They could literally be Pokemon and I wouldn't care. I'm not going to defend the largest franchise with one of the most litigious copyright teams that primarily got popular having kids gamble on card packs.
That is an extremely valid point, and one I support and agree with.
However I'm more saying that I think it's weird that people are even thinking it's "cutting it close" that they even look like they could be Pokemon. It's like the weird fake controversy behind that game Mouse that's supposed to come out this year. Everyone was saying shit like "Disney is gonna come after them!" but again it's just like: why? It's an art style, you can't put a copyright on an entire style of art that was used by almost every single cartoon company in the 20s-40s, just like you can't copyright a design style like Pokemon's.
Azurobe's hair is very likely a model rip, but aside from that every comparison I've seen is either "someone who doesn't know anything about Pokemon would think these are Pokemon" or "the fluffy fox pal is obviously a ripoff of the fluffy fox pokemon, because only one company is allowed to make a fluffy fox!"
There's also that one pal that isn't actually in the game who looks like a trace of Luxray, but I give Pocket Pair the benefit of the doubt and say that it was just practice. Plenty of artists get their start with tracing.