The Pokémon RPGs are often criticized for being the same game over and over again, with only slight adjustments to the formula and more Pokémon to catch. ...

The Pokémon RPGs are often criticized for being the same game over and over again, with only slight adjustments to the formula and more Pokémon to catch. ... Compared to the calcified mechanics of a mainline Pokémon game, playing Palworld and enslaving a horde of adorable sheep to make assault rifles feels like a rush of freedom. I'm a long time enormous fan of Nintendo, but it is a fair criticism that at times they can be overly conservative, and seemingly biased toward creating a very similar experience to a new generation of children rather than a new experience to existing, aging fans. I don't much blame Nintendo for this though because it's a pretty reasonable decision. If I loved Pokemon when I was a kid, it's quite likely that a kid of this new generation that has never seen Pokemon before is also going to like it. Why not serve that new generation with a proven product? The good thing for indie game developers here is that this opens up a gap to iterate on Nintendo's ideas for an older more seasoned audience that may be tiring of the same old. There's huge opportunity here. We're now seeing a good example of the potential with Palworld, but before that we saw it with Stardew Valley, which brought iterative innovation into the space occupied by the overly conservative Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games. Now Palworld itself may be fairly criticized for hemming too close to some of Nintendo's visual style here, but in general I think what they're getting at in terms of providing something new to Nintendo fans is totally fair and something that I'd love to see more indies do. There are quite a few neglected Nintendo franchises out there. Another one that long time older players are quite dissatisfied with is Animal Crossing. We've seen a few indies try their hand at Animal Crossing clones, but none have hit the mark yet.