Free League Announces Anime-Inspired Twilight Sword RPG

Free League Publishing has announced Twilight Sword, a new collaboration with Italian games studio Two Little Mice. The new game is a fantasy RPG inspired by video games like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Ni No Kuni. Players explore the world of Radia in the game, exploring Landmarks and collecting Hope by defeating bosses. A 16-page preview of the game revealed five Kin that players can choose from, including the Huma, the cat-like Kedi, and the penguin-like Pengu. The preview did not reveal any details about the game system, but there appears to be a focus on exploration and defeating monsters.

One interesting part of this announcement is the collaboration with Two Little Mice. The Italian publisher was purchased by CMON back in 2021 to bolster that company's line of RPGs. However, CMON has had struggles this year, in part due to tariff uncertainty. CMON has sold off several IPs to other studios and has paused new game development to focus on current fulfillment, with many questioning about the publisher's future. Free League also partnered with Two Little Mice to publish Outgunned, so it's unclear whether Two Little Mice has gone independent once again or if this is an arrangement with CMON.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, Outgunned Superheroes is basically rubbing it in Kevin Feige’s face 100% of the time.

That's not true!

There's definitely a bunch of DC ripoffs too.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Lawyers would keel over dead if they opened any of Two Little Mice's Outgunned books.

Only from disappointment because they would have to explain to their clients why there is really no case to be made, rather than billing hundreds of hours.

Two Little Mice products are particularly honed in on the trope-y aspects of popular IPs, the very parts that are least protectable. They are taking no expressions directly from their inspiration, using no character names (except listing as examples) so a copyright case is on very thin ground. The tongue in cheek nature also raises a possible parody fair use defense. Borrowing from so many things so blatantly simultaneously in the same books actually probably makes it harder to sustain a trademark case against them, because it makes it much more clearly a pastiche rather than something a consumer might confuse for a licensed product.

Now some media conglomerate might sue them, because media conglomerates do that, and they might well destroy them through being able to throw infinite legal resources at them (the little mice would, indeed, be "outgunned"), but on the merits there is really not much of a case to make.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Lawyers would keel over dead if they opened any of Two Little Mice's Outgunned books.

Yup. It particularly stands out in Outgunned Superheroes and World of Killers.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's not true!

There's definitely a bunch of DC ripoffs too.

Yeah, the Batman expie is particulary blatant.

 

[Aldarc]

If people actually want to talk about the game rules and not just whether TwoLittleMice would get sued for their art, I would be more than happy to do that.

 

[Jahydin]

Coming from a fan, I think the Two Little Mice team is incredibly talented so really bummed how much they shamelessly rip off other companies. Legality aside, I think it's just creatively lazy and unprofessional. I hope they learn how to better "pay homage" rather than plagiarize in the future.

 

[Reynard]

If people actually want to talk about the game rules and not just whether TwoLittleMice would get sued for their art, I would be more than happy to do that.

Please do. I have not really paid much attention to this one. What systems does it use that reinforces a Zelda-like feel in the rules?

 

[Doctor Futurity]

It also is very clearly not using Nintendo's IP.

Ripoffs arent actually illegal. Using protected IP unlicensed is.

Example: Palworld

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Coming from a fan, I think the Two Little Mice team is incredibly talented so really bummed how much they shamelessly rip off other companies. Legality aside, I think it's just creatively lazy and unprofessional. I hope they learn how to better "pay homage" rather than plagiarize in the future.

I feel like homage is what they are doing. Outgunned, to me at least, is about giving you the tools to emulate those movies you like without explicitly licensing those movies. It could be providing unique settings but that's definitely not the point of the game.

 

[JConstantine]

I don’t think it’s that LoZ in execution (though to be fair I’ve only played a couple of Zelda games). PCs travel in groups, there are several types (fighters, bards, wizards, rogues etc.) and they have the usual range of abilities, both spells and non-magical. There are boomerangs and slingshots on the weapons list but it’s not as if you get cash for every pot you break and I don’t think you can start play with a hang-glider.

Are we looking at the same game? There are other influences, certainly, but the crux of Twilight Sword is "Breath of the Wild as a TTRPG". The group is a function of the medium, but also inspired by the likes of Final Fantasy; the magic is also Final Fantasy, but that series is originally inspired by D&D in the first place, so it's almost full circle. The game has mechanics for breakable items, and loot chests - it would be trivial to combine them to make breakable pots that drop rupees zin.