There is hardly a PlayStation 5 exclusive that fans are as excited about as “Stellar Blade”. Since the first trailer, many players have been eyeing the action RPG from the South Korean development studio Shift Up very closely. We were able to play through the sci-fi adventure about heroine Eve in advance and experienced a lot.
In our test we will tell you whether it compares with “NieR:Automata” withstands and what awaits you in the post-apocalyptic world of the game.
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There is only ever one truth
In a distant future, Earth has been almost completely devastated by the Naytiba, dangerous monsters. That's why the last remnants of humanity had to flee to a colony in space. From there, the decisive counterattack will take place a long time later in order to reconquer the planet. As part of an attack team, protagonist Eve is sent to Earth to finally wipe out the Naytiba.
However, over the course of her mission in “Stellar Blade,” she discovers that not everything is as she always imagined. She must therefore not only face numerous dangers, but also uncover the truth about what really happened on Earth. She becomes involved in events that far exceed her wildest imaginations. Can Eve reveal all the secrets?
Of course we won't tell you that at this point. After all, you should find out for yourself during the 15 to 20 hour long story. Because of the mystery surrounding what happened in the past, we always wanted to know what would happen next for Eve and her friends. For us, the excellently staged and well-told story is one of the game's greatest strengths, which you should definitely finish more than once.
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Crashing action with style
Unfortunately, since the Naytiba cannot be defeated with good words, you have to move on to more aggressive negotiations. Luckily, Eve is an excellent swordsman! Your sword is our standard weapon in “Stellar Blade”, with which we cut through the weaker monsters like a hot knife through butter. We can do a lot with her light and heavy attack as well as her block at the beginning of the adventure.
Of course it doesn't stop there, because for every successful fight we receive experience points, for which we get a skill point when we level up. We can invest these in new active and passive skills in five clear skill trees and also unlock new attacks. This brings more variety to the challenging skirmishes and these new attacks are sorely needed to be able to eliminate stronger enemies.
The combat system of “Stellar Blade” is reminiscent of a mix of “Bayonetta” or “Devil May Cry” and “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice”. Eve moves across the battlefield as gracefully as Bayonetta, but always has to be on guard and block enemy attacks precisely. However, the combat system is not quite as creative and complex as a “DMC” or as precise as a “Sekiro”. But that's complaining at a very high level, because after a few hours of play and with several skills, the fights against the Naytiba develop a fantastic flow.
The fact that the action plays so smoothly is also due to the special attacks, which have to be used tactically cleverly. With successful blocks you can, for example, recharge your beta energy, which you can unleash with a combination of L1 and one of the action buttons. However, if you dodge precisely, you collect thrust energy, which you activate with R1 and the action buttons. These attacks are particularly useful when dealing with multiple enemies at once or a particularly powerful Naytiba.
That brings us to the boss fights, which are one of our absolute highlights in “Stellar Blade” because they always demanded everything from us. These duels are not only superbly staged, but also really challenging without being unfair. The Shift Up team did a really good job of balancing. In particular, the bosses in the second half of the action RPG stayed in our minds longer. This is either due to the fantastic character designs, which sometimes appear sublime, sometimes grotesque, or a cool gameplay trick.
In short: the action is great!
Employment opportunities in the post-apocalypse
Aside from the brutal fighting, those responsible are also making a noticeable effort to provide variety. The detailed exploration of the levels, some of which are quite extensive, is just as much a part of it as small puzzles and platforming elements. There are also rousing escape sequences and quick “surfing” sequences on Eve’s sword. All of these gameplay elements provide a pleasant change of pace and lighten up the action.
The jumping passages in particular occur frequently, but for us they weren't the biggest strength of “Stellar Blade”. In these sections, the controls didn't always work as precisely as we would have liked, which was a bit nerve-wracking at times.
Furthermore, as is typical of the genre, you can of course also take on optional side missions in which, for example, you have to get something specific for someone or have to face a strong enemy. A few side quests improve understanding of the multi-faceted game world, which helped us to better fill one or two gaps in the content. In general, the environmental storytelling is pretty well done and during the test it repeatedly motivated us to deviate from the main path in order to look for hidden messages that told us more about the world.
In general, you should take a closer look at the levels as often as possible. In some corners there are collectibles or new accessories or outfits waiting for Eve. You can also buy some of these purely cosmetic pieces of equipment from dealers. You can also collect useful resources that you need to unlock new outfits or improve your equipment.
While you can visually adapt Eve to your personal taste with the different items of clothing, you can do this in a playful way using your equipment. These allow our protagonist to take more enemy hits or to regenerate after a fight. So always keep your eyes open!
However, we still have to complain a bit at this point, because the side missions made a rather generic impression to us overall. This is particularly a shame because the world of “Stellar Blade” not only looks great and has a varied design, but also repeatedly hints at an interesting story, the potential of which is not fully exploited. There would certainly have been more to the side quests.
Beautiful post-apocalypse
However, the look of the PS5-exclusive action role-playing game convinced us even more, because it simply looks great. At first glance, the detailed character models catch the eye, especially Eve. But the other characters relevant to the story also shine with lots of details and therefore make a great impression.
At this point we would also like to particularly highlight the monster design, which is wonderfully disgusting and brings back memories of “Dark Souls” or “Dead Space”. The makers were able to really let off steam here and the results definitely convinced us. The same applies to the smartly designed game world, which is sometimes bleak, sometimes melancholic and sometimes surprisingly colorful.
However, upon closer inspection, “Stellar Blade” doesn’t always run smoothly. During the test, which we carried out primarily in “balanced” mode, we repeatedly noticed clipping errors, pop-ups and occasional stutters, which somewhat detract from the positive overall picture. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any serious problems such as crashes.
We have nothing but praise for the German dubbing of the action RPG and the soundtrack. The OST, like the story, brings back fond memories of “NieR:Automata” and offers some wonderful melodies. Speaking of “Automata”: In our opinion, Eve’s adventure doesn’t quite hold up to this often-used comparison, because 2B’s game is written a bit more cleverly and surprises a little more with its gameplay.