Since the release of Stellar Blade on April 26, one of the biggest discussions about the game has been on its censorship. Ironically, before the launch of the game, it was announced on X that the game would not be censored in all regions. However, players discovered the opposite when the game launched last weekend.
Now, Mark Kern who formerly worked for Blizzard Entertainment from 1997 to 2005 before co-founding Red 5 Studios has started a petition titled “Free Stellar Blade”. The petition which has been signed over 43,000 times at the time of writing is asking Shift Up Corporation to remove Stellar Blade censorship.
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“Stellar Blade is a phenomenal new game that just launched on PlayStation 5 worldwide,” read the description that followed the petition. “But it has a problem. The 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.”
“Stellar Blade is more than a game, it has become a cultural beacon for freedom of expression in a time where Game Publishers like Sony are censoring games more than ever. Stellar Blade was a breath of fresh air and gamer rallied behind it because it meant things were changing, getting better, and the voice of creative freedom was ringing loud and clear.
“But for reasons unknown, the game was censored, changes were made. What we received after our good faith purchase was not the same as advertised.
“We believe in the game, we believe in Shift Up, and we are asking to get the game we believed in. Revert the censorship changes, patch the game, and you will find that even more gamers will join you and support you!”
Image has emerged comparing the censored and uncensored Stellar Blade protagonist
Players of Stellar Blade took to social media to point out how some of Eve’s (the protagonist in the game) outfits have been censored to hide her cleavage, as well as the introduction of other elements to cover the heroine up.
One Reddit user shared a side-by-side comparison that showed how some of the outfits were modified to cover the protagonist’s previously exposed curves. The updated outfit was less revealing compared to the original version.
The outfit that the Redditor brought to the fore looked like a one-piece swimsuit which showed off Eve’s hips and cleavage. However, in the updated version of the outfit, another layer was added underneath that covered much of the hips as well as introduced a net mesh that covered the cleavage.
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This is not the first controversy that has trailed the game, Prior to its release, there has been a lot of talk around the “objectification” of the protagonist who happened to be a 3D scan of an actual Korean model.
These controversies have all contributed to the buzz created around the game before its launch. In fact, Shift Up announced earlier this month that some players had invested over 50 hours in Stellar Blade’s demo which the company launched towards the end of March.
Beyond Stellar Blade’s censorship
Now that Stellar Blade has launched, players are airing other issues they discovered with the game including a supposed input lag. In an interview with 4Gamer, the game’s director Kim Hyung-Tae addressed the input lag saying it was deliberate to “fit the game’s style of animation”.
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“In Stellar Blade, there is about a 0.5-second lag between the moment you press the button and the moment the skill is visible on-screen,” Hyung-Tae said, as translated by Automaton. “It’s a time lag that can’t be reduced any further.”
“We made it so that the character’s movement does not get triggered immediately upon button press, as we felt this would not fit the game’s style of animation. Thus, we made it so that the skill itself is activated the moment you press the button, but the animation of the movement follows afterward.”
