Bleak Faith Dev Says It Got FromSoftware Animations Off A Store

thegamer.com:

Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a recently released Soulslike. Developed by indie studio Archangel, the game has drawn admirers for bleak gothic environments and heavy atmosphere. Similarities to FromSoftware games can be a winner as we've seen for the likes of Nioh, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Steelrising. But in the case of Bleak Faith, similarities could be too close to comfort when it comes to the game's animations.

Since it launched on March 10, players have been pointing how alike Bleak Faith's animations are to FromSoftware games such as Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 (thanks PC Gamer). For example, Bleak Faith's claymore attacks closely correspond with Elden Ring's uchigatana and straight sword. Another character appears to have cribbed some of Malenia's movements, while the animations of Dark Souls 3's Abyss Watcher also have super close similarities.

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While games, like many other creative media, often take inspiration from other games that have gone before them, drawing from their gameplay systems, art style, character designs, and UI innovations, the problem here is that the animations in Bleak Faith look like they are a 1:1 copy of those found in FromSoftware games. But rather than somehow copying the code from Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring, it appears Bleak Faith's animations have been taken from the DSAnimStudio program used by modders, and altered slightly.

The similarities spurred accusations and Archangel Studios took to Discord and the game's Steam forum to respond. The indie dev explained that it had purchased animation assets from the Epic Marketplace and it linked to the profile of an Unreal Engine asset-seller named PersiaNinja. At least one