Top Stellar Blade controversies to date

Without question, Stellar Blade is one of the top games to have hit shelves in 2024 so far. Actually, this is one of the highest rated games on Metacritic right now, and many gamers are definitely having a blast with this third-person action and adventure game by Korean studio Shift Up.

The game has also been controversial though, with accusations of sexism and racism being levelled at Stellar Blade, while Shift Up’s game has brought up the thorny issue of video game censorship as well. So without further ado, here follow the top Stellar Blade controversies to date.

Is Stellar Blade a sexist game?

Since before the game’s demo was released on March 29, people have been quipping about the game’s female protagonist Eve (right in the image above). Based on South Korean model Shin Jae-eun, she has the sort of curvy physique that hormonal teenagers drool over, and even reminds me a tad of how Lara Croft looked in the Tomb Raider games of the 90’s.

In other words, Eve is portrayed in a sexualized way in the game, something which rubbed some people the wrong way, and accused the game of sexism. However, Stellar Blade’s game director was unrepentant about the matter, saying that the team “put special attention on the back of the character because the player is always facing the back of the character when they’re playing” and defending the game as entertainment for adults. But still, blasting the game’s Naytiba aliens in Stellar Blade is a blast regardless of the protagonist’s curves, even if admittedly you don’t get to see sexualized characters like Eve in games so often these days…

I see a tower, an important place in the game!#StellarBlade pic.twitter.com/hjgtBkvOtx

— StellarBlade (@StellarBlade) September 14, 2022

The game will launch “uncensored” in Japan

Stellar Blade has stirred controversy about sexism and racism, but also about its violence. But funnily enough this is not about the game being too violent, rather than it not being violent enough for Japan’s rating organization. You see, the game got a CERO D rating in the Asian country, meaning anyone above age 17 can buy the game there. So what you say?

The thing is, last year’s Dead Space remake got banned in the Land of the Rising Sun, and CERO’s leniency towards Stellar Blade pissed off Electronic Arts’ general manager Shaun Noguchi, who complained about this on X (via IGN). “CERO, you denied our Dead Space a rating because it included cross-sections of severed body parts and internal organs, but here we have both cross-sections and insides on display passed off with a CERO D rating. I find this hard to accept”, said Noguchi. He also praised the game’s demo, though, and it’s clear that while Stellar Blade is pretty violent in places, it’s hard to argue that Electronic Arts’ Dead Space game isn’t an order of magnitude more violent overall.

→

Next: