After months of rage-baiting propaganda and cancel campaigns aimed at SHIFT UP’s Stellar Blade for its supposed “sexist” protagonist by game journalists, game reviews have officially gone live days prior to its official release.
However, amidst the content coverage, it was revealed that the game includes graffiti that some Westerners have suspiciously deemed racist towards Black people.
Near a vendor’s location, the word “HARD” is spray-painted on a nearby wall, adjacent to a neon sign advertising the “R Shop” which actually references Roxanne, one of the game’s information brokers.
This juxtaposition creates what appears to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to a “Hard R.“
Clearly, those who noticed the reference and are complaining about it are well aware of what a “Hard R” means. For those unfamiliar, it refers to using the N-word with an “R” at the end instead of the abbreviated ending featuring the letter “A” which is a term frequently used on Twitter, and yet if you say it with a “Hard R” only then does it become an issue.
Usually, people might notice this reference, intentional or not, have a laugh, and move on with the game. However, in the “current year,” Westerners are easily offended by almost anything. They’ve become professional victims, constantly searching for reasons to launch campaigns against individuals or products to label them as racist, hoping to sway others to hate them as well.
Stellar Blade as a game has been commonly compared to NieR: Automata, a game that also ends with a Hard R.
Anyone believing that South Koreans developers intentionally added this graffiti are braindead. There are likely many Westerners unaware of the euphemism’s meaning. However, since Stellar Blade is a Sony third-party title, it must comply with American cultural standards.
Even a coincidental sign placement is deemed too much. Those outside America have no say in whether it’s an issue or not. Sony has confirmed that the graffiti has been patched out of the game, with a day-one update.
The emergency patch was issued for a Korean game due to American interpolations of racism, reminiscent of Activision Blizzard removing “greenskin” references in World of Warcraft after claims they were offensive to African Americans who progressives apparently liken to Orcs, it goes without saying you’ll never be as racist as somebody trying not to be racist.
The patched graffiti shown above now simply says “CRIME” rather than “HARD,” but people have already begun to notice that the word “CRIMER” is supposedly another racist remark as per the Urban Dictionary.
It’s unbelievable. The graffiti was changed because Westerners deemed it racist and offensive, only for the alteration to actually be considered racist and discriminatory.
This is bound to spread on social media, thanks to outstanding and professional gaming journalists who pick up on these phrases, some of which many of us didn’t even know existed until now, because racist discourse is only permittable amongst the video game industry so long as it’s directed towards White people.
Despite their attempts to spark a cancel campaign based on accusations of racism, it’s unlikely to impact Stellar Blade’s sales. The Korean game has been a thorn in the side of game journalists for over six months.
Regardless of their opinions, commercial ties between SHIFT UP and Sony mean that review copies have been distributed to the same press that have been obsessed over the game being “sexist” or “outdated.”
Outlets like GamesRadar continue to throw the game under the bus, by bitching about the “sexualization” of the game’s protagonist, Eve in their review. With Austin Wood proclaiming that the game has a large amount of “incredibly stupid” sexy outfits for Eve to wear, which somehow hurt the games story narrative.
Because that makes so much goddamn sense.
The attractiveness of the character seeming detracts away from the immersion of the story, I often had this very same issue with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, because my sick and twisted “male gaze” forbid me from focusing on the main story plot because the women in the game were “too attractive.”
Their review includes the word “Sex” a staggering 29 times, yet GamesRadar gave the game a score of 3.5/5, criticizing its “clunkiness.” But let’s be real, the kind of people who review video games probably struggle to put on clothes without assistance.
