How The Legend of Neverland Is Similar/Clone of Genshin Impact

The mobile gaming scene is riddled with games copy-pasting one formula after the other. As soon as one type or genre of a game becomes popular, developers immediately copy that exact formula and release a new game with it. Sometimes, the developers responsible for that formula sell out the engine, and the next set of developers reskin the game and brand it as their own.

 

 

The Legend of Neverland is a recently to be released mobile MMORPG created and published by GameArk Global. The Legend of Neverland has a close resemblance to Genshin Impact, so much that it seems to borrow many of the game's mechanics and style. But to do that is a sin when one might just be taking inspiration from the popularity or art style of the other game.

 

Have people already forgotten how heavily Genshin Impact took inspiration from Breath of the Wild? From its cooking to gathering fruit from trees to the very first few enemy types and even the landscape.

 

Now similar to the success of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the colossal success of Genshin Impact has us predicting that it wouldn't take a long time before we'd see a stream of clones. Some of these were coincidences, while others can be straight obvious attempts to cash in the big cow that is the popularity of miHoYo's open-world RPG. Tower of Fantasy is seemingly a game capable of standing comparisons, The Legend of Neverland will have a tougher time defending its copying the essence of Genshin Impact.

 

Developed by Gameark, The Legend of Neverland has recently ended a closed beta in China and is now getting attention from the rest of the world. Let’s delve deeper into that if it’s just a good inspiration or copying from an already copying game.

 

Switching Mechanics:

 

The game is action-oriented; combat revolves around using attacks and skills to overcome enemies. Switching mechanics is the first thing that stands out as players can actively switch characters in combat, just like Genshin Impact. Still, where they change characters from a party of four, in Legends of Neverland, you change your gear, specifically weapon, to change your class to suit the game's needs.

 

 

In Genshin Impact, you can travel in a total of a party of four heroes where one is active at one time, while in the Legend of Neverland, you have four weapons in place of the characters.

 

Font and Graphics:

 

Even the fonts bear a striking resemblance to each other. The fonts that The Legend of Neverland has used are a nearly exact copy of Genshin Impact's in-game fonts.

 

On the other hand, the graphics have a good footing on their own, but if you compare it to Genshin Impact, they will surely fall short of the quality.

 

Follower and NPCs:

 

At the start of the game, you are greeted with a spirit to guide you on your journey named Miru, who serves an introduction role akin to Paimon, the mascot of Genshin Impact.

 

Similarly, some characters themselves bear a likeness to the Genshin Impact crew. A recruitable party member in Neverland looks eerily similar to Genshin Impact's Amber, one of the first character players encounter in Genshin Impact. Both games use a parade of anime-inspired playable characters staring towards the viewer to entice them to play.

 

The characters and classes don't have any personality, which the developers may add upon later.

 

 

Promotional Materials:

 

In the case of the most egregious examples of similarity, promotional materials are at the forefront. In the initial promotions, an advertisement for The Legend of Neverland MMO shows a view that lifts directly from Genshin Impact’s promotional material. As you can see in the image below, both games feature a town with a windmill on the right portion, as well as a pointed cliff intercepting the skyline on the left.

 

 

Combat Mechanics:

 

It's an actual MMORPG means that you have various systems in play, including different classes. While in Genshin Impact, you have different characters you get through gacha, play as different classes and affinities, but in The Legend of Neverland, you pull on the weapon gacha first. You can be a Swordsman, Ranger, Scholar, and Craftsman with the wielding of different weapons, among other classes.

 

The Flower Fairy system is also a different aspect that The Legend of Neverland incorporated into its mechanics to boost the character, develop new builds, and have a different flavor.

 

 

The combat, for now, isn't as top-notch compared to Genshin Impact, but Legend of Neverland has a good thing going on. Since last year, we have seen a huge improvement in the graphics department so that the developers will translate this into combat.

 

Dungeons and Open World Areas:

 

As mentioned above, the world has been greatly inspired by Genshin Impact, inspired by Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. There's even an Abyss Ruins gauntlet included matching Genshin's Abyssal Spire test of strength.

 

Mounts is another aspect of The Legend of Neverland that still isn't present in Genshin Impact. In the image below, our hero is riding a baby pigeon mount, which will surely entice enthusiasts to the game.

 

 

Overall, the open does look like it’s taken inspiration from Genshin Impact; the grass, the trees, and other sprites are though cell-shaded as well but do look similar. The environmental sprites are scarce; the color range is still not up to par far from the vivid sights of other games it is said to be cloned from.

 

Controversial Advert:

 

Among other things we have mentioned above, the one thing that disappointed Genshin Impact fans was the initial adverts that used the voiceover from one of their characters, Barbara, as promotional material showing the gameplay and the world but the same voice even down to the dialogue. This seemed as though they actually stole the whole voice line and just pasted it into their video.

 

Further elaboration is needed from the Developers of the game, and we have to wait and see their response to the reaction by the gaming community. A lot of discussions online sparked controversy. Initially, most gamers who compared both games were called haters of The Legend of Neverland, but when the comparison of Barbara was presented, the hater calls died down. Nonetheless, players and the gaming community are still awaiting an answer from The Legend of Neverland's developers.

 

Clone of a Clone?

 

MiYoHo's chart-topping open-world Action RPG adventure first made huge waves on the internet for being a rip-off or carbon copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The similarities were there as vast and cell-shaded open-world graphics similar to Breath of the Wild. Stamina meters for running, fighting, and climbing was exactly similar, even the climbing animations. You could upgrade the Stamina meter by finding hidden collectibles, puzzles and some important chests littered about the place, and small dungeons and shrines designed to test your skill.

 

Once the game was released and a few patches down the road, the similarities stood as mere inspirations. The developers admitted what aspects and design choices they borrowed and what they iterated on. Combat was tweaked to suit multiple unique characters, weapons, and skillsets, which weren’t in Breath of the Wild as it only had Link as the protagonist. The story was an extensive new story that has been etched out with impressive voice acting and complicated character builds, and a constantly updated story episode.

 

Other regular events, dungeons, and story quests, along with other staple RPG systems, were baked to create a game that could be played and expanded upon for years that weren’t even a part of The Legend of Zelda.

 

Homages and easter eggs in most games aren't rare. Clones and copycats exist in gaming and have always been iterated upon. There's no denying that. Even many developers and studios who initially copied and cloned stuff rose from experience to deliver their masterpieces.

 

But just because The Legend of Neverland looks like a Genshin Impact clone, there's no saying it won't have its unique aspects and hidden charms. Many wrote off MiYoHo's title before release, but it brought enough new ideas to the table to stand out on its own. There's no saying that won't be the case here as well.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

We have to realize that Genshin Impact was a game that The Legend of Zelda inspired: Breath of the Wild and went on to become its own thing with its uniqueness that involved a gacha system and more than one companion who can be swapped in or out at a moment's notice. The Legend of Neverland, on the other hand, sometimes feels like an inferior copy of Genshin Impact or, for that matter, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It even got so popular that it is now known as The Legend of Genshin: Breath of the Impact.

 

The trailer further enhanced the lower quality upon the release, which was presented as an advert of The Legend of Neverland using Genshin Impact's Barbara voiceover, which made it too obvious.

 

Unfortunately, for the uninitiated, this might be a cash grab like with others as it is very similar to and looks a lot like Genshin Impact but a lot of similar MMO RPGs as the character designs, skill initiations, and mechanics, the overall feel may be similar to numerous other MMO RPGs out there that crashed and burnt as they didn’t build on uniqueness along with copying some elements.

 

Even though The Legend of Neverland is an MMORPG, unlike Genshin Impact, you can pick classes such as craftsman, scholar, gladiator, and range. Still, the mobs haven't been iterated upon and don't show much mechanics to give a good fight and telegraphs. The mob mostly feels like a filler at this point in the development of the game. However, it might eventually be similar to hundreds of other MMO RPGs out there on mobile devices.

 

In the end, this is a game that is carving out a reputation from its controversial adverts and seemingly similar visual pallets, which might lure in some fans, but if it doesn't build on its combat and switching classes mechanics,