Stellar Blade's director is unsurprisingly a big fan of 2B and Tifa, but his inspirations also include some of Tekken's leading ladies and a GameCube cult classic

Given the unrelenting thirst inspired by Stellar Blade's Eve, you might not be surprised to learn that director Hyung-Tae Kim is a big fan of some of gaming's most notable sex symbols, including Final Fantasy 7's Tifa and Nier: Automata's 2B. But you might not have expected Eve to have been inspired by the lead of a 21-year-old GameCube cult classic.

Australian magazine Stack asked Kim what his favorite PlayStation heroines were, and he responded "This is a very difficult question because there are so many... Michelle and Nina from Tekken 2, Tifa from Final Fantasy XII [sic], 2B from NieR: Automata, and so many more for different reasons. I think I like the idea of having an independent and strong side to them without hiding their own charms." 

Kim cites a wide variety of console games as personal inspirations, including "NieR: Automata, Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, God of War, Sekiro, [and] Jedi: Fallen Order." But he made a special callout of a particularly deep cut: "Capcom's P.N.03, which came out during the GameCube era, had a lot of influence on the protagonist's movements and physical features."

P.N. 03 is a 2003 third-person shooter directed by Resident Evil legend Shinji Mikami. The idea is that you're Vanessa Z Schneider, a sci-fi mercenary in a powered exosuit, blasting enemies to a rhythmic beat that leaves you constantly shaking your hips. A thin, repetitive campaign netted the game mediocre reviews at launch, but the game's sense of style quickly made it a cult classic, and it's easy to see how Vanessa could have been a particular influence on Eve.

Yes, Stellar Blade's Eve sees you staring at her, just like Nier Automata's 2B and Death Stranding's Sam knew what was happening.