Stellar Blade, an action-RPG game launching tomorrow (April 26), included an “unintentional” reference to a racial slur in review copies, though it has already been patched out.
During the review period, IGN noticed the presence of graffiti that referenced a racial slur. The word ‘Hard’ had been spray painted right next to a neon sign for the ‘R shop’, creating an image that read ‘Hard R’.
IGN reached out to PlayStation for comment during the review period and it claimed “the placement of two graphics near each other in Stellar Blade resulted in an unintentional objectionable phrase. Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork and will be replacing the graffiti for the Day 1 patch.”
Apparently, the ‘R shop’ is the sign for one of the information vendors, Roxanne, while the ‘Hard’ graffiti can be found in multiple places throughout the game. Kotaku has reported that the asset combination had already been changed by the time it checked to confirm IGN‘s report, so it appears PlayStation stayed true to its word.
Stellar Blade stirred some controversy due to the appearance of and marketing of its main character, Eve, but despite many reviews criticising its story and characters, the game has scored well overall. The PlayStation exclusive currently sits at 82 on Metacritic.
K-Pop artist BIBI released a song titled ‘Eve’ in collaboration with the game. The music video features a world inspired by Stellar Blade and contains many easter eggs and references to the game.
Stellar Blade, launching tomorrow, April 26, follows Eve, a soldier from an off-world colony tasked with returning to Earth to free it from the monstrous Naytibas. It’s an open-world game with inspiration taken from the Souls series, Bayonetta, and Devil May Cry. It’s the first triple-A outing for developer Shift Up.