Shift Up has responded to criticism of a generative AI music video used to promote Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, telling players that the studio's artists, not an AI model, designed the sequel's protagonist.
The video, set to a song titled "Wanna be in LOVE," was published on Shift Up's official YouTube channel and follows Blood Rain's protagonist Evie through a neon-lit city. Dexerto reports the clip runs over three minutes and closes with logos for Second Eve Studio and Shift Up's internal AI Labs division. The YouTube upload is tagged as made with AI, and its description states that sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated.
Criticism followed quickly. Viewers cited duplicated background characters, garbled shop signage, poor lip-syncing and a face that appeared to change between shots, according to reporting by Polygon and Dexerto. PC Gamer noted that parts of Evie's suit appear to morph between frames and that the song itself is AI-generated. Dexerto reports that the June reveal trailer for Blood Rain drew similar complaints.
What Shift Up said
Shift Up chief executive Kim Hyung-tae, who also directs the series, addressed the reaction in a post on X on July 31, as quoted by PC Gamer.
EVIE, the character at the heart of this video, was created from head to toe by our talented artists and modelers through more than a year of dedicated work. The AI is not creating her from scratch. It is rendering and presenting the character based on the data, design, and craftsmanship our team created.
The statement addresses the character's design rather than the production of the video itself, which was the focus of most of the criticism. Dexerto notes that Kim has publicly supported the technology before, arguing in January that one person could perform the work of 100 people with AI assistance.
Wider questions
Polygon raised a separate point about the video's contents, observing that it shows a keychain carrying a KPop Demon Hunters logo and, at the end, a Sony camera. Sony Interactive Entertainment published the first Stellar Blade, but Blood Rain is being published by Shift Up, and Polygon reports it is unclear whether Sony authorised the references.
Polygon also placed the response in a broader context of scepticism toward generative AI, citing a Bentley University-Gallup survey in which 39% of respondents said AI does more harm than good against 9% who said the opposite.
Shift Up is also the developer of the gacha title Goddess of Victory: Nikke. Stellar Blade: Blood Rain has not been dated.
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