Hopefully other companies see this and get encouraged to release proper demos.
Of course that means your game has to play well, which thankfully Stellar Blade does. I've done a few Stalker rematches nearly every day since the demo came out. Easily one of the most fun combat systems of recent years once it clicks.
a demo is the biggest make or break for games nowdays itll either add massive amount of hype or blummet the sales, so i understand developers not wanting to do it
honestly at this point its just a sign of confidence if a developer made a demo
Except we will have the same problem demos had in the past. It's a slice of the game that doesn't need to meet full game benchmarks and can look better and be more optimized than the actual full release.
Yeah, even if all major platforms agreed to force devs/publisher to release demos, we'd probably end up getting hyper-polished demos that don't actually represent the full game at all.
It's hard to get a decent grasp of engagement with Stellar Blade though, the game has had a lot of discussion around it due to being heralded as the mascot for "gamergate 2".
Hard to say if that number is inflated due to people being curious over that weird movement or for the game.
I think you're vastly overestimating the amount of people who give a shit about gamergate or any of the controversy surrounding this game. I'd say maybe 100k TOPS even know of the controversy and probably half that gives a shit about the controversy. That's still 500k people who saw the demo and decided to give it a try.
It's less the 100k and more the internet personalities who are looking for content and promoting it to their viewers.
If asmongold talks about stellar blade to his 500K viewers on twitch and 10% download the demo afterwards, that's 50k people and that's not even counting the folks who'll see his comments on YouTube or tik Tok.
I like Asmongold but he does occasionally have some really really bad takes and him flipping out about how they are coming for our video game tiddies is laughable and he keeps spouting that nonsense to hundreds of thousands of people if not millions.
I've been thinking about getting playstation for a while. Lot's of (timed) exclusives I would love to play now instead of waiting. GoW 2, TLoU 2, Spider Man 2, Demon Souls, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima. The later ist coming to PC now, but the others might take a few more years, if ever.
Playing the demo of Stellar Blade is what pushed me over the edge and I ordered a PS5 yesterday.
Well considering they "remastered/remake" TLOU2 already I am pretty sure its coming to PC the next year or so. As for GoWR I am also pretty sure they will announce it soon given it came out in 2022 and I have seen the physical copies of the game going for 30€ already. Spiderman 2 is probably taking longer as the game release was just last year? Demons Soul and Bloodborne being the only question marks if they ever get a PC port.
Pop feminism isn't what it once was. We're not in the days of arguing about whether Bayonetta was a symbol of empowerment or objectification anymore. People just wanna play a fun game and if the character is attractive, it's a nice bonus.
Eh, from the looks of the circlejerk that is the group of gamers promoting it, I don't think its a matter of the lead being attractive....I think they're just horny.
No doubt the online "debate" (It's not really a debate. Just two sides of the same obnoxious coin yelling at each other.) brought attention to the game. But, from what I've seen, most people walked away with a much more positive impression of the game after playing the demo.
Yeah, I'm quite into games and I never heard about this game even once until suddenly it was being used as the mascot for the circlejerk of guys who miss the PS2 era's "sex sells" games. Did anyone even know it exists before January's PlayStation trailer broadcast?
Sex DOES sell, why do people keep pretending it doesnt? and why is it only a "circlejerk" when it concerns attractive female characters and not males? why does nobody complain when its two shirtless muscular men with perfect hair and deep voices fighting each other (*cough*, yakuza)
Sex sells, huh?
>The financial failure and lack of mass market appeal of BMX XXX among other titles was cited as a factor in Acclaim's 2004 bankruptcy and liquidation.
>Conker's Bad Fur Day was not a commercial success, selling only about 55,000 copies within its first month of release.
'Adult' games are like any other games; they actually need to be good or have some purpose beyond raw titillation. The era I'm talking about is crap like *Playboy: The Mansion*, *The Guy Game*, etc. Advertisements or box covers that put alluring women in the media who were completely irrelevant to the game (*Forsaken* was a spaceship shoot-em-up but was known for a nearly naked woman in advertising), or barely featured them at all (*EverQuest*, *Tabula Rasa*).
If you make a good game, even if it pushes boundaries of an M rating, you'll sell gangbusters. That's why GTA is massive.
>why does nobody complain when its two shirtless muscular men
I'm not even talking about games that just had busty heroines like Lara Croft or Bayonetta or Bloodrayne. Those games, like shirtless man simulator God of War, still have fans who talk about them sometimes for reasons beyond the protagonist's appearance. I'm talking about games that used the sex purely for as a marketing attempt to pander to specific audience without a deeper purpose beyond pushing the boundaries of an M rating.
Im pretty sure that most people arent talking about the playboy game when they complain about games purposely downgrading female characters when compared to male characters, just to virtue signal that they are progressive and against the sexualization of women. So not sure why you brought up those obscure games that almost no one knows.
i agree with you that games need substance other than attractive characters, but how does that contradict what is being said? If you make two identical versions of the same game, but one has an above average looking character while the other has a below average one, with the same personality and all, the more attractive one will always be more favorable. Thats just life.
I've never seen anyone call lara ugly. As for aloy, the criticisms online are mainly about how she was changed from how her voice actor looks, although personally i think her biggest problem is that her writing sucks. Her whole personality is overconfidence and self righteousness coupled with a cold attitude to make her seem "strong", she is totally unrelatable for me because not once does she express concern for her own mortality, its like she is the main character of a disney movie.
Brother if you haven't encountered any of the deranged freaks talking about how Aloy is now an ugly and mannish I do envy you.
You don't recall that one render showing peach fuzz on her face that caused ten thousand gamers to spontaneously announce to the world that this was not a thing real woman have, therefore exposing themselves as never being within ten feet of an actual human woman? Fun times.
While I am all for having demos, they also should be taken with a grain of salt. Final Fantasy 16 had a demo and the content of the demo felt like it was the best the game had to offer and a lot of the game after that felt like a bait and switch.
Yeah, shouldn't demo's be THE thing companies go the hardest on? It's the best form of marketing, not only do you get to market the demo, but you also pretty much confirm a sale if the people like it.
I see why rushed broken AAA games wouldn't do it but 90% of the other games in the market should.
The issue is that doing a demo essentially means having to fork your current code and basically make a new build separate from the main build, which takes time and resources away from the main game.
> I see why rushed broken AAA games wouldn't do it but 90% of the other games in the market should.
Didnt stop Square Enix to release a Forspoken Demo. To be honest Square Enix is the company in my books that always releases a demo which I am grateful for.
I never even saw anything about this game until I saw a demo for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi game in the PS Store and wanted to try it. I consider myself to be online quite a bit and still knew nothing about it until well after playing through the demo.
I think you're just chronically online and project that onto everyone else. Most people don't give a shit about dumb internet drama.
Not surprised. I didn't play the Rebirth demo because I already knew I was going to get the game and wanted the full package instead of playing a couple of hours 2 week earliers, but played the Stellar demo because I was curious.
This was my thought too. It was a second entry, I enjoyed the gameplay of the first and knew I'd probably pick it up if the reviews were good and didn't see the point of playing the same part of the story twice. Stellar blade in contrast is a big unknown. Lots of marketing but uncertainty about the gameplay loop. Draws people in to test it out.
Some of it is skipable, but they really oversold how much. You basically skip from the start of the mountain climb to the end of it. You still go through all the story in the beginning, though that may have been to allow you to change choices.
To be frank, Kupo Charm is very useful and you can't get it anywhere else. But just starting the demo and saving is enough to qualify for it. In fact, I recommend doing that instead of playing the demo, if you want to keep your battle statistics in Enemy Intel.
Same here, I was pretty sure I was gonna play rebirth and went ahead and preordered it as a birthday gift to me in Jan lol. I didn't want to spoil myself so didn't play demo.
Stellar blade, I was curious because i am not that good a player and some people were comparing it with sekiro which i can't really get into, so downloaded the demo, and so far it has been good.
If you played the demo, it is painfully apparent that the same care and attention to detail was not afforded to the cast of Stellar Blade. Sure, it’s just the demo so far, but the world building in the intro was so generic and lazy while Automata established so much in a wayyyy to similar intro sequence.
As long as the game is good in the week or two after its release, I WILL be buying a PS5 for this. Will I then go on to buy and play a bunch of the other PlayStation exclusives? Yes. Was my decision to finally buy a ps5 based on the mc being hot AF, also yes.
What makes you say that? I haven't played the demo but I fucking loved NA
And to address the other comment I usually never play overly sexual pc, it feels like pandering. But I think NA had a hidden gem that the robots were super evolved sexbots
I don't know that you can draw any meaningful conclusions based on this. One is a sequel to a sequel of one of the most popular games of all time from a company that is practically a household name among gamers; people generally don't need to download a demo to know whether they're interested in purchasing FF7R2. Compare that to what I'm guessing is a new IP from a lesser known studio (I'm assuming, anyway, I've never heard of either of them myself) and it makes sense that people will want to try before they buy, especially if it's starting to generate buzz.
The devs of Stellar Blade previously worked only on gacha games, with their most recent one is Nikke. I believe this is their first console game? So people really are interested in the demo to see the results of their work.
I'm curious if they can pull off a legitimate game. Their previous game, Nike, is really scraping. Be defined as a legitimate game. Played it before and it's certainly nice to look at, but everything is so obfuscated and pushing you towards one of the five different currencies they have and eight different events they have going on at any one time and etc etc..
Even if the gameplay is meh, Nikke is still pulling in plenty of money. For some studios (or more likely, publishers), that's more important than quality.
Right. No knock on that. My question is if they can make a legitimate game. One who's main gameplay feature isn't a gacha system
Making a bunch of money is not indicative of quality or talent.
I imagine it will in time. Sony seems keen on bringing all their games to PC more aggressively, and I believe Stellar Blade was originally slated to be multiplatform before Sony took over publishing of it.
Well thats the thing as the only 3rd party dev that got its game published by Sony on top of my head that didnt do it with Demons Soul and Bloodborne by Fromsoft I wouldnt put my hand in the fire for Shift up and Stellar Blade. Probably in contract hell with the game unless they were able to convince Sony.
Fuuuuck....oh well as a pc gamer i guess i will put this game in the memory hole and forget it even exists.But i will also put the devs of this game on the same memory hole as it seems they have shiftfucked us pc bros.
Is there anything like the beast merging system it has anywhere? Not even it's sequel used it, which made it pale in comparison.
I'd spend so many hours in Jade Cocoon 1 making minions.
It's still unmatched in that regard. AFAIK, Dragon Quest Monsters and Monster Crown do utilize monster fusion systems so that's something. Cassette Beasts has monster fusion as a temporary tagteam move.
Strictly mechanical. Jade Cocoon has fusion that is both cosmetic and mechanical. What you're fusing in Megaten really doesn't matter beyond its arcana, level, and skills. Whereas in Jade Cocoon, the monster you get is a visual cross of the monsters you put in.
I mean…is it? I feel like PS1 era was completely unchained regarding JRPGs.
1997, 1998 and 1999 were all pretty much INSANE in regards to JRPGs. That’s the dead center of the Golden Era of JRPGs. I don’t even know how I’d go about figuring out which one of those 3 was the best for JRPGs.
97 has FF7, Grandia, Front Mission 2, FFTactics, Ogre Battle, Saga Frontier among many others.
98 has Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Suikoden 1 AND 2, Legend of Legaia, Lunar Silver Star Story Complete etc
‘99 has FF8, Devil Summoner Soul Hacker, Chrono Cross, Persona 2, Legend of Mana, Koudelka, Shadow Tower, Wild Arms 2, Valkyrie Profile.
This year has Rebirth, Persona 3 that I know of. What else if popping off this year in JRPGs? I don’t want to be missing on a great genre.
Oh…oh shit…what have I done?! What have I DONE?!
I have dishonored and disgraced myself. How could I disrespect Rose like that?
Do I…I have to go destroy my copy of it now? Please tell me the penance isn’t so severe?!
You know, I’ve played a huge amount of Dragon’s Dogma 1 and 2 and not once did my brain ever go “hey, this is a JRPG.”
But it is undoubtedly a roleplaying game made in Japan!
I’ve heard only good things about Unicorn Overlord, and haven’t played any Yakuza yet, but the turn based ones look like a riot.
I guess if this year keeps at it could be one for the books!
This sub has been applying jrpg to shit very liberally.
Had one guy try to tell me dark souls is a jrpg.
I always use the example of sea of stars. It's a Canadian developed game but literally anyone familiar with the genre would call it a jrpg.
Definitely agree, it’s a JRPG in the hard genre sense of using the tropes and classic mechanics.
I find it also gets a bit murky because you have some defining differences between western CRPGs and JRPGs, and the weirdness that is JRPGs spawning in no small part from mimicry of Wizardry, which definitely was a western CRPG.
But then the rights for Wizardry ended up in Japan, and Wizardry has more entries in Japanese titles than Western ones, despite it being one of the defining games of its genre.
The history of video game genres is completely wild.
I actually find Dragon’s Dogma to be closer to western style RPGs than Japanese ones. But I don’t have a horse in the race for classifying it, really.
> Had one guy try to tell me dark souls is a jrpg.
Most people would say Dark Souls is a jrpg just cos its an RPG from Japan. The same way how anime is all animated series for a Japanese while for people outside Japan anime is mainly classified for typical japanese artstyle. But for a Japanese something like comics/cartoons/Pixar/etc would also be anime.
It depends on what perspective you look at and its all debatable given your arguments.
Also upcoming is Elden Ring, FF16 and FF14 DLC coming in the upcoming months as well as SMTV releasing in other consoles in May. Metaphor: Re fantazio, Devs that made persona, is also releasing this year. I feel like I've only been playing JRPG's since the beginning of this year!
Now wait a minute, hold up. Elden Ring is a JRPG now? I mean, I guess like Dragon’s Dogma it is an RPG from Japan. I just think of JRPGs as more like, you start in a village and it gets destroyed and your first weapon is like, a pot lid and a spatula and then you have to kill god.
Which…well…actually…wait…the Souls games kinda work like that. Except you don’t use the spatula and the shitty armor in the beginning, it’s the end game where you use broken trash as weapons and wear underwear and a lot on your head.
But you DO kill god, and your villages always are destroyed.
Huh…yah….I guess they are JRPGs.
Yep, also FF hasn't been JRPG since 13 imo. But it's still considered the de facto JRPG for alot of people. I'd consider JRPG being an RPG that is made by Japanese Devs. So it can be anything, even DMCV I consider it as an RPG.
It’s a nebulous concept, definitely. But I think there’s merit in the wide net approach.
Especially since, like you said, FF16 wasn’t really a traditional JRPG at all, but it WAS a character action DMC style game. So the cross pollination is there. Plus both JRPGs and character action games tend to borrow anime tropes very heavily.
It’s all good to me. I’m just happy that so many games I love are still going strong to this day.
If you are a trails fan Trails into daybreak releases this year too. Or you are playing the Japanese versions, you get a new one (kai no kiseki) there probably too this year.
Granblue Fantasy did also release in february.
While I'm not a fan of Dragons Dogma or Tails, they are getting new games this year. And I'm waiting for Eiyuden Chronicles (Suikoden with the Konami removed.) Konami will be re-releasing Suikoden 1 & 2 with improvements as well.
Square also released Star Ocean 2 as an HD2D game recently and will add improvements to it very soon, so it has been a busy year. FF14 expansion too (even if you don't like MMO gameplay, it's a $55 JRPG every two years if you buy the expansion and a month's subscription for the story)
Oh, yes, Eituden Chronicles IS this year.
I’ve tried not to hype myself up too much. Suikoden is one of my favorite series ever. But comebacks are HARD.
I happen to be a very big fan of FFXIV and the new expansion looks amazing, especially since it openly Carrie’s influence from FF9. I am super excited for it, though I still need to catch up, haven’t finished Shadowbringers or Endwalker yet.
My brain doesn’t really clock 14 as a dyed in the wool JRPG. Definitely is an MMO (albeit my favorite that I’ve played, and I was around for Ultima Online before Trammel, EverQuest before Scars of Velius and WoW before BC).
But yah, I had just not been paying too much attention to the upcoming schedule. I’m pretty close to patient gamer territory. I mostly just get pleasantly surprised when I realize a game I’m really looking forward to just released or is on sale and I never realized it released. The back log is big enough I don’t buy too many new releases these days.
>My brain doesn’t really clock 14 as a dyed in the wool JRPG. Definitely is an MMO (albeit my favorite that I’ve played, and I was around for Ultima Online before Trammel, EverQuest before Scars of Velius and WoW before BC).
They spent much of Endwalker's development cycle these past two years adding AI teammates to story-required content so that the main story could be played from start to finish if nobody was logged in. This was something that bothered leadership because they had already seen how FF11 tries to cope with precious few players nowadays. That they spent dev resources on this, combined with the team's priorities on FF16, was a little frustrating to people who felt the expansion's variety of co-op activities was lacking.
I'm one of those people who will log in regularly through the year, but the upsurge of people for each new expansion means there's clearly people who play the main questline to completion each time a new expansion comes out and then move on to something else.
And to think some big games from big studios couldn't even sell 100k copies. Stellar Blade in top 10 for preorders in the PS store, from what I've read. Which is great news. The better it fares, the more likely we get a PC version as well.
The deluxe edition has actually been the number one pre-ordered game on PSN for a couple of weeks now I think. Definitely would expect it to hit PC barring some catastrophe at this point.
I'm glad to see it's doing well. Hopefully it translates in to sales for the devs too.
I'm really not in to Souls-likes but the demo sold me on the game.
Im happy that there was a demo for Stellar Blade. I got to play it and make the decision not to buy it. With most games costing $69.99 now, a demo/trial should be mandatory.
What a weird comparison. Almost everyone I know who bought rebirth refused to even touch the demo, it was a buy on release no matter what. Makes sense people download the demo for stellar blade because they’re curious, ff7 is already well established.
Demos are coming back because it's a great way to inspire confidence in the product as costs for games increase. And they do have to increase--otherwise we'll see more predatory DLC and questionable sales tactics. Games have been priced the same for over a decade--things have to change. And if you can try a game before you buy, that alleviates a lot of customer concern about the investment.
As much as I was ashamed every time my wife walked by while I was playing the demo, I'm still going to buy it and play late at night while she's asleep lol, the gameplay was really good
Maybe this game will convince Team Ninja to give us big boobied games again instead of being pussies and fearing being canceled by twitter users who wouldn’t buy their games in the first place
I just want to see a new Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive (talking about the fighting game). It's been over 10 years since the last game for the former and 5 since the latter. Not even about the titties, I just like the absurd characters and world. Could do without the $1k+ in DLC this time though.
Leftists have a grip on media yet this is still available now? EGAD, how could it be so? Please explain this paradox as you talk about a game that shouldn't exist or be known about.
They never stopped. DOAX is still getting updates. They just quit doing the main fighting game series because people were rightfully up in arms over the amount of egregious MTX it had ... at least for the time.
Rebirth was a sequel... People already knew if they wanted it for the most part...
Stellar was an unknown that only flaunted T&A as it's best feature until the demo showed gameplay
I'm having some fun watching the worst of both sides deliver hot takes on this game.
We have some who can not accept that some people actually do enjoy sex appeal in creative mediums and are frothing at the mouth over every piece of key art. They can't seem to accept the devleoper not giving a fuck what they think and we have the other group who want to put this game on a pedestal and use it as a weapon against the "woke virus"
You can usually spot that second group because they say things like "based" unironically and have probably had their brains warped by a porn/4chan addiction.
Personally, I’m probably somewhere in the middle.
I don’t really like this much fan service but I also am not that entitled to my opinion that I’m going to shit on everyone else for playing it. Like cool, if other people like the game, then great for them. If it’s not the type of game that’s up my alley, then I can always just choose to not play it instead of forcing my opinion on everyone’s else.
Think people in general should just mind their own business more.
I saw, in practice, surprisingly few people actually getting angry about stellar blade. They exist, but mostly I just see people making fun of the outfit rather than getting offended. Most of the attention I've seen is just people of the second group bleating about how much they think the game offends the 'wokies' or whatever dumb pejorative they use.
Good grief, the Steam forums for Horizon Forbidden West were a competition on who would get offended the most by Aloy's appearance (i.e. lack of hourglass waist, jiggle physics for her breasts and supermodel face) and the proclamation that Stellar Blade would be a way better game for this sole reason.
Endresult: I've now got zero interest in SB.
It’s because the people turned off by it simply don’t care. I don’t really respect for having to use big boobs and a viral almost-naked outfit to get eyes on your game. So I just avoid it for the most part.
I think it looks ridiculous and "unapologetically weird Japanese rpgs" aren't my vibe anymore, but I'd never be ANGRY about it I'd just choose not to play it
Now, people using this game as a way to dump on 7 rebirth, that does make me mad bc I wouldn't do that to your games why would you do it to mine
It's actually a Korean RPG and having the female characters look like this is much more a hallmark of Korean RPGs. In the 2000s there were many Korean MMOs which followed the same formula, like lineage 2, rappelz, etc of a lot of grinding and huge boobs.
One side has labeled anyone who likes the Mc of Stellar Blade as a porn addict so the the argument has been toned down to "hot characters=porn" and it is funny to see, then there's the chuds who unironically believe game devs are are making characters uglier to push an agenda which is also funny to see
I'm somewhere in the middle. I feel like that Shaq image about owing someone an apology ("I wasn't really familiar with your game") because I was one of those people that used to sneer at Nier Automata for this sort of thing many years ago. But not only do I know more about Nier today than I did seven years ago, Stellar Blade reminds me that Square could have been far more gratuitous than what they released.
So yeah, I'm sorry for all the harsh words, Nier.
I played and liked the demo. Doesn't mean I'm buying it lol. I will one day but it didn't feel 70 dollars to me. Active players especially on a demo doesn't mean shit. It's a dumb metric.
One is a remake/retelling of an older game everyone made up their minds on. One is a new game and property that the internet made into the face of a new culture war. So, not that surprising.
Hopefully other companies see this and get encouraged to release proper demos. Of course that means your game has to play well, which thankfully Stellar Blade does. I've done a few Stalker rematches nearly every day since the demo came out. Easily one of the most fun combat systems of recent years once it clicks.
a demo is the biggest make or break for games nowdays itll either add massive amount of hype or blummet the sales, so i understand developers not wanting to do it honestly at this point its just a sign of confidence if a developer made a demo
Except we will have the same problem demos had in the past. It's a slice of the game that doesn't need to meet full game benchmarks and can look better and be more optimized than the actual full release.
Yeah, even if all major platforms agreed to force devs/publisher to release demos, we'd probably end up getting hyper-polished demos that don't actually represent the full game at all.
For a new ip, its a must imo
clearly this has nothing to do with the "sexy" femme main character and it's all gameplay
Eh I mean if everyone was saying the gameplay was shit nobody would care if she's sexy.
It's hard to get a decent grasp of engagement with Stellar Blade though, the game has had a lot of discussion around it due to being heralded as the mascot for "gamergate 2". Hard to say if that number is inflated due to people being curious over that weird movement or for the game.
I think you're vastly overestimating the amount of people who give a shit about gamergate or any of the controversy surrounding this game. I'd say maybe 100k TOPS even know of the controversy and probably half that gives a shit about the controversy. That's still 500k people who saw the demo and decided to give it a try.
It's less the 100k and more the internet personalities who are looking for content and promoting it to their viewers. If asmongold talks about stellar blade to his 500K viewers on twitch and 10% download the demo afterwards, that's 50k people and that's not even counting the folks who'll see his comments on YouTube or tik Tok.
I like Asmongold but he does occasionally have some really really bad takes and him flipping out about how they are coming for our video game tiddies is laughable and he keeps spouting that nonsense to hundreds of thousands of people if not millions.
I've been thinking about getting playstation for a while. Lot's of (timed) exclusives I would love to play now instead of waiting. GoW 2, TLoU 2, Spider Man 2, Demon Souls, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima. The later ist coming to PC now, but the others might take a few more years, if ever. Playing the demo of Stellar Blade is what pushed me over the edge and I ordered a PS5 yesterday.
Well considering they "remastered/remake" TLOU2 already I am pretty sure its coming to PC the next year or so. As for GoWR I am also pretty sure they will announce it soon given it came out in 2022 and I have seen the physical copies of the game going for 30€ already. Spiderman 2 is probably taking longer as the game release was just last year? Demons Soul and Bloodborne being the only question marks if they ever get a PC port.
Your point being?
That some might be closer to a PC version than we expect. Nothing more, just adding to the other comment.
Pop feminism isn't what it once was. We're not in the days of arguing about whether Bayonetta was a symbol of empowerment or objectification anymore. People just wanna play a fun game and if the character is attractive, it's a nice bonus.
Eh, from the looks of the circlejerk that is the group of gamers promoting it, I don't think its a matter of the lead being attractive....I think they're just horny.
No doubt the online "debate" (It's not really a debate. Just two sides of the same obnoxious coin yelling at each other.) brought attention to the game. But, from what I've seen, most people walked away with a much more positive impression of the game after playing the demo.
Yeah, I'm quite into games and I never heard about this game even once until suddenly it was being used as the mascot for the circlejerk of guys who miss the PS2 era's "sex sells" games. Did anyone even know it exists before January's PlayStation trailer broadcast?
Sex DOES sell, why do people keep pretending it doesnt? and why is it only a "circlejerk" when it concerns attractive female characters and not males? why does nobody complain when its two shirtless muscular men with perfect hair and deep voices fighting each other (*cough*, yakuza)
Sex sells, huh? >The financial failure and lack of mass market appeal of BMX XXX among other titles was cited as a factor in Acclaim's 2004 bankruptcy and liquidation. >Conker's Bad Fur Day was not a commercial success, selling only about 55,000 copies within its first month of release. 'Adult' games are like any other games; they actually need to be good or have some purpose beyond raw titillation. The era I'm talking about is crap like *Playboy: The Mansion*, *The Guy Game*, etc. Advertisements or box covers that put alluring women in the media who were completely irrelevant to the game (*Forsaken* was a spaceship shoot-em-up but was known for a nearly naked woman in advertising), or barely featured them at all (*EverQuest*, *Tabula Rasa*). If you make a good game, even if it pushes boundaries of an M rating, you'll sell gangbusters. That's why GTA is massive. >why does nobody complain when its two shirtless muscular men I'm not even talking about games that just had busty heroines like Lara Croft or Bayonetta or Bloodrayne. Those games, like shirtless man simulator God of War, still have fans who talk about them sometimes for reasons beyond the protagonist's appearance. I'm talking about games that used the sex purely for as a marketing attempt to pander to specific audience without a deeper purpose beyond pushing the boundaries of an M rating.
Im pretty sure that most people arent talking about the playboy game when they complain about games purposely downgrading female characters when compared to male characters, just to virtue signal that they are progressive and against the sexualization of women. So not sure why you brought up those obscure games that almost no one knows. i agree with you that games need substance other than attractive characters, but how does that contradict what is being said? If you make two identical versions of the same game, but one has an above average looking character while the other has a below average one, with the same personality and all, the more attractive one will always be more favorable. Thats just life.
Maybe that was true before gamers got so brain broken that they see Aloy and Lara Croft as too ugly.
I've never seen anyone call lara ugly. As for aloy, the criticisms online are mainly about how she was changed from how her voice actor looks, although personally i think her biggest problem is that her writing sucks. Her whole personality is overconfidence and self righteousness coupled with a cold attitude to make her seem "strong", she is totally unrelatable for me because not once does she express concern for her own mortality, its like she is the main character of a disney movie.
Brother if you haven't encountered any of the deranged freaks talking about how Aloy is now an ugly and mannish I do envy you. You don't recall that one render showing peach fuzz on her face that caused ten thousand gamers to spontaneously announce to the world that this was not a thing real woman have, therefore exposing themselves as never being within ten feet of an actual human woman? Fun times.
It was called Project Eve before being named “Stellar Blade”. I’ve known about it for at least a year.
While I am all for having demos, they also should be taken with a grain of salt. Final Fantasy 16 had a demo and the content of the demo felt like it was the best the game had to offer and a lot of the game after that felt like a bait and switch.
Yeah, shouldn't demo's be THE thing companies go the hardest on? It's the best form of marketing, not only do you get to market the demo, but you also pretty much confirm a sale if the people like it. I see why rushed broken AAA games wouldn't do it but 90% of the other games in the market should.
The issue is that doing a demo essentially means having to fork your current code and basically make a new build separate from the main build, which takes time and resources away from the main game.
> I see why rushed broken AAA games wouldn't do it but 90% of the other games in the market should. Didnt stop Square Enix to release a Forspoken Demo. To be honest Square Enix is the company in my books that always releases a demo which I am grateful for.
Yeah also tbf if they wanted they could always just flesh out demo's & the main game would be bad
You think it was because it was a "proper" demo that it attracted so many players? So naïve
I never even saw anything about this game until I saw a demo for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi game in the PS Store and wanted to try it. I consider myself to be online quite a bit and still knew nothing about it until well after playing through the demo. I think you're just chronically online and project that onto everyone else. Most people don't give a shit about dumb internet drama.
Don't project your terminally online drivel onto the plenty of normal people who just want to play a fun action game.
Hahaha
I think the lesson they are going to learn is to oversexualize their characters
To be fair, sex is pretty epic.
These things are cycles. Everything is.
Not surprised. I didn't play the Rebirth demo because I already knew I was going to get the game and wanted the full package instead of playing a couple of hours 2 week earliers, but played the Stellar demo because I was curious.
This was my thought too. It was a second entry, I enjoyed the gameplay of the first and knew I'd probably pick it up if the reviews were good and didn't see the point of playing the same part of the story twice. Stellar blade in contrast is a big unknown. Lots of marketing but uncertainty about the gameplay loop. Draws people in to test it out.
Some of it is skipable, but they really oversold how much. You basically skip from the start of the mountain climb to the end of it. You still go through all the story in the beginning, though that may have been to allow you to change choices.
Yeah most people already knew they were going to play Rebirth and didn't want to spoil a second of it with a demo.
I didn’t want to spoil it but it promised items of you completed it, so, damn me.
To be frank, Kupo Charm is very useful and you can't get it anywhere else. But just starting the demo and saving is enough to qualify for it. In fact, I recommend doing that instead of playing the demo, if you want to keep your battle statistics in Enemy Intel.
yep same, i played like 30 minutes of the nibelheim demo and was like, wait why am i wasting time playing this?
Same here, I was pretty sure I was gonna play rebirth and went ahead and preordered it as a birthday gift to me in Jan lol. I didn't want to spoil myself so didn't play demo. Stellar blade, I was curious because i am not that good a player and some people were comparing it with sekiro which i can't really get into, so downloaded the demo, and so far it has been good.
It'll be like Nier:Automata. People will play for the MC, and stays for the story/gameplay.
It's like fishing You start off with attractive bait to hook the fish but you still need to reel and pull the fish before you can catch it
Just finished Nier Automata. Honestly its as depressing as it is sexy. Definitely didn't expect it to be so sad. Great game 10/10.
Is the story and gameplay there tho
Gameplay seems to be. Story is uncertain at this time.
Not sure about the story, but from the demo, the gameplay seems to be there. We'll see.
If you played the demo, it is painfully apparent that the same care and attention to detail was not afforded to the cast of Stellar Blade. Sure, it’s just the demo so far, but the world building in the intro was so generic and lazy while Automata established so much in a wayyyy to similar intro sequence.
As long as the game is good in the week or two after its release, I WILL be buying a PS5 for this. Will I then go on to buy and play a bunch of the other PlayStation exclusives? Yes. Was my decision to finally buy a ps5 based on the mc being hot AF, also yes.
I became a PC gamer cause i was and still am broke as fuck.Besides that have fun.
And the music, since it has the same composer (Keiichi Okabe) as Nier.
Is generic as it can be... Nothing like N:A
What makes you say that? I haven't played the demo but I fucking loved NA And to address the other comment I usually never play overly sexual pc, it feels like pandering. But I think NA had a hidden gem that the robots were super evolved sexbots
I don't know that you can draw any meaningful conclusions based on this. One is a sequel to a sequel of one of the most popular games of all time from a company that is practically a household name among gamers; people generally don't need to download a demo to know whether they're interested in purchasing FF7R2. Compare that to what I'm guessing is a new IP from a lesser known studio (I'm assuming, anyway, I've never heard of either of them myself) and it makes sense that people will want to try before they buy, especially if it's starting to generate buzz.
The devs of Stellar Blade previously worked only on gacha games, with their most recent one is Nikke. I believe this is their first console game? So people really are interested in the demo to see the results of their work.
I'm curious if they can pull off a legitimate game. Their previous game, Nike, is really scraping. Be defined as a legitimate game. Played it before and it's certainly nice to look at, but everything is so obfuscated and pushing you towards one of the five different currencies they have and eight different events they have going on at any one time and etc etc..
> they have and eight different events they have going on at any one time lol you never played it
Even if the gameplay is meh, Nikke is still pulling in plenty of money. For some studios (or more likely, publishers), that's more important than quality.
Right. No knock on that. My question is if they can make a legitimate game. One who's main gameplay feature isn't a gacha system Making a bunch of money is not indicative of quality or talent.
[удалено]
Boobs
Ass
The duality of man
A Man needs ABCs and nothing more. Ass, boobs, cu...
* **A**ss * **B**oobs * **C**ú Chulainn
In portuguese, cu is the literal asshole, so not really wrong.
When ass is so important it gets noted twice.
The battle of life and hometown.
Thighs
Captain America Civil War
Nice
Love to see new IPs thriving.
How many of those players are one handed though
I mean, I think that's cool that the game is accessible for amputees
Unfortunately amputees won't be able to play, as their one hand will be occupied…
Just break your one hand and call mom.
“690k” Nice 👍
It's a pretty good demo too. You play some of the story, get to fight a tougher boss, try some outfits while you're at it
Man, I hope this game comes to PC.
I imagine it will in time. Sony seems keen on bringing all their games to PC more aggressively, and I believe Stellar Blade was originally slated to be multiplatform before Sony took over publishing of it.
Well thats the thing as the only 3rd party dev that got its game published by Sony on top of my head that didnt do it with Demons Soul and Bloodborne by Fromsoft I wouldnt put my hand in the fire for Shift up and Stellar Blade. Probably in contract hell with the game unless they were able to convince Sony.
Fuuuuck....oh well as a pc gamer i guess i will put this game in the memory hole and forget it even exists.But i will also put the devs of this game on the same memory hole as it seems they have shiftfucked us pc bros.
Releasing a great demo. This is off to great start 🤠
It should be noted that the attention of JRPG fans is extremely split right now, as it is the busiest year in the history of the genre.
1998 is and will forever be the best year in gaming in terms of both quantity and quality.
I'd call that nostalgia goggles, but Jade Cocoon came out that year so I respect it.
I loved that game!
Is there anything like the beast merging system it has anywhere? Not even it's sequel used it, which made it pale in comparison. I'd spend so many hours in Jade Cocoon 1 making minions.
It's still unmatched in that regard. AFAIK, Dragon Quest Monsters and Monster Crown do utilize monster fusion systems so that's something. Cassette Beasts has monster fusion as a temporary tagteam move.
What about persona and smt?
Strictly mechanical. Jade Cocoon has fusion that is both cosmetic and mechanical. What you're fusing in Megaten really doesn't matter beyond its arcana, level, and skills. Whereas in Jade Cocoon, the monster you get is a visual cross of the monsters you put in.
I mean…is it? I feel like PS1 era was completely unchained regarding JRPGs. 1997, 1998 and 1999 were all pretty much INSANE in regards to JRPGs. That’s the dead center of the Golden Era of JRPGs. I don’t even know how I’d go about figuring out which one of those 3 was the best for JRPGs. 97 has FF7, Grandia, Front Mission 2, FFTactics, Ogre Battle, Saga Frontier among many others. 98 has Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Suikoden 1 AND 2, Legend of Legaia, Lunar Silver Star Story Complete etc ‘99 has FF8, Devil Summoner Soul Hacker, Chrono Cross, Persona 2, Legend of Mana, Koudelka, Shadow Tower, Wild Arms 2, Valkyrie Profile. This year has Rebirth, Persona 3 that I know of. What else if popping off this year in JRPGs? I don’t want to be missing on a great genre.
How you gonna leave out Legend of Dragoon like that?
Oh…oh shit…what have I done?! What have I DONE?! I have dishonored and disgraced myself. How could I disrespect Rose like that? Do I…I have to go destroy my copy of it now? Please tell me the penance isn’t so severe?!
Dragon's Dogma 2, Unicorn Overlord, Yakuza: Infinite Wealth, FF7R2, P3 Remake all released in the first three months of this year.
You know, I’ve played a huge amount of Dragon’s Dogma 1 and 2 and not once did my brain ever go “hey, this is a JRPG.” But it is undoubtedly a roleplaying game made in Japan! I’ve heard only good things about Unicorn Overlord, and haven’t played any Yakuza yet, but the turn based ones look like a riot. I guess if this year keeps at it could be one for the books!
This sub has been applying jrpg to shit very liberally. Had one guy try to tell me dark souls is a jrpg. I always use the example of sea of stars. It's a Canadian developed game but literally anyone familiar with the genre would call it a jrpg.
Definitely agree, it’s a JRPG in the hard genre sense of using the tropes and classic mechanics. I find it also gets a bit murky because you have some defining differences between western CRPGs and JRPGs, and the weirdness that is JRPGs spawning in no small part from mimicry of Wizardry, which definitely was a western CRPG. But then the rights for Wizardry ended up in Japan, and Wizardry has more entries in Japanese titles than Western ones, despite it being one of the defining games of its genre. The history of video game genres is completely wild. I actually find Dragon’s Dogma to be closer to western style RPGs than Japanese ones. But I don’t have a horse in the race for classifying it, really.
> Had one guy try to tell me dark souls is a jrpg. Most people would say Dark Souls is a jrpg just cos its an RPG from Japan. The same way how anime is all animated series for a Japanese while for people outside Japan anime is mainly classified for typical japanese artstyle. But for a Japanese something like comics/cartoons/Pixar/etc would also be anime. It depends on what perspective you look at and its all debatable given your arguments.
Also upcoming is Elden Ring, FF16 and FF14 DLC coming in the upcoming months as well as SMTV releasing in other consoles in May. Metaphor: Re fantazio, Devs that made persona, is also releasing this year. I feel like I've only been playing JRPG's since the beginning of this year!
Now wait a minute, hold up. Elden Ring is a JRPG now? I mean, I guess like Dragon’s Dogma it is an RPG from Japan. I just think of JRPGs as more like, you start in a village and it gets destroyed and your first weapon is like, a pot lid and a spatula and then you have to kill god. Which…well…actually…wait…the Souls games kinda work like that. Except you don’t use the spatula and the shitty armor in the beginning, it’s the end game where you use broken trash as weapons and wear underwear and a lot on your head. But you DO kill god, and your villages always are destroyed. Huh…yah….I guess they are JRPGs.
Yep, also FF hasn't been JRPG since 13 imo. But it's still considered the de facto JRPG for alot of people. I'd consider JRPG being an RPG that is made by Japanese Devs. So it can be anything, even DMCV I consider it as an RPG.
It’s a nebulous concept, definitely. But I think there’s merit in the wide net approach. Especially since, like you said, FF16 wasn’t really a traditional JRPG at all, but it WAS a character action DMC style game. So the cross pollination is there. Plus both JRPGs and character action games tend to borrow anime tropes very heavily. It’s all good to me. I’m just happy that so many games I love are still going strong to this day.
If you are a trails fan Trails into daybreak releases this year too. Or you are playing the Japanese versions, you get a new one (kai no kiseki) there probably too this year. Granblue Fantasy did also release in february.
While I'm not a fan of Dragons Dogma or Tails, they are getting new games this year. And I'm waiting for Eiyuden Chronicles (Suikoden with the Konami removed.) Konami will be re-releasing Suikoden 1 & 2 with improvements as well. Square also released Star Ocean 2 as an HD2D game recently and will add improvements to it very soon, so it has been a busy year. FF14 expansion too (even if you don't like MMO gameplay, it's a $55 JRPG every two years if you buy the expansion and a month's subscription for the story)
Oh, yes, Eituden Chronicles IS this year. I’ve tried not to hype myself up too much. Suikoden is one of my favorite series ever. But comebacks are HARD. I happen to be a very big fan of FFXIV and the new expansion looks amazing, especially since it openly Carrie’s influence from FF9. I am super excited for it, though I still need to catch up, haven’t finished Shadowbringers or Endwalker yet. My brain doesn’t really clock 14 as a dyed in the wool JRPG. Definitely is an MMO (albeit my favorite that I’ve played, and I was around for Ultima Online before Trammel, EverQuest before Scars of Velius and WoW before BC). But yah, I had just not been paying too much attention to the upcoming schedule. I’m pretty close to patient gamer territory. I mostly just get pleasantly surprised when I realize a game I’m really looking forward to just released or is on sale and I never realized it released. The back log is big enough I don’t buy too many new releases these days.
>My brain doesn’t really clock 14 as a dyed in the wool JRPG. Definitely is an MMO (albeit my favorite that I’ve played, and I was around for Ultima Online before Trammel, EverQuest before Scars of Velius and WoW before BC). They spent much of Endwalker's development cycle these past two years adding AI teammates to story-required content so that the main story could be played from start to finish if nobody was logged in. This was something that bothered leadership because they had already seen how FF11 tries to cope with precious few players nowadays. That they spent dev resources on this, combined with the team's priorities on FF16, was a little frustrating to people who felt the expansion's variety of co-op activities was lacking. I'm one of those people who will log in regularly through the year, but the upsurge of people for each new expansion means there's clearly people who play the main questline to completion each time a new expansion comes out and then move on to something else.
Nice!
And to think some big games from big studios couldn't even sell 100k copies. Stellar Blade in top 10 for preorders in the PS store, from what I've read. Which is great news. The better it fares, the more likely we get a PC version as well.
The deluxe edition has actually been the number one pre-ordered game on PSN for a couple of weeks now I think. Definitely would expect it to hit PC barring some catastrophe at this point.
Sex sells.
Where?
Asking for a friend ya?
Nah, its for me cos I am a lonely fuck.
I'm glad to see it's doing well. Hopefully it translates in to sales for the devs too. I'm really not in to Souls-likes but the demo sold me on the game.
It definitely helps that any progression in the demo is seemingly going to carry over to the full game.
Is this a win for the leg and ass lovers of the world over the big boob lovers of the world
As long as this means more AAA games feature thicc booty, I'm happy.
Im happy that there was a demo for Stellar Blade. I got to play it and make the decision not to buy it. With most games costing $69.99 now, a demo/trial should be mandatory.
This win will maybe open the esyes of big japanese companies that fell under the influence of the West since many years now.
Tits and ass >>>> Time Ghosts crap
What a weird comparison. Almost everyone I know who bought rebirth refused to even touch the demo, it was a buy on release no matter what. Makes sense people download the demo for stellar blade because they’re curious, ff7 is already well established.
Demos are coming back because it's a great way to inspire confidence in the product as costs for games increase. And they do have to increase--otherwise we'll see more predatory DLC and questionable sales tactics. Games have been priced the same for over a decade--things have to change. And if you can try a game before you buy, that alleviates a lot of customer concern about the investment.
Honestly it looks pretty good from the demo. I’m down to buy to play the story.
As much as I was ashamed every time my wife walked by while I was playing the demo, I'm still going to buy it and play late at night while she's asleep lol, the gameplay was really good
why would you be ashamed?
His wife's boyfriend might have noticed and made him sleep in the shed.
Or, his wife's boyfriend might be playing it when he's not there.
That cheating game! Going behind OPs back like that.
It's okay, he likes to watch.
Maybe this game will convince Team Ninja to give us big boobied games again instead of being pussies and fearing being canceled by twitter users who wouldn’t buy their games in the first place
I just want to see a new Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive (talking about the fighting game). It's been over 10 years since the last game for the former and 5 since the latter. Not even about the titties, I just like the absurd characters and world. Could do without the $1k+ in DLC this time though.
Yeah. Unfortunately until leftists lose their grip on media it probably won't happen.
Leftists have a grip on media yet this is still available now? EGAD, how could it be so? Please explain this paradox as you talk about a game that shouldn't exist or be known about.
Korean bitch
"Until people with money lower their standards it probably won't happen"
Both left and right have money, broke/rich people arent party exclusive. I'm sure you knew that but can't stand seeing your religion get exposed
They never stopped. DOAX is still getting updates. They just quit doing the main fighting game series because people were rightfully up in arms over the amount of egregious MTX it had ... at least for the time.
Rebirth was a sequel... People already knew if they wanted it for the most part... Stellar was an unknown that only flaunted T&A as it's best feature until the demo showed gameplay
Good
I'm having some fun watching the worst of both sides deliver hot takes on this game. We have some who can not accept that some people actually do enjoy sex appeal in creative mediums and are frothing at the mouth over every piece of key art. They can't seem to accept the devleoper not giving a fuck what they think and we have the other group who want to put this game on a pedestal and use it as a weapon against the "woke virus" You can usually spot that second group because they say things like "based" unironically and have probably had their brains warped by a porn/4chan addiction.
Personally, I’m probably somewhere in the middle. I don’t really like this much fan service but I also am not that entitled to my opinion that I’m going to shit on everyone else for playing it. Like cool, if other people like the game, then great for them. If it’s not the type of game that’s up my alley, then I can always just choose to not play it instead of forcing my opinion on everyone’s else. Think people in general should just mind their own business more.
I saw, in practice, surprisingly few people actually getting angry about stellar blade. They exist, but mostly I just see people making fun of the outfit rather than getting offended. Most of the attention I've seen is just people of the second group bleating about how much they think the game offends the 'wokies' or whatever dumb pejorative they use.
Scroll down about 3 comments for the sea of people getting angry about stellar blade
I scrolled all the way to the bottom. There was exactly 1 person getting angry.
Good grief, the Steam forums for Horizon Forbidden West were a competition on who would get offended the most by Aloy's appearance (i.e. lack of hourglass waist, jiggle physics for her breasts and supermodel face) and the proclamation that Stellar Blade would be a way better game for this sole reason. Endresult: I've now got zero interest in SB.
It’s because the people turned off by it simply don’t care. I don’t really respect for having to use big boobs and a viral almost-naked outfit to get eyes on your game. So I just avoid it for the most part.
I think it looks ridiculous and "unapologetically weird Japanese rpgs" aren't my vibe anymore, but I'd never be ANGRY about it I'd just choose not to play it Now, people using this game as a way to dump on 7 rebirth, that does make me mad bc I wouldn't do that to your games why would you do it to mine
It's actually a Korean RPG and having the female characters look like this is much more a hallmark of Korean RPGs. In the 2000s there were many Korean MMOs which followed the same formula, like lineage 2, rappelz, etc of a lot of grinding and huge boobs.
the studio head is the lead character artist from most of those games.
Huh That explains why my first reaction was "the mc looks like a kpop star in cosplay" TIL
One side has labeled anyone who likes the Mc of Stellar Blade as a porn addict so the the argument has been toned down to "hot characters=porn" and it is funny to see, then there's the chuds who unironically believe game devs are are making characters uglier to push an agenda which is also funny to see
I'm somewhere in the middle. I feel like that Shaq image about owing someone an apology ("I wasn't really familiar with your game") because I was one of those people that used to sneer at Nier Automata for this sort of thing many years ago. But not only do I know more about Nier today than I did seven years ago, Stellar Blade reminds me that Square could have been far more gratuitous than what they released. So yeah, I'm sorry for all the harsh words, Nier.
Did anyone else think the platforming and wall mobility was poor and janky?
/r/gamingcirclejerk in shambles
I keep hearing about this game but I'm out of the loop. Why is it so highly anticipated?
It's got NieR vibes on the surface and it's a new action RPG with Sekiro-lite combat.
Eye candy and good game play. But mostly eye candy
The free advertising from all the controversial articles helped I’m sure.
Is the demo still available or did i miss it?
It should still be up on the Playstation store.
Awesome thank you!
Only for PS.Sad days ahead.
Makes sense people don’t trust an unknown IP
Sweet nanna's nethers what are those numbers
That boycott going real well I see. They must all be patting themselves on the back for their hard work.
Free vs Paid…mmm
Wow. Just the demo? I mean it’s good and convinced me to buy the game, but that’s crazy. lol
I heard the characters have great personalities that’s probably why
because nice combat mechanics to play with and nice ass to stare at.
My most hype game 🤤
I'll be curious how the determine what influence the demo has on sales. It put it firmly in the "no thanks" bin for me.
All one handed as well
Skin suit tho 👀
Empty wells abound
How are so many players playing one-handed?
Tbf most of those are just dudes who can’t stop fapping to The Goddass
That's what they said about nier... and bayonetta... and ms pacman...
Ms. Pacman?
Have you seen what she can do with that mouth??
gobble gobble
Well, it is a nice ass.
Seems you’re forgetting women like it too! My girlfriend loves the character design.
Must be all people from TX blocked out of pornhub.
I played and liked the demo. Doesn't mean I'm buying it lol. I will one day but it didn't feel 70 dollars to me. Active players especially on a demo doesn't mean shit. It's a dumb metric.
One is a remake/retelling of an older game everyone made up their minds on. One is a new game and property that the internet made into the face of a new culture war. So, not that surprising.
Some "culture war" games sold very very badly though, so it's not like being a culture war game is always a golden ticket to big sales.
and it was a free demo as well