Update #2 [Thu 21st Jan, 2021 06:30 GMT]: Final Sword, the game featuring background music from The Legend of Zelda series, has now returned to the Japanese eShop as a Definitive Edition release.
The Zelda-themed music has reportedly been removed. There were also some asset issues as well, but it's unclear at this stage if they've been removed or even swapped out.
Here's an incredibly rough Google translation of the developer's latest Twitter message - thanking fans for all the support:
"Thanks to everyone's support, we were able to release it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We are still struggling to develop even more interesting games. Thank you for your patronage of Final Sword Definitive Edition. (The story is the same as the previous work.) Thank you very much."
Update #1 [Mon 6th Jul, 2020]: It would appear that Final Sword has now been removed from the Japanese eShop after it was discovered that it contains music from The Legend of Zelda franchise (thanks, Japanese Nintendo). While not yet confirmed, it wouldn't be surprising to see similar takedowns follow worldwide.
Original Article [Sun 5th Jul, 2020 07:30 BST]: Earlier this week, a company called HUP Games published Final Sword on the Switch eShop. If you've never heard of this game before, it's described as the "original action RPG" for Nintendo Switch and allows players to enjoy "powerful battles" in an open-world setting for $17.70.
In reality, it's a mobile port and the title uses generic game engine assets. To top it off, it also features music from the Nintendo series, The Legend of Zelda. GoNintendo notes how the "stolen music" playing in the background "straight-up rips off" Zelda's Lullaby.
We're not sure how this one slipped by Nintendo, but if we were to take a guess, it's probably because stacks of games are getting approved for the Switch eShop on a weekly basis.
Now that the word is out, Final Sword is expected to disappear from Nintendo's digital store in the coming days. If we get any updates, we'll be sure to let you know.
[source twitter.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 93
Looks like an asset flip game.
How long before the lawsuit comes? Nintendo moves fast addressing pirated sites for Nintendo games, now lets see how they handle this.
Wow...that blows
not a good look for this game. make something orginal, don't just steal it and called it a day.
And is that a Rathian in the top picture?
I guess Nintendo needs to bring back their iron fisted approval process again. This is getting ridiculous!
This doesn't seem to be a version ripped from any official Zelda game, so either they recreated it from scratch or stole it from a fan made remix.
Would option 2 surprise anyone?
As my mother once told me, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Maybe that’s not a good proverb when it comes to breaking copyright laws.
People are being mighty presumptuous here. How do we know that they didn't pay Nintendo royalties for its use?
Similarly, I've heard music from The Sims being used in commercials and the like over the years. I can't blame them; the first game and its expansions had amazing music.
I assume that The Sims also contained stock sound effects, because funnily enough, Riverdale used the same door sound effects as The Sims 1, which is especially jarring because the sound is not consistent with the doors that they use on the show (which wouldn't produce such a "mechanical" sort of sound). The show is absolute trash though (sound design being the least of its problems). Guilty pleasures are all well and good until all you are left with is guilt. I used to write less cringe-inducing crap in my high school years.
@ShadJV : Wise words. Asking for permission for a creative endeavour, especially when one doesn't stand to make any money from it, is a pain in the rear.
Water temple we hate you.
where is the goddamn quality control??
Peaces of monster hunter, zelda, what more?
This game should be deleted, looks awefull
@Creature interesting background you got there. Seems like the developers have a different mindset compared to the legal team and the music or art design team.
Really wish they'd curate eShop entries.
Imagine having so little regard for such a major franchise. Hmm, what could they have been thinking?
"It's an old game, no one plays it anymore?"
or something. Lol.
Whelp, I was originally not going to buy the game because it looked like absolute garbage, but now that I know that it has Nintendo owned copyright music in it, I HAVE to get it now simply for the novelty and proof that Nintendo has not quality control.
@ArtiomNLS Which do you think they’ll notice first? One song in an ugly looking mobile ported game not worth anyone’s time, or an entire game based on their IP? Quite obvious which one
It’s probably a Filip Miucin side project.
He got tired of copying other people’s videogame reviews and started developing games, copying everything here and there
If I was Nintendo I'd get Jackie Chiles on the case as it's It’s an infringement on their IP. It’s outrageous, egregious and preposterous.
@Silly_G You hush. Riverdale is a wonderful show.
@Indielink : Did you drop out of the fourth grade to support your nana via the drug trade too?
Sure do miss the old Nintendo Seal of Quality. Hard to check 'em all at this point, and who doesn't need more titles that will eventually be on perma-sale for 90% off?
lmao¬!! Why does he run like he has crapped himself or about to?
Saw the screen shot and thought it was monster hunter news!
@Silly_G Wait what? Riverdale uses a sample also used in Sims? That in itself is entertaining enough, but finding out about it, that's the real story here!!
And yes, pretty bad show. I can't believe I actually struggled through 3 seasons... Something is wrong with me...
@Silly_G Doesn't everyone?
Regardless of how many games Nintendo approves per week, something like this would require level 80 in audacity...or level 0 in self-awareness. Almost makes you wonder about the odds of someone picking an undertagged mp3 file off the internet and having no idea it's from Zelda (yes, there are people who haven't played Ocarina of Time, I'm one of them), but even that would sound pretty crazy this deep into the 21st century.
this is why im glad it has physical releases as the switch e shop is a disaster. about time N got off their backsides and sorted it asset flips games with stolen content broken games etc etc.
@OldMcGroin I thought that was Alduin from Skyrim?
Why does the article say the lullaby is from OoT? It's also in ALttP, which is a little older
@Daniel36 : I blind-bought the first two seasons but couldn't stomach anything past the first disc of Season 2. The comically atrocious scenes from beyond that point on YouTube didn't exactly fill me with confidence to give it a second chance. I don't think I can bring myself to sell them either, so I'll most likely destroy the discs at some point.
Lawsuit soon
Nintendo really needs to start regulating the eShop.
Pretty sure that dragon model is from skyrim
@Silly_G Sims used sound ideas and Hollywood edge sound and music libraries. Almost no games record their own sound effects, they just use and modify royalty free audio. Half life 2's iconic usp match pistol gunshot is a revolver gunshot from Hollywood edge's HPX digital library. The original doom game sounds are mostly taken from sound ideas general series 2000. First halo game's sounds are straight out of general series 6000 and series 8000 scifi libraries. The magnum pistol, the warthog chain gun, the covenant weapons (aside from the needler, which is a nailgun sound run through a phaser) are all unmodified royalty free stock audio you can buy for a few thousand dollars.
@mazzel Fair call, I've altered the article to reflect this.
@OldMcGroin It looks like a tired rathian. The animations are so well made in Monster Hunter you can spot them in just one frame.
Man, now I gotta buy this before it's gone forever!
Actually, Final Sword is the original action RPG, which means Zelda must have stolen it from this game.
Do they not realize that the company they stole the music from is also the company that owns the Nintendo Switch?
These days it feels like anyone could spend 5 minutes in python and put "rock paper scissors: nintendo switch edition" on the ehop.
Before listening, my assumption was that some of the sound bars were just similar. But...Holy Rip-off, Batman!
This is shovel ware to the T. Anyone miss the days when Nintendo actually gave a ***** what was released on their system?
The Switch eShop has a huge shovelware problem and the way the eShop works these trash games can get to the top of the best sellers page by having a 1p sale for a week.
It's like Nintendo care more about quantity over quality.
This seriously looks like some college kid's final project.
@Liam_Doolan it's a beautiful lullaby nevertheless
😑 Dudes and dudettes, this, right here, is just plain and simple ridiculous and lazy. And frankly if you can’t respect where you’re posting your game, you shouldn’t be allowed to do so. Let’s be real though, who was buying this garbage anyway? Not the point I know but this really gets me angry. It’s not even like they tried to hide it.
@Creature I appreciate your perspective. Real creativity doesn't stop at boundaries... except for those that are self-imposed, like respect.
I'm not fond of the legal threats platform holders make (copyright law is entirely too pro-corporate these days), but after reading about the theme park Thwomp, I think Nintendo's legal team should adopt this Mario adversary as their departmental logo. Imagine the official stationery they could send to offenders, complete with a logo of Thwomp in mid-flight! Or the Thwomp mural outside legal team offices in the Redmond or Kyoto HQ...
Wow, at that point just have non-copyrighted music; it might be garbage most of the time, but it's legal.
Wow, they rip off Zelda's Lullaby, and the dragon model looks like it was ripped from Skyrim. From the looks of the video, it looks half-baked. And they want money for this?
Never thought I'd see the day when I wanted Nintendo to shut down something so hard so fast.
I thought it would be something like in Harvest Moon Hero of Leaf Valley, where a song just sounds a bit too much like Zelda's Lullaby, but wow that IS just straight up Zelda's Lullaby.
thought the dragon looks like something from Skyrim and the dude a bit like arthas...if you squint.
I miss "Nintendo Seal of Approval" standards... I didn't agree with all of them certainly, but I want there to be some entry bar!
Why is the crap on the eshop? Put it on Steam, where they have no standards! This kind of thing doesn't belong on the same shelves as masterpieces like BOTW, Skyrim, Pokemon, Doom, Tetris, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing!
Kinda reminds me of how the Fairy Fountain music (also from Zelda) was playing in the background during a scene of the movie "Skott Pilgrim Versus The World"
They are offering a poor mobile port for nearly $18? I rather spend all that money on single trip to McDonald's.
@Chibi_Manny Universial likely obtain permission to use Nintendo's music. HUP Games probably did not.
@Severian I'd give it a few weeks.
@The__Goomba they do because they are in the middle of a games drought.
i think it got removed from the japanese eshop now
Great that it was removed, but Nintendo should really be screening games beforehand.
When I seen the game it just looked like a cheap made game from the screenshots and it was thrown together using other people's assets... turns out it wasn't just the look of it that used that method.
@Heavyarms55 that seal of approval meant little when there were still loads of crap games being released on systems. If anything it just meant it was an officially licensed product.
@Zyph agreed. I would gladly work for nintendo as a tester, to weed out the crap. As a side hustle, you know.
The game was garbage anyways. I hope Nintendo get rid of more games like this. Maybe hired a digital shop inspectors to inspect each and every new titles coming.
Wow. I don't think I have ever seen a more bland looking game.
This is an ugly, ugly game. I mean seriously this looks like one of those cheap mobile game ads. So ugly to look at.
@Dpullam seriously. And everyone else agrees. This is an absolute GARBAGE Game.
@HeroponRiki I can’t believe Nintendo would do that.
@Susurrus
Yeah, I miss the good old days when Nintendo never would have allowed games like Action 52, Total Recall, Space Ace, Batman Forever, Terminator 2, Athena, Bible Adventures, Super Pitfall, Pit Fighter, Superman 64, and Carmageddon 64 on their consoles. What ever happened to the days when Nintendo consoles only had good games?
@Kalmaro and it is. lol
I mean, what did the devs think was gonna happen?
@BanjoPickles Technically speaking, a lot of those games you mentioned were unlicensed, meaning Nintendo had nothing to do with them, and did not approve of them.
Nintendo had a lockout chip in the NES to prevent this very thing, but there were ways to circumvent it, and thus these game companies used those exploits to get their unlicensed software onto the NES.
@AstroTheGamosian
Action 52 and Bible Adventures were unlicensed, yes, but the rest were licensed. Nintendo allowed developers who signed a contract to release five games per year, which wasn't a bad idea, but that still didn't stop companies from releasing garbage games.
Based on the high quality of the game, is it feasible Nintendo stole the music from HUP Games?
If there is a physical of this, I'd buy it.
@SeantheDon29 have you played it yet? My friends son download it!..... Its awful! you can fall into ground and walk through mountains! This thing is riddled with bugs its just a piece if crap!
@ryobi85 I concur. The combat is clunky as Tartarus and the bosses are the spongiest abominations I’ve ever fought.
its trash that doesn't belong in the first place. As I thought, no one at Nintendo clearly doesn't even test games before they go onto the eshop or this would have already been known
How this got approved to be sold on the eShop is something 😆
@Creature I have worked in the live entertainment industry, though not in gaming. Many I have worked with produce 80 % live entertainment and 20% back of the room sales products, after the show, I have noticed, the larger the entity, the more likely they are to steal ideas from lesser-known people in the same industry. There is a saying in our work, 'to steal one concept is plagiarism, to steal the entire show is research." They are quite bold about how they go about it too, who would call them out in front of their peers, after all, and-it-works!
It will be missed until 2 minutes after you read my comment.
Thanks for the update, I've had difficulty sleeping not knowing what happened to this game.
...the 'should get away with it now' edition...
wow if i was nintendo id never let them on my platform again
"We're not sure how this one slipped by Nintendo"
Because Nintendo care more about curating their own IPs and their use by fans outside of their own releases more than they care about curating the eShop or the quality of 3rd party releases.
Imagine paying for a rip off game with stolen assets.
Return of the King!
Lol though, never seen people care enough to get their shovel ware rereleased after this kind of thing. They got more effort than some rip off devs, I'll give them that.
@ArlongKing01 It used to make things difficult for indie devs, but now without it it makes it difficult to find good stuff on the eshop
@ArlongKing01 Oh of course! Hollow knight, Human fall flat, Cuphead, Undertale, Dead Cells, Goose Game. It's just there's so much junk, you gotta sort through
So many angry comments zzzzz. The made something and it wasn't on par so they fixed it now it's back. Either buy it and try it or don't and be quiet really. You cannot judge a company or game or anything for that matter without using it or trying the product. They could have just scrapped the whole thing but they didn't so at least give them the consideration you think you deserve because everyone deserves that.
As for the game I'll give it a shot myself when it goes on sell like I do almost all games except actually Nintendo licensed games. Always willing to support indie companies.
I'm just here to know details about the game not about zelda.
@Quarth Unrelated to everything here but the arcade version of Quarth just came out on the eShop.
Search for its international title, "Block Hole", and you'll find it at a price of $8.
@Elvie Thanks! That's a game that actually deserves an article.
Edit: Seems it got one!
In fairness, BotW uses sound effects from Crystal Chronicles.
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