Same, it kimd of feels like most have fell for the marketing and not actually played/done their own research. There's no mention of the multiplayer save disassociation bug, or any of the other few well known issues among palworld players right now - which are the main things I would expect to be highlighted in a negative thread about the game...

The main criticisms seem to be the game being "edgy" and "dark"... but it's honestly only as edgy and as dark as you make it. Admittedly this has put off a number of people who would otherwise have probably enjoyed the game just fine. It's not easy to come across the dark parts of the game, and even if you do, lets say for example you successfully catch a human, the game will warn you about it being forbidden, and you can't even teach them new skills. In other circumstances you will get a wanted level, and the in game "mercenaries" will hunt and kill you.

I personally have been playing for hours and its a ton of fun - a lot of the mechanics have been well thought through and there's a surprising level of depth - some of the playthroughs i've seen haven't even scratched the surface of what is possible. IMO pocketpair pretty much gave players exactly what was promised, and then a whole lot more. A few of us have been waiting on this game since 2021, and are very happy with what was delivered

The same way Maxis sat on SimCity for years, and got rugpulled by Paradox's CS, honestly seems inevitable for companies like Gamefreak/Pokemon who have sat on their franchise for years without trying/improving things at all. If you don't listen to your fans they will not wait forever for a real, open world alternative without sudden battle environment switching, actual animations and expressions, and complete freedom of movement during battles. The only thing Palworld has in common with Pokemon really is just the monsters and the process of catching them... everything else is completely different, and that's good.