Random people have been claiming these things in the past, and Palworld got the attention of Pokemon with guns in mid January this year.
I didn't buy their narratives that it was made by an AI bots, according to Twitter's users. Even though, it was made by around 70 people working on Palword.
And the fact that people panicked about AI, even though the character designs were introduced in a trailer that was released years ago before generative AI could have even been capable of making anything close to resembling them.
The entire controversy is nonsense.
I know that Saints Row took Grand Theft Auto's inspiration and was it a GTA killer? Nah.
Or was it Haze a Halo killer? (according to some media sources.) Nah.
I mean, Overwatch didn't kill Team Fortress 2 and people still play it to this day.
There were a number of examples of the next "Pokemon" thing in the past that Digimon, Monster Rancher, Temtem, etc. would become popular.
I didn't have high expectations of those games.
As for Palworld, the "Pokemon with guns" game is still early access and it's pretty nice and I'm having fun at the time I'm writing this post.
Sure, there might be a few Pal designs that look like a few Pokemons, IF Nintendo would sue Pocket Pair to redo them.
Most Pal designs are pretty much derivative, that I've played derivative games in the past. I adore them and other derivative games I hate. xP
The next question is...will I be obsessed with like Apex Legends? Maybe.
Will this clone game be remembered? I don't know, art is subjective to every individual.
Minecraft, ARK: Survival Evolved, Project Zomboid, Rust......it's fair to say I'm not a fan of survival games.
I'll keep playing Palworld.