Triggered to Trigger: Palworld
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks you would have heard of the game Palworld, developed and published by Pocketpair. For those that don’t know Palworld is an adventure/survival/hunting game. It was released as a beta version for PC and Xbox users on the 19th of January 2024 and has a PEGI rating of 12. In the first two weeks, Palworld announced that 12 million copies were being played on Steam. On the Xbox platform, there were 7 million players that played the game. Xbox users who held a game pass were able to download it for free, it could also be bought if customers wished. These figures make the game launch a huge success.
Palworld has gained a lot of attention since Palworld’s release due to claims of plagiarising the Nintendo game Pokémon developed by Game Freak. This has upset Pokémon Fans resulting in Nintendo seeking legal advice. But aside from some of the pals looking suspiciously like Pokémon are there any other elements designed to trigger an unsuspecting audience? Well… yes.
Palworld contains a paldeck, a numbered entry list of all the pals that can be caught. Each pal type is assigned a number (currently there are a total of 137 different species). Genders are female or male and can be applied to any pal. Once a new pal has been captured it will unlock the corresponding pal deck entry. Each entry gives a short overall summary of the pal (as seen below) including what items the pal drops and what the pal can do for the player. And some of these are disturbing. For instance, the very first entry is a pal called Lamball, a pal that can be caught or killed from the start of the game. The description for Lamball states that this pal is at the ‘bottom of the food chain’ as it can’t walk up hills before rolling back down making it dizzy and unable to move. This then makes it easy to be caught. This would be great for some players — it’s an easy food source, and some would feel sympathy for Lamball and may not want to harm it.
Then there is Dumud, a pal who wouldn’t know they had died until the following day.
There is also Broncherry, a pal that after having found a partner changes their body odour to an odour called ‘Fragrance of first love’ Its variant, Broncherry Aqua has a scent of ‘perfume of purity’ before finding a partner. Both smells are described as ‘a pleasing aroma’. Nice to know this pal’s sexual history is based on their smell.
And then there is the pal that will rip your skin clean off. Lovely.
But these are all relatively tame compared to entry number 69: Lovander who wants a night of love with a human and is always chasing someone makes Lovander sound like a sexual predator. The designers have created him/her as a pink and purple upright lizard-looking creature allowing them to play with her name, the first part being for love and the second her overall colour of pink and purple — lavender. Using a pink and purple colour could then imply that Lovander is female. The design features for Lovander are interesting. Lovander features a big love heart over their chest and a smaller one covering their groin. From their waist down they have what looks like a double tail, shirt tails or wings. But the shape of them could connote condoms or breasts swinging along behind them adding to their sexual appearance.
Using 69 as Lovander’s paldeck number was not the developers’ idea, this came from a user comment left on an advertising trailer on social media platform X (see below). Lovander’s original number was 49.
Lovander will only spawn at a night in a dessert that is not immediately accessible to new players. Most players will first see Lovander when a group of them raid the players base early in game. This specific raid group is called ’fangirls’. A player can then attempt to catch Lovander here. Lovander’s items drop when caught or killed are also questionable. When the suspicious juice is used, it allows the consumer to be in a good mood but lowers their sanity levels. It also greatly increases work speed. The strange juice does the same but at a higher level so this one would put the consumer in a significantly better mood, significantly lower their sanity levels and significantly improve their workload. To make these juices the player would have to craft them using a medicine workbench. This then implies that Lovander is creating drugs that can convince a human to treat her to her ‘night of love’ and that the expectation is that the unfortunate victim will also be doing all the work. Even more worrying is that Lovander has a secret drop — memory wiping potion. So not only can Lovander’s drug their potential victims they can also wipe their memories after! Lovander also drops cake. Cake sounds pretty harmless, right? Ermmm, no not in Palworld. Cake is used for breeding pals. This sounds like Lovander wants a lot more ‘than a night of love’.
Finally, Lovander’s walking animation onscreen is the most provocative walk I have ever seen in gaming. If you thought Lara Croft was provocative, she is nothing compared to Lovander. Lovander’s strut is seductive, it reminds me of a twisted version of Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Although Lovander’s walk is entertaining, this game is targeted for ages 12 and up. This makes this pal more disturbing as children as young as twelve will have access to it. On a positive note though, this pal is great to use as part of your team early game; just don’t let her near your medicine workbench.
Another gameplay element that can cause some players to wince is the use of guns. Guns are not a new feature in gaming but in this game, they can feel uneasy to use and unethical. Certain pals can use guns as weapons, for instance, the pal Grizzbolt can have a gun crafted for them. The player can then sit on Grizzbolt’s back allowing the player to direct where Grizzbolt shoots the gun. Most of the pals look like animals so it is especially uncomfortable to see pals flying in the air from the force of a bullet ripping into them.
Another aspect is eating the pals, yes, it is a survival game, and the game does provide berries, salads and mushrooms as alternatives. However, feeding your pals another pal, especially one of their type feels like bordering on cannibalism. And besides that, they are called pals!
Pocketpair has certainly added elements to Palworld that can trigger their audience thereby triggering a lot of publicity working in Pocketpair’s favour as their total player statistics above show. Visually, some of the pals do appear to be similar to Pokémon and the ‘catch them in a ball’ is the same dynamic Pokémon uses for the trainers to catch Pokémon. The language used to describe some of the Pals would indicate that this game is designed to shock and get people talking, thereby gaining publicity. And most publicity is good, right? How many people hearing about Lovander or possible Pokémon plagiarism would then download the game to see these things for themselves? After all, how many other games feature an animal that smells like a virgin before finding a partner? Or a pal that likes to drug potential human victims for a night of fun? Even when a capture attempt has failed the pal is referred to as a ‘cheeky bastard’ for not staying in the ball. Plus, the game allows you to craft a butcher’s knife to then be able to butcher the pal. The game rewards the player for doing this by giving double the rewards upon the pal’s death. But the entire game could be seen as tongue-in-cheek and just a bit of fun. For animal activists, probably not. Would I personally play the game? Definitely and I have enjoyed playing it whilst questioning the motives of pals like Lovander and feeling uncomfortable eating pals. Have I enjoyed having pals working for me? Too right, it’s one less grind of mining for ore or walking to a different area on foot. Would I feel comfortable with my child playing it though? Maybe not.
