Palworld may have managed to beat all the allegations that called it a "Pokémon with guns." Now they're looking to branch out with a shocking dating simulator that could be more than just an April Fool's joke.
Admittedly, though Pokemon is a more family-friendly brand, Palworld isn’t afraid to get a bit raunchy with its humor; and they’ve just dropped a trailer for a supposed spinoff called More Than Pals where players can pursue romantic relationships with the game’s equivalent of Pokémon.
More Than Pals
Suspiciously, the day before April Fools, Palworld decided to drop a trailer for Palworld: More Than Just Pals, a dating sim/visual novel where players can pursue pals and other characters romantically. Check this out:
Besides featuring Pals as classic VN tropes, there is also the human character Nurse Saya who is obviously the stand-in for the older heroine who is a drunk and a bit perverted (other examples include Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Himeno from Chainsaw Man).
The trailer also features some very suggestive scenes where players can ‘stroke’ Pals and they have very questionable reactions.
Is This a Joke?
Already fans in the comments have been pointing out that a VN announcement was the same April Fools prank that Palworld pulled last year, and they also dropped a trailer—albeit it doesn’t have all the character interactions like the second one. Check this out:
When confronted in the comments about the visual novel being a prank, the account answered, “April joke? What? Wishlist now on Steam.” The community manager Bucky also replied, “This doesn’t concern April Fools.”
To keep the prank going, the link on the post does go directly to a Steam page for Palworld: More Than Just Pals. It doesn’t have a release date, but it does come with an official description for the game. It reads:
“What lies inside the mysterious World Tree? An exciting school life filled with cute Pals! Will you remain friends or fall in love? Or dismantle and eat them... Your dream school romance starts here in this Palworld dating sim!”
More than just a Joke?
Though it does seem like an elaborate continuation of an April Fools prank, it wouldn’t be surprising if Palworld just kept leaning into it every year and actually dropped a playable visual novel.
After all, VNs are way easier to produce. All they really need is extensive writing for several branches and simple 2D art/animations. The petting gimmicks and the rest also seem simple enough. With some visual novels taking just a month to produce solo, it’s very possible that a studio like Pocketpair can spend a year just making a Palworld visual novel for the meme of it all.
With all of these restrictions on the Pokemon brand, it does seem like Palworld is taking advantage of being able to market to a more adult audience with guns and now this Visual Novel announcement prank.
For now it seems like Palworld's main audience is in on the joke, and it doesn't look like there are angry parents wondering why the video game their kids are playing is suggesting a spinoff where they can bone their pets.
Palworld is now available for PC, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.