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Stellar Blade - Review Thread
- Thread starter --R
- Start date
Oh ok. Thanks for clarifying.
I know about pronouncing the N word with a hard R, giving it more animosity, but didn't know "hard R" on its own was a thing.
Yeah. I'm from the UK, half black and I've never once heard of it.
I gave it 5/10. There is an OK game here but the objectification and dehumanisation of women is undeniable and inescapable.
Stellar Blade - Review | Progress Bar
South Korean developer Shift Up asks the question: What if NieR: Automata was less interesting and more horny?progressbar.com.au
--R
Well written review and I just wanted to say thank you for calling out the blatant objectification. Wish more reviewers did that.
roughly what I guessed with 8
Especially when the director draws pretty explicit anime girls with absurd proportions, some who absolutely look childish (now involving AI generation), and whatever happened at the studio. Maybe Gene just never looked into what he's about. Its still an interesting perspective and review, even if that part seems like a bit of an excuse. Lies of P and Dave the Diver certainly didn't have any of these things. Definitely giving the creator too much credit.
Especially when the director draws pretty explicit anime girls with absurd proportions, some who absolutely look childish (now involving AI generation), and whatever happened at the studio. Maybe Gene just never looked into what he's about. Its still an interesting perspective and review, even if that part seems like a bit of an excuse. Lies of P and Dave the Diver certainly didn't have any of these things. Definitely giving the creator too much credit.
Im not even American and that "Hard R" thing was very obvious to me. I wish I didnt know what it means, but... Internet era racism makes it hard to avoid with all the chuds around. Also, there's no fucking way the devs that made that texture didnt know what they were doing, unless your telling me the game with the obvious sexism and prick director also just "happened" to find a highly racist phrase by accident and didnt know what they were doing. Yeah, right.
This is fun. Implying that anyone who didn't the game would be very good had some sort of agenda.
Damn, why did it have to have such "mixed reviews" 🤣
Looks good tbh. Better than I expected. I thought low 70s. Will pick it up one day but have too much to finish right now
Looks good tbh. Better than I expected. I thought low 70s. Will pick it up one day but have too much to finish right now
So one of the best games of 2024? That's great to hear. That digital foundry tech review was a great showcase for the game. Hope this does well, seems well deserved for dropping such a polished experience.
Thanks for engaging. My stumbling block is this:
"I think there's a place for highly stylized, highly fashionable games."
Sure! But what about highly stylized, highly fashionable necessitates the rest of it? I think there's sometimes a false choice presented here, like this is the only way we can get games with style/fashion in them. That's only true if we accept that as true. And I don't.
As for Stellar Blade and it's influence on future trends of the portrayal of women in games, I guess we'll find out. But even without knowing the longer term impact, her design is IMO a symptom of a trend that has already been underway for a while. So even if it's not the harbinger, I'd rather steer clear anyway.
There are lots of really amazing games I miss out for boring reasons: not enough time, never on sale at the "right price" for me, just played a very similar game immediately prior, etc. It doesn't take much effort to throw Stellar Blade on that same pile, even if I acknowledge that outside of Eve, the game looks pretty appealing to me. There will be other action games, highly stylized games, and--hopefully!--high-fashion games that don't share SB's issues.
Proof positive that "WOKE" simply means means "whatever I disagree with/makes me uncomfortable" rather than any meaningful argument.
I've just read Gene Park's review. Not really sure what his point is, he seems to ascribe Korean's beauty standards as being this nebulous thing when of course it is just another version of the patriarchy.
He quotes one of the developers: ""The game is a virtual reality, and I believe we need to have opportunities to see things not so realistic in the virtual space," Kim said via an interpreter. "We're already familiar with reality, we live in it. So when you play a game, I want to be able to see something that's different from what I experience. There are many things more realistic, and that should also be respected. And I feel games like 'Stellar Blade' should exist."
It's men. The men are more realistic, the women get jiggle suits. So profound.
He quotes one of the developers: ""The game is a virtual reality, and I believe we need to have opportunities to see things not so realistic in the virtual space," Kim said via an interpreter. "We're already familiar with reality, we live in it. So when you play a game, I want to be able to see something that's different from what I experience. There are many things more realistic, and that should also be respected. And I feel games like 'Stellar Blade' should exist."
It's men. The men are more realistic, the women get jiggle suits. So profound.
This is the thing right, and I'm not at all coming at you specifically, but clearly, the game is reviewing well. I wanted to ensure in my review to dock significant points for the objectifying BS specifically because I knew the industry at large, even if they do mention it as a negative element in their review, would still let it slip by with 8/10's. What lessons do we expect developers to learn if they're not held to account for this stuff? How else do we hold them to account beyond not buying the game I suppose.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Happy this scored well. Korean devs are massively talented. Between this and Lies of P last year…we need more SP games from them!
Same, this wasn't really on my radar before but I'll try to play it at some point if I've got the time
Staff post reminder
New
Official Staff Communication
- Stop the meta-commentary. Era member this, era members are not this. Community is progressive or not progressive. Everyone is different and draws their lines differently, supports different things in different ways and have different understandings and approaches. Era is far from perfect and persistently showing off the flaws to make any sort of point is only further frustrating whatever the conversation is.
- Subject ban request or discussion. That is "x should be banned from discussion because y was also banned" type stuff. Comparisons to prior bans are never correct and will only serve to further frustrations. It is inconsistent? Definitely, each situation was evaluated with a multitude of different reasons over a long period of time. Stop comparing them. We do ban for this type of commentary even though I hate doing it. No more please.
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- If you're tired of seeing the criticism and disappointment from commentary about sexism within the industry, that is perfectly understandable... I am also tired. Tired of people being dismissive about it when others manage to muster up energy to talk about these important things even when I don't have the energy to do so. The doors to other platforms that don't allow these discussion are just about in every direction you can see. I'm going to be a lot less lenient in reviewing this type of commentary going forward in this thread because its 2024 and Resetera has been trying to be better allies for a long time now. Lets try a little harder.
- Sexualisation is not inherently sexist. This is not a defense. Sexism includes considerations of sexualisation and if you still don't get it then I'll lay it out for you. The crux of these conversations deserves to be from a sexism lens. Not a this design/character/game ok or not. You could look at it in isolation but know that many are not and if you are commenting on it from solely this perspective then it might do you well to say so as to not come across as disregarding the elephant in the room.
- Sexism is rampant in our hobby. While we are disappointed when some of the more eggregious examples are still supported we need to do better than simply trying to shame members. We're not going to stop them from buying the game regardless and it deteriorates the topic from talking about the issues into talking about the users. I know its frustrating but I'd rather not have this escalate to the point I must start banning people for antagonising each other. By the number of reports I may still have to.
- Asking each other why we're still supporting a thing is... fine. Antagonising is not. Realistically we could look at all the other problematic thing and fall to very likely similar reasonings. There is no right or wrong answer and there is unlikely a happy one either. Still, this isn't off topic provided we're being sensible about it. I (somewhat hesitantly as I eye the reports queue) encourage discussion here. I think it is important for understanding and reflection but if you want honest answers we need to also accept responses that may not be to our liking. We need to allow that honestly for a chance to communicate in good faith. Shaming, antagonism is unlikely to be productive.
- Some members are likely conflicted and/or do not have a good understanding or cannot properly articulate their reasons and desires, sometimes trying to do so falls afoul of being dismissive or they don't post lest this happens. That is fine. For what its worth, as a moderator I'm judging the contents of a post not your character. We need to come to accept that some members want to enjoy the game and don't know how to come to terms with the problems. They remain silent sometimes not because they don't care but because they don't trust themselves not to make it worse for you and me and everyone.
- A lot of members would do well to better their understanding of sexism and all its insidious systemic forms within our favourite hobby (and beyond really). We are not good at identifying it and worse at discussing it. Perhaps worse yet is that many of us are bad at listening and then another large portion fall silent and let things get worse and boil into a bit of a silent boys club feel. I understand being tired of everything but effort is needed and appreciated. If you don't know how to navigate these threads and these feelings. If you fear you might get banned when posting. If you don't understand why evoking your wife who doesn't even play games' opinion is inflammatory. If you feel attacked. If you cannot read past the venting. If nothing I say makes a drop of sense. It might be worth reflecting on this and scheduling some time to try and work out why. No one knows everything. We are all ignorant of everything until we learn.
Lies of P was so good about its women characters. Sophia, The Fox, Eugenie, Antonia, and Laxasia all had great and varied designs. Not to mention a host of others in the Stalkers you fight along the way. You can argue Laxasia's armor falling off was kinda cringy but since you can barely get a good look at her while she's leaping around attacking you like a human lightning bolt it barely even registered for me.
Like pointing to SB's skin-suit and screaming CULTURAL DIFFERENCES rings hollow when Lies of P is right fucking there.
I have read his review, but it is not clear to me if Stellar Blade reflects this situation in Korean culture or is critical of it.
Like, I still don't know if it's something that just happens or there is a deconstruction
Some good impressions giving me hope that the story is at least fun.
Shift Up said that it will be possible and that ppl should watch the store page.
Not seeing it as that at all, and there's absolutely a discussion to be had. I dedicated a section of the review to it. I don't buy the "Oh it's just the culture/how it is" arguments, nor do I entertain the "woke/anti-woke" nonsense around it all. It's just... I dunno, it's so tiring. As soon as you try and have a legit conversation about something it's just an immediate jumping down the throat and getting dragged into a culture war. The discussion is far too nuanced than a lot of people are willing to entertain, and I do appreciate the road taken in your review to discuss it. I'm not the person to start that discussion point, there are people with more experience, knowledge and experience than I have to do that. I've thrown my two pennies in, and I enjoyed the game despite the eye rolls.
In Gene's defense, I think he was making a very specific point about Eve being "Korean coded" as a character. Which--compared to Pinocchio (or the rest of the cast in Lies of P)--she definitely is, exaggerated proportions aside. Stellar Blade isn't just a korean-developed game, it sort of showcase a clear Korean identity in the character designs. Which I think is a point that has merit without nullifying the objectification criticisms.
I still think that you can do one without the other, and that regardless of the cultural context and background, this is still a global product and people in different regions are permitted to assess it through their own regional lens.
Was honestly expecting a bit higher(thanks IGN). Hopefully this will be on numerous top 10 lists at the end of the year. 2 more days!
Dmax3901 well considered review. Even if I disagree with a couple of points from what I've played, the fact you lay the emphasis down on important elements like below is something still sorely missing in the space. Appreciate you writing it.
Considering how yoko taro praised the game weeks ago... im sure if shft up asked, he would said yes in a heartbeat.
Doesn't make sense to have it at launch since the game could flop.
Once it sells well I'm sure we will get it.
🤞
That reminds me that Lies of P actually changed Sophia's design to make her less Korean-coded. Certainly a weird choice, especially when Eugénie is right there and is supposed to be Korean.
You're one of my favourite posters on this site so I hope you know I mean it when I say I greatly appreciate your feedback.