- Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae addresses Stellar Blade’s story and writing criticisms.
- Stellar Blade received widespread acclaim for its gameplay, but its story was considered forgettable.
- Shift Up plans to improve in screenplay, script quality, and localization for future works.
Kim Hyung-tae, the CEO of Shift Up and the lead director behind the popular PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade, has addressed criticisms regarding the story and writing quality of the hit action-adventure game. It’s typically uncommon for developers to directly comment on negative reception regarding their latest games, so to see the head honcho at Shift Up respond to Stellar Blade players’ feedback is encouraging, as it shows the company’s willingness to improve instead of resting on its laurels.
Stellar Blade launched to widespread acclaim from critics and fans alike when it released on April 26, 2024. By the time most reviews rolled out, the game had garnered an overall score of 81 on Metacritic and an 84% rating on OpenCritic. More impressively, though, it earned a 9.2 User Score on the former of the two sites, making it one of the highest-rated PlayStation exclusives in the last few years. Players who enjoyed the game primarily praised it for its approachable yet thrilling combat, its bombastic presentation, and its top-notch boss fights, among other things. Not all aspects of Stellar Blade were received positively, however, as the game’s storyline was considered forgettable and underwhelming by some.
Responding to these complaints, Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae expressed an understanding of gamers’ disappointments with some of Stellar Blade’s elements during a recent press conference. As reported in an article from This is Game (translated from Korean via Google Translate), the game director stated that, although Stellar Blade had achieved its goal of making Shift Up more recognizable to a global audience, the PS5 adventure game suffered from some “really unfortunate” problems, specifically regarding its screenplay, script quality, and localization. “We will do our best to strengthen the quality in these areas so that we can be recognized by gamers in our next work,” said Hyung-tae.