What the hell is going on in Palworld?

Yesterday, developer Pocketpair released a trailer for its upcoming game Palworld, Which describes itself

as a “multiplayer open world survival crafting game” with some Pokemon-looking companions. Things seem to start well before the trailer does it take dark Turn.

I do not want ruin your joy experience it all for themselvesso You really should just watch the trailer before reading any further.

At first everything looks normal! They have some colorful animal friends to ride around that can help you build a home, harvest crops, and energy tools. They can fight by your side, which is a little darker than the game looks at first glance, but OK. But hey, look – you can pet the dog! Everything perfect here!

But about 50 seconds after the one and a half minute trailer, the chill music gets more intense. We see a player using a sheep as a shield in a firefight. As expected, the sheep is very unhappy.

We’ll see more of the game then Animals in battle, with the player hurling a bird at human enemies. Then we see a bird that apparently caught some cute pals, and then the kicker – a line of sad dragons Guys working on an assembly line and dejected putting together some very realistic ones Weapons. Then we get these depressed monkeys to turn a female in the desert. It’s intense.

According to Palworld‘s Steam description, this is part of the gameplay of the game’s “Factory and Automation” with the developers stating that “iFor automation, it is imperative to let Pals do the manual work. Build a factory and place buddies in it. They will work forever as long as they are fed until the end of their life.

“Emphasis on me because what the hell.

On Twitter, Players are having a great day seeing how unexpectedly wacky this trailer is. Several people have pointed this out Palworld seems to be exactly the dystopian Animal cruelty simulator PETA claims Pokémon is. Others do something Excellent Memes. Cognitive dissonance is pretty much a given in video games, and the Lord knows it Pokémon is pretty dark if you think too hard about it, but Palworld‘s trailer is on another level.

Palworld is currently planning a release in 2022.