The studio behind the recently released Soulslike game has defended itself against claims that it stole property Elden Ring.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken was released on March 10th and currently has “mixed” reviews Steam storewhich has negative reviews citing numerous bugs upon release.
However, controversy arose when Dark souls modding developer Meowmaritus posted a video showing footage from the game next to footage from the Elden Ring.
When compared side-by-side, the player and enemy animations in each video appear to be identical, suggesting that the animations were lifted from Elden Ring and used in Bleak Faith.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken – Release Day Trailer
“I saw this material floating around,” Meowmaritus wrote. “Bleak Faith: Forsaken is 100% animations copied directly 1:1 from Elden Ring.
“I do not condone people using my DS Anim Studio software to export animations for inclusion in or sale of commercial products Epic Games Store.”
While many players immediately accused Bleak Faith developer Archangel Studios of plagiarism, one of the game’s artists has now claimed that they didn’t know where the asset came from in the first place.
In a statement given to the official Bleak Faith Discord Server On Saturday, developer “überfaith42” claimed that the animations were purchased as part of an asset pack that has been put up for sale on the Epic Games Store.
“We have always been transparent in our use Epic A marketplace for animations that are good and fit our theme,” they wrote. “I did the rest – we just needed more variety, and I’m not an animator by trade, I had to learn for this game.”
“The only other things I use from the Epic Marketplace are generic VFX, which was a waste of time to do because I’d be doing things that basically look the same anyway, and things that are so generic (like some rocks) that don’t require artistic guidance.
“The whole world is built by hand. So about 10% of the art is outsourced, whereas AAA companies outsource about 70% of their art (because they have a budget, we don’t have that option, so all our ideas have to be done in-house).
The artist linked to the Epic Games Store content pack claims the animations are from, but the link now redirects to the store’s “not found” page.
The next day, überfaith42 returned to Discord and added that they were working on alternative animations, “even if everything turns out fine and no one has any problems and this seller is a legit person”.
“I want to emphasize that this decision comes from a purely artistic lens at this time, as an artist I am proud of all the manual work and unique things I have built over these many years,” they added.
“I wanted the game to stand out from the crowd and bring its own thrill in as many ways as possible. I didn’t really know that any of the animations were really similar to anything else, I just thought we were doing business with a legitimate entity and that their work fit our vision of combat.
“If it turns out that this seller is illegal, we’ve all been victims of bad behavior.”
