The Chinese mobile game Doula Continent: Soul Master Duel has copied the intro cinematic of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers frame by frame in some parts. FFXIV fans are reacting with a mix of speechlessness and humor to the plagiarism.
This is about the cinematic: Although the expansion Shadowbringers is nearing its end and will make way for Endwalker on November 23, it has left a strong impression on many. This likely includes the developers of the Chinese studio 37 Interactive.
In the new trailer for their mobile game Doula Continent: Soul Master Duel, they have almost exactly copied the intro cinematic of FFXIV: Shadowbringers in several instances. The analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed out the similarities in a Twitter post:
In the intro cinematic of Shadowbringers, you see the player avatar Meteor staggering through the light-flooded first shard world and being attacked by a sin eater. Then a battle ensues in which Meteor seemingly loses, but in the end, he becomes a Dark Knight and can defeat the beast.
The video for Doula Continent runs almost exactly the same way, although the visuals have been adapted for the mobile game. The differences are immediately apparent, as 37 Interactive has inserted their own characters into the trailer. Thus, Meteor is replaced by a long-haired young man and the sin eater by an angel.
The movements and the fight choreography are identical in both videos, and for example, the fluid switch between jobs is also present. The character from Doula Continent swings a hammer first, then switches to a spear, and finally to a glowing red sword.
What is Doula Continent: Soul Master Duel? Doula Continent is an extremely popular web novel that has grown into a large franchise. It includes a manga (Chinese Manhua), an animated TV series with over 300 episodes (Donghua), and a C-drama, a live-action series.
Now the mobile game Doula Continent: Soul Master Duel is also part of the franchise, although the developers have “taken inspiration” from FFXIV: Shadowbringers in the trailer.
“They aren’t even trying to hide it!”
These reactions exist: On social media and in reddit forums, FFXIV players are reacting with a mix of speechlessness and humor to the brazen copy of their favorite MMO. Daniel Ahmad’s tweet has now received over 17,000 likes, 6,000 retweets, and 1,600 quote retweets. Some users are slightly shocked by how obvious the copy is, calling it shameless, while others can only laugh about it:
- User Javier Jofre wrote on Twitter: “It’s almost like they had the same idea! What an incredible coincidence!”
- Twitter user surfacage said: “I don’t get it. You spend so much money on a 3D trailer, hire competent artists. Why do you then copy the storyboard step by step? […]
- On reddit, user redcloud16 wrote: “At first, I thought that was a frame taken out of context. Then I saw the video and my jaw dropped to the floor. […]
- Reddit user sasasayoko wrote: “This isn’t the first time that FFXIV has been copied. As a Chinese person, I hate seeing this kind of thing.”
Even on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, many users are mocking the plagiarism. The top comment with over 5,600 upvotes states: “Hahahaha, I can’t say: ‘That’s similar.’ I can only say: ‘That’s exactly the same.'”
Another comment with over 2,800 upvotes cynically notes: “Remember to change the sole next time you copy 6.0.” This refers to the footprint of the avatar character Meteor, who leaves the Square Enix logo in the ground in the opening cinematic of the new expansion Endwalker (Patch 6.0).
This FFXIV cinematic has also been copied: Some fans have pointed out that this is not the first Chinese copy of an FFXIV intro. The opening of the Stormblood expansion was recreated in a Wuxia live-action drama. Although the scenes were not copied as exactly as in Shadowbringers, the similarities are quickly noticeable:
This makes FFXIV part of the long list of games that have been copied by Chinese developer studios for the Asian market. This includes games like Rainbow Six: Siege from publisher Ubisoft or the indie Steam hit Among Us, which became very popular through streamers:
The Chinese copy the current Steam hit and make a bizarre plagiarism out of it.
