Stellar Blade Was Inspired By An Iconic '90s Cyberpunk Manga

Developers of the upcoming action-adventure Stellar Blade have shared details on the game's inspirations, themes of humanity, tackling a post-apocalyptic story in a unique way, and more.

With Stellar Blade's release in less than a month, the game has already sparked some controversy online and drew attention to Shift Up's debut title set in a faraway future where humanity has lost a war against alien invaders and fled to an outer space colony.

In a recent interview with PlayStation, game director Kim Hyung Tae and technical director Lee Dong Gi talked about the studio's background, the game's themes and inspirations, and Stellar Blade's most prominent feature, the stylish combat system. As Kim shared, the theme he dedicated Stellar Blade to is humanity, a universal question of what makes us human and defines us as such. This story came to his mind one day as he witnessed taxi drivers on a strike:

"The strike erupted when technologies for self-driving cars began advancing, almost hinting at the implementation of autonomous cars in the near future. This instilled fear among taxi drivers that these technologies would eventually take over and replace their jobs. As I watched them on strike, I asked myself what I would do if this were to happen to me, if one day humans were entirely replaced by something non-human.

This is where the theme for Stellar Blade originates. Having said that, the game's focus should not be on that; we tried to create an action-adventure game that players can enjoy as they follow Eve's story."

Image Credits: Shift Up, Stellar Blade

For those unaware, Stellar Blade's story begins after Earth was ravaged by mysterious creatures called Naytiba, forcing the human race to flee its motherland. Growing tired of life in space, humans decide to fight Naytiba and send Eve and her squad to take back Earth. She meets the people of Xion, humanity's last surviving city on Earth, and after "discovering the truth, Eve will be faced with a decision, and what she chooses is in the players' hands".

According to developers, designing a post-apocalyptic setting in an original way was a great challenge, since it's one of the longest-running genres in the industry:

"So, for us to avoid monotony and make Stellar Blade a unique post-apocalyptic story was a major challenge. However, on the contrary, we wanted to stay away from making it eccentric or including bizarre elements so that it would be different.

We decided it was best to reimagine and render the elements from '80s and '90s sci-fi for Stellar Blade."

Image Credits: Shift Up, Stellar Blade

When asked about the sources of inspiration, the developers revealed a famous sci-fi manga Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro, known outside of Japan as Battle Angel Alita, and the 2019 movie of the same name were the main inspiration behind Stellar Blade's visuals and interpretation of a post-apocalyptic world.

The futuristic dystopian story of Battle Angel Alita takes place in the 26th century in the former United States and revolves around the city of Scrapyard, which has grown up around a huge metal pile that falls down from the floating city of Zalem. Most of the people below are heavily modified by cybernetics to cope with their hard life since they have no access to Zalem.

Image Credits: Battle Angel Alita, Yukito Kishiro

"However, one of the most inspirational, in terms of theme and design, is the sci-fi manga Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro-sensei.

It was released as an action film in 2019 under the title Alita: Battle Angel. I'd say I took a lot of inspiration from that movie."

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

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Stellar Blade Was Inspired By An Iconic '90s Cyberpunk Manga

Image Credits: Shift Up, Stellar Blade

Image Credits: Shift Up, Stellar Blade

Image Credits: Shift Up, Stellar Blade

Image Credits: Shift Up, Stellar Blade

Image Credits: Battle Angel Alita, Yukito Kishiro

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

Image Credits: Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel

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