Stella Blade: South Korea's Gaming Sensation Making History

Stella Blade by Director Kim Young-tae achieves unprecedented success, rewriting Korean gaming history and setting a new milestone.

### Stella Blade: Unprecedented Success and the Unique Journey of Director Kim Young-tae
*🎮 Stella Blade achieves record-breaking user scores and sales, surpassing even the most influential games in history.
*📈 The game tops the pre-order and sales rankings in major countries and is predicted to have sold over 1 million copies within 24 hours of its release.
*👾 Director Kim Young-tae's unique career path from illustrator to game developer, facing numerous challenges and controversies.
*🕹️ Despite the hardships, Stella Blade's unprecedented success marks a milestone in Korean gaming history, with anticipation for the director's next work.

Hello everyone, this is Heukyeol Jeong. South Korea's console game Stella Blade, which is running a mega hit, is currently achieving better-than-expected performance. Now that a week has passed since its release, how is Stella Blade performing? Currently, Stella Blade has a Metascore of 82 points, receiving a decent evaluation. However, the user score is recorded at 93 points, a quite high figure. It might be hard to grasp how remarkable this is, but this 93-point user score is truly an unbelievable figure. The 93-point user score is said to be the highest record ever among all video games registered on Metacritic. Even when looking at games that have had the most influence and highest Metascores in video game history, there are no games surpassing Stella Blade's 9.3 points. Video game history.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is considered to have a tremendous impact overall, has a user score of 8.8. The Last of Us, evaluated as one of the greatest games in PlayStation history, has a score of 9.2. Additionally, Elden Ring has 8.0 points, Half-Life 2 has 9.1 points, and Skyrim has 8.6 points. Even when compared to well-known games, these are the ratings. Once again, even after looking through the entire history of video games, it is recording unbelievably high numbers. Thanks to this, it is expected to have tremendous sales. It has taken the top spot in the PlayStation Store pre-order rankings in most major countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Brazil, and Spain. Not only that, but it has also topped the Amazon sales rankings in countries except Spain since its release, and according to the industry,

Thanks to these records, Steller Blade is predicted to have achieved sales of over 1 million copies within 24 hours of its release. Considering that God of War, which has the highest sales across PlayStation 4, sold 3 million copies in 3 days, and The Last of Us Part 2 sold 4 million copies, it can be seen as a significant figure that can compete with the fastest-selling games in PlayStation game history. It is said that Bloodborne sold 750,000 copies in the first week of its release, which is truly extraordinary considering the gaming market in South Korea. If we go back just one year when a PlayStation 5 exclusive game was released in Korea with a user score of 9.3, higher than any other game, and sold over 1 million copies on the first day.

As I wander around the internet, I have lined up records that seem like ridiculous dreams to the point where it wouldn't be strange to get cursed at. Not limited to Korean games, I am updating tremendous records. It is true that they are well-made games and deserve high scores. However, speaking based on user scores, both you and I, to be honest, have doubts whether it is a game that deserves more than 9.3 points, surpassing The Legend of Zelda, The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, and Baldur's Gate 3. Indeed, there are cases where games like Stellar Blade have achieved high user scores because they are fun, but it is also considered that some people who have been dissatisfied with PC character designs have given blind 10 points after seeing Stellar Blade's character design. This has influenced many non-gamer

Kim Young-tae, the director who achieved all of this, has always had a resistance to PC-based designs and can be seen benefiting from Stella Blade resolving this aversion. Nevertheless, Director Kim Young-tae has never had an easy journey. Originally dreaming of becoming a cartoonist from a young age, he had talent in drawing. In 1996, he entered Chung-Ang University's Visual Design Department as a second-year student. After continuously preparing for his debut in 1997, he failed once but was eventually accepted by the Seoul Cultural History of Acu Jump. However, the era at that time began to restrict him. In 1997, under the guise of the Youth Protection Act, many popular cultures were suppressed. At that time, the phenomenon of high school students imitating Japanese violent comics was prevalent, leading to incidents of school violence.

Under the pretext of being involved, tremendous oppression took place. Some cartoonists were even dragged to court at that time and sentenced to fines. It was a period of great cultural darkness. Representative p, after that, even the prohibition of teenagers entering PC rooms was established. Interestingly, the genre that was popular at the time was school violence, but the cartoon by Director Kim Young-tae could not naturally come out into the world, leading the cartoonist to give up on his dream. In this way, in 1997, instead of attending university, the cartoonist took a leave of absence and enlisted in the military. By entering a game company called Mantra through military service exemption, his life's direction changed through games. Although the company Mantra is now defunct, and its name may sound unfamiliar, at that time, it was a company that distributed various foreign games in Korea, such as localizing Princess Maker for release.

I started to get into game development myself and released some works. Among them, I developed a game called Raptor's Language and for the first time in my life, director Kim Young-tae participated in the development of a game according to the 2nd season. At that time, the company was planning to create a series based on that work, as the game was of a certain scale. However, the time I joined was in 1997, when South Korea was on the verge of collapse due to the IMF crisis. Ironically, just when many people were struggling with it, in the midst of preparing for the distribution of Princess Maker 3, the beta version was leaked in advance. Until the early 2010s, South Korea's awareness of copyright was at its lowest. Downloading games via torrent and playing them for free was common practice.

Being a librarian means the era of being treated as either a sucker or an otaku beast. Only recently, with the success of Overwatch and Battlegrounds, the culture of paying money and playing games has taken root as teams are formed. It goes without saying that 1990, 20 years ago, is well known. Games leaked before release were circulated illegally in Yongsan and on the internet, and those who bought games with money were considered suckers. At that time, illegal copies were rampant. In the advertisement for Princess Maker 3, it was stated that participating in contests was only possible with genuine certification. Moreover, there were pitiful contents offering to exchange illegal copies for genuine ones if reported. However, in the country of copyright beasts, this did not work, resulting in extremely low sales figures. This led to lawsuits from various investors.

When it collapsed, the company naturally decomposed. Director Kim Young-tae was involved in the lab service, so his debut work disappeared into the back alleys of history. At that time, the company was in a dire situation. Since he joined the company through a military service exemption for men, Kim Young-tae, who couldn't quit or leave for another job, reportedly persevered day by day practicing 3D technology and drawing in an office covered with seizure stickers. In fact, this period was a real crisis in terms of his career. As mentioned earlier, Director Kim Young-tae was originally serving in the military at Mantra, so he was on a military service exemption at the company. He was in a situation where he might have to serve the remaining period as an active-duty soldier if he made a mistake. He prepared and changed direction anew after stumbling in preparation.

When a company goes bankrupt, even games collapse. If you make a mistake, you might have to re-enlist in the military. It was a time when overlapping errors and mistakes were so common that it wouldn't be strange to think the world was playing a prank on me. During that time, through a friend's introduction, I received an illustration outsourcing job. It was said that I was in charge of the illustrations for the ending of the prequel work Tempest of the game that had a significant impact on Korean history, as well as the sub-characters. It was when the outsourcing results were satisfactory. In 1999, I joined the development company Softmax, known for The War of Genesis series, after that. I officially started my career. After working on the first project after joining, The War of Genesis III, I began creating works that incorporated my own art style into games, including Magna Carta. From then on, my interest shifted to 3D, and I started studying alongside my work. At that time, the Unreal Engine was mentioned.

I revealed the rough draft made with 3, and it looks very similar to the current Stella Blade, emphasizing the thighs and hips. Even after 20 years, those characteristics have been passed down. It seems like the person is consistent in their taste. While working on that, I left SoftMax and joined a new company. I participated in the development of a game as an art director. It's the game Blade & Soul, which is considered to have led the golden age of NC Soft. Interestingly, at that time, he only drew illustrations, but when he joined NC Soft, he lied that he knew how to art direct and ended up in the position of art director. He had never done it before, you know. However, the position of art director serves as a bridge between art and development, not just drawing.

Overall, it is a comprehensive position that requires coordination. Going through the development of Blade & Soul, it was not only helpful in terms of simple artistic aspects but also in acquiring development knowledge. After successfully creating Blade & Soul, he wanted to make games again. He left NCsoft and founded Shift Up, paving a new path. The first game released, Destiny Child, directed by Kim Young-tae, boldly expressed the graphics of the director's distinctive style. Despite being an adult game with limitations, it consistently topped the sales rankings in the two major markets at the time, achieving tremendous revenue. However, controversies such as ongoing external disputes, Megalia illustration disputes, sign disputes, various probability manipulation controversies, Kakao data deletion, and countless other disputes have plagued the game.

Yasukuni Chard's director, Kim Young-tae, was subjected to tremendous criticism under the nickname Kimura Hyotai. Although he made a lot of money, the company's trust and the director's image were greatly damaged. In this situation, the two projects he announced were not easy to gain much public expectation. Already servicing a mobile game, he announced the release of a new mobile game, which was considered a far-fetched idea in Korea at the time. At the time of the announcement, Director Kim Young-tae may have seemed arrogant by stating that he would develop a triple-A game at Shift Up. However, he expressed a somewhat serious attitude by saying that if they do not attempt it now, they would only be capable of producing the same game repeatedly. In this way, he approached the development with a somewhat serious attitude.

Nike, which was released, may not be free from controversy, but thanks to a solid story and structure, it has achieved great success in its home country, Japan, and continues to receive quite positive reviews in Korea. Moreover, the highly anticipated AAA project, Stella Blade, is achieving remarkable success, to the point of rewriting history, with a bit of exaggeration. In fact, at first glance, his career may seem like just an ordinary game developer's path, but considering his background as an illustrator, it's undeniably a unique career. Starting from dreaming of becoming a comic artist, then transitioning to an illustrator, and eventually becoming an art director through sheer determination, he founded his own company and is now even directing games for Triple A titles. Before the release of Stella Blade, Director Kim Young-tae stated in a press conference that this was the case.

He left words that reveal his spirit of challenge toward new attempts rather than sticking to his formulas. What's really interesting is that in 2008, the development of Blade & Soul took a long time. At that time, it is said that he left similar words in an interview. The development environment is different, and the risk of failure is quite significant. Therefore, even large domestic game developers do not easily attempt console games. However, despite the lack of experience in console game development, a company boldly jumped into the mobile game market with a product released. It seems that the persistence of Director Kim Young-tae played a significant role in the background. Anyway, looking at the highly acclaimed Stella Blade, it is not an exaggeration to say that it has set a milestone in Korean gaming history in many ways. Achieving such results from scratch, it makes one wonder what kind of game they will show in their next work.

I am really looking forward to it. With Toi as a starting point, I think many domestic developers will actively engage in console game development more than before. Anyway, despite experiencing various twists and turns and many hardships, Director Kim Young-tae ultimately achieved great success through a challenge that no one else attempted. I am really looking forward to his next move. Thank you so much for watching the video until here. Well then. [Music] [Music] Goodbye. Oh [Music]

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Stella Blade has achieved a Metascore of 82 and a user score of 93, the highest ever on Metacritic.

The game has quickly risen to the top of pre-order and sales rankings in major countries, with sales predicted to exceed 1 million copies within 24 hours.

Its user score surpassing well-known titles like The Legend of Zelda and The Last of Us has led to some skepticism but is attributed to the game's fun and impressive character design.

Director Kim Young-tae started as a talented cartoonist but faced oppression due to cultural restrictions in 1997.

He then shifted to game development after joining a company called Mantra, where he released various works and participated in the development of a game called Raptor's Language.

However, his career in game development faced challenges due to the IMF crisis and the low awareness of copyright in South Korea until the early 2010s.

The Challenging Journey of Director Kim Young-tae in the Gaming Industry

Director Kim Young-tae faced numerous challenges in his career, from struggling with low sales and lawsuits to the potential of re-enlisting in the military.

Despite these obstacles, he persevered and transitioned to 3D technology, eventually joining the development company Softmax.

His career then led him to work on The War of Genesis series and Magna Carta, where he incorporated his own art style into games.

The Career Path of Game Director Kim Young-tae

Kim Young-tae's career began with the development of Blade & Soul, where he misrepresented his experience to become an art director.

He later founded Shift Up and released the successful game Destiny Child, but faced criticism and controversy.

Despite this, he announced the development of a triple-A mobile game, showing a determined attitude towards innovation and growth.

Success and Controversy: The Unique Career of Director Kim Young-tae

Director Kim Young-tae's career, transitioning from illustrator to art director and game developer, has been marked by remarkable success and a spirit of challenge.

His latest project, Stella Blade, has made a significant impact on Korean gaming history and is highly anticipated for the future.

Despite facing hardships and criticism, Kim Young-tae's persistence has led to great achievements, with expectations high for his next work.