Stellar Blade (Previously Project Eve)

Link to article, or at least context?

Edited by Cross on Apr 26th 2024 at 1:11:14 PM

This one here.

Austin Hargrave, IE, Peanut Butter Gamer is the one thats really notable, though many detractors had similar sentiment.

Reading the article, dumbing down writer's argument to "biased agaisnt asian games" does seem kinda like strawman though because author brings both western games as negative examples and eastern games as positive example.

"Conversely, as Issy Van Der Velde writes for Inverse, a character like Stellar Blade’s Eve (like Lara Croft before her) is hot, but she doesn’t seem to be aware of it: “she’s sexy but doesn’t know it; she’s athletic and acrobatic but entirely controllable.” She is a blank slate, a poseable sex doll, her bountiful chest heaving during idle animations. Unlike Bayonetta, whose sexiness is folded into her personality and fighting style, Eve is just blandly attractive. Eve is the object of desire, not the owner of it."

That said, I think the author might be biased agaisnt Stellar Blade because they view it as flagship for right wing, "But when compared to something like Stellar Blade’s Eve, the standard bearer for the latest gamer culture war, "

I think biggest problem with the comparison is that game isn't released yet, so it really seems presumptive and harsh. Like, I don't think there is enough to conclude that Eve is treated like sex doll by the game. I agree with primary thesis of "personality is sexy", but the negative comparison to Stellar Blade feels unnecessary to main point of article and kinda like the author just wants to take swing at culture war folks.

Edited by SpookyMask on Apr 26th 2024 at 1:45:03 AM

The problem is that from what seeing, the culture war angle feels almost entirely egged on and blown up by the publications rather than it being a real thing of any seriousness. Like a bunch of easily ignored online chuds spotlit the game as "Asian devs making games great again by bringing back hot women" yadda, yadda, yadda you know the spiel and instead of ignoring it, they fan into it with articles that come off as condescending as hell as well as turning it into an "East vs West" type of thing with comparisons to Hades. Like all I'm seeimg is that the supposed culture war was basically a bunch of e-chuds screaming into the void that is twitter and publications feeling the need to respond when they could have easily ignored it.

I think calling them "chuds" instead of actually acknowledging the underlying issue of double standards is really reductive.

The heck are you talking about? The said people don't acknowledge double standard that western games also have hot women and instead talk about asian games saving games from "women who look like ugly men" and other bs

This controversy is asinine.

It's just some chodes announcing some random thing to be apart of their "culture war" which they do at random for inane reasons. Seriously they claimed Sydney Sweeney as "one of them" simply because she has large breasts and then rejected her because she helped produce and star in a religious horror movie.

It's only a little worse than it usually is because dumbass news outlets are engaging in this and taking it more seriously than it actually is.

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 27th 2024 at 1:48:32 AM

You people have the timeline wrong.

The controversy started the moment the character was revealed, with people for or against the game in social media.

But what a bunch of randos say on social media can only reach so far.

Enter game journalists complaining about the sexualized design.

These came out later, not because they were waiting for the reaction in social media, they formed their opinion at the same time as the rest with the reveal. It's just that writing an article takes time as opposed to just tweeting your first impressions.

And now people on both sides of this fucking mess had ammo to throw around because professional writers weighted in on the issue.

Both sides will acomodate the narrarive however they see fit.

It's happening again over the censorship patch, with those that aren't bothered labeling those that are as only in it for the sex or for to flame the controversy, which is absolutely the case in more than one instance, but that doesn't change the fact they censored the game after using no censorship as part of their marketing, of course people will be pissed.

Edited by MrSeyker on Apr 27th 2024 at 2:08:39 AM

Wasn't the patch thing disproven as a hoax, that there are riskier costumes in the game, and the main thing was the amount of gore removed?

Actually, No. There's images of the game in version 1.00 (IE the disc version) vs later patches for the Digital Download version and Day 1 Patch that do show outfits censored.

However, I'm not surprised, as this has actually happened with Shift Up's other game, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, which had censored versions of units outside of Korea, only to change them back after internet backlash and feedback, so I could see something similar happen in a patch down the line.

Been playing the game itself past the Demo area, and its been fun so far. Has some neat variety to its puzzles and I already like Adam and Eve's connection to each other. Sticking with the Korean dub was a good idea, because Eve and Adam feel much more expressive, with one of Adam's voice line being a whistle instead of a "Wow" when they look over a ruined cityscape.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Apr 27th 2024 at 6:53:43 AM

I'm a Nikke player and I can tell you right now that's not actually how that happened. Nikke doesn't have regional exclusive versions of the game.

What happened is that since launch people had been datamining the files for game material, and among that was the pre-release versions of some units.

When they were officially announced, fans noticed that they had changed poses and added details to a couple of skins to make them (slightly) less risque. Shift Up did not go back and undo the changes, they just slightly touched refined the changed poses/designs.

The one times it seems they did a change due to fanbase outcry was when they released an alternate skin of Makima that removed her coat. But that was an high tier unit in a collab event, so of course they would go the extra mile (for reference, all other "coat" Nikkes released before and since Makima remain unchanged).

There have been other changes from leaks to final product since the controversy, but nothing that can really be called censorship. Some new stuff is riskier than the units that caused the controversy, and some are more tame but there have been tame skins since release.

Outcries of censorship still occur, specially since Tencent is involved and Shift Up is now a public company.

The thing with Stellar Blade is more clear cut because all the promotional material and the unpatched game show the original designs.

So has anyone actually played the game?

I've played it.

Pretty good time, really.

Its like an Easier Sekiro mixed with Bayonetta Combo chain strings.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Apr 27th 2024 at 2:38:34 PM

Apparently "awesome but messy". Like, gameplay great, story bland, art direction kinda chaotic? That's mostly from skin deep "what people say that people say" though so don't know for real.

One criticism I heard is that the game is too referential to Nier Automata so it never feels like its doing its own things.

But the overall gameplay is great.

How much of a reference is it to Nier?

Dear God I can't go five seconds on news or comments sections without people talking about this game's boobs RN.

I was surprised honestly because when I was looking at this game's first reveal I didn't even notice it was trying to be sexy. I thought "Oh, a cool looking hack and slash game to keep an eye on" but the fact that everyone is talking about the boobs now that it's out makes me doubt it has much to offer. That sucks.

As a pervy Hack and Slash conneiseaur I feel like it has much to be desired. There's only so much you can do with a Latex Space Suit and inoffensively attractive heroine. It has the air of a bland "Design by committee" sort of sexiness to it. Other legendary female characters like 2B, Bayonetta or Chun-Li where made by horny game developers that where like "THIS IS MY FETISH AND IM GOING TO MAKE IT EVERYONE'S PROBLEM!" which is the same sort of thing you also get from underground hits like Senran Kagura and Oneechanbara. I just can't get behind Eve. Innuendo intended.

I still hope it plays good at least...

Edited by ShirowShirow on Apr 27th 2024 at 12:55:04 PM

One of the 3 youtubers I actually like just posted a video about Stellar Blade.

Stellar Blade is awesome butt messy. You read that correctly.

Man this game is blowing up.

Edited by FOFD on Apr 27th 2024 at 9:26:05 AM

It does have Eve Adorably pick up rare Soda Cans, so she knows how to do Product Placement well.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Apr 27th 2024 at 9:26:01 AM

TBH giving the main character an incredibly weird niche interest like that is a great idea but come on let her have a big goofy grin when she finds one or something.

Edited by ShirowShirow on Apr 27th 2024 at 1:31:10 PM

She gets feistier as the game goes on in the story even aside from picking up Cans out of a liking for product placement.

She even lives up to her Angel nickname the residents of Xion and eventually gets a Literal Single Black Wing, becoming a One Winged Angel.

Oh wow that first clip looks like the city building in Nier straight up.

Kim Hyung Tae, while being honest about Nier Automata influences, also said its based on many an abandoned city structures found within South Korea.

Haven't really payed attention to the discourse, aside from what i've stumbled across which to me just looks like people trying to drum up controversy, that they want people to be outraged by Eve's design so they in turn can be outraged by them.

Like what's already been said, its very messy.

The talk about double-standards reminds me how I once saw the guy behind Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story, dismiss all western designed characters out of hand, because of supposed "unoriginality", from a guy who made a game whose own sexualized designs could themselves be called derivative, and arguably out of place in what's supposed to be a horror game.

Just from observation, Steller Blade overall feels consistently over the top in its presentation to not have that problem. In fact I'd say putting both gamese side by side would make for an interesting study in sexiness for sexiness sake and tailoring characters to the tone and genre of the medium.

Edited by Avenger09 on Apr 28th 2024 at 1:21:55 PM

At this point I kinda wonder if game would hold up without the publicity it got. Like, would it have managed to stand out without it? It seems fun but derivative game if Nier comparisons hold up.

Controversial publicity can be good for sales as long the subject of controvery is petty(aka people making big deal out of molehill and everyone from outside can be like "right, that's dumb, but what is this thing they are talking about?"), but it makes it hard to tell what would be take away without it because it dominates conversation so much. Perhaps its pointless to try to imagine that. Either way, we don't know final success story of game yet, but there are lot of 3d action games (whether inspired by Dmc, Dark Souls, or whatever) that didn't really manage to stand out in market much, so it is kinda amusing that game managed to stand out because people couldn't resist arguing that heavily about sexuality.

(I wonder if Larian has statistics for whether the revelation of bear scene increased sales a lot just because of notoriety )

Edited by SpookyMask on Apr 28th 2024 at 6:07:22 AM