Did someone play Stellar Blade and How Was it?

[Sporthand]

For me, the graphics and character design look fantastic.

I think the developers consider the gamers' opinions.

 

[_Eclips3_]

Looks like another one of those cheap indie games where they make your character an anime girl with fantasy abilities. It's pretty obvious why it's popular. 

Edited April 8 by _Eclips3_

[Dreddeth]

It's trying to hit the same notes as NieR: Automata with the waifu-bait protagonist and the "everything gets so much worse" story, but it feels insincere, and combat is a cheap and rough knockoff of other parry-focused games like Sekiro and Ghost of Tsushima.

In all seriousness, play NieR instead. It's the better game both mechanically and narratively.

Edited April 7 by Dreddeth

[Sporthand]

23 hours ago, _Eclips3_ said:

Looks like another one of those cheap indie games where they make you're character an anime girl with fantasy abilities. It's pretty obvious why it's popular. 

Anime girl?

[quxier]

23 hours ago, _Eclips3_ said:

Looks like another one of those cheap indie games

I must getting old if those kind of games looks cheap. :D

23 hours ago, _Eclips3_ said:

where they make you're character an anime girl with fantasy abilities. It's pretty obvious why it's popular. 

Is it because of "anime girl"? It's nice and all but I think gamers needs much more. When I've seen some parts of gameplay it picked my interest. It seems like action, combat and parkour game with some exploration. Those things I love. If it were 'anime girl playing chess' then I wouldn't bother looking at gameplay. No offense to chess enjoyers and their "secrets".

 

[TARINunit9]

On 2024-04-06 at 6:41 PM, _Eclips3_ said:

Looks like another one of those cheap indie games where they make you're character an anime girl with fantasy abilities. It's pretty obvious why it's popular. 

 

9 hours ago, Sporthand said:

Anime girl?

Stellar Blade's devs are Korean

I don't want to get too deep into this, but right now Korea is locked in a gender-driven culture war so intense that makes Twitter meltdowns look like a Kumbaya campfire song in comparison. Korean animation studios have had to hire riot police for protection, or issue apologies on national news for the way they draw hands, it's that crazy over there

Stellar Blade is focused firmly on the fanservice side of the culture war. Which I don't blame them for, it's usually the choice less likely to have someone who hates you posting vulgar words on the side of a blimp and circle it over your office (did I mention this conflict is insane yet?) At least, the default outfit is; I remember seeing some alternate outfits that cover the main character's glistening skin up, so I think some of their animators wanted to take their mind off the fanservice for a bit

[_Eclips3_]

9 hours ago, Sporthand said:

Anime girl?

Main character is an anime girl, yes.

[_Eclips3_]

16 minutes ago, TARINunit9 said:

 

Stellar Blade's devs are Korean

I don't want to get too deep into this, but right now Korea is locked in a gender-driven culture war so intense that makes Twitter meltdowns look like a Kumbaya campfire song in comparison. Korean animation studios have had to hire riot police for protection, or issue apologies on national news for the way they draw hands, it's that crazy over there

Stellar Blade is focused firmly on the fanservice side of the culture war. Which I don't blame them for, it's usually the choice less likely to have someone who hates you posting vulgar words on the side of a blimp and circle it over your office (did I mention this conflict is insane yet?) At least, the default outfit is; I remember seeing some alternate outfits that cover the main character's glistening skin up, so I think some of their animators wanted to take their mind off the fanservice for a bit

These gender wars are ridiculous, although I don't entirely blame them, they've always thought America as being that one cool country that they should copy so clearly they've been influenced in some way by big daddy America. 

Observe: 

 

9 hours ago, quxier said:

I must getting old if those kind of games looks cheap. :D

Is it because of "anime girl"? It's nice and all but I think gamers needs much more. When I've seen some parts of gameplay it picked my interest. It seems like action, combat and parkour game with some exploration. Those things I love. If it were 'anime girl playing chess' then I wouldn't bother looking at gameplay. No offense to chess enjoyers and their "secrets".

 

Using Unreal Engine 5.4 and its assets does tend to make the graphics look better with minimal effort.

Edited April 8 by _Eclips3_

[Sporthand]

49 minutes ago, _Eclips3_ said:

Main character is an anime girl, yes.

But a real woman was scanned as creating the main character, and they even showed a photo of the developer's wife resembling the protagonist. 

[Sporthand]

1 hour ago, TARINunit9 said:

 

Stellar Blade's devs are Korean

I don't want to get too deep into this, but right now Korea is locked in a gender-driven culture war so intense that makes Twitter meltdowns look like a Kumbaya campfire song in comparison. Korean animation studios have had to hire riot police for protection, or issue apologies on national news for the way they draw hands, it's that crazy over there

Stellar Blade is focused firmly on the fanservice side of the culture war. Which I don't blame them for, it's usually the choice less likely to have someone who hates you posting vulgar words on the side of a blimp and circle it over your office (did I mention this conflict is insane yet?) At least, the default outfit is; I remember seeing some alternate outfits that cover the main character's glistening skin up, so I think some of their animators wanted to take their mind off the fanservice for a bit

Hmm, it's not crazy out there since I lived there once! They are very nice and beautiful people out there! The game marketing strategy always serves customers. Not gender identity. We do not want to politicize the game but fun!

51 minutes ago, _Eclips3_ said:

These gender wars are ridiculous, although I don't entirely blame them, they've always thought America as being that one cool country that they should copy so clearly they've been influenced in some way by big daddy America. 

Observe: 

 

Using Unreal Engine 5.4 and its assets does tend to make the graphics look better with minimal effort.

They didn't even mention, they are worshipping the American. In that video, you show the Chinese people practicing English, but I don't know what you mean relevant to Korean.

 

[quxier]

11 minutes ago, _Eclips3_ said:

9 hours ago, quxier said:

I must getting old if those kind of games looks cheap. :D

Is it because of "anime girl"? It's nice and all but I think gamers needs much more. When I've seen some parts of gameplay it picked my interest. It seems like action, combat and parkour game with some exploration. Those things I love. If it were 'anime girl playing chess' then I wouldn't bother looking at gameplay. No offense to chess enjoyers and their "secrets".

 

Using Unreal Engine 5.4 assets does tend to make the graphics look better than they need to be and far more demanding.

Ah, right, I've used to see this games that looks ok but that has horrible performance.

[_Eclips3_]

2 hours ago, Sporthand said:

But a real woman was scanned as creating the main character, and they even showed a photo of the developer's wife resembling the protagonist. 

I don't get why people keep clinging to the fact that the developer has a wife, it's completely irrelevant. It keeps getting used as a reason for the game being good.

Edited April 8 by _Eclips3_

[_Eclips3_]

2 hours ago, Sporthand said:

Hmm, it's not crazy out there since I lived there once! They are very nice and beautiful people out there! The game marketing strategy always serves customers. Not gender identity. We do not want to politicize the game but fun!

They didn't even mention, they are worshipping the American. In that video, you show the Chinese people practicing English, but I don't know what you mean relevant to Korean.

 

I never said they were worshipping America but there clearly is a lot of influence based on things other than this video. One example is the American style music and rap.

[Sporthand]

24 minutes ago, _Eclips3_ said:

I don't get why people keep clinging to the fact that the developer has a wife, it's completely irrelevant. It keeps getting used as a reason for the game being good.

IGN France said that the developers of Steller Blade "never seen a woman." So, the developer shared the photo.

[Sporthand]

17 minutes ago, _Eclips3_ said:

I never said they were worshipping America but there clearly is a lot of influence based on things other than this video. One example is the American style music and rap.

American-style music and rap? What's the problem with that? I am listening to plenty of good pieces of music from the Americans.

[_Eclips3_]

2 hours ago, Sporthand said:

IGN France said that the developers of Steller Blade "never seen a woman." So, the developer shared the photo.

Does that improve the games quality?

2 hours ago, Sporthand said:

American-style music and rap? What's the problem with that? I am listening to plenty of good pieces of music from the Americans.

Not saying it's a problem, just proving there is a lot of American influence there which is probably what caused the gender wars there.

[Sporthand]

7 hours ago, _Eclips3_ said:

Does that improve the games quality?

Not saying it's a problem, just proving there is a lot of American influence there which is probably what caused the gender wars there.

I don't know what you mean by the game quality, while many gamers are supporting that game.

The Korean people have kept their traditions throughout history, and I don't know what the American influence means based on your perspective. 

[Dreddeth]

On 2024-04-08 at 5:23 PM, Sporthand said:

I don't know what you mean by the game quality, while many gamers are supporting that game.

The Korean people have kept their traditions throughout history, and I don't know what the American influence means based on your perspective. 

Generally, when people start talking about "gender wars," and especially when they start acting like whatever they're alluding to is uniquely American in origin, they're using it as a euphemism for the kind of  "personal opinions" which might start an actual fight irl.

Now, there could always be some other context I'm less familiar with, so let's not jump to any conclusions, but he's not helping his case by being so vague.

[Sporthand]

37 minutes ago, Dreddeth said:

Generally, when people start talking about "gender wars," and especially when they start acting like whatever they're alluding to is uniquely American in origin, they're using it as a euphemism for the kind of  "personal opinions" which might start an actual fight irl.

Now, there could always be some other context I'm less familiar with, so let's not jump to any conclusions, but he's not helping his case by being so vague.

Right. I am waiting for his actual opinion.  

[Dreddeth]

Returning to the topic at hand, though, it really felt as I was playing it that the devs couldn't decide whether they wanted to emulate Fromsoft or Platinum, and the gameplay's overall coherence definitely suffers for it. There's no stamina meter, and enemies appear in numbers that make relying on blocking (which seems to be directional, a weird choice here) unhelpful, but the dodge barely moves the character and feels like it has almost no I-frames. A number of enemy designs are also very hard to read, especially in the context of their environment, so I took a lot of "wait, that was an attack?" hits from spindly, dark-colored appendages in dark alleys.

Plus, nowhere *but* in a Fromsoft game is it still considered good action game design for enemies to circle around your camera and come at you from where you can't see. Even grandpappy Devil May Cry cut that out in its 4th installment.

As far as the story elements I've seen from the demo, Eve just isn't as strong or compelling a character from the get-go as, say, 2B, Bayonetta, or Kaine. Yet. She doesn't really feel like she has much agency in the narrative, and it's not in the poetic sense of the odds being arrayed against her, though they are. Instead, she feels pretty psychologically vulnerable, helpless almost, which admittedly does make sense on account of her being a traumatized rookie whose entire landing team got killed in front of her. It's a weird and off-putting kind of character to play in an action game, though.

Again, I'd personally skip it. I can see the ambition there, but it's just not worth new release prices when better games are available at a discount.

[dreadgame]

It's a good looking thirst trap but not for me.

I've never really enjoyed female protag games except a few as it's difficult to be immersed and be lost in the world and the seriousness of the MC and plot on rpg and action adventure genres especially when they shove those jiggly asses on your face all the time. Sure it can be amusing for a while then I get bored of the game and just lose interest.

Somehow it affects me differently on fighting genres like Soul Calibur even with the obvious sexualization as the plot is usually not the main focus anyway.

besides that, Koreans are known to have aesthetic elitist type of modern culture included in their animations and it's not a source of interest for myself either

[Sporthand]

13 hours ago, dreadgame said:

It's a good looking thirst trap but not for me.

I've never really enjoyed female protag games except a few as it's difficult to be immersed and be lost in the world and the seriousness of the MC and plot on rpg and action adventure genres especially when they shove those jiggly asses on your face all the time. Sure it can be amusing for a while then I get bored of the game and just lose interest.

Somehow it affects me differently on fighting genres like Soul Calibur even with the obvious sexualization as the plot is usually not the main focus anyway.

besides that, Koreans are known to have aesthetic elitist type of modern culture included in their animations and it's not a source of interest for myself either

I see the gameplay looks good to me when I see someone's actual gameplay footage, besides the beauty of the character.

And, I don't know why you mentioned Korean aesthetic elitist culture while talking about the beautiful characters in games. 💀

[dreadgame]

5 hours ago, Sporthand said:

I see the gameplay looks good to me when I see someone's actual gameplay footage, besides the beauty of the character.

And, I don't know why you mentioned Korean aesthetic elitist culture while talking about the beautiful characters in games. 💀

It's beautiful, I just don't care for this perspective as I can't relate and doesn't help immersion and I'm probably spoiled by personalization in modern games so i see the character as an exalted avatar of myself, usually. It's just how I escape the real world and probably why I'd rather play games like Dragon's Dogma over these kind of games or Bayonetta for another example.

Koreans have this culture of focusing too much on looks elitism and it transfers on their animations and art, you can just sense where the focus is with one look

[Sporthand]

17 hours ago, dreadgame said:

It's beautiful, I just don't care for this perspective as I can't relate and doesn't help immersion and I'm probably spoiled by personalization in modern games so i see the character as an exalted avatar of myself, usually. It's just how I escape the real world and probably why I'd rather play games like Dragon's Dogma over these kind of games or Bayonetta for another example.

Koreans have this culture of focusing too much on looks elitism and it transfers on their animations and art, you can just sense where the focus is with one look

I still don't understand why you brought the Korean culture into the beautiful character. Anyone can freely express and design their characters, regardless of culture and nationality.

[dreadgame]

8 hours ago, Sporthand said:

I still don't understand why you brought the Korean culture into the beautiful character. Anyone can freely express and design their characters, regardless of culture and nationality.

I'm not attacking it or not yet it if that's what you're trying to dig from this, i'm simply describing the common trend with modern korean animation and culture and you can see it on their shows and games, they're stale dolls at least from what i've seen and Stellar Blade is the same imo,
not because it lacks lizzo or abby in it but because the target demographic tends to be the same target demographic as nier and bayonetta

which is what the internet would probably call simps and their tastes are simply different from mine

Edited April 18 by dreadgame