Having just completed the game, I enjoyed it but had some more in-depth thoughts. I may jump around a bit here and sacrifice a cohesive “article” for just making sure I get all my points across.
For those that don’t know Stellar Blade is an action game focusing on sword play and parrying while controlling a female ninja android (more or less). Beyond just the campaign the areas tend to be large and usually accommodate a decent number of side quests. The game is developed by South Korean developer Shift Up and published by Sony. The game is available on PS5 and PC. (Side note: Tencent owns a 35% stake in Shift Up)
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My first impressions of the game were promising. The visuals are slick and the controls are responsive and appropriate. It doesn’t take long to want to learn some moves and become a bad ass in this game asap.
The highlight of the game is clearly the combat. It’s fun, feels great, sounds great and you always feel like you and the controller have a chance. Parry and dodge are very important, but as someone who is not a Souls fan this was a great balance for me. Similar to Jedi Fallen Order, the combat demands focus, timing and learning enemy patterns but not to what I would consider an excessive degree. I see myself as an average gamer skill-wise and I pushed through and completed both games.
Speaking of the difficulty it is actually on the easy side. The exception to this is near the end of the game, where they really make you earn it. The last handful of bosses require some patience. I think this slight difficulty spike mostly works though. It made someone like me really push to get over the finish line and for someone that wanted more challenge from the game, they finally get it. If you are better at these games than me or you’re just a glutton for punishment, beating the game unlocks Hard mode and New Game +.
I don’t expect much from the story in games like this but I really didn’t care what was going on at all. By the end it seemed a little more interesting, but that might’ve been just because…..well, it was the end and mildly crazy shit was happening. The English voice acting is wooden and weak. Since the game does let you explore there is also far too long between story bits. I had no idea what was going on nor did I care. The game didn’t compel me to if I’m being honest.
As mentioned the graphics are pretty great beyond some small imperfections. Not everyone will be down with the anime sex doll character models and I get it. I should note that the game is not fan service-y at all in my opinion beyond some ridiculous costumes you unlock. All things being equal the main character, Eve, looks great and everyone else looks good enough. The rest of the designs are fine. Sometimes I’d spot a really incredible character design or location, but that was only a few times. The enemies repeat and while it’s not egregious it’s enough that you notice. Most of them looks like scrapped ideas FromSoftware left behind. I appreciate the graphical quality because it does enhance this game in particular, but from a creativity standpoint I think they can go much farther.
Speaking of the exploration the large areas allow for you to wander the wasteland, complete tasks and just generally defeat enemies and do other things for XP. Oddly, a couple of these areas don’t have a map. I don’t know why. At one point I needed advice on a quest and noticed other people online claiming some areas don’t have maps. I have no idea why and it’s a shockingly strange choice. Maybe I missed something.
This is where the game starts to show some cracks for me. I feel it would’ve been more successful if it was just a straightforward campaign, but I say that about a lot of games. Still almost none of the side quests are interesting. It’s just more busy work for more items, which isn’t a terrible thing but it’s kind of a lot of padding. The game even has fishing, complete with fully rendered 3D models for every fish. I commend the effort but this is another game (along with Hades) that felt like it had to have a fishing mechanic and didn’t. It’s just a waste unless you absolutely have to fish in every game (and if you do, you’re probably just meme-ing). However, a lot of people will find the game’s variety just right.
The complaint I have that’s not really up for debate is that the game really needs more polish. In some areas there are weird crevices that don’t need to be there and they often lead to instant death. The fall damage doesn’t help either considering it could be at least cut in half (why do so many games get this wrong?). When you pick up items they appear on your screen in a tiny font I can never find and then it disappears too quickly. There are so many different chests to open and little items to find that I never bothered to differentiate anything and would just wait until I got back to camp to see what I actually picked up. Some items you will be overstocked with and never have to buy. Others you will have to make a point of buying, but there’s no rhyme or reason for which are plentiful and which aren’t.
The game also does this annoying this where some button presses don’t register because an animation is still ending on screen. You have to wait for the other thing to finish, then you’re allowed to press the next button. This is not a problem in hand-to-hand combat thankfully but it’s a technical issue that always bugs me when I see it. Speaking of animations, I have seen some bosses not take damage when I hit them because the game is about to load an animation of them transforming. Also if you use special moves during these boss animations, obviously you can’t hit them but the game will still charge you for spending the energy you used. You’re not even on the screen when this happens, let alone doing any damage. It only mattered for a couple of bosses but obviously if that boss is that tough it makes a huge difference. Lastly, without spoiling it there is another weapon in addition to your sword that I mostly found out of place and wished it weren’t there.
In Conclusion
Overall the game has some correctable flaws and I would recommend it to literally anyone that likes action games of any kind. What the game sets out to do the best, it does. It looks awesome and it’s fun as hell to fight monsters. You control a very agile character that you can perform bad ass anime moves with. You can do some stuff that just looks cool as hell.
I know it sounds like I mostly complained here but that’s only because the good stuff is pretty straightforward: if you want a good action game that also looks good doing it, this will do the trick. Just buy it if that’s what you’re in the mood for. It also has exploration and some fun traversal sprinkled in. Plus for all the tiny flaws the game has, they’re easily correctable and as a result I am really excited for an eventual sequel. I think if they simply learn from the first game then the sequel will be firmly in “great” territory.
In short, the combat is great and the controller speaker goes “Clang!” every time you do a Perfect Parry. It’s very fun and a successful release from a newer developer. I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for this series.
I can’t go lower than an 8.5/10 if I’m to give a numbered score. The game is somewhere between good and great, but on the whole it’s too fun to rate it any lower.
