Censorship can be a sensitive topic for a lot of gamers, especially when it comes to their favorite games having to hide behind a filter of unexpected blurs or downright removal of content. On a similar note, Stellar Blade hasn’t been safe from censorship either, and fans are taking it to the internet to voice out their opinions.
When a ‘Hard R’ was removed from the game for censorship purposes, almost everyone in the player base raised an eyebrow over what exactly was going on here. This may seem ironic, considering how the controversies surrounding Stellar Blade are anyway kept aside for the reason that the game is meant for an adult audience to begin with.
The Removal of Hard R Despite Being Rated M for Mature?
The uproar started when fans found out what exactly was being censored in the game. Turns out, there’s a writing on the wall that goes, ‘Hard R’ which has now been removed and changed to something else.
A game like Stellar Blade being censored feels a bit off, but that would be true for any game when the developers intended the game to appeal to a certain player base. The game is rated M (for Mature), and it won’t be surprising to see serious tones and adult themes to be an occasional part of the game.
However, this censorship has been making little sense to gamers, and the thing of concern here isn’t the removal of something. Rather, the fact that video games have started falling prey to censorship in a way that doesn’t truly justify anything.
How Stellar Blade Fans Have Been Responding to This
Across multiple social media outlets like Twitter and Reddit, fans are breaking their head over this censorship, trying to understand why it happened in the first place.
User SuperScrub310 has been vocal about this on Reddit, and the comments section has started to believe that this censorship feels more like a troll rather than doing any good for the community.
#StellarBlade needs to keep the #HardR. Say no to #censorship! #ShiftUp need to keep firm and not censor their game, even for funny things like that! pic.twitter.com/FVKtZXhq9Z
— Steven Lornie (@Spud_Almighty) April 24, 2024
Across X/Twitter, users like Steven Lornie and DOA Momiji have used Twitter as a platform to express their sentiments, voicing out how the new changes feel unnecessary.
Putting the discourse aside, I can tolerate the slight censorship in Stellar Blade compared to the puritanical bull shit the devs pulled in Tomb Raider Remastered. pic.twitter.com/YSR89u6M4b
— DOA Momiji (@momiji_doa) April 25, 2024
Stellar Blade is a game that isn’t new to any kind of controversy, and the devs have often tried explaining the reasons for how/why the game looks and feels a certain way. Adding to this comes this latest censorship, but this time, it’s a little tough to pinpoint if Stellar Blade really needed this kind of treatment.
What are your thoughts on the latest censorship in Stellar Blade? Let us know in the comments below.
