Palworld Devs Copying More Than Just Pokemons - Hollow Knight Inspired the Never Grave
Palworld has confounded players with creature designs, but this is not the first time Pocket Pair studio has taken inspiration from another developer's game.
The massive success of Palworld was somewhat overshadowed by allegations of plagiarism and the use of "imitative" artificial intelligence. Some players downplayed these allegations as exaggerated, but recent findings suggest that the developers of Palworld are "drawing inspiration" from more than just Pokemon.
Last week, Steam users started bombarding Craftopia - an open-world action-adventure game that entered early access over three years ago - with negative reviews. This is the previous game by Pocket Pair and some players believed that the developers abandoned the title in favor of Palworld.
These allegations could be discussed as a separate topic, given that the title was last updated on December 28, 2023, and development plans were laid out a week earlier. However, the screenshots attracted more attention. Craftopia bears a strong visual resemblance to another Nintendo game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. At least one of the opponents visible on the Steam game card bears a remarkable resemblance to the bokoblins known to Link's fans.
This is by no means the end. Players have taken note of another game in development by Pocket Pair, which also bears a suspicious resemblance to the hit created by other developers. In the case of metroidvania Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse, the "inspiration" apparently came from Hollow Knight.
Some players defended Palworld in a highly controversial manner by arguing that there's no need to "defend" a major corporation (Nintendo) and "lazy" developers (GameFreak). Applying this line of defense becomes challenging when the "inspiration" is a game developed by a small independent team. The locations in Never Grave are even more alike (to be honest: almost identical) to those in Hollow Knight than some of the creatures in Palworld are to well-known Pokemon.
Nevertheless, to everyone's surprise, Never Grave has its advocates. The game is supposed to differ from HK in the "possession system," base building, and the co-op mode. Some players not only refrained from criticizing the devs but also added their metroidvania to their wishlist (meanly, we might add that at least NG has a release date, unlike the second installment of Hollow Knight, which has been in development for years).
However, allegations of plagiarism and the use of AI to generate the game's visuals quickly appeared. Whether this will transform into consequences for the developers or merely make them de facto free advertising - time will tell.
