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Ever since its release in January 2024, Palworld has been understandably compared to the largest creature-catching franchise in the world, Pokemon. Despite denying that it has purposely copied iconic creatures from the Pokemon series, sometimes it has gotten a little bit too close and walked a fine line between inspiration and blatant copying, but this latest Pal may have crossed the line.
Pocketpair recently revealed its latest Pal that has been added to Palworld, Foxcicle. The new Pal takes inspiration from the Japanese mythological multiple-tailed fox Kitsune. However, so does an original Generation 1 Pokemon, Ninetails, and the similarities are immediately apparent. But, Ninetails isn’t the only Pokemon that it bears a resemblance to, as some have pointed out that it has similarities to the Generation 4 Eeveelution, Glaceon.
Many fans of both Palworld and Pokemon have noted that Foxcicle is similar in appearance to the Ice-type Glaceon and the Gen 7 Ice and Fairy-type Alolan Ninetales. Gen 7 saw multiple classic Pokemon reimagined with different typings, with Ninetails going from a Fire-type to an Ice and Fairy-type.
Following the announcement, players took to X to share their thoughts on the new Foxcicle Pal, with @Trentend0 saying “Sure you can copy my homework, just don’t make it obvious…”
@jonnyrubberman said what everyone else was thinking “#Palorld you really aren’t helping that “we didn’t copy Pokemon,”” while @treystar679 called out Pocketpair saying “Come on they weren’t even trying to be subtle with this one.”
If Pocketpair does what @Shadypenguinn suggested then it would be the boldest move yet by the company, with the X user saying that he hopes “they go the extra mile for creativity and make a fire variant to make it stand out even more!”
Despite bearing similarities to Pokemon, Palworld really is its own game, with it being more focused on base-building than simply battling Pals, but that mechanic is featured too. Palworld became a smash hit upon its release, going on to sell over 25 million copies, generating over $500 million in revenue, showing that there is a market for a creature-catching game outside of Nintendo’s own platforms, although don’t expect Pokemon to ever release on a non-Nintendo console.
Despite dipping in popularity as players wait for new content to be released, Palworld still peaks at around 50,000 concurrent players on Steam, with even more playing the game on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and via the Xbox app on PC.
