Hi All. Been searching online and cannot find info about this specific query.

I just purchased art assets that are licensed for use in my project. As far as I'm aware, I can use them legally for distribution per the license agreement.

The question I have is more about community reactions. There's a very popular game out right now that uses the exact same assets. My game will not be ready for at least 1 year (or more). I anticipate that this game may very well still be popular at that time. It's honestly a really good game.

My game project is in the same genre, RPG, but is a very different type of game. The gameplay will not be the same at all. However, I anticipate many users on Steam who are unfamiliar with purchasing dev assets will be confused why there's another game out that has very similar art but is not produced by the same dev as the popular game I mentioned.

I am a complete newbie to this scene. What type of reactions should I expect and should I be concerned?

My practice is to credit where I got the game assets in my game description (and in-game, if I have in-game credits), which I think is a nice thing to do anyway, but in this type of situation this informs the customers where you got the assets from and and that you're using them legitimately (and if another game also licensed them, now they know). There may still be people who cry foul without bothering to read the game description, but what can you do.

I don't know that many people would be confused.  Someone who is digging far enough into indie RPGs on Steam to play both yours and the other one is probably already aware of purchasable assets, although they may or may not approve of using them.  If someone does accuse you of improper use, it is easily refuted.  I agree with technicat that the best practice is to credit anything you didn't make yourself, even if you are not technically required to do so.

As for what people will think of it, opinions vary.  In part it depends on how you use them.  Hardly anyone will notice a reused brick or grass texture (I'm sure AAA studios do this all the time), but something like a character portrait benefits a lot more from being unique to your game.  Other stuff like GUI elements and monster models are probably somewhere in the middle.  As you already noted, some very popular games like Tales of Maj'Eyal and Realm of the Mad God use non-proprietary assets.  RPG Maker games on the other hand are frequently criticized for "all looking the same" as many of them pull from the same set of stock assets.

Unfortunately it is probably the case that a lot of people will mentally associate recognizable assets with the most recognizable game that uses them, although like I said, how much people really care about that will vary.  Ultimately this is just the tradeoff for using stock assets: you save time, but lose distinctiveness.  

Thanks, all. That really helps a lot! I appreciate it.