Stellar Blade

**Stellar Blade** is ShiftUp's upcoming first AAA game. Formerly known as Project EVE, its official publishing title was revealed on September 13th, 2022. Stellar Blade is still in development, with producer Jackie Lee informing the press that there has been "a lot of progress on the title" since the initial announcement on April 3rd, 2019. It was announced for PC (Steam), PS4 and Xbox One in 2019, but was recently advertised as a PS5 console exclusive on September 13th, 2022. While it seems now that Xbox is officially out of the works, it is currently unclear if ShiftUp still has any plans to bring the title to Steam.

To date:

* [April 3rd, 2019] ShiftUp holds their first *CRANK IN SHOWCASE* at their new "Second EVE Studio", in Seocho-dong, Seoul.
	+ The reveal trailer is released and more details on Project EVE are given including a Q/A.
	+ This was the first announcement of the project, as well as the debut of the titular character currently dubbed "EVE 06".

* [November 26th, 2020] Prototype Version BATTLE REPORT is released.
	+ A gameplay showcase featuring complete working footage from a boss battle released for GStar2020. This was the first showing of the character currently dubbed "EVE 07".
	+ ShiftUp opens a newer portal dedicated to the game on their official website alongside the original. This now serves as the project's official website.
* [August 21st, 2021] An official Twitter page is launched.
* [September 9th, 2021] Project EVE First Trailer is released.
	+ An official "First Trailer" released via PlayStation Showcase, featuring a brand new soundtrack, new gameplay and new cinematic footage.
* [September 13th, 2022] Project EVE is now officially titled Stellar Blade.
	+ Stellar Blade Story Trailer is released via PlayStation's 2022 State of Play, featuring new gameplay and outfits, new songs, new cinematic footage and three previously unseen characters: a comrade of Eve's named Lily, a masked survivor named Adam and an elder named Orcal who appears to be at least partially cybernetic.
	+ A short description of game by director Kim Hyung Tae is posted on PlayStation Blog.
	+ The official website for the game is updated with the new title and content.
	+ A new official twitter page is attached to the site in place of the previous one.

## Official Notes

### The following is an excerpt from a PlayStation.Blog post made on September 13th, 2022, featuring a short synopsis of the game by project director Kim Hyung Tae.

> *"This is our second encounter since the PlayStation Showcase back in September 2021. I am beyond ecstatic to reveal the official name for our game, previously called Project Eve, and share new trailer unveiling new characters and their roles in this story.*
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> *And I present to you the official title that encompasses Eve’s stylish action and her long and winding adventure…*
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> #### *The meaning of Stellar Blade*
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> *The title is a combination of “Stellar,” which signifies stars in Latin, and “Blade,” which defines Eve’s existence.*
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> *Where the point of that blade will lead you to, that’s entirely up to you.*
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> #### *Mankind’s last remaining city on Earth, Xion*
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> *Eve and her comrades land on the surface to reclaim the extinct Earth and cross paths with a survivor named Adam. Eve is then led by Adam to the last surviving city, Xion, where she meets the elder of the town Orcal and is told many stories. In order to serve her mission to save Earth, Eve develops close relationships with the key members of Xion and contributes to rebuilding the city.*
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> *On a mission to save Earth from the NA:tive, Eve is also faced with helping out the citizens of Xion. Whether you will help the survivors or not, depends purely on your decision as the player.*
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> #### *Action-packed battles against fierce bosses*
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> *Stellar Blade introduces action combat that require deflecting and evading the NA:tives’ attack at a precise timing that will also connect to combos and unique skills. Throughout the game, you will arm yourself with unique Beta Skills and intense Burst Skills, which I promise will be pleasing to the eye.*
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> *Brace yourselves… Bosses’ strengths are on a completely different level compared to the common NA:tives, offering a challenging and strategic combat encounter.*
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> *All these actions will allow you to further immerse yourself into the story and understand Eve’s emotions.*
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> *Get ready to embark on a journey with our powerful protagonist, Eve!*
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> *Thank you for your continued support and interest."*
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### The following is an excerpt from Ruli Web's coverage of ShiftUp's 2019 *CRANK IN SHOWCASE*, which featured ShiftUp project leads speaking on their upcoming titles, *Project NIKKE and Project EVE.*

> *"The introduction of Project Eve was directly conducted by CEO Kim Hyung-sik. Eve was revealed at this event after the last GDC 2019 Epic Games event with a teaser trailer being made.*
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> *Project Eve is the story of a human race destroyed by native invaders, escaping to an orbital colony, and fighting to retake Earth. In the teaser trailer, the other colleagues failed to reach Earth, and the main character successfully landed alone and set out to retake it.*
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> *<*
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> *CEO Kim Hyung-tae emphasized that it is a game with an end and an ending, and will show explosive extreme 19-gold action mainly in single-player, allowing anyone to directly play SSS-level cool play.*
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> *Project EVE is a console platform project that contains the goal of Shift Up's global AAA title development. As a single-player-oriented action game, it meets the action and graphic quality required for AAA-level titles, and plans to publish it to current-generation stationary consoles such as PS4 and XBOX ONE and PC (STEAM).*
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> *The Project Eve development team includes early members at the time of 'Blade and Soul' development, such as ShiftUp CEO Kim Hyung-tae, program manager Lee Dong-gi, Wonhwa Lee, FX manager Lee Chang-min, and producer Joo-hwan Lee with console game development experience.*
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> *In addition, the Second Eve Studio, created for development, has the largest 3D scanning system in Korea, and high-quality modeling can be produced by scanning real models and clothes. In addition, a facial capture system was built to implement various facial expressions with data as a 3D model. In addition, a performance scan facility was built in-house.*
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> *For the production of monsters, rough sketches and actual sculptural models are made into a real thing, and then 3D scan is applied to modeling. The monster modeling in the teaser trailer was made that way.*
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> *CEO Kim Hyung-tae said, “A good game starts with a good plan, but I have seen cases where it is not implemented properly due to insufficient resource support, or a planner who has already anticipated resources and brings a plan that has been saved. We wanted to create a resource environment that was good enough to prevent that from happening.” said.*
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> *He also said, 'I want to hire good developers for this. And through that, we want to give all gamers a game they will enjoy and love. I hope you will be interested and watch it.' and concluded the presentation."*
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## References

1. ↑ https://blog.playstation.com/2022/09/13/new-story-trailer-revealed-for-stellar-blade-formerly-known-as-project-eve/
2. ↑ https://bbs.ruliweb.com/news/read/120714