Stellar Blade is a solid game surrounded by controversy and retardation. That's right I said it. Long story short, the combat is solid, the visuals are great (and I don't just mean Eve), the soundtrack slaps, and the challenge is pretty balanced. So why is it surrounded by controversy?
Well, on one side are the games "journalists" who admitted to liking the game but had to find some reason to complain about Eve for being just too sexy (as if being a beautiful and obviously feminine woman is a bad thing). These same people praised other games with nudity and no censorship, like the Last of Us 2 where the very masculine looking Abby get's railed from behind by a guy who resembles one of the higher ups at Naughty Dog who published the game. That all gets praised, but because Eve is hot, she appeals to the "male gaze" and that's just bad...for some reason. I've never understood why.
On the other side of the argument are those who hated some of the bait and switch tactics used in the final release of the game which have been argued to be a form of censorship. This isn't without some grain of credulity, I'm just not sure I agree it's censorship since the publisher has done this before with other games they've made such as Nikke. It's now reached a fever pitch where the journalists claim the anti-censorship crowd are just a bunch of horny gamers masturbating furiously while trying to play the game, and the anti-censorship side is not doing themselves any favors by complaining about very minute changes that have almost no impact on Eve's appearance in any of her long litany of costumes, many of which are even more titillating than the costumes which have been claimed to be censored. In other words, they're not doing themselves any favors and at this rate aren't going to beat the allegations of being just a bunch of coomer brained perverts. Personally, I think both sides are going too far in their positions, and need to chill out.
One thing I neglected to mention in the video is the story. It's...okay. It's not the greatest or most engaging story in the world and some of the twists you can sort of see coming from a mile away, but the main thrust of the story centers around the fate of humanity and what it actually means to be human. It doesn't quite go in the same direction as Nier Automata though there are certainly some inspirations. I prefer Nier's story better, but Stellar Blade's story isn't terrible. There is some vagueness to it, but if you do enough side quests and pick up collectibles, much of that is filled in through environmental storytelling, so take that for what it's worth. Overall, it's enjoyable so long as you tune out the nonsense surrounding it and don't let yourself become polarized.
