A new soulslike RPG title recently came out. But its debut raised a lot of eyebrows in the gaming community. Indie developers from Archangel Studios released their open-world RPG, Bleak Faith: Forsaken. It is the Cyprus-based studio's first game project. The three-member team launched the game for PC via Steam on March 10.
But two days after its release, the game faced controversy. Gamers and modders accused Archangel Studios of copying elements from Elden Ring. In particular, the new game's animations.
The tweet from Dark Souls modder Meowmaritus garnered the most interactions. Meowmaritus alleged that malicious individuals used their software for profit. In particular, they copied and exported animations from a mega-hit RPG title from FromSoftware.
The animations from Bleak Faith: Forsaken were 100 percent ripped from Elden Ring,
said Meowmaritus. He also said he does not condone people using the DS Anim Studio software to extract a game's assets for commercial purposes.
On March 13, Archangel Studio responded to the accusations hurled at them. Despite admitting to having outsourced assets, they denied committing infringements.
Archangel Studio said they purchased them from Epic Marketplace "in good faith." They explained that it helped them fast-track Bleak Faith's development time. Developers also claimed that outsourced assets only comprised 10 percent of the game. Developers said they used them for animations, visual effects, and audio.
In the meantime, Archangel has taken action to address the concern. They already asked Epic to investigate the matter, they said.
Archangel's team added that the allegations against them were hurtful and distressing. "We hope that through our transparency and our ongoing actions will (sic) improve the game," they added.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken takes players into the fictional fantasy world of Omnistructure. / ###