I have only played Palworld for a couple hours, but so far it's completely different from Pokemon. The core gameplay loop involves building a base and capturing

I have only played Palworld for a couple hours, but so far it's completely different from Pokemon. The core gameplay loop involves building a base and capturing pals to help you gather food, stone, etc. It's more like Valheim or Ark with an anime-inspired aesthetic. Those examples are quite a stretch as well. There are 900 Pokemon now, many inspired by preexisting animals, mythological creatures, etc. Nintendo does not own the concept of a sheep (Mareep) or pterodactyl (Aerodactyl). Or Ekans, which is literally just a snake with the name spelled backwards.