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Stellar Blade - Review Thread
- Thread starter --R
- Start date
I've played plenty of games where I would be embarrassed if a friend saw me playing certain scenes or with certain outfits. It isn't "mental gymnastics" to try to figure this it where your line is here.
It's perfectly okay to have strong feelings about the pieces of media we consume while still enjoying them.
There's not really a both sides here though. The idea that if you're conflicted about a piece of media and want to disscuss that conflict being "mental gymnastics" so you shouldn't play at all is a purely dismissive one.
I'm not saying it was the most dismissive take ever, nor that your own post is, but we could definitely do without these kind of takes. They are inherently dismissive and add nothing to the conversation.
I know that thread was locked, and really don't want to derail the conversation; but as a non-native English speaker, today was the first time I found out about this slur.
Honestly, when I saw the image, I thought they meant "harder", which in my mind made complete sense given the misogynistic nature of the game.
It's funny, I was also fine with Nier Automata once upon a time, but I feel like Stellar Blade pulled the veil from my eyes or something. I don't think I could go back to it now.
Not saying everyone needs to renounce past stuff, but I think I just registered that even though Nier has some really solid narrative meat on its bones, the sexualization really has the about the same amount of justification as SB. I can sit here and try to retroactively justify it by saying Nier genuinely had few (none?) exploitative cutscenes and the camera was pretty fucking tame (outside of when it was player controlled), but...who am I kidding, right?
I think in my old age I'm getting to a point where if I find something fundamental to a game personally distasteful, I am less and less likely to look past it in the name of having some cheap fun (which I could do with a zillion games that don't grate against my core values or whatever).
The sexualization problem aside (which is an actual problem) I don't think Eve being dull is a problem at all, nor the weak story. They are both basically staples of Souls likes. It's not like this dude was oozing big personality:
I mean, it's not like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry have award worthy stories. They do have charm but man... they're difficult for me to tolerate.
Its still disappointing when reviewers like Mitch (who have a history with action games) say its defensive with enemies doing uninterruptable long strings, when thats only true for entry level play. The games combat system highly rewards interrupting enemies using beta finishers, counters & perfect dodges.....its one of the most aggressive games out there.
The derivative line is also wild considering how hard this game iterates upon sekiro. It completely replaces Sekiros r1l1 spam with a deep & rewarding combo system.
Like dam I got problems with this games jank, but as far as gameplay goes derivative is the last thing I would call it.
That's fair, people have different standards and all so you're right but I was applying my own standards to that reply, and personally probably wouldn't play a game that made me feel like that and especially not at 70 dollars.
Yeah I just didn't read "mental gymnastics" as dismissive more a way to say if you're thinking about this a lot and it bothers you just skip it. It's probably just not worth the concern at that point.
The term is inherently dismissive here as it is boiling down the conflict people have to "making excuses" to play, like it's somehow a dishonest process to discuss that conflict and also play the game.
Telling people they shouldn't play if this happens is the same.
Question for reviewers, since I know there are some who have posted in here.
I unironically, really like Nikke's characters/story, I find it's actually pretty good at being serious, funny, and sad when it needs to be...
But when I played the Stellar Blade demo, all the things I liked about Nikke's writing, I felt were completely absent. Every character that showed up seemed as boring as boring could be, no big personalities to bounce off each other.
Is there any reviewers who have played both who can compare? Cause from the reviews I read, it does seem like my fear of all that charm being completely absent in Stellar Blade seems like it's true.
I unironically, really like Nikke's characters/story, I find it's actually pretty good at being serious, funny, and sad when it needs to be...
But when I played the Stellar Blade demo, all the things I liked about Nikke's writing, I felt were completely absent. Every character that showed up seemed as boring as boring could be, no big personalities to bounce off each other.
Is there any reviewers who have played both who can compare? Cause from the reviews I read, it does seem like my fear of all that charm being completely absent in Stellar Blade seems like it's true.
The problem is that her personality doesn't match her actions, posing, outfit or anything, she moves and poses like Bayonetta while being a completely dull and boring character who barely shows any expression.The sexualization problem aside (which is an actual problem) I don't think Eve being dull is a problem at all, nor the weak story. They are both basically staples of Souls likes. It's not like this dude was oozing big personality:
yeah this is going to be another xenoblade 2 for me. Timestamped:
View: https://youtu.be/JDuiRFC965Q?t=867
that shit just makes me go
There shall be a lot of eye rolling with this game :(
View: https://youtu.be/JDuiRFC965Q?t=867
that shit just makes me go
There shall be a lot of eye rolling with this game :(
Think I saw some reviews mention the option to choose multi-language tracks, but is Japanese among them for non-JP versions of the game?
yeah this is going to be another xenoblade 2 for me. Timestamped:
View: https://youtu.be/JDuiRFC965Q?t=867
that shit just makes me go
There shall be a lot of eye rolling with this game :(
lmao this makes the genshin aiming bounces look tasteful
yeah this is going to be another xenoblade 2 for me. Timestamped:
View: https://youtu.be/JDuiRFC965Q?t=867
that shit just makes me go
There shall be a lot of eye rolling with this game :(
Oh no. I liked that outfit when I saw it from the back! Of course there was a catch...
From most of the reviews that I've seen, her personality doesn't get any better.
There have been some differing views on the story that I've seen. Polygon and Fightincowboy both think the story becomes pretty entertaining by the end with some twists. I'm not convinced she doesn't develop more of a personality.
User banned (2 months): Dismissing concerns of sexism, severe priors (ban reduced following successful appeal)
I'm curious on two things because I'm only vaguely paying attention to the discourse on this game:
1 - is there some level of misogyny or sexualization in this game that's more than just characters being unnaturally attractive?
2 - are characters being unnaturally attractive ethically bad somehow?
Personally I'm hypersexual and enjoy seeing sexuality in media/art, but I'm also bisexual and would prefer it not just being cishet male sexuality being catered to. I don't know if there's like inherently a problem with characters being hypersexualized but I'm open to trying to understand how that's ethically bad or harmful as that seems like what most of the discussion is about
1 - is there some level of misogyny or sexualization in this game that's more than just characters being unnaturally attractive?
2 - are characters being unnaturally attractive ethically bad somehow?
Personally I'm hypersexual and enjoy seeing sexuality in media/art, but I'm also bisexual and would prefer it not just being cishet male sexuality being catered to. I don't know if there's like inherently a problem with characters being hypersexualized but I'm open to trying to understand how that's ethically bad or harmful as that seems like what most of the discussion is about
Shucks. Do we know why this is again? Was it contractual reasons with the voice actors?
Can anyone confirm which languages are featured, specifically for the North American version?
For a first go at a big budget console game after being a mobile developer, and in a country without an extensive games industry for console releases, seems like they did a pretty great job at reorganizing and expanding into a capable large scale studio. One to watch for their future titles.
yeah this is going to be another xenoblade 2 for me. Timestamped:
View: https://youtu.be/JDuiRFC965Q?t=867
that shit just makes me go
There shall be a lot of eye rolling with this game :(
Nikke enjoyers will feel right at home!
yeah this is going to be another xenoblade 2 for me. Timestamped:
View: https://youtu.be/JDuiRFC965Q?t=867
that shit just makes me go
There shall be a lot of eye rolling with this game :(
What the hell is up with the front of that outfit.
Alongside the demo, the full game will feature the following language options:
Voice Over: Korean, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin Spanish.
Text: Korean, English (US), French, Italian, German, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish, Thai, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese.
User banned (2 months): Dismissive commentary around sexualization, relevant prior
If you watch women on YouTube play the demo, all the ones I've seen enjoyed the experience. If they can, you should not feel bad about playing it either.
If you switch from "vaguely paying attention to the discourse" to engaging genuinely with what's already been written in this thread (and really, all over the forum), you may find some answers. :)
I'm not trying to rag on you, but you gotta see how your post sounds, right? "I don't care and haven't been paying attention...what's the big deal?"
From Gamespot's review - "As for the game's controversial sexiness, I found it to largely be nothing notable as either a pro or a con. The only time it became anything more than window dressing for me was a twinge of annoyance when quests or exploration yielded naught but another dress that gives no stat benefits. I would have preferred something that makes me stronger rather than yet another skintight suit, as if I did not already possess an inventory full of them. That EVE has breasts was immaterial to the rest of the game beyond her character model and only really novel in its opening hours."
I mean that's why I made that post, I'm trying to understand what makes this game toxic to a lot of people - all I've seen is that the main character is like superhumanly attractive with a BBL seemingly lol, so I'm trying to see if there's something deeper than that to the sexuality aspect itself or its just literally the main character's character model that's being critiqued like this basically, and then past that, how that's bad
I'm legitimately curious, I work in the adult industry with lots of sex workers so I'm hyper normalized to sexuality and it's not something I inherently think is bad
User Banned (1 Month): Dismissing concerns over sexism
I think their general point is that the character is only sexualised for the male gaze, but unless the developers have said/implied that (I'm unaware so idk), then I don't think it's a very fair criticism. Criticise people like Kojima for things like the Quiet situation all you want, but boycotting/attacking a game simply because the character has a certain body type is so outdated. They try to use the 'real women' defence, but there are plenty of women that look like that, and they are just as valid as the women that look like Ellie or Aloy.
Nah. Let's not start using women who enjoy the game as a blanket means to dismiss concerns or discussion around the sexualisation within it.
Oh we're doing this whole thing.
I guess I'll just reiterate that this thread (and others!) are here for you to read at your leisure, whenever you have an available moment in your busy schedule. No rush, of course.
No one is critzizing this game because of a certain body type. How disingenuous is this?! This is about her portrayal, her outfits, her lack of agency over it, her freaking water ballon boob giggles that arefront an center, her lack of a personality, the male gaze over her body and the background of the developer being anti-feminist.
I believe it's the way the camera focuses on her body, as well as the dumb jiggle physics in idle and attack animations.
As well as the devs being pretty awful and sexist themselves.
User Banned (1 Month) : Dismissing concerns of sexism and misogyny over multiple posts
Are jiggle physics really that egregious? Should they be rock solid? They aren't as ridiculous as like old DOA games for example. That one clip I saw of her hanging on the ladder looked silly but it didn't exactly seem intentional considering they don't move like that in cutscenes.
The developer from Shift Up has 100% said that Eve was made the way that she is because it's what he wants. An attractive woman to look at. To say that Eve wasn't designed with the "male gaze" in mind is really disingenuous.
Famous quote from Kim himself, "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."
Not intentional? Can we please be honest here. Half their marketing campaign was based on her character design, her being in this skin tight suit and boobs and ass shots. Come on. There is a freaking naked suit in this game. Why do we need to defend this dev? Just say you like the game for it's merits and don't defend them about their problematic behaviours.
More egregious to me is how few make it look realistic and not unlike a plate of jell-o that someone won't stop shaking
But then it's not about realism but selling a hypsexed doll.
Why ask the question if you're just going to answer it with what you want to hear.