Ouroboros Studio, the team behind Sonic the Hedgehog fan game Sonic Omens, reportedly finished the project "out of spite", blocked anyone who had negative opinions of the game, stole and rearranged music from Cars 2: The Video Game, and sexualised 12-year-old Maria by including the phrase "Bad Girl" on her underwear.
Earlier this week, the final episode of Sonic Omens released, getting the attention of many Sonic fans due to it killing Chris Thorndyke from Sonic X and turning Sonic Adventure's Maria into a boss battle. Although reactions to the fan game have been fairly mixed, the behind-the-scenes stories collated and shared by Farkle through the Sonic Omens Twitter account paint a much darker picture of both the game and Ouroboros Studio.
Farkle shared a document called "Sonic Omens and the Downfall of Ouroboros", which alleges that the team harassed anyone who had negative feedback on the game, replaced voice actors without warning, paywalled previews behind patreon, made money for the game through adverts on Game Jolt, and sexualised Maria, a 12-year-old child. Screenshots within the Twitter thread also show the developers admitting to finishing the project "out of spite".
One of the bigger allegations is that Ouroboros Studio paywalled previews of the game through Patreon and ran ads for it on Game Jolt, meaning that it's likely that the team has been making money for the project. Sega's own copyright laws allow for all Sonic fan games, but don't allow for anyone to make money from their IP, which could turn this into a more serious case if raised with them.
The problems extend to the game's music as well. Farkle alleges that John_R1se, the composer behind the game's music, stole the track Oil Rig Race from Cars 2: The Video Game and changed the instruments, calling the track Unknown Race and claiming it as his own work. Farkle put together a comparison of the two tracks, and the similarity is noticeable.
One of the more serious allegations made by the document involves the character Maria, the 12-year-old surrogate sister of Shadow the Hedgehog. Farkle claims that an anonymous user took a look at Maria's model and found the words "Bad Girl" printed on her underwear, sexualising a child character. The texture isn't visible during the boss battle, which Farkle points out likely means that whoever did it did it for fun.
The document has several other allegations against Ouroboros Studio, showing screenshots from conversations from the developer's Discord as proof of the claims. Ouroboros Studio has yet to respond to the allegations.
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