Share and Follow
First off, it should be noted that Stellar Blade is South Korean publisher Shift Up’s first Triple-A game and is being developed by their new Triple-A subsidiary branch: Shift Up Second EVE Studio. Previously, Shift Up primarily developed mobile titles like Goddess of Victory and Destiny Child. While popular, those games developed a reputation in some circles for their sexy anime character designs and aggressive Gatcha microtransactions. Destiny Child was actually censored in certain international markets as the original game featured some notably explicit artwork.
Mind you, Shift Up has never shied away from that aspect of their games. In an interview with GamesRadar, Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim stated via translation that the team put “special attention” into the design of the back of that game’s playable character, Eve. While he says that’s partially because “the player is always facing the back of the character when they’re playing” he also states that he “would like to see someone who is better-looking than myself” when he plays a game.
That statement gets to the heart of this situation. Simply put, some find the design of Eve and the team’s attitude (as well as the attitude of some Stellar Blade fans) towards her design to be problematic or simply creepy. Some are simply uncomfortable with that general approach to character design (or this specific instance of it), while others argue that this “fan service” style feels regressive at a time when female character designs in major games are regularly criticized by some gamers for apparently not being sexy enough.
There’s a bit more to this story than that, though. Issues with personal uncomfortableness aside, some critics of Stellar Blade suggest that the developers are leaning into the sexuality of its lead character to generate hype for reasons other than the game itself. Those criticisms are compounded by the studio’s history of highly sexualized titles with questionable microtransactions and their prior inexperience with Triple-A games. For what it’s worth, Stellar Blade‘s developers say the game will not feature microtransactions, though the base game will cost $70 and the Deluxe $80 edition of the game includes bonus cosmetics, an XP boost, and more.
On that note, I will mention that there was a story going around about a former employee of Shift Up who reportedly faced harassment at the company for their public support of feminist views. However, those reports have not been verified and some of the original information regarding them appears to no longer be available. For additional context, though, there have been numerous documented instances over the years regarding the growing cultural clash between gamers/gaming and feminism movements in South Korea. Undoubtedly, that history of conflict is contributing to this controversy to some degree. If you’d like to know more about that subject, I highly recommend these articles that explore the topic in much greater detail.
I should also point out that Stellar Blade’s trailers so far seem to be a pretty accurate indication of the final game’s content. Stellar Blade recently received a Mature ESRB rating for, among other things, “Blood-splatter effects,” “revealing costumes,” and “breasts that jiggle during combat.”
