GBU Reviews - Palworld

I can't believe this game exists it purposely evokes Pokémon in so many of its elements it's a wonder this game hasn't been sued to Oblivion you catch the pals and little balls use them to do battle and it's not hard to see the inspiration behind most of the pals well I'm going to review the game and despite my grasp of the law bordering on the irresponsible we're going to look into the following topics how pal World differentiates itself from its Inspirations The Uncanny thought of Pikachu with a gun how I would alter the game to Veer further from the source so get ready it's time to catch them all in Pokémon with guns wait sorry my fault they're not Pokémon pocket pair adjusted them we resemble but legally distinct from the lollipop the [Music] lollipop I love Pokémon I remember playing fire red on my game Boy Color and then asking my parents for Pokémon Yellow the next year because it was a completely different game and I had to have it my Leafeon still sits on top of my desk right next to the cat bed but I have to admit I've kind of given up on the series the last one I played was Pokemon shield and only because someone else bought it for me there's too much handholding in the story mode competitive Pokemon is also a grind for Eevees and iys and I've always preferred making teams with the guys I like over what's powerful don't get the wrong idea I spent days on bedia looking up moves and planning my teams but that's because I'm a designer and a nerd not because I'm trying to be competitive the iconic nature of Pokémon has secured it a monopoly on the genre I could never get into games like temptem because it just wasn't the same and even though RC has made some Innovations it just wasn't enough to rekindle my passion for the series or to get me to buy enter pal world if nothing else we can certainly say pal world has changed up the Pokémon formula and it's far more than Pokémon with guns as the Internet calls it it no it wants to be Zelda too the UI and audio feel like they've been ripped directly from breath of the wild but it's the combination of Po world's desparate elements that create a fantastic end product I hated my first few hours because I don't like the rust or valheim style collection and Base building gameplay the breath of the wild style exploration is fine but for me the Magic Moment came from the creature collection they make tedious tasks become automated and there's a sense of satisfaction like you'd get from playing factorio watching your Pal's work the hatred I had for the first few hours of the game melted away as I watched my Pokémon do the job specifically the dinome I caught with a 5% chance went around my camp like a manp possessed ensuring I always had resources can't fight it must chop W and that pushed me to explore for more useful workers the more lands I discovered the stronger allies I needed for combat and bosses which are the aspects of the game I wanted to be interacting with the loop got fun I was excited to go out hunting so I could get stronger Pals to let me keep ignoring my base so that I could go out hunting again I can only imagine how fun this game must be for people who enjoy the base building and resource Gathering aspects as well but even with just the collection mechanics boss fights Guild raids multiplayer and exploration I had a blast this is the evolution in gameplay I've wanted to see from Pokemon for years now it's a Frankenstein that Nintendo would never make so I'm glad pocket Paar does what Nintendo if I'm being honest I kind of wanted to hate pal world it's a survival crafting game which isn't my genre it's a bit on the morbid side as well the trailer shows a pal sweatsh shop so I'm going to feel bad for the mother who buys this for her kids because of the bright artwork on the cover without realizing what this game really is birie please tell me you did not think sweat shops are where they make sweatpants and this and the game lets you butcher Pals when I first started playing I didn't want to kill any of them but I accidentally crit one and had to watch its body slowly roll down a hill past all its friends who witnessed in horror presenting me with an interesting philosophical dilemma was it Kinder to let this new posum be driven mad by what he'd seen or do I bash him to death with a giant wrench as well needless to say my morning became a veritable killing field situation it's also an early access title which is often used as an excuse for bad business practices and it tarnishes my first impressions so I tend to avoid those games but the most important reason I didn't want to like this game is because it looks like one of those shitty Chinese games like kings of Glory blatantly ripping off its source material instead of adding anything new yet despite that massive uphill battle power world won me over because it didn't need Innovation it took the steps that game freak wouldn't and made a fun product the real question now is how is this game legal well let's start with saying I am not a lawyer do not take legal advice from me or anyone on YouTube Just because I think power world is in the clear doesn't mean there aren't a [ __ ] ton of people gunning for it so from my limited understanding there are three major areas power world has to avoid for getting sued those are patents trademarks and copyrights a patent is an idea and an execution some specifics can be patented like Mass effects dialog wheel has a patent on it General mechanics however like jumping crafting shooting those can't be patented so power world avoids the first hurdle the second is a trademark these are words or images that represent a brand like the Aerosmith logo I hid in the video earlier or the word Pokémon so by coming up with new names and altering the characters enough the second issue is bypassed it is worth noting that the amount you modify matters but pocket pair seems to have found the balance boy you read my thoughts You've Got The Shining you mean shining shh you want to get sued the last one is copyright and this is the most important one it's the right to use distribute or perform a work and it's the most important because of a concept called derivative works this is just a fancy way of saying if someone Squints or doesn't know much about the games could they realistically confuse the two works and that's why giving Pikachu a gun might actually be saving po World some legal issues the sweat shops excessive violence and survival gameplay make it radically different from Pokemon to the point that the average person won't confuse the two products so I think power pulled it off they have a fun product and it's in the clear in my eyes though I know that's an ongoing debate so far there's no confirmation of any wrongdoings or AI so we're just stuck going do you have any evidence at all well your honor we've got plenty of hearsay and conjecture those are kinds of evidence and I trust Nintendo's lawyers they've shut down smaller things before so if this is illegal they'll handle it I'm going to go enjoy pal world for now and not worry about it somebody texted me hold on man who are you texting man I'm paying for the song Oh no that's my other client chill bro moving on this means I won't complain about the survival game mechanics that I personally don't enjoy because from my understanding those kind of need to be there thankfully power world gives plenty of options to bypass the more tedious Parts if you're not interested in them though I would advise not making things too easy because the automation of annoying task is what makes collecting Pals so gratifying where I will fault pal world is in its design it feels like there wasn't a unified Vision more a list of popular games it wanted to imitate when it really didn't need to I feel like power world could have adjusted some of its mechanics to fit its own unique Vision which would have made defending it a lot easier because right now it is kind of hard not to see The Inspirations and I'm also not one to play evil campaigns and games so I'm a little put off by the fact that the more gruesome options seem to be more fleshed out than the more wholesome mechanics but hey Pikachu with a gun makes for a bigger headline so I get why it was done I'm just baffled that the ability to catch a human in a pow ball enslave them and then butcher them for meat made into the game before there was an exit Game button but I guess that's my fault for playing on Game Pass if you're new to the series welcome this is the ugly section I work as a game designer so in my reviews I try and list out the good things I like the things I don't like and then I offer shitty suggestions in the ugly section for what I would have done if I were on the dev team usually with a big theme to The episode but since power world is in Early Access there's obviously a lot to fix so the ugly section is going to be more of a wish list of wants or things I would have personally done differently so let's get into it first stop blatantly copying other's homework there's so much stuff in this game that's a ripoff that should have been tweaked to fit the game's Vision instead of being borrowed as is yeah yeah but your scientist were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should the breath of the wild inspired exploration that's great but the sound effects and font did you have to rip those off as well couldn't we try and give this game its own unique [Music] [Applause] sound if I were on the team I would have pushed hard for the game to commit to a unified aesthetic because the Zelda UI on top of free unreal assets that look somewhat realistic clash with the bright Pokémon Art in my opinion and I'm not saying every game needs to be photo realistic what I'm saying is a strongly defined style is what makes a game look good just look at Wind Waker next get rid of the basic gliders and grappling guns this is a creature collection Survival game palor has plenty of harnesses and Saddles to let you interact with your pals some of which literally do the job of the glider when designing a game you shouldn't give players a way around interacting with your core mechanics via generic substitutes which Speaking of the harnesses I'm assuming this will show up eventually but I don't like that I can't see the items I've worked hard to craft right now I'm just manhandling my fox Sparks next expanding your pal roster is important I played two games on my own and one on a server with friends I was constantly forgetting which Pals I had on each file so a small touch on the UI to show me which Pals I haven't caught would be nice next I don't like that PO W grants such a strong XP bonus for catching copies of Pals I get why they did it it pushes players towards slaughtering their copies and using the merging systems but I would rather see them crank the XP for first time catches that change pushes players to hunt for novelty incentivizing exploration rather than power leveling in one area one last complaint that I would have fixed if I were on the team and take this one with a large grain of salt because I'm not a fan of the survival genre but if I were on the team I would have either let all bases share their resources or allow buildings like The Crusher and Mill to be upgraded so that they can create more of the late game resources as it stands I have three bases one that mines ore one that mines sulfur and coal and a third one that collects pure quartz but because they don't share their inventory I have to manually transfer things over which is just annoying and a waste of time but again I'm not a fan of survival games and that's how I typically describe a lot of their elements where you land on power world is going to depend on a lot of things if you like Multiplayer Survival crafting games that'll definitely help if like me you prefer the collecting and RPG battles power has you covered as well but you will have to be okay with some of the more Grim imagery and systems in the game not that you have to use them but the game does heavily push them and if you grew up with Pokémon you may have to get over the generous inspiration as you watch the pals murder each other also I've never talked about a game being buggy in these reviews before but I ran into constant crashes and bugs the AI would glitch out and just stand like an idiot while I stab them the game blue screen my PC a few times and I apparently ran out of video memory once the recommended amount for the game is 2 gigs my graphics cards has eight so this sounds like a memory leak to me the path have made things better and from what I've seen most people have a smooth experience just know that this could be an issue for you and that's usually a reason I avoid Early Access games all that said I'm looking forward to seeing what gets added in the future specifically more wholesome content but for now it's a great Survival game that you can play for a weekend or two I focused on the objectives hunting the towers boss fights and trying to collect all the pals because survival gameplay and Base building aren't really my thing but I can definitely see this game having legs to keep going for a while and if nothing else it's made me more optimistic about the future because it's shown me that if Pokémon would ever update its formula I'm clearly very excited to hop back in and catch them [Music] all

Channel: GBU Reviews

Views: 2,734

Keywords: Gaming, GBU Reviews, GBU, The Good The Bad & The Ugly, Good Bad Ugly, Game Review, video game, video game review, Palworld, Patent, Copyright, Trademark, Pokemon, How is palworld legal, survival, crafting, unique aesthetic, derivative works

Id: vsng5dRUECY

Length: 12min 55sec (775 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2024