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Two Games That Stole All Their Ideas
🕑 Added 2025-09-01 04:03:31 +0000 UTCA review of indie horror game Heartworm and indie JRPG Bloomtown: A Different Story.
I recently played these two games almost back to back and both of them are sub-par copies of different games I have also played. I've been thinking about them a lot, especially Bloomtown: A Different Story, which is such a funny title since the "different story" it's talking about is just Persona 5.
In fact, try taking a drink every time I say "In Persona 5" in this review. You will be dead by the end of it if your drink is alcoholic. And if it's not, you will really need to pee.
How much can you steal before your game goes from "inspired by" to downright plagiarism? When a developer copies the surface level aesthetics of a game they enjoy without understanding the underlying mechanics, will they ever be able to make a truly great video game? Let's find out.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
3:00 - Trangender Law Center Shout-Outs
6:52 - Heartworm
27:50 - Bloomtown
43:32 - "I copied Persona but forgot to make its battle system good"
1:03:43 - "I removed the stakes and timeline of Persona and it messed up everything"
1:18:33 - A Non-Exhaustive List of the Things Bloomtown Stole from Persona 5
1:38:44 - "This game isn't finished"
1:51:00 - "Hey, why is the tone like that?" or "Please Don't Punch That Baby"
Me when I'm stealing character designs.
Me when my game isn't finished and the equipment item ID is in the description by mistake.
If you're into Persona stuff, you might like my needlessly in-depth Persona 5 Royal mechanics breakdown.
Comments
Xenustik
I remember watching you play Heartworm and I won't defend the mechanics of the game, but I thought it strange that you didn't come up with any theme at all for it, or understood what the title of the game meant during the playthrough. I thought it was pretty obvious that the title was a play on the term "Earworm", like instead of a song stuck in a person's ear, it was a lost loved one stuck in a person's heart, like they can't let go of them and that's what draws these people here to this dimension; to search for a way to see their deceased person they are obsessed with.
Stagelights
this is like the evil version of the video "good artists steal" by andrew cunningham, a video essay where he talks about the inspirations behind the game he made (game is called random access mayhem, its pretty good) nd how and why he took what those games did and iterated on them while introducing original ideas at the same time.
Benjamin Jak Collins
I fully believed that her monologues were supposed to be her flaws. The story would have her learn that there is a middle ground between her counterculture attitude and needing community and people to help make living easier. But then the "Are you a bad person?" Segment happened and it flipped into near-satire. She got worse. And her monologues went from being quite counterculture or two thousands emo, to what you called them in this review, "they mean nothing." Rambles I'd call pretentious. I hate calling things that, but the game earned it. It lacked a lot of firm footholds for the story to stabilize itself with.
Self_Respecting_Strawberry
Aaand… Bloomtown refunded
fuzzofwar
Jello's comments on Bloomtown remind me of my time playing Digimon Time Stranger, so much of the human world's design looks to be setting up for a long form RPG like Persona 5, and then they just don't use any of it. Makes me wonder if it was all left over from an older draft of the game that was more Persona-like.
Cephalo the Pod
Wait, there’s an achievement called “Silence in the Library”? It could be a coincidence, but that’s also a Doctor Who episode title.
