Iris Online

[Lavian]

I thought this game's look was extremely familiar. It's because it's literally using the assets of the old, dead, MMO Iris Online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3H3jVYQoIg

https://web.archive.org/web/20110430201707/http://iris.gpotato.com/

That's not necessarily a bad thing. I've got this extremely weird patch of nostalgia for that game despite only playing it for a couple weeks roughly a decade ago and finding it extremely generic. It's actually got me more interested in Bellatia to see if I can scratch that weird nostalgia itch with it.

That said, what???

Also, Iris Online had guns. Not to mention classic sword and board. The trailer for Bellatia doesn't appear to show those as weapon options. Mildly disappointing.

[Khalgar]

Well, after watching the trailer I can see there seems to be a "premium" currency, +the generic cute-anime-style of every sad cash grab attempt... and the asset re-use seems to validate that. That's already two "red flags" for a game that's not even out yet. Yeah thanks, but I'll pass :/

[texhnolyze]

Lol, I knew it when I saw that banner.

[Lavian]

Originally posted by Khalgar:

Well, after watching the trailer I can see there seems to be a "premium" currency, +the generic cute-anime-style of every sad cash grab attempt... and the asset re-use seems to validate that. That's already two "red flags" for a game that's not even out yet. Yeah thanks, but I'll pass :/

The cute anime style is part of the asset reuse though.

That said, from some of what I could find about Bellatia, it's a Korean mobile game. This explains the freemium indicators seen in some of the interface.

I'm actually fine with a mobile game on PC as long as they've been overhauled with proper controls and offline functionality. Otherwise, if offline functionality isn't added, committing to sticking with the freemium model rather than having a buy-in like some other titles have tried.

[DJukor]

Maybe they just hired the same artists and 3d modelers to do the designs for this game.

[Lavian]

Originally posted by Djukor:

Maybe they just hired the same artists and 3d modelers to do the designs for this game.

No, it's literally exactly the same art. The character art is straight out of Iris Online. You can even look at that old trailer at 49 seconds, and see that the character shown there is at the title card at the end of Bellatia's trailer. Not to mention that the art on the thumbnail for Belletia (which is the heroine of Bellatia, I'm presuming, based on the art for the PDF on the store page) is straight up the art for the female Hybrid in Iris Online, as can be seen by this old wiki: https://irisonline.fandom.com/wiki/Hybrid .

The models are also the same. For example, the creatures in the background at 35 seconds of the Iris Online trailer can be seen on the 8th screenshot on the store page.

[general doge]

I would play it if it was a MMORPG

[Rolling Sumo]

As much i used to love Iris online, i feel like these are hella stolen assets.

[Lavian]

Originally posted by The Rolling Sumo:

As much i used to love Iris online, i feel like these are hella stolen assets.

Possibly. Wouldn't be the first time we've seen that sort of thing on Steam. That feeling is what drove me to make this thread.

Seems unlikely after poking around though. The devs got a small grant from Epic games back in 2015 for development on Bellatia using UE4 through the Unreal Dev Grants fund.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/epic-games-awards-150000-in-unreal-dev-grants

Also, H2 Interactive is a legit Korean publisher. Though, it's a little odd they're not marked as "H2 Interactive Co., Ltd." on Bellatia's store page. Then it would be properly linked to here: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/h2interactive/ . Wouldn't be the first time I've seen fragemented publisher references on Steam. GameSpot appears to corroborate this relationship https://www.gamespot.com/games/bellatia/ .

I mean, it could have just flown under the radar with ill-gotten assets for half a decade, though a publisher, though Epic, and made its way onto Steam, sure, but as said, that doesn't seem likely (to me). Though, technically possible I guess.

There's honestly not much information I can find. I don't know Korean. Even with the Korean name, 벨라티아 , not a lot comes up. Seems like the mobile version may have never came out though. That was slated for 2016? It looked pretty different back then as well (still pretty bluntly Iris Online though).

[JackeeChengg]

when a game goes under, it is not uncommon to auction off assets

[iicycube]

If its MMO then thing will work out different but there goes..

[Deuteronomy]

Originally posted by The Rolling Sumo:

As much i used to love Iris online, i feel like these are hella stolen assets.

Publisher stated on Youtube (official trailer), that they asked the devs about this, who told them they had acquired the graphic sources of IRIS as a licensee.

[Pudding]

I am starting to think this new companies that are coming out are Chinese vaporewave companies masquerading as korea game companies and doing all assets flipping from multiple game genres.

Chinese Trojan investors lol. they are spreading

[Lavian]

Originally posted by Pudding:

I am starting to think this new companies that are coming out are Chinese vaporewave companies masquerading as korea game companies and doing all assets flipping from multiple game genres.

Chinese Trojan investors lol. they are spreading

Would be pretty hard to pull off faking this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkhDc6hSWuY

That aside, H2 isn't exactly a small operation. They've handled publishing localization of a number of major titles in Korea.

[Pudding]

Originally posted by Lavian:

Originally posted by Pudding:

I am starting to think this new companies that are coming out are Chinese vaporewave companies masquerading as korea game companies and doing all assets flipping from multiple game genres.

Chinese Trojan investors lol. they are spreading

Would be pretty hard to pull off faking this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkhDc6hSWuY

That aside, H2 isn't exactly a small operation. They've handled publishing localization of a number of major titles in Korea.

I smell tencent all over it.

[Polybios]

dang, I thought I just found a single palyer version of iris. I miss that game so much. Such a shame