Dead by Daylight dev shreds Palword over lack of “warmth” compared to Pokemon

Palworld’s been under huge scrutiny since it launched with critical opinions coming from developers and players alike. The latest critical opinion comes from a Dead by Daylight dev, citing the game “lacks warmth.”

Poketpair’s Palworld has been one of gaming’s hottest topics since it arrived mid-January. On the one hand, its success has been off the charts, as it’s continued to achieve incredible growth milestones seemingly every other day.

On the other hand, its similarities to Pokémon, plagiarism, and use of AI have made it a target for criticism galore.

Criticism has come in from players and industry members alike, with the latest critique coming from Dead by Daylight’s Chief of Staff.

Palworld lacks “warmth” says Dead by Daylight’s chief of staff

In a LinkedIn post, Dead by Daylights’s Chief of Staff, Nathan S, ripped into Palworld. “I don’t think Palworld is very good,” he starts the post, before listing criticisms such as it being buggy, its “boring and repetitive combat,” poor balancing, and an empty open world.

Despite those harsh critiques, he goes on to applaud Palworld’s blend of Pal catching and base building: “The combination of two strong loops is powerful stuff. Monster taming’s ‘just one more catch’ and crafting’s ‘just one more build’ result in an addictive amount of ‘just one more.”

Nathan S. then talks about the key detractor from the game compared to Pokémon, citing the former has a “lack of warmth.” He says: “The fundamental tenet of the [Pokémon] franchise is that there’s power in empathy. Nothing hammers this idea home better than the first episode of the animated series (one of the greatest episodes of anything, ever) when Ash is willing to sacrifice himself to save Pikachu.”

Pocketpair

He does switch gears again, stating that Palworld should serve as a wake-up call for Game Freak, “who have been taking a devoted player base for granted for far too long.” He also fairly acknowledges that Palworld’s insane revenue haul should help the developers iron out many of the bugs he was critical of.

Despite the overwhelming success, Palworld’s meteoric rise to the top will keep it a hot topic in the industry for quite some time. With a roadmap of changes lined up, hopefully, the discussion will see a positive shift in sentiment.