I'm going to tell you a secret now. Please don't tell anyone, I'm relying on you. So you're done? Okay, then I'll say it now:
Stellar Blade (buy now €69.99 ) is good.
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I actually think: pretty good. Our tester Stefan liked it tooI fell even more in love with the mix of fluid action, coherent technology and a somewhat blatant but quite exciting story.
These are the things that define Stellar Blade for me, plus a decent amount of variety, surprisingly extensive quality-of-life features and a few other aspects.
The EVE angelium after Stellar Blade
…And then there's the matter of EVE, the main character, and to a lesser extent other female characters like Lily. But above all, EVE. Or should I say skin figure, because EVE shows a lot of skin – oh, I'll leave the puns alone.
Anyway, EVE is, to varying degrees depending on her outfit, but actually always pretty naked. And not only that, thanks to “realistic” body physics, and please put this “realistic” between the biggest quotation marks you can imagine, EVE's body wobbles and wobbles happily around so that every Jell-O wobbles with envy.
Source: ShiftUp
This over-sexualization of the main character is not what makes Stellar Blade. And it absolutely makes Stellar Blade.
Pretty good even without a butt
What I mean by that: EVE's design isn't a major factor in the game itself. Yes, the revealing clothes are one of the primary collectibles, and yes, some tracking shots in cutscenes make it better to send small children out of the room.
But apart from that, it's just relatively cheap, flashy sensationalism, and you spend most of your time on the true qualities of the game rather than gawking at virtual thighs. It's just like Nierespecially at Nier Automatathe game that more than clearly served as the inspiration for the design of Stellar Blade in every respect.
There the main character is also half naked, primarily for reasons of “because that's how it is”, and Stellar Blade goes the same way, just, as in some other aspects, a little clumsier.
Source: ShiftUp
And if Nier jumps off the cliff…
That's not why Nier Automata is a great game, because the local heroines 2B and A2 parade around naked. That's not why Stellar Blade is a great game, because EVE in her panties is sizzling. But they aren't either despite This circumstance is good, that would go too far.
Personally, I really don't need this soft porn parade and of course it is not unproblematic given the inherent sexism. My colleague Toni did this some time ago wrote a very smart opinion piece about itI highly recommend reading it.
As a cis man, it's not my place to say “that is or isn't sexist”, there are other people whose opinions are relevant in contrast to mine. No, I prefer to stick with the game itself, and regardless of the core of the potential nudity problem, I see its negative effects elsewhere: when assessing the quality of the game itself.
Postponed debate
Because, as I said at the beginning: Stellar Blade is a pretty good thing, and now that it's out, the review of the game is already happening also about gameplay, worldbuilding, combat system and so on. With emphasis on also.
And in advance? Well, in the last few months of intensive application and at the latest since the release of the demo, Stellar Blade was one thing above all: the game with the breast woman. Has anyone seriously talked about the game with regards to, well, the gaming part? Probably only in homeopathic doses.
No, it was about poet physics and the ironclad defense of one's own point of view: in one corner of the ring the group of those who criticize the sexist design, in the other corner the emotionally awakened screamers of “especially now!” , who blame the downfall of civilization on the fact that not every character looks like EVE and tell everyone on the Internet that you can't say anything more.