Stellar Blade 2 Could Have Been A Masterpiece, But Now I Couldn't Care Less

Published Aug 5, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT Jade King is Lead Features Editor at The Gamer and University of Sussex journalism graduate with 10+ years covering the video game industry. She has been seen in outlets such as Trusted Reviews, Kotaku UK, VICE, and more over the years covering everything from the latest releases to major events to in-depth interviews. She loves nothing more than speaking with devs, creatives, voice actors, and so many others about the passion behind their craft and bringing that into the hearts of readers everywhere. From my experience covering generative AI and the consistent backlash it receives from most Western gamers, it seems the technology is generally more accepted in countries like Japan, China, and Korea. It certainly isn’t universally praised or seen as an infallible tool in game development with complete public acceptance, but the stigma isn’t nearly as prevalent as it is in the United States or Europe. AI slop is universal after all. But regardless of where you exist in the world, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain’s recently released music video made entirely using generative AI wasn’t immune to being dragged over the coals for being absolute garbage. Shift Up created a terrific game with the first Stellar Blade, and after revealing its sequel at Summer Game Fest, I think a lot of people were hopeful it would capitalise on so much untapped potential. But even if it does, nothing will convince me to care after dropping this garbage. People were already wary of the protagonist looking like a teenager and the first trailer being potentially filled with generative AI assets, but this music video has instilled such a profound feeling of distrust between players and Shift Up that I doubt there is any coming back from it. What’s The Deal With Stellar Blade’s AI Music Video? "Wanna be in LOVE" Feat. Evie was released on the official Shift Up YouTube channel late last week and has already amassed millions of viewers and plenty of justified criticism. The top comment is a pitch perfect distillation of how everyone feels about it as they simply ask: “Are we deadass?” In a gaming landscape where AI datacenters are rapidly increasing the price of hardware and accelerating the effects of climate change, the last thing we want is for a talented studio like Shift Up to waste valuable resources on a crappy music video. The music video ends by crediting both Shift Up and subsidiary A.I. Labs while also stating that the video was created using ‘game resource’ from Blood Rain and regenerated with AI support. You don’t say... CEO Kim Hyung Tae defended its release when a fan asked why some talented artists at the developer couldn’t have worked on it instead by saying: “EVIE, the character at the heart of this video, was created from head to toe by our talented artists and modelers through more than a year of dedicated work. The AI is not creating her from scratch. It is rendering and presenting the character based on the data, designs, and craftsmanship our team created. We would truly appreciate it if you could view the work with that understanding in mind.” Given the music video has Evie picking up a keychain featuring the K-Pop Demon Hunters logo and Sony video cameras also make an obvious appearance, I don’t buy this excuse for a single second. You can pour some of your own assets into a generative AI programme, but the majority of them were built by stealing countless works of art and reproducing them in a soulless form exactly like this awful music video. Evie dances around with virtually no rhyme or reason as she jumps from generic scenario to generic scenario across Blood Rain’s dark dystopian world. It’s tonally repugnant and wants to put a cute, scantily clad woman right at the forefront just because. It’s a shame the song is quite good... If Shift Up is willing to shoot itself in the foot with a generative AI music video like this and defend it so ignorantly, then it is almost guaranteed that Blood Rain will be packed with the technology in all the worst ways. In fact, so much of the city that Evie explores throughout the music video feels like an inconsistent mishmash of sci-fi influences which lacks a cohesive vision, something that was also sadly true of the reveal trailer that many feared was thrown together using AI. I understand using technology as a tool, and it’s a sad reality of game development that will lead to layoffs and a greater lack of innovation, but hot damn, I didn’t expect Stellar Blade to be so pointedly blatant. Stellar Blade Was Never Original, And This Proves It I’ve previously written about how the original Stellar Blade is incredibly derivative of better games like Nier: Automata. Its narrative, combat, characters, and even exploration riff on much better post-apocalyptic stories to decent effect. It looks and plays great, even if Eve is more of an empty vessel for players to fawn over rather than an interesting character in her own right. It was well-made, but lacked original ideas and wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t an active landscape to take inspiration from. At its core, the whole thing felt lazy. Which is why, unfortunately, the direction being taken by Blood Rain in the age of generative AI isn’t the least bit surprising. If you were willing to steal from the best when this tech wasn’t around, why not do such a thing when it’s mainstream? You can pack it with as many of your own assets as you like and claim it’s original, but the end result feels bereft of creativity while you take players who expect better for a ride. I wanted to be excited about this game, but since I want to support the people who make games and the future of an already busted industry, I simply can’t anymore. It’s an ethical betrayal of everything I stand for when so many strong original experiences exist and deserve to be championed. Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is going for the lowest common denominator and doesn’t care how many shortcuts it takes to do so. Stellar Blade Systems 3.5/5 Released April 26, 2024 ESRB M for Mature Developer(s) Shift Up Publisher(s) Sony Interactive Entertainment