Stellar Blade’s Sexy Costume Level Isn’t the Only Thing Hard

Male PS5 Enthusiasts Love the Game Because They Can See Girl Butt

After the misogynistic online harassment campaign known as “Gamergate,” it’s no secret that most online female gamers have been harassed at some point by male gamers who see them as interlopers and wannabes. Critics accuse them of being feminists bent on sissifying the until recently male-dominated leisure activity. Since nearly half of all current gamers worldwide are female, there’s no way their purchasing power can’t influence the industry, even with 61 percent of all gaming industry employees being male.

With these things in mind, the controversy already surrounding the upcoming and exclusive PlayStation 5 release of Stellar Blade, a new action-adventure game, is not surprising. Women buy 41-percent of PS4s and PS5s, so their investment in the system is not inconsequential, and they have some opinions about the game or, more precisely, on the conduct of them who play the game. Since the typical gamer is 35 years old and, regardless of sex, spends about the same amount of time gaming, there are a lot of opportunities to witness fellow gamers’ behavior.

@kmnm62 Every EVE Costume has Stat variations! #gaming #fypシ゚viralシ #Gameplay2024 #stellarblade #eve ♬ Never Lose Me - Flo Milli

At issue is Eve, the star of the new South Korean hack-and-slash game, Stellar Blade. Like Lara Croft of Tomb Raider, Miranda in Mass Effect 2, and other female characters in popular games, her creators crafted her with the assumption that it would primarily be men looking at her. Thus, she is super sexy and impractically attired. According to Rachel Ulatowski of The Mary Sue, at least one Discord server was abuzz with men praising the game’s accidentally released demo for not being “woke” even though it has a female lead character. The outcry by men about the less sexualized Rogue in X-Men ’97 is a notable comparison.

Part of what makes Stellar Blade a more “traditional” game in the minds of more conservative male players is a result of what game director Hyung-Tae Kim described as his team’s efforts to “put special attention on the back of the character because the player is always facing the back of the character when they’re playing. That’s what they see the most, so we thought this was pretty important.” In other words, players spend a lot of time staring at Eve’s butt and the Shift Up company wants to make sure it is worth ignoring the rest of the game’s graphics for.

Kim echoes the opinions of some porn consumers and content creators when he admits that “I don’t want to see something normal; I want to see something more ideal. I think that is very important in a form of entertainment. This is, after all, entertainment targeted for adults.”

According to Ulatowski and other female gamers, this is a problem because it reinforces an impossible standard, a sexist trope that declares a specific body type to be ideal and all others to be uninteresting or unworthy of representation. Further, this attitude can lead to online harassment of female gamers. In some cases, men ask them what they’re wearing as they game, while others send profane or obscene messages or threats.

Not only does Eve have a nice ass, but she also collects a variety of sexy outfits as she progresses through her adventures. The harder the level, the more revealing the garments, and the greater the risk of Eve suffering battle damage. The “Skin Suit,” for instance is nearly transparent and sacrifices Eve’s in-game shields.

Stellar Blade is one of the most anticipated single-player PS5 titles for 2024, with fans waiting since it was announced in 2019 as in development for the PS5 and Xbox One. It is set to be released on April 26, 2024.