Newly launched Souls-like game Bleak Faith: Forsaken from independent developer Archangel Studios appears to be a cybergothic twist on FromSoftware titles concept. Players have noted and sparked intense debates about how similar some of its components are to FromSoftware games, particularly Elden Ring, since its March 10 release.
There have been comparisons drawn between Elden Ring's uchigatana and straight sword animation and Bleak Faith's claymore assault animation. Also, a particular character has been compared with Malenia and the Abyss Watchers. While many games have employed animations that were influenced by other games, such as the resemblance between Genshin Impact and Nier Automata, these seem to belong in a separate category. Instead of drawing inspiration from other FromSoftware games, they seem to have been taken directly from the game with the help of the DSAnimStudio program and then lightly altered.
In response to the accusations, Archangel Studio released a statement saying that the animations weren't taken, but rather were bought from PersiaNinja, an asset seller, on the Epic Marketplace. The developer stated, "We've always been open about using the Epic Marketplace for animations that are good and fit our style. However, they noted that only "approximately 10% of the art is outsourced" and that the "entire world" of Bleak Faith was meticulously constructed by hand.
“We've heard this comment before, but you can buy the animations yourself if you want as they are publicly available and have been for a long time. Any other question or concern should be taken up with Epic themselves. We're willing to rework things if there's something amiss going on in the marketplace but we've received no notification from Epic and we too are their customers. The marketplace was used to fill in generic art and was still edited to fit in the general needs of the art direction - about 10% of the total game art is from there,” one of the developers known as Rola stated on the Steam Forums recently.
In a subsequent tweet, Meowmaritus acknowledged Archangel Studio's response and stated, "I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm mostly furious at the individual who submitted the materials. A quick glance at PersiaNinja's store page on the Epic Marketplace reveals that it now says "no content detected," suggesting that the assets have apparently been removed from sale as a result of the controversy surrounding Bleak Souls: Forsaken.
In the meantime, a different argument was made on Twitter, claiming that Bleak Faith's perk images are works of artificial intelligence (AI) generated art because of their distinctly flat design. In response, the creators said they will change the icons.
There have been comparisons drawn between Elden Ring's uchigatana and straight sword animation and Bleak Faith's claymore assault animation. Also, a particular character has been compared with Malenia and the Abyss Watchers. While many games have employed animations that were influenced by other games, such as the resemblance between Genshin Impact and Nier Automata, these seem to belong in a separate category. Instead of drawing inspiration from other FromSoftware games, they seem to have been taken directly from the game with the help of the DSAnimStudio program and then lightly altered.
In response to the accusations, Archangel Studio released a statement saying that the animations weren't taken, but rather were bought from PersiaNinja, an asset seller, on the Epic Marketplace. The developer stated, "We've always been open about using the Epic Marketplace for animations that are good and fit our style. However, they noted that only "approximately 10% of the art is outsourced" and that the "entire world" of Bleak Faith was meticulously constructed by hand.
“We've heard this comment before, but you can buy the animations yourself if you want as they are publicly available and have been for a long time. Any other question or concern should be taken up with Epic themselves. We're willing to rework things if there's something amiss going on in the marketplace but we've received no notification from Epic and we too are their customers. The marketplace was used to fill in generic art and was still edited to fit in the general needs of the art direction - about 10% of the total game art is from there,” one of the developers known as Rola stated on the Steam Forums recently.
In a subsequent tweet, Meowmaritus acknowledged Archangel Studio's response and stated, "I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm mostly furious at the individual who submitted the materials. A quick glance at PersiaNinja's store page on the Epic Marketplace reveals that it now says "no content detected," suggesting that the assets have apparently been removed from sale as a result of the controversy surrounding Bleak Souls: Forsaken.
In the meantime, a different argument was made on Twitter, claiming that Bleak Faith's perk images are works of artificial intelligence (AI) generated art because of their distinctly flat design. In response, the creators said they will change the icons.
