Palworld fans blast Dead By Daylight dev’s criticisms as ‘jealous’ and ‘insecure’

Palworld is one of the most popular games in the world right now. However, despite its popularity amongst gamers, it has received criticism from outlets and some developers. On the game’s dedicated subreddit, Palworld fans have reacted to a Dead By Daylight employee’s criticisms of the game, and a lot of the responses are critical because of the comparisons made to Pokémon.

Comparisons to Pokémon have been constant since the game’s early access launch on January 19th. The Pokémon Company has responded to the comparisons, and websites such as Nexus are not allowing Pokémon mods in fear of action from Nintendo. However, despite all the comparisons to the Nintendo IP, Pocketpair has denied the similarities while claiming the game is more aligned with fellow survival games such as ARK Survival Evolved.

Yet, because of the visuals of its Pals, many people cannot help but compare Palworld to Pokémon, and fans of Pocketpair’s survival game feel this is unfair, especially as a way to critique the game.

Dead By Daylight dev’s criticisms of Palworld

The Chief of Staff at Dead By Daylight developer, BeHaviour Interactive, has shared their criticisms of Palworld. The LinkedIn post was shared on the game’s dedicated subreddit, and below are some of the criticisms shared:

• It’s insanely buggy. The game’s most dangerous enemies are the random holes in its map.
•  Combat is boring and repetitive.
•  The balancing is awful. This really becomes apparent in the mid and endgame, when catch rates seem to decrease and your own weapons’ damage dramatically outscale what your Pals are capable of.
•  The large open world is… empty, littered with points of interest that aren’t home to anything interesting.

In addition, they compare the game to Pokémon saying ‘What makes Pokémon special is the bond you form with your adorable ball-dwellers’. They also cite Polygon‘s article that says one of the biggest problems is ‘that I don’t particularly care about any of my Pals’. The Dead By Daylight Chief of Staff says the Pals are more comparable to the slaves in Conan Exiles rather than the pocket monsters in Pokémon.

Palworld fans respond

In response to the criticisms, Palworld fans feel the Pokémon comparisons are unfair while also severely disagreeing. The game gives you the option to care for Pals or butcher them for crafting materials and meat, and many fans argue they actually have more of a connection to their Pals than pocket monsters in any Pokémon because you can interact with and utilize your Pals in more ways.

One user said ‘Pals I caught on day 1 still work on my base and are my core team‘ and ‘If someone isn’t bonding with their Pals, that seems to speak more about them, imo’. There has been some controversy around the game’s supposed ‘animal cruelty’ with even PETA wanting a Vegan guide for the game. However, as pointed out by many gamers, the way you treat Pals is optional, and in Pokémon pocket monsters are forced to fight each other.

In addition to feeling the Pokémon comparisons are unjust, some users said the post feels ‘jealous’ and ‘insecure’ because of the state of Dead By Daylight. One user said ‘I have over 5k hours in DBD and honestly it sounds like he’s describing DBD‘ as it is ‘filled with bugs, exploits they announced years ago and didn’t fix’ while ‘Palworld is still in beta’. Another user said it makes them ‘Embarrassed that I’m a regular DBD player,’ meanwhile, some users said the criticisms of Palworld from developers feel similar to when ‘jealous’ devs criticized Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3.

Of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion, and there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to personal feelings towards a media product. Any controversy or dislike also really doesn’t matter as the game is an overwhelming success selling several million copies since its January 19th launch despite being part of Xbox Game Pass.

For more Palworld goodness, the community has shared 20 tricks and secrets you really should follow to improve your experience. We also have a guide to the complete Paldeck as well as cheats and console commands.