While ‘Stellar Blade’ Comes Under Attack, Pre-Orders Increase As Gamers Let Developers Know They Want Beauty In Their Games

Stellar Blade promises to give fans what they want with an attractive primary protagonist in Eve.

Eve in Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

PlayStation’s upcoming game Stellar Blade is generating both hype and backlash for its decision to have a highly attractive female as its title character. The character, Eve, is featured with many different obtainable costumes. Many of the outfits highlight her female figure with a prominently featured backside!

The decision to have a character with a highly sought after body standard is a throwback to the 90s and 2000s where many body types were both realistic and unrealistic, but often very appealing to viewer’s eyes. This move has been receiving critical acclaim from gamers who have wanted to see a return to form in the industry.

Eve in Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

Sexualized characters were a major selling point in the video game industry to the point where it became a part of the culture.

Attractive females did very well for the charts in the past, Techno and Team Ninja saw a lot of success from their Dead or Alive series and its volleyball spin-offs that featured their title characters in bikinis very often throughout the series. Other iconic sex symbols such as Lara Croft and Samus Aran need no introduction.

Many female gamers love the ridiculousness of the body standards of women in games, as everyone often, unrealistically, has the body of a model.

IGN’s Casey DeFreitas once said in regards to Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, “Playing a ridiculous game with T&A galore. But many of my office friends ended up joining and laughing with me at the ridiculousness.”

Eve in Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

However, controversy has emerged in recent times relating to Stellar Blade’s developer SHIFT UP Corporation’s decision to have an attractive, sexualized character as their flagship lead.

A post by @Gaming_Rukiana on X garnered attention due to her claim that the work of two women on the game had been removed by SHIFT UP due to them both being feminists and complaining about “fanservice” in games.

Gaming_Rukiana_ on X

It seems that these “feminist” views do not align with the direction SHIFT UP desires to take their upcoming game. The game’s director Hyung-Tae Kim stated in an interview with Games Radar that it, “has become somewhat of a brave thing to be going for or attempting.”

“When it comes to the design, we put special attention on the back of the character because the player is always facing the back of the character when they’re playing,” he said. “That’s what they see the most of, so we thought this was pretty important.”

A screenshot of Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

The viewpoints of the former employees align with trends in the past decade as game publishers have listened to input from activists, various feminists, and worked with the highly controversial company Sweet Baby Inc in an attempt to appeal to what is often described as, more “Modern Audiences.”

However, it seems these Modern Audiences are a very small minority in the gaming sphere as recent games targeted at the non-traditional audiences have both underperformed and received major backlash from longtime gamers and fans. Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is the latest in a stream of disappointments as it has seen major amounts of refunds and a very small player base.

Eve in Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

Perhaps the praise towards Stellar Blade could be the beginning of a return to more attractive fantasy like characters in the west. Many games, in modern times, opted to instead portray their female characters with masculine traits and very little sex appeal to those buying the games.

While this was seen as a positive from many activists who were a part of many news sites that dominated the narratives in the 2010s, with falling franchise sales in recent years and many of these journalist sites shutting down, it’s becoming more and more obvious where the money is in modern times.

The reality is throughout history “sex sells” and many just want to escape from their world for a little bit and pretend to be a cool character with the body of a supermodel for a few hours. Whether you agree with the possible return to high fitness and makeup type elements in the body of video game characters or not, the truth is video games are an escape to many players.

A screenshot of Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

Many look to the medium of games in order to live out the hope of experiencing a world that seems so far away. Many have even done heavy labor intensive gym exercises to be able to portray these popular characters more closely in their cosplay and fan films, some choose not to.

“Honestly, when I play a game I would like to see someone who is better-looking than myself. That’s what I want. I don’t want to see something normal; I want to see something more ideal. I think that is very important in a form of entertainment. This is, after all, entertainment targeted for adults.” said Stellar Blade’s Game Director Hyung-Tae Kim.

Eve in Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up

Body presentation has been a very debated subject in the 2020s. The want for “body positivity” has been called on by many activists to combat against the stereotypes of beauty that are viewed as, in their eyes, “unrealistic” or perceived as “unobtainable.” The counter argument has been that these goals lead to a more fitness focused and successful life that does overall better for one’s health, both physically and mentally.

While many hail many female character’s bodies as impossible to obtain without enhancers and surgeries, turns out this may not be the case and fans can hopefully come close to emulating these styles in a more healthy way for the body.

In a video showcasing a process of the game, the developers of Stellar Blade performed a 3D scan of South Korean model Shin Jae-eun, meaning that Eve’s body figure was actually far from unobtainable.

🟡Wanna know a fun fact before jumping into #NewYear2024 ?? 🧐

In #StellarBlade, our protagonist Eve body figure was actually based on a 3D scan of the Korean model Shin Jae-eun! 🤯🌟@StellarBlade currently has a release window scheduled for 2024, follow us to stay… pic.twitter.com/TsdkCFBviM

— Stellar Blade/ #NIKKE /Destiny Child/ 🙏 + 🎲 = 🍑 (@ShiftUpWorld) December 31, 2023

This isn’t the first time a real world person has been used to influence an iconic known beauty in popular culture as it is said that Disney’s Princess Aurora was based on American actress Helene Stanley.

While the controversies around the eye-catching female can be seen as an eyesore, it seems that these have done little to slow down the sales. The new PlayStation 5 title has managed to rank number two on the top pre-ordered games list.

How far the game will go in sales is yet to be seen, but it may need to hold onto that highly discussed backside, cause the game looks to be heading for the sky in the sales chart!

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