Palworld is the latest, and arguably the biggest, craze among the kids these days. Due to its visual style, comparisons have been drawn with Pokémon, but many fans think that Palworld has drawn more inspiration from another childhood series—Digimon.
Conquering the gaming world, Palworld emerged as an unsuspected champion of the industry by beating record after record and cementing itself as a competitive title in a sea of corporate gaming products. The game has been described by players as Pokemon with guns, but some think Digimon may have provided more in terms of inspiration. There are even Digimon Palworld mods already, according to X user Zeak6464. Pokémon Palworld mods were also created (and subsequently deleted), adding to the intertwined nature of all these franchises.
YouTuber ZackScott noted on X (formerly Twitter) on Jan. 23 how he feels Palworld “copied a lot from Digimon,” and he wasn’t the only one to note some similarities. Some replies, on the other hand, noted just because Palworld shares similarities with other titles, it doesn’t necessarily mean it “copied” from them. Digimon retailer ZeninTCG was more generous in their comparison between the two franchises, claiming Palworld with its gameplay is ideal for a Digimon game. They further criticized Bandai Namco for not making a similar, original Digimon game, and instead opted for gacha elements.
Over on Reddit, Digimon fans are not as happy to have their franchise compared with Palworld. Of course, they blame Pokémon fans for this, as the latter allegedly keep naming all the monster-taming franchises under the sun as alternatives to Palworld. Nearly all games in the mentioned genre have been trending since Palworld released since it’s now a rising market in the West, but it’s been dominant in Japan for over three decades. Indeed, Palworld is itself a Japanese game.
Similarly to Palworld, Digimon has sometimes been called Pokémon with guns, and has striking similarities that shouldn’t be overlooked. Whatever monster-tamer you prefer, both Palworld and Digimon are trending for better or worse. Though the former is ahead by just a bit.
