Palworld accuser adjusted models to better support Pokemon plagiarism claims

Twitter user Byofrog has admitted to changing the scale of the Pokemon and Palworld models he used to support plagiarism claims.

Palworld has taken the world by storm, with record players around the world and a hungry fan base dying for more content.

But controversy has also reared its ugly head. There’s been a ton of drama surrounding Palworld and its similarities to Nintendo’s Pokemon franchise, as well as accusations of plagiarism and AI use.

However, an overlooked tweet by one of the chief accusers of plagiarism may cast more doubt on the legitimacy of the claims.

Twitter user Byofrog admits to adjusting Palworld meshes to support plagiarism claims

The revelation came courtesy of MetalDragonKid, who did their own comparison and found that the Palworld and Pokemon meshes didn’t actually line up.

MetalDragonKid found the Palworld meshes to be thinner, and key components did not line up. Comparing still images, they point out the models have no point where they line up perfectly.

Byofrog, who had written the original accusations, admitted they had adjusted the models for their comparison videos. The model meshes used in the example videos had been scaled so that they would line up better.

However, Byofrog had already been walking back their claims. In a later tweet in reply to the original video, Byofrog admitted they had misused the word “exactly” when sharing their initial claims.

The original argument was that Palworld developer Pocketpair had ripped off Pokemon model meshes to design their Palworld characters around. The claim was that it was practically impossible for such models to be “accidentally” 1:1 in comparison, with many quick to accuse Pocketpair of stealing Pokemon models to design Palworlds around.

Despite admitting to manipulating the scale of the models, Byoforg is maintaining the validity of their plagiarism argument.

“I actually do think that applying non-uniform scaling of compared models is evidence for improper use of that model, but I’m not going to step into this hornet’s nest right now, lol,” they said in a later tweet. “It’s really easy to scale a model; scaling is literally a single edited value.”

Others don’t follow Byofrog’s thoughts on the matter, like Palmer, a Twitch partner who expressed their frustration on Twitter.

“The “Look how the models are a 1:1″ twitter user later admitted to scaling them to fit,” they said. “Y’all couldn’t find legitimate reason for anger and FABRICATED IT.”

The original accusations have been the first of many shots fired by users believing Palworld had directly stolen Pokemon models to create the game, leading many to wonder why Nintendo was not suing. The eventual action to take down a Palworld mod that added Pokemon characters only poured further fuel on the fire. For now, it seems as though the answer is simply that Palworld’s creation is not as dubious as many believe.