Archangel Studio’s newest title, Bleak Faith: Forsaken, just launched this past weekend and its already causing some controversy in the video game community. Archangel Studio’s newest title might look a bit familiar to those who have played any of the Soulsborne titles from From Software, which apparently might not be a coincidence. According to the Dark Souls modding tool developer Meowmaritus, and subsequently reported by PC Gamer, Archangel Studios took assets directly from a software called DSAnimStudio and used Meowmaritus’s own software to develop their title, making the animations and features nearly 1:1 to the Soulsborne titles.

The devs used an Epic Games store asset and probably recognized the DS3 and ER moves, being Souls fans, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I’m mostly mad at the person who uploaded the assets, which can be found here https://t.co/HXjZYQiIfF https://t.co/pZLtHkhw0L

— Meowmaritus (@meowmaritus) March 12, 2023

To further this point, an Imgur post shows several side-by-side animations and models that show Bleak Faith: Forsaken features and Soulsborne features. This more or less suggests that the animations were indeed lifted straight out of From Software’s titles, more specifically Elden Ring. It’s also important to note that while it’s not uncommon for developers to mimic and use animations as a form of inspiration for their own IPs, this is on a very different level as the animations appear to be a full 1:1 copy.

Archangel Studio didn’t waste a lot of time to respond to these accusations. In a post on the studio’s own Discord server, a developer that goes by the handle of “überfaith42” claimed that the animations were not specifically stolen or copied per say, but were instead purchased as an asset pack from the Epic Games Store. “We’re always been transparent about using the Epic Marketplace for animations that are good and fit our theme,” the developer said. “The rest I made – we just needed more variety and I’m not an animator by trade, I had to learn for this game.”

The developer goes on to claim that everything was created by them and no one else, and even linked the asset pack that they allegedly purchased them from. However, when trying to access the link, it directs to a not found page. The developer made another post saying that they were “working on alternative animations” stressing that the assets purchased from the marketplace may not have been through a genuine seller. This only adds to the bizarre nature of the situation, and until the community gets a desired resolution, they will undoubtedly be pointing fingers at unethical claims at the developer’s way for a long long time.