Stellar Blade | REVIEW

“A perfect blend of Bayonetta & Nier with stylish graphics and a badass OST!" 

HOW I PLAYED: I preordered the Digital Deluxe Edition which came with in-game cosmetics and some in-game currency. The game has 3 modes on PS5 (Performance, Balanced, and Resolution) and I exclusively played in Balanced mode as it mostly kept a stable 60fps frame rate. 

STORY — 17/20 

The Intro to Stellar Blade is very cinematic and action-packed. It is the perfect combination of stunning cinematics which seamlessly rolls into action-packed gameplay! It is simple and the opening segment perfectly sets up the player for expectations of what they are getting into with Stellar Blade.

Cutscenes are stunning in Stellar Blade, I thought they were well-balanced and not overly used. I appreciate when games use cutscenes as a tool and don't rely on them. I was wrong in my first assessment of SB's trailer when I thought a lot of this game would be dialogue cutscene moments, it is NOT! The cutscenes in this game are the sprinkles on top of the cupcake! Sometimes I did feel the dialogue was going on a bit too long but those parts were few and far between.

World Building is mainly done through NPC dialogue and side quests. What is great is you are not forced to do these side quests but it is reminiscent of games like Nier. Doing little quests for side NPC's builds on top of world lore and events happening in Stellar Blade. A player won't miss out on any huge plot points by not doing them and no game-breaking OP gear is locked behind them. 

Overall Story of Stellar Blade has been met with a lot of criticism by other reviewers. One of my first comments when watching the trailer was "The story will 100% be the worst part of this game", and that was somewhat true. The overall story is great, it is not perfect by any means but it has heart. I can see the inspirations many at Shift Up had, and the plot points they were aiming to hit with their first Console game. There were many moments in this game, which at a surface level can be seen as "silly" but I found it to be charming. My assumptions about some of the awkward English dialogue may be that the South Korean developer did not have a strong director for the English voice acting who could make comments on some of the nuances of English conversations. I would be interested to know what the Korean perspective is on the Korean dialogue in this game.

GRAPHICS — 15/15 

Character Models in Stellar Blade are all gorgeous, Eve looks amazing and even Adam is heartthrob material. Lily is the typical side character type for these kinds of games, some of the NPCs are a bit generic but they all look great. The enemy and boss models all look incredible and are very creative! Everything in Stellar Blade just screams polish.

Environments in Stellar Blade are varied enough, that there are some real wow moments in some areas. I was impressed with this game's visuals and environments knowing that there is no Ray Tracing implemented into the game. I think Stellar Blade is a great example of how far good art direction can take you with older tried and true technologies like the ones used in UE4.  

Special FX in SB is amazing! I loved all the effects your special moves give off and the gore in this game is awesome and very satisfying during combat. This is a very flashy game and it does not hold back.

AUDIO — 13/15 

The ambiance in SB relies on the game OST on loop. The tracks in this game are all individual bangers! But you can start to recognize repetitions and that starts to become distracting as a player. The open field areas all have super cozy tracks which I loved that suited the mood very well.

My Suggestion To The Devs:

Create ambient nonvocal background tracks or even just instrumentals for open field areas and keep the tracks with lyrics and vocals for Boss music or cutscenes. 

Boss Music CRUSHES in Stellar Blade, they left the top tier for these tracks. Each boss track does a great job of getting you pumped as a player to take on the upcoming challenge. It got to the point where I was still humming the chorus of the tracks well after the boss battle had ended.

Sound Design is very "Sony Standard" in Stellar Blade. What I mean is the game is made for playing with Sony's Pulse3D headsets, and the immersion is incredible with their sound mixing. Play this game with a good set of headphones if you can!

I want to take a moment to talk about the English dialogue / Voice acting. This is a section of the game that has been met with a lot of criticism and even labeled as "bad" or "corny". I feel like the actors delivering the lines are doing a great job! You can tell they are skilled voice actors, I think the issue lies in some of the line delivery/dialogue. I could see what Shift Up was going for with this game's story and I feel what we are hearing is maybe they didn't have a native English speaker directing the English voice actors. This is all speculation, but I have mentioned many times I would be very interested to hear the opinion of a native Korean speaker opinion of the Korean dialogue in Stellar Blade.

PERFORMANCE — 10/10 

Frame Rate  in Stellar Blade showcases meticulous consideration. As previously mentioned, SB presents three distinct options: Performance, providing a locked 60fps at 1440p; Quality, maintaining a steady 30fps at 4K; and a novel Balanced mode, offering a variable resolution between 1440p-4K and primarily achieving 60fps with occasional dips to the mid-50s. This versatile selection caters to a diverse range of player preferences, appealing to both high frame rate enthusiasts and those prioritizing visual fidelity. Encouragingly, this robust feature set sets a commendable standard for the industry moving forward.

Stability in Stellar Blade is impeccable. The meticulous attention to detail invested in this game is palpable. I recall encountering only 2-3 instances of minor cosmetic glitches throughout my playthrough, none of which significantly detracted from the overall experience. It's commendable that Shift Up promptly addressed some input delay issues with a day one patch, further enhancing the game's stability. In an era where stability issues are increasingly common, Stellar Blade's polished release stands out as a rarity.

GAMEPLAY — 32/40 

Controls in Stellar Blade are very fluent and feel natural. The game is typical action game controls with a dedicated dodge & dedicated deflect / parry button. The best I could compare it to is a mix of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance + Bayonetta + Nier Replicant. Some people have compared the parry/deflect mechanic to Sekiro but I don't feel like that comparison is quite accurate. 

The deflect / parry timing was very delayed in the Demo of the game, but Shift Up released a day 1 patch which fixed the timing (mostly). I still felt that I would have to hit the deflect button a few seconds earlier than I normally would in other games. 

I mentioned earlier that I felt that some of the platforming mechanics felt a little off. There were plenty of times when I would overshoot platforms or not be able to jump far enough. I wish the game would have your character "snap to edges" a bit more aggressively. And I felt the wall jump mechanics was cool! But done better in Titanfall 2.

Mechanics in Stellar Blade are simple and very pleasing to use. The skill tree was full of very valuable skills that enhance your combat abilities. I found grinding for skill points "SP" in the game very easy. I loved the mix of range combat with the drone and melee combat and also throwing in specials at just the right moment to keep your enemies stunned. I also loved all the customization you can do with Eve and your main group, all the outfits and upgrades were a lot of fun and helped make your playthrough somewhat customized with a fixed character game. 

Pacing in SB is what you would expect for an action game like this. I had assumed before release that you would be forced to do a lot of the side content in the game and you would be stuck in very long dialogue moments. But I was very surprised at how well-paced this game is. There are still some parts of the game that I would consider "padding" to increase total runtime. But those moments were few and far between. I think if you want a tight action game experience you could easily go through this game and do zero side content and still have an excellent time. And for people who like doing collectible missions and fetch quests, there is plenty of that for you as well.

UI/UE in Stellar Blade is very sleek and stylish. All the menus and systems are consistent with the game's futuristic aesthetic. All of the menus are very familiar to players who play FromSoftware or SquareEnix games. I do feel like some of the button combinations are a bit cumbersome (see switching gun ammo). 

My Suggestion To The Devs:

Maybe create a hot bar of items that you can scroll through using the dpad. Keep UP on the d-pad the dedicated heal button. The giant "wheel" when holding down on the d-pad just isn't my favorite method of changing inventory items in my opinion.

Boss Quality in Stellar Blade is TOP TIER! I was shocked to see a studio like Shift Up which previously only made mobile games, make such intricate and exciting boss battles. I was happy to see that this isn't one of those games where bosses turn into regular mob enemies. There is some repetition, but expected for these types of games. My one criticism is that the first half of the game spaces out boss battles pretty far apart. Then the ladder half of the game becomes a "boss rush" mode. 

Gameplay Variety is well-balanced in SB, If you get fatigued from grinding enemies or bosses you can take on some side missions. You can go look for soda cans in the open field (one of my favorite parts), and there is even FISHING in Stellar Blade. The game also tries to mix it up during story missions by having sections that make you fully rely on your ranged attacks. Normally I am not a fan of games forcing me how to play, but I felt like these moments were genuinely fun and made me a better overall player as I got used to my secondary weapon. There are also a lot of ways you can cosmetically change your character Eve with new outfits, hairstyles, eyewear accessories, and earrings. So collecting all of those items to truly customize your version of Eve can be enjoyable for a lot of players. 

Enemy Variety is done great in Stellar Blade. Each enemy is very unique and fits a consistent design language that Shift Up have created. There is a great variety of different enemy NPC's in each area of the game, and some have reskins that prevent any feeling of repetition. All of the enemies get even more creative as you progress through the games main story.

Replayability is pretty standard for this type of Action game. There are multiple endings (2 + hidden endings) and there is a NG+ available DAY ONE! Other Sony studios need to take note of this (I'm looking at you Insomniac & Santa Monica Studios). Games that take 6 months to release an NG+ need to become a thing of the previous generation. Stellar Blade shows you can launch a game with all of these features on day 1 with 0 microtransactions. KUDOS Shift Up!

BONUS — 2/4 

Stellar Blade released day 1 with a patch that mostly fixed its parry timing, but also made some changes to some cosmetic details in the game. There has been controversy about the questionable placement of some unfortunate wording in the game. I am on the side that this was an honest mistake as I felt a lot of the in-game designs were random words that a non-English speaker would think might be edgy or cool or they are procedurally generated with AI and placed randomly. The point is, that Shift Up quickly resolved this, and no harm no foul IMO. There was also some controversy about some of the censorship done in the patches for Stellar Blade. If you purchased this game digitally you never would know there were any changes. But if you purchase the game on Disc, you have access to version 1.0 of the game which has previous outfits for Eve that are a little bit more "revealing". 

I think it's silly that the Devs had to change the outfits at all. It doesn't change my experience of the game personally. But I see the points of both sides. 

Stellar Blade has amazing accessibility options! This is usually the case for games published by Sony. There are lots of settings for visually impaired individuals and hearing impaired. There is also an option to auto complete QTE's for those who struggle with reaction time. Love to see a lot more options than just closed captions. Kudos AGAIN Shift Up!

OVERALL — 89/100 

GREAT 

Stellar Blade is the biggest surprise in 2024 so far for me! I was expecting this game to be typical weeb bait with a hilariously bad story forced in with drops of boring action moments. A perfect blend of Bayonetta & Nier with stylish graphics and a badass OST! Fans of movies, TV shows, and games like Aliens, Gundam Wing, Nier, Bayonetta, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring will LOVE Stellar Blade.

This is a MUST HAVE for PS5 owners!

TLDR: 89/100 (GREAT) Stellar Blade blends Bayonetta & Nier with style and boasts a killer OST! The game offers a range of frame rate options catering to all player types. Story is cinematic with well-balanced cutscenes & engaging world-building. Graphics impress with stunning character models & varied environments. Audio shines with epic boss music & immersive sound design. Controls are fluent but platforming could be refined. Mechanics offer satisfying combat with customization. Pacing is well-paced, UI sleek. Boss quality is top-tier with diverse gameplay variety & solid replayability. Accessibility options are commendable. Stellar Blade is a must-have for PS5 owners!

Pick up Stellar Blade HERE -

PS5 — https://amzn.to/4bqbxRm

CHECK OUT MY VIDEO REVIEW HERE