Stellar Blade – Ms. Bella's World

6–9 minutes

Have you ever had one of those weeks where, despite things moving along in a perfectly normal manner, you just feel like something is off? You can’t put your finger on it, but it’s there. It hovers over everything like a giant rain cloud that won’t go away.

That’s rather how I’ve been feeling lately. Just that little bit off. It certainly doesn’t help that the weather keeps waffling between spring and something more resembling winter. It doesn’t help that I suffer from clinical depression which rears its head every so often. And I’m no doctor but I’ll almost guarantee that I need to start taking vitamin B again.

You’ve probably even noticed in my last few videos that I’m more low-key than usual. Not that I’m ever super bouncy cheery, loud and boisterous. LOL, perhaps I should be. I’m often told I’m too loud and boisterous in real life! There’s a fun fact for you.

My biggest issue with the channel right now, however, stares at me each time I open my weekly planner and look at the schedule. I have entirely too many games to juggle right now! Eleven games I’m juggling, none of which I get to play for much longer than the time I have allotted to record for each of them.

I tried to ignore the fact that I’m feeling stressed. Perhaps even a little overwhelmed. But there is no longer any ignoring it. I don’t know how I’m going to rearrange things. I don’t know what I should keep or get rid of.

I do know that I won’t be dumping LOTRO.

I don’t want to stop playing Grim Dawn.

I’m really enjoying Enshrouded.

And I’m finally having fun in Skyrim, now that I’ve stopped trying to chase the main quests and have just gone off adventuring.

Against the Storm is a Let’s Play and I’ve no problems with that, knowing that in Q3 of 2024 it’ll be replaced by the next game.

Now, for the rest …

Valheim – Gus and I have taken a break to enjoy LOTRO again while we wait for Ashlands to release and the subsequent need for mods to all be updated and fixed. And honestly, I think Gus is a tiny bit bored with the current biomes, considering he’s already beat every boss to date!

On a side note, I’m also thinking Gus would love Enshrouded, and he’s looked at the game and agrees, however we’re not certain he can even run it.

Broken Ranks returned, both because I had an idea for the series and because someone requested it. However, it’s not been well-received and I’ve not gotten any feedback as to why. I’ll finish out the current subscription for the game, playing it and seeing how I fared vs. being F2P, but if people still aren’t responding well I may retire the series completely.

Subnautica has also returned by request and, while I’m enjoying it again, I’m not getting enough time to explore in the game as I’d like. Hence, I’m feeling like I’m not progressing very fast and I’m frustrated.

Guild Wars 2. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the game still, even if I only get to play a little each week. I’m especially liking the Asura right now. But I’m not loving the game and, if I were honest, I don’t think I ever will /love/ the game. I like it well enough, certainly enjoy exploring the world and doing the story quests. Not much else to say here.

Last Epoch is one of those games that, while I love it, I’m going to be slow AF playing it. While I don’t mind, I’m not certain it makes for the most exciting videos. Well, maybe watching me die is exciting. I could do that more.

And of course there’s Dragon’s Dogma 2, though I guess in all fairness I don’t do videos for it. I mainly livestream it. However, it is a pretty slow moving RPG and I frequently find myself having to backtrack multiple times to find something. I know I’ve died plenty of times though and I imagine that’s entertainment enough. I know I find them funny, even the deaths caused by me being stupid.

That’s the whole list. It was a lot longer than I thought it’d be. I’ll have to figure out how to rearrange things, what to retire, what to keep.

And of course, games don’t stop getting released and I’ve always got my eye out for new and interesting ones!

With all of that out of the way, there have been little bits and bobs of gaming news that has interested me. Things like –

Stellar Blade released on April 26th, 2024 and was almost immediately patched, censoring some of Eve’s outfits. Who’s to blame for this? Did Shift Up straight up lie about not censoring the game? Did Sony force them to censor it? Whatever the reason, it’s stupid. And it’s even more stupid to see games journalists cheer about censorship. The same journalists, mind you that would cheer about jiggle physics in male characters in Baldur’s Gate 3. I’d love it if they’d stop with the hypocrisy, but I won’t hold my breath for that to happen.
Manor Lords, by Slavic Magic, also released on April 26th 2024 in early access. The medieval strategy simulation is created by a solo developer and, while I’ve not had a chance to delve deeply into the game yet, I’ve tinkered with it a bit. Once I’ve gotten some hours in we’ll look at it. The Steam reviews are mostly positive and the reviews on GOG (yes, it’s on GOG, where I got my copy) it’s holding a respectible 4.3/5 stars. However reviews at both platforms suggest it’s got a lot of room to grow still, so keep that in mind if you’re looking to buy it. It’s not cheap for an EA game, $40 USD, but until May 10th it’ll be on sale for 25% off at both GOG and Steam.
There seem to be some life simulation games on the horizon for people who’ve been long time Sims fans. And yes, I have played The Sims. I’ve owned every version from the original up to Sims 4, and various expansions & DLC for 2, 3 and 4. I love building stuff in the game mainly. However, games like Life by You (Early Access – June 04th, 2024), Vivaland (? 2024), Paralives (? 2025), and InZOI (? 202?) are set to try to dethrone the long running franchise. EA seems to be doing everything in its power to help them along, with lackluster packs and expansions for the Sims 4 that add very little for their price points except game breaking bugs. I, for one, have uninstalled Sim 4 and returned to played Sims 3 because even with the bugs in that version, it’s still a far more open and fun experience. We’ll see how Life by You, the first of the new batch, shapes up.
Little Kitty, Big City, an absolutely adorable looking game by Double Dagger Studio is set to release on May 9th, 2024. In the game, you play a cute little cat who needs to find his way home. It features colorful graphics and a cute protagonist who may just cause a little mayhem as he navigates the world. Definitely on my wishlist!
And speaking of cute games, Tales of the Shire by Wētā Workshop takes the concept of cozy games to Middle Earth. While I enjoy the occassional farming sim or other cozy games, I’ll admit I don’t tend to stick with them for long. Perhaps Tales of the Shire could be that special something to keep me engaged, but with no release date and not a whole lot of information to go on, it’s a wait and see. Still, it’s certainly on my wishlist.

That’s it. Well, except for one more thing. I’d like to shout out Kabrutus and his new website – DEI Detected. I look forward to seeing where he takes it in the future as people push back against the DEI that’s caused such a divide in various communities.

Like many gamers, I believe there’s a difference between organic diversity in games and the forced diversity and inclusion that is the hallmark of much of this DEI push.

Done organically and with thought and care, diversity can enhance a game’s world, its characters, and the story. But shoehorned in, with established characters race or gender bent, hyperfocus on immutable traits or preferences to the exclusion of everything else, creates unlikable characters, stale worlds, and boring stories.

And that, for the moment, shall conclude my rant.

Until next time, bye for now.

4–6 minutes

The upcoming release of a new game is nothing new and, in most cases, only special to those that have discovered it and find it interesting. Sometimes, however, a game gets so much press that it catches the attention of a wide audience. One such game is Stellar Blade, both for the right and wrong reasons.

Stellar Blade, a game by the Korean developer Shift Up is a story-driven action adventure that’s set to release on April 26th, 2024 to the Playstation 5. The main protagonist is Eve, a solider sent to fight an alien race and reclaim Earth. It’s action-packed, with beautiful graphics and an interesting story.

The opinion of most gamers was positive and the release of a demo only increased interest. The title quickly shot up to #1 in pre-orders for many countries.

Not everyone agrees though, with the majority of the conversation revolving around the physical appearance of Eve. She is, to be blunt, quite a stunning female with near perfect proportions shown off to great effect by her various outfits. So why the dissent? What are the arguments against Eve and why do some people seem to hate her?

Unrealistic Body Proportions –

The first arguments that I saw against Eve were the tired supposition that her figure depicts ‘unrealistic body proportions’. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as there are many women who have similar proportions to the character. In fact, she was based off scan of a real Korean model, Shin Jae-Eun. So to claim that Eve is unrealistic is to indirectly insult the woman she was based off of.

She Was ‘Created by someone who’s never seen a woman’ –

“The design of the game, in particular its character, highlights an obvious bias,” We’re going to beat up the alien, but if we can do it while pleasuring the eyes of the men, that’s a bonus.”

“And the result doesn’t really work. It’s not new, and other games have made the choice to highlight the assets of their female characters, but where Bayonetta bears an iconic character design, or 2B from NieR: Automata, inspired an entire generation of cosplayers, Stellar Blade’s Eve is just boring. A doll sexualized by someone who has never seen a woman.”
— From an article by IGN France, which has since been redacted and an apology issued by parent company, IGN

It clearly appears that the writer of this article didn’t do his due diligence before writing this derisive piece. Eve’s designer, game director Hyung-Tae Kim, has definitely seen a woman before, as evidenced by the fact that he is currently married to Shift Up concept artist Jiyun Chae.

Eve Is Made for the Male Gaze –

This is such a tired old argument and oversimplifies human attraction. Humans appreciate beautiful things. We love sunrises, sunsets, flowers, and, yes, beautiful people. And it’s not just men that think Eve is beautiful. Many female gamers are also excited to see a beautiful female protagonist, myself included. We love playing and seeing beautiful characters too.

Male Characters Aren’t Sexualized –

I can think of several male characters who are gorgeous, with rugged good looks and strong personalities. And yes, they are also sexualized by some people. Some that come to mind are Geralt from The Witcher, Cloud and Sephiroth from FF VII, Joel from The Last of Us, Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Alucard from Castlevania, Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat. There are many more examples, but those were the ones I thought of. I don’t recommend doing a search for the NSFW content created around male characters. Unless you really want to. You’re an adult, after all.

The Character Will Lead to Real Life Harm To Women

I swear, I saw this and my first thought was ‘huh?’ But apparently the IGN France Editor in Chief, had a multi-tweet thread on Twitter. According to the thread, women will be beaten, denigrated, or even contemplate suicide because of the unrealistic beauty standards expected by men.

The fact that this is a video game character appears to be lost on this person. I’ve yet to meet anyone, male or female, who looks at the pixels on their screen and goes ‘yeah, I need to go beat a woman’ because of them.

As for women harming themselves, their issues run far deeper than just an image on the screen. Mental health is a whole topic on its own, but I can say that there’s a lot more going on in the mind. Anyone who suffers from depression and believes that suicide is their only option, I highly encourage them to get help and a good place to start is to dial 988 and speak to someone. Things can get better.

So, with all that said, I’ve looked at some of the gameplay for Stellar Blade and it looks fun and challenging, with an interesting story. The fact that Eve and other female characters in the game are beautiful doesn’t detract from those things, and only adds to what appears will be a great experience for everyone. If it ever comes out for the PC, I may give it a try. Though, I can pretty much guarantee I’d suck at it to start.

And if Shift Up ever makes an MMO I’ll try it too, especially if the character creator lets us create characters like Eve. Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but no more wishful than wishing other game developers would take note and stop making ugly characters that no one wants to play. I know I don’t.

But what are your thoughts about Stellar Blade? Leave a comment below and let everyone know.

Until next time, bye for now!

Category: Stellar Blade

Channel News, Games, and More

Stellar Blade – The Beauty of Eve