Man, I learned a TON about the Caribbean sea islands and colonial era big cities from Pirates on the NES. Countless hours spent pouring over this map to find hidden treasure and hunt down leads
Running the first claim of the invention through Google Translate yields this massive run-on sentence description:
The computer causes a player character in a virtual space to take a stance to release a capture item when a first category group including a plurality of types of capture items for capturing a field character placed on a field in a virtual space is selected based on an operation input of pressing an operation button, and causes a player character in the virtual space to take a stance to release the capture item when a second category group including a plurality of types of combat characters that engage in combat is selected, and determines an aiming direction in the virtual space based on a directional input, and further selects the capture item included in the first category group when the first category group is selected, and the combat character included in the second category group when the second category group is selected, based on an operation input using an operation button different from the operation button , and causes the player character in the virtual space to take a stance to release the capture item when a first category group including a plurality of types of capture items for capturing a field character placed on a field in a virtual space is selected, and determines an aiming direction in the virtual space based on an operation input using an operation button different from the operation button, A game program which, based on an operation input of releasing the operation button pressed when having the player character perform an action, has the player character perform an action of releasing the selected capture item in the aiming direction if the capture item is selected, and has the player character perform an action of releasing the selected combat character in the aiming direction if the combat character is selected, and when the capture item is released and hits the field character, makes a capture success determination as to whether the capture is successful, and when the capture success determination is judged to be positive, sets the field character hit by the capture item to a state where it is owned by the player, and when the combat character is released to a location where it can fight with the field character, starts a fight on the field between the combat character and the field character.
Essentially, Nintendo has a patent on video games that involve throwing a capsule device at characters in a virtual space to capture them and initiate battle with them. In other words, they have a patent on the concept of Poké Balls (as they appear and function in Legends Arceus, specifically).
Palworld has “Pal Spheres”, which are basically just Poké Balls with barely legally distinct naming.
If this sounds like an unfairly broad thing for Nintendo to have a patent on, I’m not so sure I agree. It’s not like they’re trying to enforce a blanket patent on all creature collectors. Just the concept of characters physically throwing capsule devices at creatures.
If you think about it, that’s kind of the one thing that sets Pokémon apart from others in the genre. If there’s anything to be protected, that’s it. It’s literally what Pokémon is named after–you put the monster in your pocket, using the capsule you threw at it.
Palworld could have easily dodged this bullet. They claim they aren’t inspired by Pokémon, and that they’re instead inspired by Ark: Survival Evolved. Funny, then, that Ark doesn’t have throwable capsules, yet Palworld decided to add them. I’m not sure I buy their statement. And if this is indeed the patent being violated, I don’t think a court will buy it either.
I’m not trying to be a Pokémon apologist here. I want Palworld to succeed and give Pokémon a run for its money. But looking at the evidence, it’s clear to me Pocketpair flew a little too close to the sun here. And they’re kind of idiots for it.
I’m just surprised they aren’t getting nailed for the alleged blatant asset theft.
Ark has cryopods which do the same thing mechanically, the only major difference being that you don’t visually throw them. If you use the vague wording on the patents surrounding pokemon’s box mechanics, it falls easily under there, since you are storing a captured creature in a digital storage.
Nintendo is the KING of frivolous patents. They’ve lost cases on it before, and with palworld being a sony interest, I don’t think the usual financial bullying nintendo brings to the table is going to cut it on this one. They need an airtight case and their vague patents (and recent history trying to patent THE LOADING SCREEN and vehicle speed matching for player characters with totk being denied) is a bad look for them in a courtroom. Like the US, the holder of a patent in Japan needs to file suits swiftly to protect the patent, or they risk losing cases (like this one. See “laches defense”).
Palworld is back in the top 100 global bestsellers today.
Agreed, guess this is unpopular opinion but palworld just looked like a copycat from the get-go, especially the capture mechanic. It is too similar imo.
There are many games that had that mechanic before Arceus.
In particular, Craftopia (which is from the same developers of Palworld) had capsule devices that you can throw to enemies in a “virtual space” while characters “engage in combat” before Arceus was a thing.
Just because they wrote a patent does not make it enforceable… patents don’t really mean anything until they are actually tested in court so they are just tools to try and scare people away whenever a company wants to bully with the prospect of a lawsuit.
I feel that Palworld is likely to win this, this actually is an idiotic move from Nintendo and a win for Palworld… now they will get more publicity, perhaps another spike in sales, and they are finally given the opportunity to prove how they are in the right, so they can shut up all the naysayers who complained about it. I’m hoping all the paranoic empty claims about “blatant asset theft” will be settled once and for all.
it’s really funny to me how obvious the… “inspiration” of this game is from pokemon, and yet nintendo has been struggling so hard to come up with something to sue them for, like i don’t really care about this in and of itself, but seeing a big company unable to remove a splinter from their toe and copyright unable to be enforced brings me joy.
They want so hard to remove false competition, that is a glorious frustration.
Pokemon is Pokemon, Palworld is Palworld. One trying to claim the other steps on their toes is hilarious. If they have merit, Doom could sue every FPS with monsters.
Stay mad Nintendo/GameFreak, you are a joke and should make better games.
The handheld PC market has been booming. There’s so many cool products that have been coming out. Personally I’m sticking with more established companies like Steam, Asus, and Lenovo due to being able to get better support , but the creativity of these devices have been incredible to see.
My personal favorite has to be the GPD Win 4 Pro. Brings back the PSP nostalgia and it seems more pocketable than other ones. I’m buying the Lenovo Legion Go but if money was no factor I’d buy the GPD to take on the go.
I think its ridiculous that every console’s controller is $70 or more, but the JoyCons are most ridiculous because they are also built like trash and get terrible stick drift after just a few months.
Joke is on them. I have had every NES and SNES rom ever made. I need to make sure i have every N64 rom (even if I don’t play that often) and now every GameCube.
I still don’t have a Wii emulator or even looked into that.
I’ve decided that I’ll skip Nintendo consoles moving forward and just use emulation if there’s a game I really want. I’ll buy the cartridge to cover myself ethically and just put it in a drawer.
IMO that‘s how actual art‘s supposed to be made. You don‘t just churn it out on a conveyer belt. It‘s a 2D game so it‘s not like technological progress will force them to jump engines over and over again. I‘m not worried.
If I ever get sued by nintendo for some reason I’m making a large part of my case to try and convince investors how much money they could make having games available on pc, I doubt I could win a lawsuit but I will do my best to be a seed that changes your company forever
nintendo does not want you to play their old titles, theyve been quoted saying “emulation stifles innovation” to me this just says that we cant play old games because it makes their new ones look bad. Nintendo is pulling a call of duty on us, just re-releasing games with a fresh coat of paint and a new gimmick for example MK with its new open world. Zelda with an open world. Smash brothers, Pokemon… you get it. Dont get me wrong i love these games and IPs, but the games have barely changed since 64. I will say the new DK and MK titles look great, but Ill just wait till we can fully emulate switch 2 and keep my money.
Plus i wont have to worry about them bricking my PC. The last good hardware theyve released was the 3ds and wii u. but they only became great when the modding scene stepped in and made them so. They are clearly worried about the modding scene, dumping games, and adding emulators for old titles. To me, nintendo is dead and has been for a while. The dev teams within nintendo are still pushing out gold. Whilst everyone else there is looking to fuck over the consumer.
I’ve only played Nintendo games on-and-off but the last truly special innovation I can remember to the Mario formula was the Super Mario Galaxy games. I can’t recall anything else like it that they’ve done recently
Breath of the wild definitely comes to mind. The combat and puzzles in that game are an absolute treat. The amount of tools they give the player is unlike anything ive played before, heres a decent clip as an example
I couldn’t dislike Breath of the Wild any more than I do. BotW changed Zelda for no good reason, and IMO, was not an improvement. A 6/10 at best if I ignore “Zelda” in the title. Put simply, BotW is among the worst games in the Zelda franchise, up there with Zelda 2 and the CDi games, as a Zelda game.
While the clip you provided is interesting, it features gameplay that was absolutely not intended by Nintendo, and part of the reason why they removed a lot of the abilities that let you do this from Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo would patch the game to remove that if they could do it without kneecapping the entire rest of the game.
Combat is tedious. Weapons have less durability than literal glass weapons in the Elder Scrolls games. Why should I get into combat when I know I am going to end up destroying 80% of the weapons in my inventory at minimum? This is completely ignoring Master Mode, which is really just “Enemy Health x10 Mode” or whatever the multiplier is. Youre not going to be able to get into any fight in the game with more than 4 enemies and have enough weapons for that, even with max Weapon Inventory slots.
The Master Sword, legendary blade that rends evil in a fell swish? Yeah… you can only use it for like, 10 minutes. And then its locked away from you for another 10 minutes while it “recharges.” What, do I need to make a reservation with the sword so it can check its schedule before I get into every fight? Make sure its back from its vacation?
The puzzles are easy. Like, mind numbingly easy. No dungeon-wide puzzles that take thought and spatial awareness in this game (or honestly, Tears of the Kingdom either for that matter). Zelda dungeons were the cornerstone of the game design. Each had a unique theme, memorable music, and complex design that essentially turned the entire dungeon into a puzzle itself. BotW “shrines” are cookie-cutter, copy-paste, made-in-3-minutes lookalikes. All of them easily solvable in less time it took you to get the shrine to spawn out of the floor. The “divine beasts” are even worse, but at least they are kinda unique in their textures. Unless you do more than one, because all 4 of them use identical textures.
The story was garbage. Not only because it barely existed, but because all the interesting parts happened off-screen. Same exact problem Halo had with Halo 5 and Infinite. I want to play the story the randomly shuffled cutscenes showed me, not see all the cool stuff happen when I can’t do anything. That cheapens the experience.
Oh yeah. That mountain you want to climb? Rain. Always rain. Go ahead, start climbing. The game will force rain to start.
Literally the best way to play BotW is fully modded with infinite weapon durability and changing Link into Linkle. At least then I can pretend its a spin-off.
Agreed, Its barely a zelda game but regardless of how easy the puzzles were, they were fun. But yes there were too many and 100%ing the game was an absolute slog because of the similarity between alot of the shrines
“Combat was tedious” sure. If your bad at the game, alot of attacks are parryable and weapons and food are craftable. Even if i wasnt equipped to deal with a situation the enviroment always provides alternative ways to deal with enemies.
“zelda dungeons were the cornerstone of game design” I have to disagree zelda dungeons have always been either bullshit or as you put it mind numbingly easy and tedious. They were innovative for sure, but they were often obnoxiously long. Stopping for a few days and coming back to the game youd forget wtf you were doing and why. The music however i agree with, botw does not have a single track i remember off the top of my head.
The story was always trash. Except majoras mask and minish cap. But i agree about the cutscenes, Its not hard to tell a story through gameplay, so its lazy for sure.
All that said, i never gave botw a shining review. I just said that they actually TRIED something different. Even if it wasnt executed that well.
ALSO how tf are you not going to mention the final boss fight of botw? That shit had my jaw on the floor with how tedious and ass that was.
I feel like since his passing Nintendo games have just become so bland and corporate feeling. idk if it’s just me and I’m getting old but something about the magic is missing in newer Nintendo games that was prominent in older titles
Iwata was a playful public face for the company. He also had the gamer’s and developer’s perspective in things, he wasn’t just a guy in suit to make sure that lines go up and all the investors can clap their hands. He had a more consumer-oriented perspective in mind along with Reggie. When Nintendo made operating loss, instead of laying off staff and blaming others, he owned it and temporarily sliced his salary. The world of gaming needs more people like Iwata, and the words he said are more relevant than ever.
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