I don't know anything about this game or its developers, but I was looking through the screenshots for the eShop game Citadale ( https://www.nintendolife.com/games/wiiu-eshop/citadale ), and, myself being a huge Castlevania nerd, recognised the Alraune sprite from Circle of the Moon almost immediately.
I went on my VC version of Circle of the Moon and took a Miiverse screenshot of the game to verify... it seems like Citadale uses the exact same sprite.
Do the creators of Citadale have the rights to use Konami's graphical assets? What's the story here?
The Flower looks like a watered down copy.
At first i wanted to support the creator of this game, but now i've changed my mind.
why, because he copied a flower?!
I mean Castlevania has plagiarised a lot more than that...
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There's a trailer on Nintendo's website, guys. And yes, it's obviously a shameless clone. I wasn't being hyperbolic before, they're going to get sued as soon as Konami finds out, and Citadale doesn't have a leg to stand on. The only thing that wasn't ripped, traced, or copied wholesale was the music...which is /awful/ It's so tinny, and lacks any rhythm or harmony. Ugh...but then again, I guess if the dev actually had an artistic bone in his body, he wouldn't have to steal it to make a living...
@CanisWolfred there's a bit of a discussion going on in the comments of the video you linked. Basically the author says he has replaced the graphics you see in the trailer with graphics of his own invention. They'll probably look exactly the same but with tiny minute differences.
I don't know, it's clearly a Castlevania rip-off but since the series is on hiatus I think a bootleg it's actually more than welcome from a fan's perspective, as long as it's good quality. Will he be able to get away with it if he has really changed the graphic elements he lifted from Castlevania?! Dunno. Probably.
I don't think Konami can claim originality on anything about Castlevania except the graphics, so...
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@CanisWolfred there's a bit of a discussion going on in the comments of the video you linked. Basically the author says he has replaced the graphics you see in the trailer with graphics of his own invention. They'll probably look exactly the same but with tiny minute differences.
I don't know, it's clearly a Castlevania rip-off but since the series is on hiatus I think a bootleg it's actually more than welcome from a fan's perspective, as long as it's good quality. Will he be able to get away with it if he has really changed the graphic elements he lifted from Castlevania?! Dunno. Probably.
I don't think Konami can claim originality on anything about Castlevania except the graphics, so...
I saw them note that, but I've yet to see any evidence of such. All the screenshots on Nintendo.co.uk look the same as what that trailer showed. And it's not just "vaguely similar", either. They could be infinging on copyrights, they're so similar. They even have the same animations and movement patterns/AI behaviors. It's as you say: It's a bootleg. And any company worth their salt would stomp that out as quick as possible. I mean, yeah, as a fan, I wish it would stick around so I could play it. But the title logo is similar, the main character looks just like Alucard from SotN, the enemies are clearly ripped from Circle of the Moon, that's not even a question anymore. The environment designs look similar too, now that I look at it. It's blatant copyright theft, and just because Konami isn't using it anymore doesn't make it right, and not just morally. I'm no copyright lawyer, but...this is a prime example of why they get paid in the first place.
Well if they need to take it down, it will only benefit the creator.... You know, people running to the store to buy the doomed game.
Then they can "fix" the graphics and make a triumphant return.
Maybe irs part of their business plan.
Yeah, I was thinking of that, too. If I worked at Konami, I'd see if I could take it to court anyways as an extra deterrant, but I don't know if that's possible, and I doubt Konami's profits would suffer enough from an eShop bootleg to justify it. It really is a sad situation, but it was only a matter of time before stuff like this started happening...we already got "Silent Evil" on the way, too, though hopefully it's just a name reference and nothing more...
the_shpydar wrote:
As @ogo79 said, the SNS-RZ-USA is a prime giveaway that it's not a legit retail cart.
And yes, he is (usually) always right, and he is (almost) the sexiest gamer out there (not counting me) ;)
Just thought I would comment here, as this thread was brought to my attention just now.
I'm the publisher of Citadale, and have spent the last few months polishing as much I can out of it trying to get as close to 60fps as I can... which is hard with the Wii U being so under-powered without any help from hardware acceleration due to the fact it's an NWF game.
That being said, I didn't make the art... I didn't make the music... I didn't write the original game, or do the storyline... I ported it to the Wii U, added a few features, and polished the game to function as a Wii U title; That is all.
I never played Castlevania that much when I was a kid, but I instantly saw the connection when I started my development with Citadale, and I quite liked it. I did not know of any similarities, but it's quite obvious from the screenshots posted above, and all I can say is that I wish this was brought to my attention before when this game was announced months ago, as the original screenshots and video have been online for well over a year.
What I can say, knowing this now, is that I will be issuing a patch that will change the graphics so that there are no similarities at all.
I know the original developer for Citadale, and know he did not mean to do this intentionally. It's possible he used graphics as placeholders, and simply did not replace the first level boss, as well as the bat. Myself having worked in the video game industry, and entertainment industry for almost 15 years now, I know that this happens even in AAA studios, but the placeholders are almost always changed before going into production... these two sprites were obviously missed.
I feel bad about the fact that this is in a game I published, but I will take the steps to have this rectified. Nothing else I can do than that. If you don't support me for not having a legal department, or a department dedicated to looking into ever graphic in my games to make sure they don't look 'too close' like someone else's work, or for having someone present something to me as 100% original, that's only 99.5% original... then that's your choice... but I hope that is not the case.
By the way regarding the music, I personally really like the music in the game.
@Nitro187
Are you certain it's just the flower and the bat?
These are the only two stolen sprites I personally saw from the provided screenshots seen in the Wii U eShop page, but to me, seeing more than one is an indication that there could be more stolen assets within the game itself.
It would be bad for you if you went to the trouble of replacing these two sprites and submitting an update patch... and then later on, I played the game myself and recognised even more stolen sprites. I have pretty much all of Castlevania Circle of the Moon memorised in my head... I'd recognise a sprite from it anywhere.
I did buy Citadale, but I bought it for a cynical reason: I bought it because I thought Konami would eventually force it off the eShop, and so I wanted to have the game personally available to me on my Wii U.
I love Castlevania and anything involving Castlevania, so I wanted to have the game so I would have access to what could potentially become the subject of an interesting story involving copyright infringement.
But hey, if my observation helps you change it and avoid that from happening in the first place, well, good for you guys!
@faint
I KNEW IT! I knew there would be more plagiarised sprites in this game!
At 4:15 in that video, the coin that drops from the candle is the gold coin sprite from Aria of Sorrow! I'm pretty sure of that!
The Alraune is interesting - the closed flower is obviously from Circle of the Moon, but the lady in the rose seems to be taken from Aria of Sorrow's Alura Une!
Stitching two different games' sprites together seems like a lot of work to go through for just a developmental placeholder graphic. .... are you sure they were intended to be replaced by original assets at all?
At 8:41, the explosion from killing the Alraune is ALSO from Circle of the Moon. The fire graphic in this explosion is from CotM's Flame Demon's fireball attack. The orb the player grabs afterwards is identical to a Bullet Soul sprite from Aria of Sorrow.
The Holy Water sound effect at 4:27 is taken straight from Castlevania on NES. And when the player attacks the weird monster at 4:57, that is the 'hit' sound effect from Simon's Quest, no doubt about that.
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Topic: Citadale seems to plagiarise Castlevania?
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