits, which are often hard to find in the wild.
The latest Pokémon games, Scarlet and Violet, have done away with Day Cares, instead requiring players to picnic to facilitate breeding. For Pokémon to reproduce, they must be compatible, sharing at least one Egg Group and being of opposite genders, except for Ditto. Ditto can breed with any Pokémon (except other Ditto) due to its ability to mimic any form and its lack of gender. Genderless Pokémon, such as Porygon and Solrock, can only breed with Ditto.
In contrast, Palworld’s breeding system, while reminiscent of Pokémon’s, introduces a significant twist. Players assign a male and female Pal to a breeding farm and must provide at least one Cake, crafted through a Cooking Pot or Electric Kitchen, to breed them. An egg is produced, but unlike in Pokémon, Pals don’t need to be of the same species to breed. Instead, the offspring is influenced by the breeding ranks of their parents. Although some Pals require same-species parents, Palworld mainly allows for interspecies breeding, offering players a wide array of Pal variants through this diverse approach.
