You can’t escape Stellar Blade on social media right now. Whether you’re playing Shift Up’s PS5 exclusive or not, you’ve likely seen various aspects of Eve’s visage on your feed. There’s no hiding that players are smitten with the game’s lead character, and even more so with the variety of outfits she can wear. To liberate Eve’s more revealing outfits, players are voting to “free Stellar Blade” from censorship.
The new PS5 game from Shift Up is barely a week old, and controversy is already brewing among Stellar Blade’s player base. Over on Change.org, a petition to “revert the censorship changes” across Eve’s wardrobe is currently approaching its goal of 35,000 votes. Currently, the petition has amassed 34,250 votes by disgruntled PS5 players. Stellar Blade players are also using video messages to express their frustrations.
Organized by Mark Kern, the former Red 5 Studios co-founder, says that “content has been censored from the original trailer version posted by Sony. We, as gamers, want this content back. We relied on it, we made the game the #1 pre-order worldwide because of it, and this is the true game we want.” Furthermore, Kern believes that the sci-fi Soulslike game is a “cultural beacon for freedom of expression in a time when game publishers like Sony are censoring games more than ever.”
If you’re curious about what has changed, here’s what you need to know. Review iterations of Stellar Blade supposedly showcase minor alterations of Eve’s outfits, unlike the disc version, which enables PS5 owners to access pre-patched versions. The changes to these outfits are small, adding lace to Eve’s torso on the Holiday Bunny outfit while covering more of her lower body on another.
Shift Up hasn’t commented on these aesthetic differences, but if the studio intends to scale back Eve’s perceived sex appeal, then perhaps these changes would be more notable.
Stellar Blade’s game director Hyung-Tae Kim believes players actively want to see an attractive protagonist. In an interview with GamesRadar earlier this year, Kim said, “when I play a game I would like to see someone better-looking than myself […] this is, after all, entertainment targeted for adults.” The game even rewards you for leaning into your thirstier nature. Stellar Blade is one of the best PS5 games of 2024 so far, and we recommend giving it a try – no matter which outfit you choose.
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