Pokemon was largely inspired by Dragon Quest (according to interviews, but also you can just tell by looking at how similar a lot of the early Pokemon were to DQ monsters). There were also other creature collecting games before Pokemon came out.
My point is that everything owes inspiration to things that came before, the difference between an inspired creation and a cheap knockoff is entirely dependent on whether you’re striving to go beyond the inspiration.
Pokemon was largely inspired by Dragon Quest (according to interviews, but also you can just tell by looking at how similar a lot of the early Pokemon were to DQ monsters). There were also other creature collecting games before Pokemon came out.
My point is that everything owes inspiration to things that came before, the difference between an inspired creation and a cheap knockoff is entirely dependent on whether you’re striving to go beyond the inspiration.
I mean, comparisons show parts of Pokemon assets have been literally copied though.
DQ Monsters are pretty distinct from Pokemon. Here assets from Pokemon were just copied and (allegedly) AI was used to generate the rest around them.
I guess there are plenty of unique pals, but the copied ones are very blatant in their design.
My headcanon is inceneroar is based on whatever the weartiger guy is cosplaying as.
https://dragonquest.fandom.com/wiki/Weartiger
https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Incineroar_(Pokémon)