They said patent violations, not copyright, so it is about some sort of mechanic or system and not the pals or any specific designs. I'm guessing the thrown ball capture system, since it seems no other developers have published anything using that specifically.

[–] RogueAozame@programming.dev 17 points 2 months ago

They shouldnt be able to sue for that cause a patent only lasts for 20 years in Japan. I saw some guesses that there might be a patent for one of their legends games that they are suing for.

[–] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

World of Final Fantasy is as close to a Pokemon rip off as you can get, and they didn't get sued.

Edit. And now I think about it, the mobile game of Rick and Morty was very much a reskin of Pokemon.

[–] p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Actually ARK does this with cryopods.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 points 2 months ago

World of Warcraft's pet capture system was actually very similar to Pokemon, including better traps with better chances of success.