Hyung-Tae Kim, the CEO of Stellar Blade‘s developer, Shift Up, has had an insane career path.
From composing background music to crafting comic covers and designing video games, his journey in different creative industries has been marked by innovation and artistic brilliance. With each step he takes, Kim has left an undeniable mark on all of the projects he’s worked on.
How Hyung-Tae Kim Went From Background Music Artist to Video Game Company CEO
Near the beginning of his career, Kim scored a role in composing background music for video games. His creative pursuits soon expanded beyond music, leading him to the world of comics.
A highly talented artist with an unmistakable art style and a knack for visually stunning character designs, his artwork graced the covers of numerous publications.
Kim’s influence soon began to extend to the realm of video games. where his artistic vision left an impact on iconic titles like Magna Carta and Blade & Soul.
Hungering for more, he started his own game developer and publisher company, Shift Up Corporation, in 2013, known for its mobile gacha titles. Its first project was the mobile game Destiny Child, and it later released the 3rd-person shooter Goddess of Victory: Nikke.
Of course, Kim didn’t stop there. In 2019, Shift Up announced that it was working on an AAA game, which would be handled by subsidiary company Second EVE Studio, which hired many developers from Blade & Soul. This AAA game turned out to be Stellar Blade.
The Stellar Blade Demo Is Out, and the Votes Are In
Even before Stellar Blade‘s demo was released, the game had already stirred up a ton of controversy following the trailer and character reveal.
The character designs followed the same pattern as Hyung-Tae’s previous games, i.e., the female character (in this case, Eve) had very NSFW outfits, and her body was exaggerated in some parts.
Following the reveal, all hell broke loose on social media. There was a portion of the community that felt her design was unrealistic and shallow, and then there was another that felt that Western game developers were allergic to beautiful female designs, which is why Eve’s design was a huge slap to their faces.
Even if you didn’t care either way, the whole discussion was a lot to take in. And with the demo out, we’re now seeing a ton of opinions on the game about how it plays. It’s received many comparisons to other games, mainly NieR: Automata, Devil May Cry, and Sekiro.
yeah combat feels off. its trying to be inbetween a soulslike and a character action. and it leads to this weirdly slow character that feels like she should be able to move and dodge faster than she can.
— Adrian B ( Rando0268) (@Rando0268) April 1, 2024
Combat is the main aspect that has people split. Some liked the pacing of the combat, while others felt it to be a bit sluggish and rigid.
Expectations were floating around in part of the community that the game would have combat akin to DMC and Bayonetta, so this aspect was a bit of a surprise to me as well.
What do you think of SB? Will you be buying the game on release? Let us know in the comments below!