Stellar Blade dev's game reveal sparks AI art accusations, sounds like its own take on Genshin Impact, and surprises nobody with art so horny I can't show you the whole thing here

Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke developer Shift Up has released the first snippet of art for its upcoming game Project Witches, newly renamed to Project Spirits, and it's as over-the-top horny as you'd expect.

I had to crop the bejesus out of it to make a SFW listing image for this article, so here's the full piece, as spotted by Genki:

I don't expect anyone is shocked by this style, nor do I think Shift Up's biggest fans are upset about it. Speaking as someone who disliked how ridiculous some unlockable outfits looked on Stellar Blade's female lead Eve, I actually prefer the Nikke approach of making the entire game loudly and proudly sexualized so everything's at least coherent. (I do, after all, play Zenless Zone Zero.)

More surprising, especially given Shift Up's pedigree for character designs, is an accompanying row over alleged generative AI use in the reveal art for Spirits, which features two women framed by dramatic temples demonstrating the "Eastern Fantasy" theme discussed in (machine translated) job applications attached to the project.

Reacting to the reveal on Reddit, some Nikke fans pounced on the bizarre thumb on the left woman's left hand. Snippets of the background are more curious still, with the wood frames of several temples showing the sort of bizarre artifacting, inconsistent smoothness, and illogical nesting of details typical of generative AI.

It's difficult to say definitively that this art was made with or assisted by AI, but Shift Up has notably been accused of using generative AI in previous promotional art. Studio boss Hyung Tae Kim has also repeatedly shared AI, or at least AI-assisted, illustrations on his personal Twitter, and seems to be an advocate for the technology.

AI aside, the style for Project Spirits has been widely likened to Shift Up's first game, Destiny Child, which launched in 2016 and shut down a few years ago. This, coupled with Nikke, may also provide a rough idea of what to expect from Spirits.

Job listings for Project Spirits suggest it will be closer to Nikke than Stellar Blade, at least in terms of format and monetization. Machine translated details from combat, art, and narrative listings indicate it will feature multiple playable characters, open-world areas as well as towns and dungeons, and a focus on action gameplay. An abundance of playable characters would be straight from the gacha action RPG handbook, and not at all unfamiliar to the house of Nikke.

There's also mention of cross-platform support, and though we don't know those platforms, it's increasingly common for modern gacha action RPGs to launch on both mobile and console or PC. To really hammer it home, multiple listings also specify applicants familiar with games like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero.

This is still just speculation, but it's mighty informed speculation. Stellar Blade is a good, sort-of open-world action RPG, and Nikke remains a powerhouse in the gacha space, so in a post-Genshin world filled with games like Wuthering Waves and Silver Palace, it seemed inevitable that Shift Up would try its hand at a similar formula. It certainly has the experience and appetite for these kinds of games.

Project Spirits, whatever shape it takes, may end up being exactly that. If you were holding out hope for another no-nonsense single-player game in the style of Stellar Blade, well, you can still hold out until we get more official details, and there's always Stellar Blade 2.

Stellar Blade is already the third top-selling game on Steam more than a week before launch, and just its demo has reviews and players most full games would kill for.