HoYoverse accused of plagiarizing Honkai Star Rail trailer from Onmyoji

HoYoverse has recently released Honkai Star Rail character Sunday's trailer on YouTube. Despite the majority of the playerbase praising the trailer for its visuals and music composition, a rather controversial observation regarding the trailer has been made, which has thrown the game into controversy yet again.

Similarities between Sunday's character trailer and a CG from the gacha game Onmyoji have been posited, leading to plagiarism accusations being leveled against HoYoverse. This article discusses these allegations that have been brought up in relation to Sunday's trailer in Honkai Star Rail.

---

Honkai Star Rail Sunday's trailer under fire for alleged plagiarism

CN is discussing the similarities between the Sunday trailer and one of the CGs from Onmyoji (Gachagame). Coincidence? byu/shahansha1998 inHonkaiStarRail

In accordance with standard release patterns, Sunday's character trailer was showcased just a day ahead of his official release in Honkai Star Rail. While fans earnestly praised the trailer, some accusations were leveled shortly after its release. Sunday's trailer was found to have glaring similarities with a certain CG from Onmyoji, a turn-based strategy game.

Side-by-side comparisons of the two videos were created, where it seems like specific visuals from Sunday's trailer bear similarities to the ones from Onmyoji. This news sparked heated discussions amongst the community, many of whom argued that this was not plagiarism and that Sunday's trailer was merely inspired by the CG from Onmyoji.

Meanwhile, the official Onmyoji account on Weibo also made a post talking about HoYoverse allegedly plagiarizing its content. This is not the first time Onmyoji has 'called out' another company for supposedly plagiarizing its content. Earlier this year, the company accused the MOBA game Honor of Kings of stealing one of its character designs.

Some similarities can be observed between HSR Sparkle Trailer and certain Leaf MVs byu/archzdragneel ingachagaming

Incidentally, HoYoverse has already come under fire once before for plagiarism, with the community accusing the company of copying whole chunks of Sparkle's character trailer from rhythm game composer/producer LeaF's music videos.

A similar situation happened back then as well, wherein the fanbase was divided into varied opinions regarding whether the trailer was 'plagiarism' or 'inspiration'. However, the matter was solved by producer LeaF themselves explaining in a post on X that they didn't mind HoYoverse referencing their work in the trailer.

As for the alleged plagiarism accusations regarding Sunday's trailer in HSR, it is not very likely that HoYoverse will respond to them. With the launch of Honkai Star Rail 2.7 followed by the brand new upcoming region of Amphoreus in 3.0, it remains to be seen how these accusations will be addressed.

Follow Sportskeeda for more Honkai Star Rail news, updates, and guides.