Game news This video game offers a female version of Goku, Naruto and Luffy… but they have nothing to do with the heroes of the original mangas
Published on 08/11/2024 at 1:00 p.m.
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The mobile video game market sees new productions arriving every day that try to break through with potential players. Enigma of Sepia, to try to shine, relies on popular heroes from popular manga… but in a feminine way. It is the rights holders who risk being unhappy.
Naruto, Dragon Ball, Demon Slayer… They all go through it
Over the years, more and more video games are developed and published on our gaming platforms. It is becoming more and more complicated to find a place and it can sometimes be fatal not to arrive with an innovative concept or a license already installed. This is evidenced by the recent failure of Concord, Sony’s hero-shooter, whose servers closed barely fourteen days after they were put online. The cause is an already saturated genre and an economic model that has not appealed to players.
Features that are found in abundance in the mobile gaming market, even more prolific than that of consoles. To attract the attention of potential players, you have to succeed in getting out of the game even if it means defying the law. This is the case of Enigma of Sepia, a game available on iOS and Android (but not in France). It’s a role-playing game / city-builder with gacha mechanics which offers famous playable characters from the world of manga. The only difference is that they have all been changed to female characters. Naruto, Dragon Ball, Demon Slayer, Death Note or even My Hero Academia, no work escapes Enigma of Sepia.
A question of time regarding intellectual property
The developers behind Enigma of Sepia therefore hope to attract audiences thanks to the notoriety of the original characters. But it is, probably, above all by stoking the desire of fans to play female versions of their favorite heroes that they are counting on.
A very risky bet since if the rights holders get involved, it could cost them very dearly. In fact, the inspirations are very marked and it is clear that the studio is trying to take advantage of them to generate profit. As with most gacha games, there is a currency that can only be exchanged for real money which allows you to recover these characters. If the studio can defend itself by evoking the parodic side of their production, being the only case of use which does not allow the rights holder to prohibit it.
Nevertheless, we find proper imitations within Enigma of Sepia: Susanoo, an invocation of the Uchiha in Naruto, is repeated as is in the game through the female version of Sasuke. The whole question is therefore to know how long the game will be able to last before the rights holders involved, quite numerous, point their noses.
