Legal discussions around the relationship between Palworld and Pokemon are pretty played out, especially with The Pokemon Company suggesting it has limited interest in chasing after any kind of copyright lawsuit. What remains far more interesting, however, is the idea that Palworld has taken the Pokemon formula and innovated on it far more successfully than Game Freak has managed for years. Now, albeit probably more by accident than design, Pokemon Legends: Z-A could prove to be the perfect rebuttal to those claims.
There are plenty of readily-apparent comparisons to be drawn between some of Palworld's designs and Pokemon, but that's not really why the link between the two games is interesting. Palworld has succeeded not because it was inspired by Game Freak's designs, but because it's the first game to do something genuinely new with the creature-collecting format that Nintendo helped popularize nearly three decades ago. In 70 hours with Palworld, I'm still yet to touch a gun, but its survival mechanics, genuinely threatening wild creatures, and the ability to rely on the inherent skills of the creatures you catch, all create a world that feels more alive than any Pokemon game has for years.
