Cases of traced art can be found all over the Internet and have been a plague on many professional creators wanting to earn a living for decades. A problem of this magnitude is further escalated when a company on the forefront of an industry is involved. Such is the case of the Western erotic game portal Nutaku and their newly distributed OnMedia game Pussy Saga.

Pussy Saga, a match-3 puzzle and management dating game taking more than a few elements from HuniePot’s HuniePop and HunieCam Studio, has recently had the chance to find its way over to Nutaku. Nutaku, for those unaware, has steadily grown into the largest Western erotic game portal, with over 23 million registered users. Pussy Saga, as a third-party title hosted on Nutaku, gained popularity almost instantly since its premiere on the service. At the moment of the writing of this article, it is listed as the number one “Free Nutaku Game”, just behind Flower Knight Girl, another of the more recent hit DMM titles. While it may be relishing in its popularity on Nutaku, it’s worth emphasizing that Pussy Saga was not made by the company, nor did it debut on the platform. You may have seen the title rear its head in the past, courtesy of advertisements and pop-ups on other adult-centric websites.

As is the case with all free-to-play titles with microtransactions on Nutaku, Pussy Saga offers multiple ways to gain a fast gameplay advantages and unlocks bypassing all resource and time restrictions in the form of items purchased with Nutaku Gold, a premium currency bought with real-life money. At this point, you would be wise to assume that a number one title in popularity on Nutaku’s platform would be earning quite a bit of money. The ultimate goal of Pussy Saga is unlocking specific character CGs (pieces of art) of your dates leading up to sex. While the freemium formula of the game may be questionable, it’s certainly not illegal. What is potentially illegal and highly unethical, however, are the multiple cases of traced (copied and modified) art found in the game. The art you can pay real money for on your way to unlocking it.

After receiving a small hint by one of our loyal readers, we decided to dig a bit deeper into the alleged traced art and uncovered a gold mine of blatant and unapologetic plagiarism. Upon comparing, contrasting and doing an extensive image search of game CGs and single art samples, we discovered over 22 cases of traced art in varying degrees: some more heavily modified than others, while others being almost 1:1 copies of the originals. For the sake of clarity, we have compiled the images from Pussy Saga right next to the uncovered originals, along with appropriate sources for the original images.

Original art by Cait

Original art by 赤P

“Kyonyuu Majo” by WAFFLE

Original art by happoubi jin

“Umisora no Fragments” by rootnuko

“Love La Bride” by ChuableSoft

Original art by ワカメさん

“Haru Kiss” by Giga

Original art by n.g.

“Temptation H ~Saiin no Naraku~” by Parthenon

“Empty x Embryo” by Yuzusoft

“Evenicle” by AliceSoft

“Nanairo Reincarnation” by Silky’s Plus Wasabi

“Yome Sagashi ga Hakadorisugite Yabai.” by HULOTTE

Original art by onigiri (ocelot)

Original art by あまさひかえ

Original art by Ether-Core

“Oshirikko Venus 2” by Apricot Cherry

Original art by ishidaya

“Enkou Shoujo ~Rikujoubu Yukky no Baai~” by Frill

“Musuko no Tomodachi ni Okasarete” by ANIM

The examples found by us constitute only a small portion of CGs available in Pussy Saga, and these are the only ones we could prove to have been traced. It is safe to assume that due to the inconsistency of the CG art in other pieces of artwork available in the game, even more of it has been copied from other sources. It is also possible, even if highly improbable, that the developers of Pussy Saga, OnMedia, have reached out to all of the rightful owners and have received permission to use it commercially. LewdGamer has personally contacted OnMedia, but we have yet not received any kind of reply.

In order to unravel this complicated argument, we have also contacted Nutaku and MangaGamer, another Western eroge publisher, for statements.

A representative of Nutaku has declined to comment on the matter until they receive clarification from the game’s developer.

We are unwilling to provide comment until we’ve clarified the situation with the game’s developer.

MangaGamer, currently partnered with WAFFLE and AliceSoft, two developers affected by the alleged theft, had decided to contact their associates.

We have received the examples of the artwork in question and will be contacting our partners in order to inform them of the situation.

We will be updating you on this story as it develops and as the companies in question make their respective moves to solve this matter. For the health of the industry at large, we hope everyone involved in the case takes proper steps and reaches a resolution that keeps the consumer’s best interest in mind.

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