Bleak Faith: Forsaken Dev Reacts To Elden Ring Theft Accusations
Update 3/14/23: According to an update on the game's official Steam page, Archangel was told that Epic "cannot verify the copyright of the animation packages purchased through their store." In light of this discovery, Archangel stated, "we have taken the decision to replace the assets purchased from the store over the next several days." Players will see the replacement of said assets over the course of the game's next few updates. The original article follows below.
"Bleak Faith: Forsaken" has received mixed reviews since it dropped earlier this month. Even SVG's mostly positive review notes that the game feels like an entry-level Soulslike. But now, some gamers are accusing the game of being more than derivative — some are saying it has downright stolen from one of the best in the genre.
Over the weekend, noted "Dark Souls" modder Meowmaritus accused "Bleak Faith: Forsaken" developer Archangel Studios of using their software to rip specific character animations from "Elden Ring" for use in its own Soulslike title. Meowmaritus also shared a side-by-side comparison of some of the attack animations in the two games, and the replies to the tweet have noted similarities between the two.
Saw this footage floating around. Bleak Faith: Forspoken is 100% using animations ripped directly 1:1 from Elden Ring.
I do NOT condone people using my DS Anim Studio software to aid in exporting animations to include in commercial products or sell them on Epic Games Store. pic.twitter.com/9JHGMeu9as
— Meowmaritus (@meowmaritus) March 12, 2023
"To make it clear I don't have any issues with devs being very inspired by FromSoft," said Meowmaritus, naming off a few titles that have jumped on the "Souls" train in recent years. "None of those games use the literal assets from inside FromSoft games' data, they are just big fans of FromSoft and heavily referenced."
This wouldn't be the first time "Bleak Faith: Forsaken" has been taken to task for its design elements, as fans have also called the developer out for using AI art in the game. In recent days, a flood of accusations have arisen against both the developers and the person who sold the animation assets to Archangel in the first place.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken dev explains where the assets came from
In a contentious thread on Steam, a number of players have debated whether or not the game uses assets from "Elden Ring," with some noting further comparisons to other FromSoftware games, including "Dark Souls 3." A developer for the game responded to the criticism, insisting that the game does not use any stolen assets. "Any animations not made in-house are from the Epic Marketplace and have been up there for years, rigged to an Epic Skeleton," wrote the dev. "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."
The developer went on to state that the team would be "willing to rework things if there's something amiss going on in the marketplace," but these explanations have been refused by some of the commenters in the forum thread. Others continued to raise questions about whether or not the assets were actually stolen by the Marketplace seller from whom Archangel bought the animations, which would mean that the developer was scammed. FromSoftware has yet to issue an official response on the matter.