Developer of Bleak Faith: Forsaken, Archangel Studios, has responded to accusations of stealing assets from Elden Ring. The Soulslike game was only released a few days ago, and the negative attention is something the developer won't want clouding its launch.The Soulslike genre has exploded in recent years, with titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order helping to bring the genre into the mainstream. The enormous sales of Elden Ring cemented the idea that Soulslikes can be popular with wider audiences, with the difficulty of the game not putting players off. It only seems poised to grow going forward, with gamer appetite for a difficult action-RPG experience still very much alive and well.The comparison was initially pointed out by Dark Souls modder Meowmaritus, who created the tools that allow gamers to rip animations out of FromSoftware titles. The footage shows combat animations with motion exactly the same as what can be seen in Elden Ring. Interestingly, the animations are playing at a different speed between the games, but they're clearly the same core animations. Meowmaritus even notes that other Soulslikes such as Lies of P take heavy inspiration using FromSoftware games' animations, but doesn't outright steal them.
In Archangel Studios' response to the allegations, the developer is transparent about the use of purchased assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace for "animations that are good and fit our theme." The developer also clarifies that purchasing assets is common practice in the industry, even at FromSoftware. It seems that the usage of Elden Ring assets is an innocent error, with the asset pack managing to slip by Epic Games. However, the increased attention on the pack could now it see removed. While Elden Ring's animations are quite distinctive, it's entirely possible that their familiarity slipped by the developer during the development process. It will be interesting to see what happens now to the asset packs, if it's definitively proven that they're stolen from FromSoftware.
As part of the response, Archangel Studios floated its own theory about the asset pack. It claims that if two animations are similar, but are used on two completely separate rigs and skeletons, then it's more likely that the animations are rotoscoped rather than stolen. This would mean that while the Elden Ring animations were used as a base to draw from, they would technically have been handmade by the creator of the asset pack, and therefore not stolen at all. However, it's still unclear which category this particular pack falls into.
Excitement had been building around the game for a while, with Bleak Faith: Forsaken's release date trailer releasing just weeks ago. While this is a mistake beyond the developer's control, it does appear that the game is using Elden Ring animations without permission from FromSoftware. There's no easy solution to the issue. The game is already out on PC, so it's not a case of delaying the game until the animations can be redone. It remains to be seen if FromSoftware decides to respond to the allegations in the coming days.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken is available now on PC, with PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions currently in development.
Source: DSO Gaming