Is The Weeknd Teasing A Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Cameo?

As pop famous person The Weeknd’s world tour hits Asia, the singer has been discovering loads of time to satisfy with native visionaries throughout gaming, movie and artwork—and yet one more studio simply made it onto his listing.

As shared on Instagram, The Weeknd (actual identify Abel Tesfaye) visited Shift Up’s improvement studio in Seoul, South Korea—greatest often known as the builders of Stellar Blade. Tesfaye posted a number of images of himself posing alongside studio workers, numerous Stellar Blade merchandise and firm founder Kim Hyung-tae. He even included a photograph of the title display screen of the upcoming sequel Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, revealing he was in a position to preview the brand new title years earlier than anybody else.

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What We Know About The Weeknd’s Shift Up Go to

Nonetheless, one photograph piqued fan curiosity greater than the others: considered one of Tesfaye standing inside a multi-camera 3D body-scanning rig. He didn’t seem like in costume, however that hasn’t stopped followers speculating on-line that the world-famous singer is perhaps making a particular cameo look within the subsequent Stellar Blade title.

Tesfaye additionally appeared tight-lipped in regards to the photograph, not addressing it immediately within the put up caption. As a substitute, he thanked Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae for “the nice and cozy welcome” to Korea, in addition to for the “inspiration” his go to supplied. The singer carried out a live performance in Seoul on October 7, so he visited the studio in his downtime previous to the present.

Followers have additionally speculated in regards to the go to in different methods, believing The Weeknd might not be showing in-game, however might contribute in any other case to the title, by way of soundtracking the epic celestial boss battles. The Stellar Blade OST closely options digital music, of which Tesfaye is a virtuoso.

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The Weeknd’s Visited A number of Recreation Studios in Japan, Too

Shift Up isn’t the primary studio to obtain Tesfaye as an honored visitor—whereas touring in Japan, the singer visited different main studios and high-profile builders in each Tokyo and Osaka.

Pictures on Instagram present Tesfaye visiting Sega headquarters, posting alongside a life-sized Sonic statue and including his signature to the studio’s famed customer wall. He additionally stopped by Capcom and Sq. Enix, sharing images of Kingdom Hearts merchandise and particular collectibles.

Tesfaye’s love of video video games and anime is broadly identified, with the singer assembly famed recreation creators Hidetaka Miyazaki (of Darkish Souls fame) and Yoko Taro (greatest identified for his NieR sequence) whereas in Japan, too.

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The Lacking Hyperlink: Hideo Kojima

One notable omission from the listing of creators met by The Weeknd is Hideo Kojima, who posts images of his superstar interactions nearly each different day on social media. It’s laborious to consider Tesfaye didn’t not less than attempt to meet the auteur whereas in his residence nation, contemplating a lot of his visuals and cinematic model are so strongly impressed by Kojima’s sci-fi visuals from Metallic Gear Stable and Loss of life Stranding.

Kojima is maybe greatest identified for that includes celebrities and well-known actors in his video games, from Mads Mikkelsen to Norman Reedus to Elle Fanning. Nonetheless, The Weeknd’s appearing gags have hardly attracted rave critiques—the singer was panned for his efficiency in HBO’s The Idol, the place he performed a pop-star-cum-cult-leader.

He additionally options well-known vocalists in his video games, equivalent to Caroline Polachek’s contributions to Loss of life Stranding 2, and repeatedly posts his playlists on social media, that includes a wide range of Western R&B and synthwave artists—lists that The Weeknd has by no means been featured on. Whether or not Tesfaye is touring the studios as a faithful fan or whether or not there’s extra to the story will probably be left to your discretion. However some appearing classes wouldn’t go amiss, particularly to get on Kojima’s radar.

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