More than just a Soulslike with a protagonist to serve as eye-candy, Stellar Blade has far surpassed our expectations, offering varied gameplay, outstanding visuals, a sublime soundtrack and an engaging story. It's a must-play for action game fans.
Stellar Blade recalls the classic era of character-action games in truly inspired fashion. It might struggle to deliver on its core narrative, and its platforming is often more frustrating than it isn't, but neither of those things are enough to bring down a thoroughly enjoyable action experience. It wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but manages to build on them in engaging fashion with a deliciously layered combat system and gorgeous presentation to boot.
Stellar Blade has great merit when we see it from a production point of view and as Shift Up's letter of introduction to the international market. As an exclusive to the PlayStation 5, it lets us see that the industry is willing to expand and show us the AAA proposals that other regions have for us. Despite its positive points, the title offers us a generic story and gameplay mechanics that lack depth, although the presentation and production levels are impressive.
Stellar Blade is collage filtered through kaleidoscope, its myriad influences bleeding together in a neon swirl that produces vibrant new colours and dull familiar ones at an uneven pace. When it chooses to use its building blocks to reach new heights it’s a dizzying achievement in combat presentation and approachability, with EVE’s toolset fun and varied enough to carry the weight of the game’s lesser components. It leaves you wanting to see what else this studio could accomplish, even if they’ve gotten this far on borrowed wings.
Stellar Blade has landed a critical hit, successfully slicing through the crowd of well-established action-adventure game giants. If you’re a fan of sleek and stylish combat, with sprinklings of Soulsborne and Nier Automata vibes, you’ll feel right at home when playing Shift Up’s triumphant console debut.
Stellar Blade is a game that ambitiously attempts various elements, but not all of them hit the mark equally. Its shining moments come in the form of exhilarating combat, action-packed levels, and epic boss battles. However, its narrative delivery, open-world segments, and secondary missions falter, leaving some ideas underdeveloped, such as underutilized platforming mechanics and a neglected equipment system. Despite its flaws, it ultimately offers an enjoyable, diverse, and entertaining adventure, especially for those seeking straightforward action. While it falls short of its full potential, Stellar Blade remains a title worth considering for its fun factor alone.
I spent 7 hours playing this game and I have a lot of the same feelings I had about Final Fantasy 16 with Stellar Blade. I enjoy the sexiness just as much as the next man but at the end of the day I still expect to play a good game with an interesting story when I play a big Triple A Sony exclusive and this game just doesn't hit for me. One of the biggest gripes I have with this game is the overall depressing vibe to it. The music constantly playing in the background has this super anime, sad and funeral like vibe to it, that just puts me in a state of mind where I feel depressed. Add on to that, the overall look and color schemes of the game and it has that dark and dead colored tint to the environment that makes things even more depressing. Aside from that, the dialogue and story are god awful. I'm 7 hours in and I'm still having a hard time understanding what the hell we are even doing. The English voice actors are terrible. Main character, Eve, outside of her looks is just completely flat and uninteresting, very robotic and flat. Combat is the only part of the game that is some what decent but it still has major problems. Feels way too janky and sometimes it feels like this combat system is not made for the enemy hordes and attacks you run into. Way too reliant on building meter and the way she walks like a snail and the run button not working at times is infuriating in combat. 5/10 game for me - Flushed after 7 hours unfortunately.
SummarySave humanity from extinction in this electrifying story-driven action adventure, made by Korean developer Shift Up, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
Experience blistering combat and a twisting storyline as you unravel the mysteries of Earth's downfall.