Topic: Castlevania: Moonlight Rhapsody (formerly Code C (Chinese Castlevania mobile))

[Foffy]

Not content with the only Castlevania experience on phones being Grimoire of Souls, we have a blatant game from China that is very, very, very inspired by Castlevania. To the point of committing copyright infringement on sounds and music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xS77uNeBhA

If you want to try it, I'm including the link here. Even the link uses the Castlevania name...

It's fair to assume Konami did not approve of this, yeah?

[X]

China's going through a lot of political bulls**t right now to say the least. I seriously doubt that Konami is going to have any say or sway should the issue of copyright infringement arise. We're talking about a government that doesn't support human rights at the moment, let alone worrying about some foreign corporate entity that can't even touch 'em on any real level. But you're right, that game is definitely using Konami-owned assets as SotN's music is in that game. Doesn't help its cause either that the protagonist looks almost identical to Richter. But waaay too pretty-looking 

[Lumi Kløvstad]

In a rare case of "Konami actually has every fucking right to sue and they damn well should", they really need to slam this dev down with the full force of their lawyers. Stolen assets? Stolen brand name? Jeez. Nothing fair use about this.

[Gunlord]

I don't understand why they went through the trouble to change the characters somewhat when they just straight-up ripped the music from SotN.

[Scarlet starlet]

Maybe they're only using SOTN music as a placeholder.
Looks interesting.

[Foffy]

I'm not sure about that. If you look at the artwork of the game, literally every character is based off of a Castlevania character in a painfully clear way. One quick glance and most of the cast and you realize they have Richter, Shanoa, Maria, Alucard, Yoko, it goes on and on.

I don't know Chinese, but I wouldn't even be shocked if they reused the names, too! Makes me wonder why Konami didn't just let Tencent make a Castlevania game themselves, seeing as this uses their QQ service.

[thernz]

that's like saying why doesnt konami let twitter make a castlevania game, bc a game uses twitter integration lol

[Foffy]

that's like saying why doesnt konami let twitter make a castlevania game, bc a game uses twitter integration lol

Not really, seeing as Tencent is known for using the IPs of other famous companies and worked with Konami for the mobile Contra game. My point was they already had a partner to work with if they wanted to make a Chinese-focused Castlevania game. I might have not made that clear originally, but there was more to my assumption of Tencent.

[whipsmemory]

I dont see any problem coming at them when Konami has been well aware about some german guy selling bootlegs prints of  Dracula X on Super CdRom2 off the web FOR YEARS, even making runs of limited special edition using all sorts of artworks and other copyrighted materials besides the game itself. Its ridicolous. At least this game looks somewhat original and looks actually pretty good

[Belmontoya]

I dont see any problem coming at them when Konami has been well aware about some german guy selling bootlegs prints of  Dracula X on Super CdRom2 off the web FOR YEARS, even making runs of limited special edition using all sorts of artworks and other copyrighted materials besides the game itself. Its ridicolous. At least this game looks somewhat original and looks actually pretty good

"Somewhat" being the operative word. Haha

[Aceearly1993]

The thing is: they did get the right to use the IP but did not get the right to use the series' staple characters, thus caused this awkward combination to occur. Did not plan to keep an eye on these though

[Foffy]

The thing is: they did get the right to use the IP but did not get the right to use the series' staple characters, thus caused this awkward combination to occur. Did not plan to keep an eye on these though

You're referring to Code C? Where did you find this out?

[Aceearly1993]

You're referring to Code C? Where did you find this out?

-yes

-One of my friends just happened to know the details

[Foffy]

-yes

-One of my friends just happened to know the details

I'd love to know more about this deal. Can you ask your friend how he learned of this? I presume it'd be a press release, however unlike other deals with major IPs, I don't see the major IP holder being referenced in the credits to the game, unlike titles like Monster Hunter Online and Contra Returns. My first assumption was to assume "rip off" and not "licensed out Castlevania game with caveats" simply because there's no Konami logo to be found.

[Aceearly1993]

I'd love to know more about this deal.

He said:
“The Code C team paid a decent amount of copyright fee to Konami for usage of Castlevania IP, but as the copyright of Ayami Kojima artworks in the Ayami-involved games currently belongs to Ayami herself and not Konami they couldn't make the deal”