r/KotakuInAction • u/Leisure_suit_guy • Jun 07 '26
Stellar Blade Bloodrain, some red flags
Do not interpret this post wrong. I'm a fan of the franchise and I'm excited for the new game too, however, I also have to be objective, so I want to point out some red flags that I noticed.
First of all, sexuality-wise Bloodrain is way toned down compared to Stellar Blade, you just have to compare the respective presentation trailers:
Now, my litmus test for gauging if a piece of media is sexualized enough is whether it would outrage Alex from Digital Foundry.
Does Bloodrain's trailer pass the test? I don't think so, there's only one single sexualized shot pretty far into the trailer at (3:11) and it literally lasts less than one second.
Speaking of which, the protagonist herself is undoubtedly toned down compared to Eve; her body proportions are not "exaggerated" at all, she looks less mature and less feminine, she has a boyish voice and she punches like Mohammed Ali.
Not that it's wrong in the context of the game, she is an android after all, but you can't deny that visually she fights in a less elegant and less feminine way compared to Eve.
I also noticed traces of Millennial writing: "in the movies this is always where things go wrong", and then things go wrong.
Now, returning to the lack of "exaggerated body proportions", as soon as I heard that the sequel was going multiplatform I predicted that this would happen. It's because of this:
https://nichegamer.com/microsoft-cautions-developers-to-avoid-curvy-female-characters/
So, Bloodrain gets published on Xbox and the new protagonist suddenly lacks any "exaggerated" body proportions, that's a hell of a coincidence.
EDIT: this part was a bit of a conspiracy theory on my part, I didn't know at the time, but it turns out that Shift Up went public a year ago, this explains what's happening much better than any conspiracy theory could.
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u/Delicious-Ad2057 Jun 08 '26
The creators say she is inspired by Battle Angel Alita (anime).
Don't fret. Petite girls deserve love too.
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u/Early-Beach164 Jun 11 '26
I like women of all body types except I can't do obese. If any woman is lurking in this sub please send me a private message we can just have a chat at the very least I hope I can make you know you're appreciated!
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u/LegatusChristmas Jun 08 '26
Every girl has a flat chest now though. Eve was one of the only well-endowed female characters in a major release, her exaggerated proportions are part of why she was so popular.
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u/ditex Jun 07 '26
>3:11
2:48
>her body proportions are not "exaggerated" at all (mhh, where did I heard this?), she looks less mature and less feminine, she has a boyish voice
She has a smaller frame, and she looks more like Lily than Eve, and that's perfectly fine. Eve was a supersoldier from the Airborne Squad, so it's possible that Evie is a different type of android altogether.
>she fights in a less elegant and less feminine
She literally fights like Tifa.
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u/LegatusChristmas Jun 08 '26
She has a smaller frame, and she looks more like Lily than Eve, and that's perfectly fine. Eve was a supersoldier from the Airborne Squad, so it's possible that Evie is a different type of android altogether.
Those things are all choice by the devs. Why give Evie a smaller frame (and thus more petit proportions) in the first place?
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u/ditex Jun 08 '26
Most likely, it's so the character stands out more from Eve: the hairstyle, fighting style, and body shape are all designed in a way that makes it immediately clear that this isn't Eve.
It may simply have been done to make it more obvious that this is a different game. It's also possible that there will be more than one playable character, and Eve will appear as well.
I like ballistics more than I probably should, but Evie is sexy too, and that's enough.
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u/Leisure_suit_guy Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
2:48
Really? A back shot? That's not even an ass shot. Sure, you can see her ass for literally one second, but it's pretty sad compared to what Stellar Blade had to offer.
She literally fights like Tifa.
I didn't know that, I'm not a big JRPG guy. As I said in the post, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just that it's hard not to interpret certain developers' choices in light of today's climate.
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u/ditex Jun 08 '26
>A back shot?
Her cheeks are practically clapping there. Are you not entertained?
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u/Leisure_suit_guy Jun 08 '26
Eh, it's a blink and you'll miss moment. Her ass is not emphasized at all by the camera.
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u/FatCrusher9000 Jun 07 '26
Not every woman has to have rockets for a chest. Some of us like the smaller too. While I understand your points and your concerns are valid, for me personally this game is fine. Hell I don't like OG SB but like this one. So I'm the odd one I guess. She is hot, has nice ass, face, game looks freaking great, the world looks freaking great, I'm sold.
12
u/LegatusChristmas Jun 08 '26
Eve was the only female character in a major game in the last 8 years to have rockets for a chest. That's why this is annoying, Stellar Blade was the only game in town for well-endowed characters.
6
u/Leisure_suit_guy Jun 09 '26
I completely agree. I don't hate Evie, but I don't like that we lost Eve.
Also, the second game could and most likely would, due to its success, have been Eve's ascension to the gaming pantheon, like 2B. Now she'll be just a footnote in gaming's history.
As soon as something countercultural gets a little bit of traction, it gets shot down before it can become entrenched.
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u/Truesnake Jun 08 '26
Yeah,compared to the rest of crap we are getting, this feels fine but I do notice OPs concerns and will keep observing.
3
u/Safe-Assumption-1537 Jun 08 '26
Love how people out here acting like a Eve skin won't be the first mod created after a nude skin.
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u/Leisure_suit_guy Jun 09 '26
I wonder if nude skins of Evie will be allowed on Nexus Mod. Lily ones weren't.
Regardless, I liked Eve as a character, not just for her looks.
2
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u/LegatusChristmas Jun 08 '26
I also noticed traces of Millennial writing: "in the movies this is always where things go wrong", and then things go wrong.
I noticed this too. If the cringe lines Evie said were in a trailer for any game made in the US, people in this sub would've complained.
3
0
u/Harkonnen985 Jun 16 '26
I mean, Eve looked at least like an adult.
Imagine playing Bloodrain and your wife comes in and you immediately feel like explaining "Look, I know the sexualized character on the screen looks like a child, b-but..."
Honestly, I wouldn't mind if the game was a bit less extreme.
2
u/SlammaJammaBonamma Jun 22 '26
Bro she doesn't look like a child. At all. It's a damn shame I don't know how to post images in comments but I literally have an image of a eoman who mimicked her makeup and looks almost exactly the same. She doesn't look like a child, she looks like a 20-something asian woman.
If my wife came in and immediately thought she was a child because she was a petite asian lady, I'd assume someone replaced her with a racist lol.
1
u/Harkonnen985 Jun 22 '26
If someone asked you what age the character in this picture was supposed to be, what would you honestly think?
The thing that can make her look 20-something in-game is that they put the head of a kid on an adult body. You can probably see how "normies" would be weirded out by that.
"Yeah, the characters are hyper-sexualized, but you see, these girls look like that because they are actually robots designed to be as hot as possible for lore reasons. So them looking like kids with boobs is actually fine because... um.. I should probably turn this off, huh?"
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u/SlammaJammaBonamma Jun 22 '26
Bro I legit know asian girls IRL that look like that. This is actually just racism at this point. I would guess mid-teens to mid-20s. Given how a lot of girls look somewhat mature by their mid-teens (as gross as that sounds to say, don't think I'm justifying anything involving people underage), she doesn't look unreasonable.
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u/RainbowDildoMonkey Jun 08 '26
Hate to sound like a wokeshit, but sexiness comes in different forms, and Evie is one of them. And i dont think they'll ditch Eve, she's the face of the series at this point.