The invaluable Shaun dropped in November a very exhaustive look at Stellar Blade and at the manufactured culture war that Mark Kern/Grummz tried to recruit the game into in an attempt to revive Gamergate.
To summarize, an introduction to whom Mark is, his failed game project and the fake outrage is followed by quite measured review of Stellar Blade itself, including a look at the story, gameplay and design. Surprising no-one, Shaun is not very impressed, despite giving it a fair shake.
Of course my favorite part must be when he makes a point about NPCs having no reaction to Eve's outfit, by making her bring tragic news to an NPC while clad in a silly bikini. Which then extends into a short discussion of what's basically our blog's thesis, including examples of varying levels of ludonarrative dissonance caused by sexualized outfits in different games. Including this comment on the skimpy costume rhetoric:
"Of course it is up to your own judgment what you think is sufficient justification for any particular character outfit or design. And if you're happy to accept actually she has to be naked because she caught Clothes-Fall-Off Disease, then that's up to you honestly, I'm not going to argue with you."
I'm with Shaun here. Perhaps pretending that this sort of Thermian Argument rhetoric is serious media analysis goes a tiny bit over the line? Maybe admitting to being a horny, aimlessly angry gremlin would actually help guys like Mark and his audience to find some cheesy fun games they'd genuinely enjoy? Hell, he could just... actually deliver that game he promised them.
Or maybe they're just too commited to spewing anti-trans hate and other Nazi rhetoric at anything even remotely "PC/woke/DEI" in their eyes to even care about actual gaming, as our last related post elaborated.
~Ozzie















