This year’s inevitable flood of April Fools Day joke visual novels begins with Palworld

Palworld, everyone’s favorite Nintendo lawsuit waiting to happen, got in on the April Fools Day action early by releasing a trailer for an imaginary visual novel called Pal♡world! ~More Than Just Pals~, which is set in a high school full of Pals and their trainers who want to go on dates with you. There are a few nods to anime clichés, with the Black Marketeer cast in the role of the “devious head of the student council” and Kattress going yandere, as well as references to videogames like Doki Doki Literature Club. It’s all pretty par for the course.

While a handful of studios have followed through on similar gags, resulting in visual novels based on games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Endless Space 2, this does seem to be more in the vein of the gag announcements of dating sims for Valorant or Smite—an obvious joke slapped together to fulfill the obligation to participate in April Fools Day every brand feels this time of year.