Ok, This Game Actually Copied Hollow Knight 

Another red flag about the game you didn't mention is the inconsistency with the artstyle. The character and the backgrounds look exactly like hollow knight, but the enemies look like they're from a completely different game.

It’s too bad, this style and mood is actually pretty cool. If they just tried to come up with unique ideas past that, it might be a fun time.

Something I noticed is that some of the enemies look like they were made in Gatcha Life

I find the funniest part about this is that when it shows the "knight" of this game dying, the health bar is the exact same as it was in other scenes, showing that they didn't even bother trying to make the "knight" take damage and show that damage being taken away from the health bar. Just a funny detail.

Man, I can't believe Team Cherry copied Lotus Knight. So disappointed.

aside from being a HK clone, its very clear that theres a style problem with this game, take the main character and the enemies as an example, the main character has bold outlines while the enemies has thin outlines, this happens with the background as well, thats why the spikes looks so "out of place".

I love the fact the enemies look like they don't even belong in this game because of the radically different outline thickness between the main character and the enemies.

At some point, it stops being an inspiration and turns into plagiarism. These devs are asking for Team Cherry to sue them into oblivion. Or a cease and desist, at the very least.

This game is either going to look completely different when it comes out, or it's not going to come out at all. That trailer looks less like a game and more like a proof of concept. The sprites that aren't just traced over from Hollow Knight look and animate like scribblenauts characters. Also, I can't help but notice that the hud stays exactly the same during the whole trailer, even during the shot where the player dies. You know, where the health bar should be empty? (Unless you're trying to tell me that neither of those two meters are health bars, in which case.... I don't believe you?) All that plus the broken english and way too similar story and title make me think of crappy mobile games that try and make you think they're other games, only to download them and realize your mistake. Maybe they will actually make something different out of it, but I doubt it.

The death animation was the last drop for me, I was like: "Well, this looks really similar to Hollow Knight, maybe they can redeem themselves by making something ne-... **exactly the same death animation from HK** ...yeah this is bad".

I've seen a lot of games get wrongfully accused of being 'Hollow Knight clones'. But this one absolutely deserves that moniker.

Hi there, it might interest you that the devs changed the description after people called them out on the similarity in the story. It now says: A long, long time ago, there was a kingdom that was not recorded inside any literature. It is said that the king married a princess from the East, and after the arrival of this Eastern princess, strange things began to happen, creatures grew leaves and be controlled... Then what happened no one knows, only that the kingdom just disappeared. Also, the developer has no website that can be found via google when you use English and with the name "Stinky Tofu Games" it's pretty obvious, this is a Chinese rip-off company 🙃

For me, the more damning thing for this that pushes it past just "derivation" and into more "copying" is the fact that, with the similarities already pointed out, even the title screen is similar. They named it "Lotus Knight" in a font eerily similar to Hollow Knight's with a character that looks like a flower version the main character from Hollow Knight. If it was called "The Adventure of the Lotus Girl", it immediately starts to separate itself and gives it more room to breathe as a game inspired by Hollow Knight

It's so weird to me how vastly different the main character looks to the enemies. Like one of them doesn't belong. The main character has thick black lines around them, just like in Hollow Knight, but in Hollow Knight all the enemies had that too. Here the enemies don't have that.

Have you heard of the prequel to this? I think it's called hungry lotus. Maybe we'll get a sequel after a few centuries. They could call it lotusong

This is honestly a common thing if you bother to look into video game history, the really successful ones will get a bunch of clones. You just don’t hear about it very often because the original articles are the ones that beat the test of time, and all the imitations get dunked on and forgotten.

This doesn't look to me like they just used Hollow Knight as a reference. This looks like they painted their own art over Hollow Knight frame-by-frame. Same with the environment; it looks like they took Hollow Knight tiling and painted over it

What's weird is that the enemies have a different art style from the main character; for example, the lines aren't as thick. The animations for them also feel really stiff.

You know, there's something about seeing a cheap knock-off of a good game that makes you really appreciate the talent and effort that went into the original. I never really thought about how the subtleties of Hollow Knight's animations gave it such a satisfying gamefeel until I watched this game using basically the same animations but without those little touches.

I think the thing that most bothers me about this is the fact that the animations that aren't a direct rip off of Hollow Knight are just so stiff. The way the enemies move vs the way the playable character has a bit more depth in movement makes it so clear that even the sprites were just directly stolen.

Yikes, the artist has so much talent. It would be completely fine if they didn’t rip so many animations/gameplay features. The artstyle isn’t team cherry’s, but their animations are.

The thing I find interesting about this is that the animations and characters that aren’t directly translated from hollow knight look very off compared to the stuff that is, like the big panda thing with the trident looks like it belongs in a different game and the way that the enemies are animated looks a lot more interpolated and like it’s animated on a rig where the player character just like the knight is animated at 12 FPS (I think I’m not a professional so take this with just a side dish of salt) but my point being the game seems to be in conflict with itself.

Despite the story talking about leaves growing in infected and turning them into plants, i only see bone related enemies that has a paper style animation and their death animation reminds me of Skul. The enemies in the trailer seen to be no threat.

"With great legends always comes a horrible deceiver"

In the art world, there's a line between using a reference and tracing This game crosses that, seemingly shamelessly

of all things, the fact that "Lotus Knight" is in almost the exact same font as Hollow Knight is in their page artwork is what really sets it off as a clone lmao

For the enemies, the bit they chose not to reference HKs animation, they look animate like a bunch of jiggly bones glued together.

BRUH 0:13 the music is SOOO similar to the Hollow Knight trailer music! They can’t even make their own music lol

Honestly might get this just to see how similar it is? Like beyond the assets. The HUD looks a bit different and there's probably some cooler stuff. Of course it might just be the exact same but I'm actually fairly curious

It feels so weird you got the smooth animations that were copied to look like hollow knight but then the enemies move like they were an early newgrounds animation or something along those line.

1:15 lean path

Hey fire! Just want to say huge congrats on 300k, well deserved :)❤️

Lotus Knight: Dude i forgot my homework at home, can i use yours? Hollow Knight: Shure , just dont do the same thing and change up a little bit Lotus Knight:

Aside from the obvious game issues, the windows movie maker scene transitions with default text animations slamming singular half-related words into our faces is probably my favorite part of the whole trailer. FIGHT. DEADLY. WISHLIST (now). Super clean, big fan

3:36 Lmfao even Steam knows-

3:42 similar games you played hollow knight 585 hours on record

I think stylistically, their PC feels alot less like any of the other art in this trailer, and more like that in hollow knight. the lines are thicker, closer to the lines of the knight, rather than the thinner lines of the enemy dog thing and bosses.

I don't really have problem with game inspired by hollow knight, but this one is just too similar. Crossworn (to use the most obvious comparison) is clearly inspired by hk too, but not to that point. The most problematic part to me is the fact that Lotus Knight have a completely white color skin and black eyes, like the knight, whereas on the artwork she clearly have blue eyes and a more light-pink skin. They modified their character appearance on her sprites just too look more like hk.

I cannot lie her design looks absolutely adorable

This literally looks like it could be some crazy mod for hollow knight. Like I could see this just being the base game with a new coat of paint.

if you have an eye for animation or just art, you can tell that the enemy designs and everything else are a huge clash. The character and assets look clean and like hk but the enemies look like something from a 14 year old's custom game

Also crazy how the player and enemy art/animation styles are so different. Almost like one was heavily referenced while the other was made from scratch.. 🤨

There are stolen assets. The spikes are sized down POP spikes, the ferns are recoloured from Queen’s Gardens, I believe the pogo is the Great Slash but turned around

"Mom, can I get Hollow Knight?" "We have Hollow Knight at home." The Hollow Knight at home:

For me it seemed ok with the melee atacks brcause they are pretty standart animations ngl but the death animation and the lore were too much cntrl c cntrl v + flower

I might have to get this game just so that I can peak at the code. I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll have some similarities under-the-hood as well lol

3:06 can't tell me that isnt city of tears

Hey, they changed the description since this video, I would suggest checking it out!

Hiya, working game artist here. Just wanted to point out that the main character is made using traditional 2D animation, meaning every frame is hand drawn (most likely traced from the knight). The enemies, however, are rigged sprites, essentially pieces of an image that have been attached to a posable skeleton. This is a faster way of animating 2D, and can look terrible when not executed elegantly, which is why the enemies look so rigid and derpy. The fact that they couldn't even be bothered to keep the same animation style for their own creature concepts, and instead opted for the lazy approach, speaks volumes to me about the lack of originality and creative talent. This game is a cheap copy, and it sets a harmful precedent when you say it is okay for games like this to exist. This isn't a fan-made free game or a mod, this is theft. Just because this game likely won't be stealing much revenue, doesn't mean it is moral. It didn't just "take inspiration", it copied the story 1:1, traced the character animations, stole the core gameplay loop and even the fucking title. Art-wise, one of the hardest parts in the early stages of a game is establishing and maintaining an art style. Hollow Knight has one of the most unique art styles I have ever seen in any game, and they clearly took inspiration (actual inspiration and not theft) from other media they adored, to give us something unique and special. This game even has the nerve to try to steal the entire artistic vision, going as far as to trace some of the environment (the greenpath elements you pointed out). I get you don't want to start a hate train, but please stop sitting on the fence and start disapproving of these unethical practices. It is NOT okay for games like this to exist.

tbf in regards to the story, a lot of metroidvanias pull the plague/illness zombie thing bc it's the most convenient justification for a lot of enemies being hostile towards you. hk was far from the first to do it. regardless of how derivative it is, i wish the dev a good learning experience from this if anything :)

Google literally says this video is Hollow Knight in the description

4:28 Developer : Stinky Tofu Games xD

I swear if this game will cost more than hollow knight I will literally die of laughter.

I love how none of the art style meshes well with the rest, like how the enemies look like something out of a mobile game while the boss and the player looked like something out of a bad kid’s cartoon, and the background looks like they traced over textures from Hollow Knight

Hey Fireb0rn can you do a soul drain% where you have glowing womb on at the start and can’t unequip it I would love to see how you would beat the game like this

When i saw the thumbnail i thought it was just a mod that changes the skin of the vessel

Honestly though, the enemies that are supposedly original look out of place. They don't belong. They're not of the same quality, even. I have always detested people entirely copying other creations, and I think this crosses the line. There is no original premise. There is no, "based in the hollow knight universe" or "permission from Team Cherry." There is just, "We totally copied everything about the game and altered it slighty."

Story-wise I don’t mind the fact that it’s almost the same as Hollow Knight. Ender Lillies is another metroidvania that also follows that type of story, yet I still really enjoyed it. But Ender Lillies still had a super unique art style and different combat, which is something I think this game needs to have as well.

Man, this takes me back to the 90's where Chinese palette-swap copies of popular games were commonplace.

Ah, this is the kind of thing that always feels a little sad to me, because there *is* potential here. The art style is beautiful, and if you just took the setting and the character, fixed up the enemies to fit the game, you could totally make an interesting game with fun interactions, story, mechanics, all of it. It had some sort of potential. But it doesn't look, right now, like the game devs actually intend to do anything with that, which is super sad.

I'm hoping the people who made it are actually just trying things out, like getting heavy inspiration but I don't think they should be profiting off of a 'copy'. Like do it for fun and experience with coding and design.

What i find really suspicious about the gameplay Trailer and images on Steam is that the two HUD bars never change even when the character seems to die, theres also only like five enemies that appear and they don't seem to have any real Animations unlike the Girl who looks so smooth and different from the Enemies i almost think it's just a resprite of the knight edited into a different atmosphere. Then there is the words in the Trailer that tell you about the game and two are just dangerous and deadly showing already known enemies and the Girl dying in a complete copy of the Knight's death animation. I personally think this is just a scam trying to jump on Hollow Knights fame with similar graphics and familiar mechanics. At least Crowsworn had more to show than enemies animated in powerpoint, a complete copy of sprites and Animations, and at least tried to adapt and change into an own identity than this complete ripoff.

I noticed this might be a Chinese knockoff due to the Steam page listing specifically those languages aside from English, as broken as it it is on the description page. I get the feeling that most sprites and backgrounds were just rotoscoped and drawn over the actual ones from Hollow Knight. If it is indeed a blatant Chinese knockoff, I doubt anyone can legally do anything about, unfortunately.

I SWEAR that girl is literally just a tracing of the knight, why else she moves fluidly compared to everything else.

This does really make you appreciate how good it feels that the platforms in HK are slightly bouncy, so that it feels more realistic for hanging platforms. The lotus knight platforms are completely static which feels a bit weird. I do really like the increased spike pogos, it would be great as a HK custom map

Wdym team cherry travelled through time, and then went back to re-create the masterpiece that is lotus knight year before it can even begin development.

I remember a while back ago about that one game with wizards and how everyone had a field day about it “plagiarized” Cuphead. I found myself shaking my head in disagreement since the animations they had and what gameplay that was shown did feel unique enough to where you could say it was “inspired,” but not really copying 1:1 as some had put it. Here however… I can’t help but feel like this is more of a copy (at least in comparison). Yes, the art in some places look very nice and you could say they were inspired too, but then you have the main character moving just like the knight and the enemies feel like they were just tossed into the game haphazardly in compared to everything else shown off. That and the mechanics don’t help either since Hollow Knight was well known for the “smack spikes to bounce yourself up.” Even the story sounds like someone who changed a few words from Hollow Knight in order to make it sound “new and original.” Who knows what state the game is in currently to what it will be like when it comes out, but this doesn’t give me any positive vote of confidence. Maybe it will be a great game when it does come out, but for now, it feels like an attempt to trick people into thinking this is a hollow knight sequel (and would provide an experience that would be subpar).

For anyone curious, they probs would never be taken to court because IP infringement is only a misdemeanor where this game is developed (if a judge actually wants to even see the case).

Imagine if this was just another kingdom in the Hollow Knight universe and the Radiance destroyed it because it was cringe.

Someone needs to make a lotus knight skin for hollow knight

theres also a walljump you didnt mention but it looks almost the exact same 2:15

This reminds me of that Cuphead clone people were talking about a few years ago. They were also using the old cartoon art style, and a lot of people were talking about that, but the real problem with that game was that the gameplay was the exact same. They got wizards as characters, they could have done anything with them, yet they still shot the same bullets the cuphead bros had. Even had the same jumping animation too. At least you could say they put in effort in their artstyle, 'cause holy crap, I'd be surprised if that lotus knight wasn't traced or at least heavily referenced. Hell, even the wall jumping animation seems incredibly similar. And like other people have pointed out, the fact they have thick outlines just like the knight while the enemies don't clearly sets them apart, other than the animation style for both being clearly different too. Even the DESIGN itself looks plagiarized from the knight, sure, it looks human, but the height, the flowing cape, being entirely white, two huge black dots as eyes... Yeah there's no way all of those details are a coincidence. And the story being practically the same is the icing on the cake. I also don't understand what's the point of telling us the whole story before we can play the game, why bother exploring it then, when we already know what happens? Definitely don't start a witch hunt because those tend to get really ugly, but yeah, this is a pretty shameless rip-off. And to think people were complaining about Crowsworn. xD

Honestly, the levels themselves look kind of half-assed in places. If you look at 3:20, for example, the walls are literally just black squares, and the background is a distant blurry forest. The area shown right after is even worse. The background might as well be a blank wall. One of the most important parts of level design in a Metroidvania is making it feel like the levels are part of a cohesive world. There's no sense of that here. I know the game is still in development, but this is what they're showing off in the trailer. The whole point of a trailer is to show pieces of gameplay that give the audience an idea of what the finished product will look like.

It looks like they went out of their way to make a trailer that demonstrates all the ways in which they ripped off Hollow Knight.

I can't help but notice how the map structure is similar, too. And the bosses as well. And the fact the similar bosses exist in their similar map structure.

Some might say this is ok because it's another game to play while waiting for Silksong, but this kinda shit should be free and honest If people buy this it lets the developers know that player standards are so low that they would appreciate the same recycled/copied shit over and over again and will lower the incentives of publishers and investors to approve of more original ideas, thus leading to a greater decline of originality and actual passion put into games especially if this unfortunately becomes normalized. This is already happening to a certain extent in some popular franchises which is sad, but at least many of those are made by the same company. This one is made by an entirely different company than the one that made the "Hollow Knight Style", if this shit becomes common and is deemed "ok" prepare to see a plethora of game developers copy the few "best selling" games in the industry, over and over again. Say goodbye to your Hollow Knights, Castlevanias, Bloodbornes, Super Marios, Devil May Crys, Yakuzas, Niers, Personas, Witcher 3s, Stanley Parables, etc. If u really wanna play these kinda games, (which is understandable) it's best if you download them "collaboratively", if you know you know. That would hopefully send a message to the devs that this kinda shit is not profitable and doesn't fly

Wow. The fact that people are trying to emulate the success of Hollow Knight is very funny and I think it won't get much recognition because Hollow Knight is already such a popular game and Lotus Knight won't get much notice.

I was giving them the benefit of the doubt until that death animation 😭

at 2:20 the background looks like someone stripped away the crystals from the crystal cavern part of the map...you know the mines and stuff

The "problem" isn't that a game copy a mechanic, like for example the spike jump, or if a game take different mechanics for different games. The "problem" is when a game copy practically all from other game

If it wasn’t for the look of the enemies, I’d actually probably get it. The enemy design, movement and attacks just look really janky and all the fun combat I’m guessing won’t be anywhere.

If someone told me this was a mod I would believe it without a doubt. As a standalone game I think it actually is too intellectually close to hollow knight. Team Cherry if they wanted could probably send them a cease and desist.

7:19 watching you choke up trying not to laugh is giving me life

1:44 THIS IS LITERALLY THAT ONE PART IN CITY OF TEARS

Seems kinda like a boring version of hollow knight. Like, the background art is amazing, but it just doesn't seem like it would be fun to play since hollow knight already exists

the animations of the ‘knight’ look so much like the ones in hollow knight the main character might aswell be a skin for hk

How do you get the petal sword?

1:53 couldve defenitly differentieted(like a change in pogoing or bounce as a Stab) but If that mechanic works and adds to the game again it's not that bad, maybe could've had something else but not terrible.

Odd how inconsistent the animation is. The main character was traced frame by frame from Hollow night; The "rhinos" are animated in puppetry, with vector based sprites (that's why they look less blured in the colors edges); And others are clearly made in that GACHA app. It feels like the developer hired 2 or 3 low cost freelance animators and did not bother to keep artstyle consistent. And if so much inspiration was taken from Hollow Night (specially the tracing) they should put a "Inspired by Hollow Night" title card in the trailer, less be guilted of plagiarism.

Man, what I wouldnt give to see a live reaction of Team Cherry watching this trailer.

The thumbnail made me think this was a skin showcase

The two Hollow Knight-inspired games I'm looking forward to are Crowsworn and Bo: Path of The Teal Lotus. Those games look really good. You know, till Silksong comes out.

I was so excited for lotus knight, but then team cherry decided to release their carbon copy of my most anticipated game delaying the release years. So upset with Team Cherry and the entire Hollow Knight fan base

One of the rooms literally looked like the pathway up to the City Storeroom. Like, down to the positions of the platforms.

Whats the music in the beginning ?

I think hollow knight is so unique that maybe any game that uses it as a reference will be very similar. this strangeness is normal, also because it looks like a 2d on top of a 3d body, so it's clearly not the same quality. And we can't deny that several games like Mario were created or like Zelda (breath of the wild and guensin impact the world and exploration is the same). It may even give the feeling that you are crossing the line, but there is no way to have control over it.

One thing I noticed heavily during the whole trailer is, the health bar. It is always at 4 from 5 hearts, or atleast what SHOULD be the healthbar. But as the character dies, they are still at 4 hearts. So it seems a healthbar ain't a thing in this game other than to look cool

1:08 holy shit it’s leanpath

"I just wanted to have a quick giggle" *plays Nosk music in the background*

yeah this definitely crossed the line. i mean, its fine to take inspiration from other games, (in fact, hollow knight is the main inspiration for the game im working on right now) but you have to remember to give your own game at least some individuality.