Ever since Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom was first revealed, a contingent of gamers have been writing it off as a “clone” of The Last Guardian, even though nobody’s seen more than ten minutes of Team ICO’s game. I asked producer Daisuke Uchiyama what he made of these accusations of plagiarism.
“A main theme for developing Majin was a storybook world with an innovative visual design and we wanted players to feel like they could live in it,” he explains. “We realize that there have been comparisons and comments saying we have ‘copied’ the Last Guardian world, but after someone plays the demo they should be able to realize that the game play is completely different.
“We believe there is room in the market for users to step away from the real-world and experience something that is visually appealing to all.”
I think it speaks about how shallow and vapid people can be that they saw two games that featured a “big” AI partner and had to scream plagiarism at the top of their lungs. If being accompanied by big monster-like friends is grounds for such accusations, then both games are shameless rip-offs of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth.
