China's Making a Dark Souls Knock-Off for PS4

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Are you sure you've played Dark Souls? Cause I definitely wouldn't call this identical.

What bugs me the most isn't that it's a rip off but that it actually looks good. The developers behind this clearly has talents but instead of making their own game they waste it on making a copy of another game.

Who gives 2 poos if its derivative. Ya it looks similar in the short clip weve just seen. If its good its good. If not it will get buried.

I would love to see chinese legends/myths making it into the content. Hopefully they really own the story and can make an impact.

I want to play nioh/the surge/salt n sanct - just gotta find the time.

_{Language -Tasuki-}

Well I like Souls games a lot and their playstyle so honestly it doesn't bother me that looks so identical. Just to clarify. coping a game and changing just just minor things is not ok, but this one seems to copy only the gameplay, something that we see since the beggining of the video games.

Fair enough. If From aren't making any more souls games then why not cash in? There's a demand there, and I would definitely play this if it came out here.

Doesn't look identical to me either...?

Looks good to me, maybe they just wanted to make a souls game, but obviously can't so they just make not-Dark Souls instead. Personally I see nothing wrong with that.

I've never seen the boss or area shown in the video. Which Dark Souls game was this copied exactly from?

People will play and enjoy it because it's another Soulslike game.

"China's Making a [...] Knock-Off"
NO WAY?! IT CAN'T BE?!

China literally does this with everything from cars to ipads and watches, so this isn't really a surprise. They are a country which blatantly disregards copyright laws on a massive scale and they couldn't care less what the western world thinks of them

Who cares if they're copying anything (I don't think they are). As long as it's a good game and the souls games keep selling, I don't see a problem. Everyone's happy except for bitter people who look for something to be offended by.

^this

I'm not surprised since this is China after all. The team does have a bit of talent thoigh. However, am I the only one that finds the combat and the animations a bit rough? I also find the movement a bit slow. Though that's probably because the people playing the game just doesn't know how to play right. I mean, the person playing the game didn't even locked-on the boss. Though, I think everyone should tone down their expectations on this one. Just because it looks like a Souls-like, that doesn't mean it'll be good. That, and I mostly have low expectations when it comes to chinese PS4 games (still waiting for a good chinese PS4 game like Knights of Valour.)

Nah it happens in every single type of market and manufacture type in the world, games are no different. While it's nothing like a literal copy and paste; it does seem decent, the team clearly have talent.

Not the kind of comments Sammy thought he'd get i assume haha

holds up Bloodborne Anyone?

Made by the same guys buy its basically "Not Quite Dark Souls"

What video are you all watching? This game looks balls. As @SoulsBourne128 said the animations look clunky, the weapons look like cheap plastic toys you would find on knock off G.I joes, and the environments look like upscaled ps2 assets. It may turn out to be a good game but looking at this I highly doubt it will come close to being as refined as a souls like game.

@gamerphil07 well said

Looks terrible but yeah, copy and paste. The way China works I wouldn't be surprised if they straight up just stole assets/code or whatever. I smell a lawsuit.

Everyone in this comment section must be extremely near-sighted or something. It's one thing to take inspiration from a game, but this is, IMO, a borderline copy and paste of the Souls games. Granted, I'm only partway through Dark Souls 3, and that's the only Souls game I've ever played, but if you told me that this footage was from Dark Souls 1 or 2, I would absolutely believe you. (Probably more so if you told me it was footage from 2, since Dark Souls 1 is getting up there in age) Even the death screen looks similar to the Dark Souls one from what I can recall.

@get2sammyb maybe China will fill that gap that used to be b titles from the PS3 generation, now we mostly just have AAA and then Indie, b titles seem to get lost.

@KirbyTheVampire exactly, put up some side by side footage and let the naïve comments go away

Well...Aren't 2d space fighting games all similar to each other? xD or racing simulation games, etc etc
Anyway, china does this all the time

@get2sammyb I'd say so yes, we don't really need b tier, maybe they do in China, no idea how many games they get ported or passed

@SoulsBourne128 The pace looks very close to DS1.

@KirbyTheVampire It looks much more cartoony than the Souls graphics, but yes it is very similar.

@OneArmedGiant Way too early to say.

Looks okay. If it's decent who cares. I don't see why you're giving Nioh a free pass, all it did different was cut the world into levels and add horrible diablo gear grinding.

@doctommaso
I've work with China's plastics and metal so going by there track record, they love to make dodgie $h!t.

@OneArmedGiant I see. Sorry to hear it.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi @KirbyTheVampire the game is no doubt in that genre, but not a cut and paste. From the first few seconds, he teleports with a red ghost behind when he dodges and the level is not from any souls game I recognize. How is this cut/paste?

That is like saying saints row is a gta cut/paste.

I really don't like reading the ignorant comments being made here about China. It really doesn't matter what country the developer is from.

Even the healthbars are almost identical.

@Mega-Gazz Yeah if they did that the same yeah lawsuit and with a good reason this is a rippoff in most blatant way.

@BLP_Software Bloodborne is made by the same company as Darksouls thats why. I dont even play DS that much but you have to be blind not to see the resemblance even the healthbars are almost identical.

China rips off popular product in no-shock-whatsoever mundanity.

@Flaming_Kaiser i did say made by the same guys but its just Dark Souls in another name. Even the developers of Dark Souls made a knock off Dark Sould

If it was perceived as a knock off your terminology not mine then legal action would be being taken against the games developer. To my knowledge this is not the case.

I also have wonder would the tone of your article have been different. If it had involved a company not related to china.

YOU CHINA'D.
Returning to your world ...

This is nothing compared to the Chinese Overwatch rip-off.haha

@Mega-Gazz I think you're taking the term cut and paste a little too literally. Its more like comparing Ubisoft open world games, all very similar.

@dryrain pushsquare I'm fairly certain have published plenty of articles pointing out knock off games in the past

@Mega-Gazz The level design is different, and there are touches of difference here and there, but there's no denying that it's much more similar to the Souls game than any other game in the genre like Nioh or The Surge, at least to my knowledge. Maybe that's not a bad thing, but it's still definitely not an original game/idea whatsoever. The setting and gameplay look very similar.

It looks decent I don't mind another dark souls clone. But on subject of ripping off... What about Gran Turismo/Forza? Tomb raider/uncharted? COD or battlefield? Can't wait to see what Chinese developers bring to the table... Hope it's not just anime style (Japan) or open world realistic gun blazing (USA) type stuff but uniquely Chinese. Hoping for originality like Horizon. Love to see the Chinese take on RPGs or their version of sci-fi😊

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi @KirbyTheVampire but that's the point - copyright infringement would be a literal cut and paste. A western developer could release this game without lawsuit.

@Mega-Gazz Oh for sure, I'm just saying that this is undoubtedly a bit of a rip off. Taking inspiration from something is totally fine, but this takes a little too much inspiration IMO. Not that it bothers me or anything, I'm just saying it's not something to be proud of to the same degree as something like Nioh or The Surge.

@KirbyTheVampire agreed.

Ah yes, Dark Souls - the poor man's Demon's Souls.

I'm kind of intrigued due it being Chinese as developers from China aren't exactly well known. I'd be up for giving it a play just for curiosity's sake.

@YummyHappyPills With a completely different setting, world, and a focus on being aggressive. Similar gameplay, but in between they’re different. This has a guy using swords, shields, and medieval armor like DS. Hardly comparable games or situations.

@YummyHappyPills I saw this randomly and I forgot it wasn’t new lol. My bad.