Stellar Blade Controversy: Are Attractive Female Characters Unrealistic?

Stellar Blade’s release date is around the corner and for the past few days, there has been tons of drama surrounding the action game. In case you haven’t heard, Stellar Blade has an attractive main character. Her name is Eve and her clothes are revealing. She is curvy and wears skin-tight costumes.

Some people would leave it there and want to know more about the game. Is the gameplay any good? Is the soundtrack worth listening to or should I blast my favorite playlist while I play?

Attractive characters in gaming are nothing new but some people can’t accept that and see fit to make a problem. This has created something of a controversy surrounding Stellar Blade because these folks appear to believe their opinion is more important than everyone else’s. We have to wonder why they chose to pick on this game. What has changed to make beauty a bad thing?

IGN France Comments on Stellar Blade

IGN is supposed to be one of the top game journalism sites in the world. Despite this, when they wrote a review about Stellar Blade they thought it was appropriate to take a shot at the developers simply because the main character is attractive. They didn’t even attempt to be nice about the comment. This is what they had to say.

The design of the game, particularly its characters, highlights an obvious bias. We’re going to smash the alien, but if we can do it while pleasing these gentlemen, that’s a bonus. And the result is not really a success. It’s not new, and other games have chosen to highlight the strengths of their female characters, but where a Bayonetta stands out with an iconic character design, or a 2B from Nier Automata inspires an entire generation of cosplayers, Eve from Stellar Blade is just bland. A doll sexualized by someone you would think has never seen a woman.

Not only did the review have very few comments about how the gameplay felt, but they also chose to personally attack the developers. The strangest thing is that if they had done their research correctly, it would have been clear to them that the body of Eve is based on a scan of a real woman.

If they had taken the time to explain why they thought Eve wasn’t such a stand-out character as Bayonetta or 2B then people might have paid attention. What makes Eve bland in comparison to the rest? Instead, they chose to make a big deal about how she looks.

If Shift Up designed Eve as overweight and heavily armored with big muscles and tattoos across her face, some would have said she was empowering women. But since when has beauty become a bad thing? Are we going back in time to when women can't show some flesh without someone judging them?

Stellar Blade: Why is Eve Unrealistic?

To imply that Eve is unrealistic in any way is to imply that women cannot look attractive. Shin Jae-eun, the model behind Eve's body, is a real woman and there shouldn't be anything wrong with appreciating her beauty. Real women look like that. Not all women, but some. To say anything otherwise would be putting those people down. They deserve to see characters who look like them as much as everyone else. 

It's not news that gamers like to play attractive characters. It's the same when people like to watch attractive actors in movies. Why shouldn't Stellar Blade try and capitalize on what people like?

Everyone knows that sex sells. Both men and women enjoy playing games with attractive characters. Plenty of women like to look good and like their characters to look good. They are not alone in this opinion. And to say Shift Up created Stellar Blade with the goal of pleasing men is ridiculous. Besides making a new killer game, its goal is to make as much money as it possibly can.

Would this have been an issue if Eve was a man? If Shift Up had announced their main character is Steve? He could have a six-pack and huge muscles and nobody would have said a thing. Is the Witcher offensive to men? What about God of War? 

Stellar Blade's Director Comments on the Drama

Kim Hyung-Tae, the game's director, has commented on the controversy and I think it says everything we need to know about what he is thinking. 

I know that in the West, game characters have to be realistic in many ways and that there are numerous issues involved, such as gender and racial diversity. 

But Stellar Blade is only an entertainment and cultural work. I hope people will look at it as just another fun action game that has been released.

-Kim Hyung-Tae

Everyone will have an opinion on this subject and that is completely fine. Play Stellar Blade because you want to experience a great game or play it because you think Eve is attractive. Either way, Shift Up has done its job and has sold another copy. If we are honest, nobody plays a game because of attractive characters. Beautiful heroes can make a game better but it will never be the biggest selling point.