Palworld leans very heavily on the edgy aspect of its setting, and the brutalism usually borders on parody. In other instances, it can feel very real, as one player recently found out while roaming the wild and noticing what some Pals were eating.
A user on Reddit recently posted his experience of defeating a Syndicate Thug only to see a Pal come up and eat the body till it disappeared. Palworld is pretty dark at times, but this is taking it up to a whole new level.
Other users joined in to share their experiences of the types of dietary habits they had observed from wild Pals. Direhowl and Nitewing are two of the primary culprits for man-eating Pals. In fact, many carnivorous Pals have dedicated animations for eating up human bodies.
A player added that "Dude, the lady at the start said her whole team got eaten by them. They might be cute but they’ll tear you head off first chance the get.". It seems the warnings from the islanders aren't just for show, and some Pals really will turn you into lunch on sight.
This puts a very dark spin on the initial fate of our character, as they wash up on the beach surrounded by three starter Pals. Perhaps this wasn't a cute welcome from some curious critter, but instead, the faces of three hungry Pals about to cook you into Pal food.
Other behavioural traits players noted were that some Pals like Nitewing and Direhowl would prey upon weaker Pals, with Nitewing swooping from the skies on any carcass it sees and Direhowls packs hunting weaker Pals.
A particularly dark case involves the Relaxasaurus, which will apparently eat anything around it. A player reported: "Relaxaurus will eat anything that dies near them including another relaxaurus". It appears the friendly-looking dinosaur still exhibits the behaviours of the ferocious T-rex its design resembles.
With all this unrestrained brutalism that even shocked PETA, Palworld somehow continues to make sales, and both Xbox and PlayStation executives are promoting it on their platforms.