What’s the next big PS5 game? If you ask PlayStation, it’ll be Stellar Blade. They’re publishing this big-budget AAA game by developer Shift Up. And that name may be familiar to mobile gacha players- it’s the same development team behind Nikke.
Some of you might have noticed that a demo for Stellar Blade accidentally appeared the past few weeks. There are even videos of the few lucky ones to download it that have been available since. But now you should know that the demo is indeed real and will go live for everyone to try out soon.
After playing the demo of Stellar Blade, I was caught off-guard by what this game really is. My first reaction of was of disgust, only for it to grow on me where by the end of it. It’s a whole rollercoaster journey.
And let’s start with the biggest bombshell: This is a soulslike?
Stellar Blade Is A Soulslike
Apparently, it is. It’s hard to see in the trailers where it’s all action-packed scenes. Those trailers gave off character action vibes ala Nier Automata.
But no, it’s actually more of a soulslike than a typical character-action or action-adventure game. Go watch all the three previous trailers here and you can see the UI, the bonfire equivalent and just a teensy bit of that circle-strafing you’ll be doing a lot during combat.
Design-wise, Stellar Blade has all the level design tricks of a soulslike. Sneaky enemy placements. Camps where you can rest to top up your refillable healing item- a potion- but sitting down that little chair respawns all enemies. There’s plenty of doors that can be unlocked from the other side, leading you to going into circles where it all satisfyingly loops back around.
Control scheme-wise, it follows Nioh (and Nier Automata) in that it uses two face buttons for attacks so it seems to play like a character action game. But pace-wise it’s slow and feels closer to Dark Souls than to Nioh. Eve moves significantly slower when you lock-on to a target. The attack animations are lengthy. It doesn’t feel snappy. Fighting the weak foes feels weaksauce.
The intro sequence and the first 10 minutes of gameplay leaves me thinking the combat is stilted. It looks like it wants to be a really fast action game but mechanically it’s slow and methodical. The wind-down animation after each attack feels too slow that I didn’t feel the flow. At first.
There are parts of the combat that is fast-paced. You can fish for parries where doing enough perfect parries opens up an opportunity for a big hit. There’s no stamina bar here, for Eve or the enemy. There are perfect dodges and a blink move where pressing dodge at the right time rewards you with an opportunity to pull off a combo or two.
It’s not until the boss fight where Stellar Blade’s combat clicks for me. It then makes sense how the slow, methodical bits and the fast, reactive bits of the combat work in tandem.
You can’t just lame it out like in Dark Souls, but you don’t have to entirely wait your turn by getting a parry like in Nioh. Play it like any of either games and you’ll struggle. But mix up your offense, defense and parry reflexes- using all the tools you have in your arsenal, and boss fights feel just right. It’s a funky new blend and taste of a soulslike concoction.
The demo also offers an extra boss fight with access to late-game moves and gear. After messing about with this extra boss fight, I can safely say Stellar Blade’s combat really does come alive later on. It’s that it feels really rough at first.
Once you’ve got over the hump that this game is a soulslike, the rest of Stellar Blade’s package as seen in the demo has been, well, stellar. The music is exceptional- the soulful, melancholic singing leaves me goosebumps at how beautiful the performance is. The world design really evokes a sense of place- a post apocalypse Earth left in ruin infested with monsters. The cinematic scenes got me in awe by the sheer grandiose it offers that befits a character action experience more than a traditional soulslike. Exploration and simply being curious are rewarded with secret, optional paths that hides rewards. The stylistic choices in the UI takes getting used to before you can parse the information being displayed, but it does look slick. And Eve sure is eye-catching, this is the devs behind Nikke after all. They’re the ones behind it all.
But just be prepared for what you’re getting at. Sure, the humanoid girls are pretty and the sci-fi aesthetic looks slick, but the game also isn’t afraid of showing gore.
And horrific monstrosities seems to be the only enemy type you’ll be facing so prepare to see some grotesque abominations alongside the beautiful people that’s helping Eve on her mission.
And this might be a deal-breaker for some, but I don’t think Eve will be fighting with any different weapon that isn’t her stellar blade that when sheathe acts as a visible hair accessory.
Closing Thoughts
Is Stellar Blade going to be a big hit when it releases later this April? The demo seems promising. But at least everyone should now know what exactly they’re getting into.
And if I have a nickel for every South Korean game developer being supported by a video game console maker to make their first big-budget game that happens to be a soulslike, I would have two. Which isn’t that much but it’s fascinating that it’s happened twice. Maybe Stellar Blade will be 2024’s Lies Of P.
Played on PS5. Early demo access provided by PlayStation