Highlights

  • Stellar Blade and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth share a controversial design choice involving yellow paint for signposting, but Stellar Blade's use is more extensive and better received.
  • Some players have criticized Stellar Blade for alleged censorship, but the use of yellow paint to mark paths has been less divisive compared to controversy in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
  • The use of yellow paint signposting in Stellar Blade is necessary to guide players through visually cluttered environments, enhancing gameplay without sacrificing immersion.

Sony seems to be on a roll once again in 2024 with hits like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the recently released Stellar Blade earning high praise from critics and fans alike. While Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has a massive legacy behind it, the success of Stellar Blade is a major achievement for developer Shift Up as the game is their first home console release. Despite being very different games, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Stellar Blade share one level design choice in common, which sparked controversy for the former at launch but has failed to do so for the latter.

Although Stellar Blade's launch has been largely well-received, the game has also seen its share of controversy among a subsection of players. Some Stellar Blade players are unhappy about the alleged censorship of the game introduced in a day-one update and have created a petition for developer Shift Up to roll back the changes made in this update. However, Stellar Blade also contains yellow paint used to denote climbable paths, which was controversial in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth but doesn't seem to be as divisive in Stellar Blade, showing just how much of a non-issue this design choice actually is.

EVE wearing glasses in Stellar Blade
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Stellar Blade Features the Controversial Yellow Paint Path Markers

A common design trend in modern gaming is "signposting," or using obvious markers to make it clear to players where they are supposed to be going in the game. Recent games have utilized yellow paint on climbable ledges to show that they are interactable, but despite being utilized in numerous titles, some players have taken issue with this design practice. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was the recent target of controversy surrounding the use of yellow paint signposting, with players criticizing the use of these marked ledges as immersion-breaking and distracting from the otherwise cohesive world of the game.

Stellar Blade follows in the footsteps of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth with its use of yellow paint for signposting but arguably utilizes this practice even more so. While Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth primarily utilized yellow paint to signal a small number of climbable ledges to players, Stellar Blade's greater emphasis on platforming means it contains more marked ledges, as well as markings on other interactable objects like poles that Stellar Blade's protagonist EVE can swing from. Despite Stellar Blade's heavy use of yellow paint for signposting, the game has received far less criticism for this design choice than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth did, showing how this practice can enhance a game's level design.

Why Marked Paths are Necessary in Stellar Blade

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The primary reason developers use signposting in games like Stellar Blade and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is to provide players with guidance on where to go amid a visually cluttered world. When an open-world game like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth uses this yellow paint to mark a climbable path, it's because the yellow stands out against the rest of the environment and helps distinguish it as a point of interest. Without this signposting, players might end up frustrated that they can't find the path forward when overwhelmed with directions to choose from, or might miss out on an optional treasure because there was no obvious clue that one was nearby.

Stellar Blade uses yellow paint signposting for a similar reason, given that its world is full of crumbling buildings and ruined city streets, which often makes it difficult to isolate an interactable path from a background element. Rather than letting players spend time trying to interact with every ledge or rock, Stellar Blade uses these yellow paint-marked paths as a way of respecting the player's time. While this practice might be unpopular with some players, it ends up benefiting the game and is a necessary part of Stellar Blade's level design.