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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

If you felt like Stellar Blade's overall storytelling was lackluster compared to the depth of its other aspects, you aren't the only one. Director Hyung-tae Kim admits that the game's total cutscene count had to be reduced to cut down on production costs and improve efficiency, thus resulting in details of the story being left out. Thanks to the game's success, however, the planned sequel is set to have a richer narrative.

In an interview with South Korean outlet This is Game (spotted by Genki), Kim reveals that while Stellar Blade's core gameplay systems were completed relatively early in development, cutscenes proved hard to create. According to the director, South Korean studios are generally not equipped with the manpower nor the systems needed for developing narrative-centered games. Though this could change in the future, this was not the case during Stellar Blade's development.

This led to the development team cutting several planned cutscenes that built upon Stellar Blade's world. Scenes focused on characters' worldviews and narratives had to be cut, with one in particular explaining why the main protagonist, Eve, constantly changes clothes. As fleshed out as some side characters are in the final release, there were multiple NPCs whose stories were left on the cutting room floor.

While the developers are eager to expound on Stellar Blade's narrative with free updates, they think that hastily adding more story elements will clash with the established lore. Now that a sequel has been announced, the plan is to refine all the missing story pieces (including those from a canceled story DLC) from the first game and add them to a new, richer narrative that will push the franchise forward.

When asked about the sequel, Kim says that all the team's manpower is currently invested in Stellar Blade's PC version. Once its issues have been addressed and the post-release content has been released, the proper research and development period for Stellar Blade 2 can begin. Kim hopes that the sequel will come out in 2027, but with roughly three years left, it seems unlikely. However, he guarantees that Stellar Blade 2 will be a "great work" that serves as a culmination of Shift Up's efforts.

Stellar Blade director says sequel will address the game's lacking narrative - AUTOMATON WEST

According to Stellar Blade's director, many of the game's planned cutscenes went unmade due to production cost limitations, but this won't be the case for the upcoming sequel.

automaton-media.com

 

[PlayStaytion]

Just like Bayonetta, stop pretending you're not doing the same thing.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Wait, what?

Storytelling?

Hold on, let's not get carried away here. Are they implying I want story in my gooning?

What trickery is this?

 

[DelireMan7]

I am all for a good story but I am fine with some games focusing on the gameplay. Stellar Blade was pretty good on this side and its story didn't really "downgrade" the experience for me.

Good if it ends up being good on both side but would be a shame if a more story focus approach impairs the game overall

 

[rofif]

I liked the story

 

[Fess]

I feel like it's perfect, the focus is on the action with only quick cutscenes I still haven't thought about skipping yet. If they do longer story sequences I will most likely start skipping them and in the end I will learn less about the lore. I don't play action games for the story.

 

[Brakum]

Think i'll pass on the sequel then.

 

[STARSBarry]

Its odd because I feel like the original had enough story. I think there where a few minor things that could have some more time with. But I mean some of those side missions really had some great payoffs, the bar one being the most memorable for me.

I thought in line with environmental story telling the game was pretty complete.

 

[Generic]

Ah yes, more unskippable cutscenes.

 

[Sebastian1295]

If the narrative is done well in stellar blade 2 then the game will be even better for it. I'm glad they're not going to be complacent and give people the same thing again but just in a different package. You should always want to improve upon your first game and use that as a foundation to improve upon for your second one.

 

[midnightAI]

Ah yes, more unskippable cutscenes.

I thought people only played this game to ogle the character models in skimpy outfits anyway? sounds like more cutscenes may actually be the preference,

 

[Generic]

If the narrative is done well in stellar blade 2 then the game will be even better for it. I'm glad they're not going to be complacent and give people the same thing again but just in a different package. You should always want to improve upon your first game and use that as a foundation to improve upon for your second one.

There are other things they could adress in the sequel:
-the barebone open world levels
-repetitive sidequests
-lack of fast travel

But nope. Shift Up will adress the "lacking narrative"

 

[RagnarokIV]

The story was cool and the world was great.

It certainly wasn't lacking.

 

[Sebastian1295]

There are other things they could adress in the sequel:
-the barebone open world levels
-repetitive sidequests
-lack of fast travel

But nope. Shift Up will adress the "lacking narrative"

They didn't say that they weren't going to improve those things either. I'm sure they're looking to improve alot of things now that the budget will be bigger.

 

[Sebastian1295]

I thought people only played this game to ogle the character models in skimpy outfits anyway? sounds like more cutscenes may actually be the preference,

I don't get the cutscene argument anyway that people are making because people were creaming themselves over expedition 33 and that game had alot of cutscenes. So i don't understand why stellar blade 2 having more cutscenes and story is suddenly a terrible thing. Makes no sense.

 

[moogman]

There are other things they could adress in the sequel:
-the barebone open world levels
-repetitive sidequests
-lack of fast travel

But nope. Shift Up will adress the "lacking narrative"

Depending how they do it, the first two of those would benefit from better narratives and story telling. Fast Travel between different worlds is bound to come in the sequel anyway, I'd be amazed if it didn't.

 

[Just_one]

besides all the tits and ass and sexuality the game has , i honestly think the story is pretty great

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Yes, please add slow forced walking and talking segments and squeezing through cracks in walls to really flesh out the world.

Yeah... no.

 

[DelireMan7]

You should always want to improve upon your first game and use that as a foundation to improve upon for your second one.

I think dev should fix or improve what was not working well on your first game.

Gaming industry has this weird mentality to "add more" on sequels. Very personal take but From Software Soulsborne game going from a "simplistic" Demon's Souls to a bloated open world Elden Ring is a nice example of that.
Just add more on each game and you end up with something very different.
Elden Ring is a great game but for me it lost most of the good things of Demon's and Dark Souls 1 by wanting to add too many things because "you have to add more/expand from you previous game".

Priority should be to keep the "soul" or "core" of your game when doing a sequel.

Helldivers is a great example. The second game changed drastically the graphics, POV (from a twin stick top view to a third person shooter) but still kept the core elements that made the first game so great. Overall, you get a very similar experience while the games looks very different.

 

[GymWolf]

I was more interested in their mid story than any souls game where i have to read the description of the fucking items and then pretend to understand something just to watch a vaaty video later

 

[Sintoid]

...with more asses

 

[Madflavor]

Giving Eve more personality, better translation, proper world building, and better side quest design. They need to focus on improving these areas the most.

I'm not worried about gameplay. The combat was pretty good in SB, so I expect they'll make it even better in the sequel. Please get the same people who did the soundtrack though. Stellar Blade's soundtrack fucked me into another dimension.

 

[crackajack]

If there were story bits cut, never finished or even properly started, maybe add them now if they can close some gaps, enrich the story. After the success it has, there should be some room for free bonuses, stuff that could become a directors cut version update?
Or did Sony already talk them into a remaster for money?

 

[swaffles23]

All of the Biblical themes are interesting but the story is kinda dull and the characters look cool but lack depth

 

[MALpractice311]

Its an action game. It doesn't need a ton of story. What we had was enough. The last thing any action heavy game needs is more needless, nonsensical blabbing that prevents you from getting to the combat.

 

[EviLore]

Stellar Blade is a decent start but has a lot of deficiencies that need to be addressed in the sequel.

-The monster enemies are dull and repetitive to fight and vastly inferior to the rare humanoid boss designs (which are far more interesting)
-The middle of the game is a slog, eventually worth it after being elevated by the memorable final act but almost a bail out point getting there
-The worldbuilding starts out interesting but once you understand what's going on there's no further depth to it and it keeps beating you over the head with hints long after becoming obvious
-The character writing is shallow and stuck in service to the mystery box framework
-Itemization is almost entirely junk accumulated for cosmetic upgrade materials, making exploration not feel particularly rewarding or interesting

 

[Jaybe]

So they want to make the sequel more well-rounded?

 

[Bert Big Balls]

Don't really care much about the story, as long as the gameplay is good.

 

[Signalis]

What was wrong with the story? Probably Americans bitching and moaning again because the game used a British non-cringe voice cast

 

[diffusionx]

I thought Stellar Blade's story was fine.

 

[Pejo]

I read a summary about the interview yesterday, and I agree with his point that the AI vs. humanity thing has been done to death, but there's still angles that you can take the story to make it fresh. I had much less problem with the main story than I did with the awful dialogue between Eve and side characters for sidequests. The lines and voice acting were just terribly bad.

But then again, I guess it could be meta 4D chess in that they were all just doing their best to pretend that they were human.

Anyways, I would love a sequel, there's so much to expand upon with the good base they started with. I hope there are more weapon types in the sequel, and vehicles/mounts for the bigger open areas. Actually, I'd argue that the big open areas weren't even very good to begin with. The linear sections and areas were much better, IMO.

 

[Abysse]

Anyone with a critical sense knows that the story is terrible.

 

[thismeinteil]

I played this game for the story, I swear.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Stellar Blade is a decent start but has a lot of deficiencies that need to be addressed in the sequel.

-The monster enemies are dull and repetitive to fight and vastly inferior to the rare humanoid boss designs (which are far more interesting)
-The middle of the game is a slog, eventually worth it after being elevated by the memorable final act but almost a bail out point getting there
-The worldbuilding starts out interesting but once you understand what's going on there's no further depth to it and it keeps beating you over the head with hints long after becoming obvious
-The character writing is shallow and stuck in service to the mystery box framework
-Itemization is almost entirely junk accumulated for cosmetic upgrade materials, making exploration not feel particularly rewarding or interesting

Pretty much my thoughts.

The characters were dull and so I didn't really care much for the overall experience.

 

[proandrad]

Don't fuck with the formula too much. People are not playing Stellar Blade for the story. They need to keep the story simple and focus on gameplay, level design, and aesthetics.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Hope so, this is the only thing that i felt tricked between demo and final game. I would love more interactions between eve's naivete and adam's grumpiness.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

So he's saying the game will get more "plot?"

 

[crunchyBiscuits]

There are other things they could adress in the sequel:
-the barebone open world levels
-repetitive sidequests
-lack of fast travel

But nope. Shift Up will adress the "lacking narrative"

Fast travel between camps and those payphones

 

[E-Cat]

There's your narrative

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

The game has literally nothing going for it than sex appeal, so i am not sure why he's playing games, and focus on just one lacking aspect. But they're a mobile dev, so it's not like i expected anything more tbh. If you compare the story of Automata to SB, you can clearly see that PlatGames tried, while Shift Up has never even heard of good story telling. Nothing will improve in their future titles either.

 

[Just_one]

There's your narrative

the true narrative is a little bit up

 

[Memati187]

I read that as lactating narrative. What's wrong with me? Anyway, more Raven or bust a nut.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Show me a man that's tired of butt holes and I'll show you a man that's tired of life.

 

[Roufianos]

Dreadful story and that little British accent girl was insufferable. Just let us skip, not that I'm likely to play the sequel anyway though.

 

[Esppiral]

People didn't buy this game for the narrative.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Narrative:

 

[Roberts]

I never played the game, but I watched some guy's walkthrough for a bit and zoned out very very fast. Just absolute bollocks storytelling and who knew that fixating so much on boobs and asses can get so dull, so fast. That said, I'm glad many of you got a kick out of that. No shade, seriously.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Since when a plot is needed for p0rn?

 

[Humdinger]

Sounds good. Just don't overdo the cutscenes.

 

[Punished Miku]

I checked out on the character completely just in the demo so I don't expect anything noteworthy in the sequel in terms of story. Especially with how much they took from other sources like NieR.