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The excitement grew ever stronger each day as the release of Stellar Blade, the latest game by SHIFT UP, the same studio behind the highly popular gacha game Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, approaches closer.
With only a few days left before Stellar Blade launches worldwide, we got a lovely opportunity to interview Hyung-Tae Kim, game director and CEO of SHIFT UP about the various aspects of the game, his company, and some hints for the future of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE as well.
[Interview slightly edited for clarity.]
Project EVE
First announced back in 2019, Stellar Blade was in development as Project Eve for quite some time. One of the biggest changes that stick out between the initial announcement and the current iteration of the game is EVE’s character design. As for the recent EVE’s drastic redesign, Kim has this to say:
“In the very beginning, the face and the body were illustration-based. We created these two based on the illustration first, but then we weren’t able to come up with that charm that we wanted to show through these characters. Then we moved on to the next, which was a 3D scan of the face and the body. We cast some models for these and then we scan them and take the data and try to implement them.”
“Especially for the face, we still weren’t able to capture that uniqueness of the character. It wasn’t the visual that we wanted and what we imagined in the mind, but then the body was okay. So for the 3D skin, we maintained the data there, but then we went back to the original modeling for the character, and that took some time to work on. So, even when each trailer was revealed, the characters changed a little bit. What we went through was the experience of coming up with the character that we wanted to present to the users.”
From Magna Carta to EVE
For those who are unaware, Hyung-Tae Kim has been in the game industry for quite some time, starting as an artist who contributed to character designs for the Magna Carta series back in the early 2000s. He was also best known for his work on the MMORPG Blade & Soul.
Given his portfolio, we asked if he has any specific design flair that he still keeps from throughout the years working on the Magna Carta series, especially in terms of inspiring his creative process when designing the characters in Stellar Blade.
Kim replied, “I started as an illustrator, so I always had that consistent taste in terms of visuals and the charm that kind of moves people, and putting that into a character design. That was the consistency that I’ve always had.”
“I was able to do that and present it to the audience through that unique style by how I express and use the light as well as the colors. But then at least this time, I wanted to do that, but still make it more acceptable and enjoyable to a wider audience. So I wanted to kind of balance that out and present to the world this time.”
Souls from the Start
One element of Stellar Blade that surprises the audience at first is how the combat is more in line with Souls-like as opposed to the hack-and-slash that players were expecting. Especially given the expectation set by NieR: Automata and Bayonetta, titles that share a similar vibe of having alluring ladies as the main stars. On the topic of the gameplay, Kim highlighted that the Souls-like style of combat was adopted right from the beginning of Stellar Blade.
“It was designed from the very beginning, the use of parry as well as learning the enemy’s movement and patterns, and that kind of creating that learning curve. That was always there from the very beginning. It’s just that as we developed the game, we didn’t want the game to turn into something only for the maniacs of action games. So we wanted to encourage and make it possible for the players to be able to combine any combos or equipment and then come up with their own playstyle.”
“In some cases, you can even come up with your own style that was not intended by the game. So in that way, for those who felt that Souls-like games or even Sekiro-like games might have felt a little too difficult, even those people can play this game without feeling any pressure. Another thing that we tried to do was to amplify the pleasantness that comes from combos and the skills when they’re being used.”
“We wanted to focus on that as well. In addition, you also get to control the level of difficulty of the game, and there’s also the action assist mode, which provides help for those people who find action games a little too difficult without losing the funness of the game. So even if you are someone who always thought action games are difficult, you’ll be able to enjoy the game until the very end, so you don’t need to worry.”
Input Delays
Keeping on topic about combat, some players have been experiencing some noticeable input delay and irresponsive controls while playing the demo. We questioned if it was perhaps intent to emphasize more strategic combat, to which Kim replied, “The responsiveness is actually being handled much faster than it, but then we felt that the quality of the motion, there might be some loss if the transitioning movement that continues up to the skill being used. If we skip that, then the overall quality will be lost a little bit. So we did adjust the timing of the motion a little bit, but then there might be some people that still feel this is a problem or it’s not the way it should be. So we are definitely improving this part.”
Sci-Fi and SHIFT UP
Something noticeable about SHIFT UP is that their titles tend to be based on science fiction, namely Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, the plan for the next AAA cross-platform game, and of course, Stellar Blade. We were curious if that is the theme that the team leans towards and if there are any plans for them to explore other genres.
“It wasn’t intended that all these games were set in a sci-fi setting, but then we found this genre to be very easy to portray the irony in the narrative by twisting the worldview. It provided a very good context for that and I also believe that this is a good worldview for the users to be able to focus solely on the gameplay as well. Will we continue sticking to this genre? We’re not sure, of course, there could be a possibility of other genres. Maybe it could be fantasy, or it could be set in a more modern era. We’ll see.”
Adam
Besides EVE, the game also features an interesting cast of characters, such as the likes of Tachy and Adam.
When it comes to designs and fun facts, Kim said, “For EVE, we already mentioned how she has evolved throughout the development period. For Adam, there also have been many trials in designing that character. Ultimately we ended up hiring a model to base the character of Adam. This model is Sen Mitsuji, he’s a Japanese model and when we found him, we thought that he has a cool, great look that we were looking for. To implement that in the game and for that character to blend in with other characters and interact in that world was an important task for us.”
“Another interesting thing is every time we come up with a new character and reveal it to the world, it’s interesting to see the responses and reactions from the Western part of the world. It was funny that they viewed Asian female characters as much younger than they actually are. The fact is Asian girls or women, their period of looking young is actually pretty long. So even when they reach their 30s and 40s, they might still look young from the Westerners’ perspective. So that was an interesting and surprising thing to discover.”
Soundtrack
Music has been one of the biggest highlights for Stellar Blade thus far and has been receiving much praise from players who played the demo. Speaking of the music, Kim noted that “In Korea, most games are fantasy-based and there’s not much that explored the sci-fi genres. But also in the beginning, it was our contemplation of what kind of music would suit the sci-fi setting and vibe. There have been a lot of trials and errors as well, but to implement the vibe that the worldview gives, as well as that dreamy-like atmosphere, we wanted to portray that and also use human vocals.”
“So over 100 songs were composed by both excellent in-house composers, as well as a studio called Monaca based in Japan. They also gave us some amazing work. So that’s another thing that the users can enjoy the soundtrack.”
Goddess of Victory: NIKKE
For fans of gacha games, SHIFT UP’s other title apart from Stellar Blade, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE is no doubt a very recognizable name as it is currently one of the most popular titles in the genre. The game is also celebrating its 1.5th anniversary this week and has always been known for its fair share of high-profile collaborations, which include NieR: Automata, Chainsaw Man, and Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World.
Knowing the game’s frequent collaborations, we asked Kim if there are any signs that EVE from Stellar Blade may show up at the Ark to join the Counters against the Raptures in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE at some point in the future.
Regarding any possible crossover between Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, Kim responded quickly, “Yes, absolutely! At the right time, we will be presenting a very high-quality crossover collaboration between the two. So it’s something that you can definitely look forward to.”
Here concludes the interview, and we would like to thank Hyung-Tae Kim for taking the time to answer all of our questions regarding Stellar Blade as well as SHIFT UP Corporation.
Stellar Blade is slated to launch exclusively on the PlayStation 5 on April 26, 2024, and a playable demo is now available on the PlayStation Store.
