I’ve spent some time observing the discourse revolving around the highly anticipated PlayStation 5 exclusive hack-and-slash adventure game, Stellar Blade, particularly focusing on its protagonist, Eve. Being a female character and meeting the conventional standards of attractiveness in video games, Eve has sparked diverse reactions. While some admire her design and embrace her character wholeheartedly, others criticize her portrayal as excessively sexualized and question her necessity, even expressing feelings of discomfort or threat. It’s intriguing how a mere video game character can evoke such passionate responses and, in some cases, completely moronic.
As a gamer and gaming journalist weary of the ongoing turmoil, I feel compelled to share my perspective, regardless of whether it earns me criticism. Frankly, I’m indifferent to any backlash.
What the heck is going on
Let’s get this out because I know someone will keenly point this out. I am a guy—a male. I like looking at women, and there’s nothing sexier to me than a strong woman, and the physical assets are a bonus. And if you fear that, I don’t know what to say to you. So, when it comes to Eve, I don’t see anything wrong with her. Yes, her design looks like that of a supermodel or someone who was blessed with excellent genes, but is that so bad? We don’t see people complaining that a guy has too much rippling muscles, a big butt, or not enough, despite there being so many male characters that could find jobs in the model business if they were real-life characters. Is there too much double standard going on?
People are blowing this way out of proportion, yet this happens every time a super sexy character is released in a video game: I’m old enough to remember when Capcom and SNK released Chun-Li and Mai Shiranui to the world. It was mind-blowing. People were upset. How dare they introduce these sexy and strong female characters into the world. And yet, they were some of the most widely accepted video game characters ever. Strong. Mature. Cute. Sexy. Smart. Did I mention strong?
These characters helped to widen the once-shut door to allow for more characters to step through it, with other ironic characters such as Cammy, Bayonetta, 2B, Taki, Kitana, Ivy Valentine (Soul Calibur), Lara Croft, Jill Valentine (Resident Evil), Morrigan Aensland (Dark Stalkers/Vampire), Tifa Lockhart, and the list goes on. At one point, each of these characters was involved with some “controversy” over these characters being sexualized that eventually dissolved into the aether (or ether).
Speaking of Cammy, it’s funny that when Capcom returned Cammy’s iconic green military uniform, she debuted with Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers with Street Fighter 6. The amount of backlash was ambiguous, with so many people getting frustrated with Capcom due to their design choice. But I didn’t see people getting upset about sexy Dad Ryu or the return of Zanfief’s classic outfit that let us see his junk pushing against his trunks.
There is nothing really new to see here, at least to me. Just the noise of people who don’t like something, and instead of being rational, they grab their megaphones and yell as loud as they can, hoping others hear them and join in with them. We’ve heard it all before; sadly, this keeps happening. Something about history repeating itself.
Oh, and that nonsense about Eve simply being attractive to men. I don’t know where that came from because, as far as I know, and I’ve asked a few people, she’s equally attractive to males and females. But read on; I got a mind-blower for you.
All this noise over nothing
With Stellar Blade’s Eve, all people see are the booty and chest. Yes, it doesn’t help that people are showing off how she looks, climbing up and down ladders or zooming in on her body. But some people have showcased her combat abilities. Not to mention, we haven’t even seen the full game. And who cares if we haven’t? If you feel threatened by a sexy-looking video game character, you have other things to be concerned about.
As a journalist, I felt that when IGN France previewed the Stellar Blade demo, the journalist (Ben Ossola) who conducted that preview called the game bland. He even went as far as to claim that Eve was “doll sexualized by someone who has never seen a woman.” Yet, the ironic bit about all this is that the game’s director, Hyung-Tae Kim, has, in fact, seen a woman, as he’s married to Jiyun Chae, who serves as a concept artist at Shift Up. Yep, this lucky guy works with his wife. 
Jiyun Chae has also drawn sexualized characters for several of Shift Up’s prior games. She’s also quite attractive. What was I saying? Oh, right. Hyung-Tae Kim definitely saw a woman in his lifetime. Of course, once the internet caused an uproar over this silly preview, IGN France had the article amended and issued an “apology.”
On a personal note, this fucking hurts. Not only did Ben disrespect women for that idiotic quote, but they also pushed gaming journalism further down the hole that it’s been trying to dig itself out of. Whenever I see someone do something like this, I try to defend gaming journalism, as there are scores of amazing people out there. Yet, stuff like this hurts us all. People see this and go, “All gaming journalism is bad.” It’s a neverending battle and one that I don’t see journalism, even with all the good that people do, ever coming back from. It sucks. Damn, it sucks.
This reminds me of when the world first saw Bayonetta, the designs and the character in action for the first time, and the uproar was because she looked the way she did because of a male living out his fantasy. All that noise died down (mostly) when it was discovered that Bayonetta was not designed by a man but a woman, Mari Shimazaki. I still remember when that happened, the finger-pointing and the criticism by those who were sure they had platinum games by the throat.
Again, something about history repeating itself.
As for why Eve’s backside is so attractive, in so many words, Hyung-Tae Kim mentioned that we’ll be playing the majority of the game looking at it. So, why not make it look attractive? Sounds reasonable to me.
I’m tired of talking about this because it’s hurting my head. But let me leave you with one cool piece of trivia that perhaps not many know about. Did you know that Eve’s model is an actual person? Eve’s likeness is thanks to a 3D scan of the Korean model Shin Jae-Eun. While the face was built for the character, Shin Jae-Eun’s body and features are that of an actual person. So much for Eve not looking like an actual woman. She’s not even the first person to have a video game character modeled after them.
No, I won’t post images of Shin Jae-Eun, but she has an Instagram page. So, maybe do your comparisons there.
🟡Wanna know a fun fact before jumping into #NewYear2024 ?? 🧐
In #StellarBlade, our protagonist Eve body figure was actually based on a 3D scan of the Korean model Shin Jae-eun! 🤯🌟@StellarBlade currently has a release window scheduled for 2024, follow us to stay… pic.twitter.com/TsdkCFBviM
— Stellar Blade/ #NIKKE /Destiny Child/ 🙏 + 🎲 = 🍑 (@ShiftUpWorld) December 31, 2023
Before heading out, I want to clarify one thing for everyone. Looking at something or someone because they look appealing or sexy doesn’t make you weird or degenerate. It makes you human. Humans desire to look at things that attract us; it’s baked into our DNA. But I also agree that sometimes making things too sexualized goes a bit too far, but that isn’t what’s happened with Eve.
Signed…. a gamer and gaming journalist.
Stellar Blade will be released for the PlayStation 5 on April 26, 2024, and you can believe I’ll be playing it because I enjoyed the demo. If you haven’t played the demo and are on the fence about the game, be sure to check out our Stellar Blade demo impressions piece.
