Ever since the Project EVE trailer they showed back at a Playstation Showcase a few years ago, I was pretty hyped for Stellar Blade. As someone who loves games like Nier Automata I was looking forward to another game in that vein. When I later found that this game was less hack n slash and more soulslike I was a little disappointed but still overall excited. Turns out, the combat would be my favorite part of this game, and it would be most else that would disappoint.
First of all, the game is pretty, not only the enticing character designs (I like butts) but the overall graphical quality in general. My only complaint with the look is that the majority of areas in this game look identical, and the most interesting themes are barely fleshed out and almost all at the very end of the game. The two open areas are just different flavors of brown empty deserts, and most of the stages are just cityscapes that look very similar.
Moving over to gameplay, this is where Stellar Blade excels. Combat is a mix of slower, pattern recognition parries with flashy counters and combo strings. This almost makes it sound like Metar Gear Rising, however it is much more stilted and deliberate. Enemies hit for a ton of damage, and mistakes are very costly, but successful dodges and counter open the door for high-damage counters, and build gauges that allow for powerful attacks. This system is fantastic, but a little clunky at times, especially dodging as it needs to be perfect for you to be invulnerable, and you need an upgrade for that dodge to actually move you a fair distance. Locking on is important, but using the gun makes it so you lose your lock on, making later fights where you are required to switch between sword and gun really frustrating. Some enemies also have very unclear attack animations, and the combat really suffers any time you have to fight more than 2 foes, especially in the early game when you don't have your special moves. The world is interesting to navigate, you move quickly and there is a lot to explore. You have to keep your eyes open for ledges to climb, and there are some interesting environmental puzzles. My only complaint here is that when you have to do precise movement (like a few jumping puzzles) it is too easy to fall off due to animation delays and buffered inputs, and swimming is infuriating.
A lot of these issues I would overlook if I were engaged by the story, however this falls completely flat for me. While the concept is really interesting, it takes until the final few hours for me to actually be interested in where the story is going, and by that point I was already impatiently skipping through dialog or grabbing a drink while characters talked. This especially happened for the sidequests, where I just couldn't get invested in any of these quests (except one). The English voice over is really bad and I switched to the Korean which was better, but it doesn't change the poor dialog and characterization. Eve is such a nothing character, the only thing I know of her personality is she hates getting wet (lol), same with Adam and most other characters. Which sucks because there are so many moments that would have been so cool if I just cared about the characters more. It finally culminates in a fairly cool finale where you have to make a choice, but you can't get all the endings in one run, you have to play at least 2 times to get every ending. I would be more likely to play again for another ending if there anything different but all you have is a few minor NG+ gameplay additions. So I ultimately dropped the second run and watched the endings on YouTube.
Overall, this game is good, really good even, and I really want to see what Shift Up does with its next console game because I think they have clear passion and talent and could make something better in the future. It is just unfortunate that this game was dragged down for me by its story and a few gameplay stumbles.
First of all, the game is pretty, not only the enticing character designs (I like butts) but the overall graphical quality in general. My only complaint with the look is that the majority of areas in this game look identical, and the most interesting themes are barely fleshed out and almost all at the very end of the game. The two open areas are just different flavors of brown empty deserts, and most of the stages are just cityscapes that look very similar.
Moving over to gameplay, this is where Stellar Blade excels. Combat is a mix of slower, pattern recognition parries with flashy counters and combo strings. This almost makes it sound like Metar Gear Rising, however it is much more stilted and deliberate. Enemies hit for a ton of damage, and mistakes are very costly, but successful dodges and counter open the door for high-damage counters, and build gauges that allow for powerful attacks. This system is fantastic, but a little clunky at times, especially dodging as it needs to be perfect for you to be invulnerable, and you need an upgrade for that dodge to actually move you a fair distance. Locking on is important, but using the gun makes it so you lose your lock on, making later fights where you are required to switch between sword and gun really frustrating. Some enemies also have very unclear attack animations, and the combat really suffers any time you have to fight more than 2 foes, especially in the early game when you don't have your special moves. The world is interesting to navigate, you move quickly and there is a lot to explore. You have to keep your eyes open for ledges to climb, and there are some interesting environmental puzzles. My only complaint here is that when you have to do precise movement (like a few jumping puzzles) it is too easy to fall off due to animation delays and buffered inputs, and swimming is infuriating.
A lot of these issues I would overlook if I were engaged by the story, however this falls completely flat for me. While the concept is really interesting, it takes until the final few hours for me to actually be interested in where the story is going, and by that point I was already impatiently skipping through dialog or grabbing a drink while characters talked. This especially happened for the sidequests, where I just couldn't get invested in any of these quests (except one). The English voice over is really bad and I switched to the Korean which was better, but it doesn't change the poor dialog and characterization. Eve is such a nothing character, the only thing I know of her personality is she hates getting wet (lol), same with Adam and most other characters. Which sucks because there are so many moments that would have been so cool if I just cared about the characters more. It finally culminates in a fairly cool finale where you have to make a choice, but you can't get all the endings in one run, you have to play at least 2 times to get every ending. I would be more likely to play again for another ending if there anything different but all you have is a few minor NG+ gameplay additions. So I ultimately dropped the second run and watched the endings on YouTube.
Overall, this game is good, really good even, and I really want to see what Shift Up does with its next console game because I think they have clear passion and talent and could make something better in the future. It is just unfortunate that this game was dragged down for me by its story and a few gameplay stumbles.