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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Man, talk about filing off the serial number. With Nintendo's legal history, I would not feel comfortable doing something branded so close. It looks like Link, it's a product that's aimed to reproduce the tone of the game serie, and the name of the product is part of the name of one of the games.

2LM's art always seems to be daring IP owners to say something. It does seem likely to bite them in il culo one of these days.

 

[JConstantine]

Man, talk about filing off the serial number. With Nintendo's legal history, I would not feel comfortable doing something branded so close. It looks like Link, it's a product that's aimed to reproduce the tone of the game serie, and the name of the product is part of the name of one of the games.

Yeah, that figure is literally Zelda dressed as Link. However, given Heroes of Cerulea (complete with NES cartridge-inspired trade dress) has remain untouched, I suspect Nintendo are waiting to see how their lawsuit against Palworld plays out before throwing their weight around some more.

 

[stormwriter]

2LM's art always seems to be daring IP owners to say something. It does seem likely to bite them in il culo one of these days.

Yeah, I remember some people talking about this on the Outgunned Superheroes threads as well, some of the art was way too close to other superheroes IPs.

 

[Nikosandros]

2LM's art always seems to be daring IP owners to say something. It does seem likely to bite them in il culo one of these days.

Funnily enough, since in Italian the "biting in the posterior" idiom does not exist, to me it sounds like a much more vulgar and harsh thing...

 

[schneeland]

2LM's art always seems to be daring IP owners to say something. It does seem likely to bite them in il culo one of these days.

Also, IP considerations aside, it feels a little too close to its sources for me to enjoy. I think 2LM are great people, but I'd prefer if they were willing to give things their own spin a bit more than they do.
I might still buy the game, because I'm curious, though

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Man, talk about filing off the serial number. With Nintendo's legal history, I would not feel comfortable doing something branded so close. It looks like Link, it's a product that's aimed to reproduce the tone of the game serie, and the name of the product is part of the name of one of the games.

US courts are more favourable to this kind of shenanigans than European ones (ironically enough, in part because it's far easier to jurisdiction shop in the US and East Texas exists), and it'd be somewhat difficult to legally justify starting such a suit in the US when the company is in Europe, like it might just get thrown out or sales enjoined solely in the US (which would hurt 2LM a bit but probably not end them, so long they didn't fight it aggressively or simply complied).

That said, even in the US I very much doubt this reaches the level necessary to succeed in any action, because there are some significant differences and it's not likely someone would be actively confused, especially when the game is acknowledging Zelda as an influence, which is essentially telling customers "This isn't Zelda", so claims people were "confused" or the like are harder to make.

The name is probably the most risky part, I have to admit that does give me pause. I wouldn't have done that bit!

Also, IP considerations aside, it feels a little too close to its sources for me to enjoy.

That's the bigger issue for me. It's all very well to file the serial numbers off something that's slightly generic like John Wick (which as others have observed could almost have been a WoD title like "Assassin: The Slaughter" or something), but Zelda is something more precise and somehow "very close but not quite" doesn't work as well.

I am secretly hoping that the system will be simple enough to work as a children's RPG, at least with some modifications.

Be crazy if they don't, honestly. So many parents would buy this to play with kids, and if it has a system that isn't going to work for that, that's just ensuring they don't buy anything else or recommend it to a friend or the like.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Also, IP considerations aside, it feels a little too close to its sources for me to enjoy. I think 2LM are great people, but I'd prefer if they were willing to give things their own spin a bit more than they do.

Yeah, one of the most fun parts of Villains & Vigilantes for me was all the art of original characters by Jeff Dee and Bill Willingham. The 2LM artist is great, and should be given the green light to go nuts and make their own characters. We can figure out that an armored character archetype will let us create an Iron Man type without seeing Tony Stark in slightly recolored armor.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Wait a 2LM game without the red-headed woman? Are we suuuuure it's by two little mice?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wait a 2LM game without the red-headed woman? Are we suuuuure it's by two little mice?

View attachment 413663

Quick, recolor Zelda's not Zelda's hair!

 

[ColinChapman]

Watching this with interest as a Ni No Kuni, Zelda, and Ghibli fan.

Break!! was good, but was a big, dense, intimidating tome. Fabula Ultima was good, but was very game-y as it was really only focused on combat elements, and didn't have a ready-to-use setting or bestiary.

If they keep this streamlined and simple enough, alongside a decent (but not too dense) setting, they could be on to a real winner.