Grab your sword, slide into that sexy outfit and get ready for our Stellar Blade review!

What is the first thing you think of when I say “post-apocalyptic future of planet Earth”? If your answer is ‘sexy Korean android women’ then you have come to the right place. Brand new Korean based development studio Shift Up, headed by Kym Hyung Tae tantalized us with some stunningly detailed trailers for the mysterious ‘Project EVE’ as far back as 2019. Originally slated to appear on multiple systems, Sony liked what they saw (those naughty Japanese men…) and arranged for the title to be an exclusive on the PlayStation 4.

Sure thing, the rest of the review is just below this image

Making the smart choice to take their time with their first major release, Shift Up delayed the game to the PlayStation 5 and gave it a new title in Stellar Blade.  Stellar Blade looks like a AAA title. Obviously, the Shift Up team put a lot of work into it and they were clearly reaching for the stars with their maiden title. So does Stellar Blade shine like the sun? Or does it suck like a black hole? Find out in our Stellar Blade Review!

Stellar Blade Review – Story

In the not-too-distant future, the people of Earth have fallen to the relentless onslaught of a horrific race of nightmarish creatures called Naytibas. Driven away from a decaying planet, the remaining humans moved to a colony in space but remain desperate to reclaim their homeland.

He seems like such a friendly chap

Humanity’s last hope lies in the hands of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit “Stellar Blades”. Our protagonist, Eve, is deployed to Earth with a mission to reclaim the planet from the Naytiba menace.

You blew it up! Damn you…damn you all to hell!

Of course, the mission is not an easy one, and Eve needs assistance. She meets a group of surviving humans though Adam, a resourceful but secretive scavenger, and Lily, a youthful yet brilliant scientist who seeks to unravel the secrets of the Naytibas’ origins.

Eve, Adam and Lily (Lillith?) – what a random selection of completely unrelated names

Xion, the last remaining bastion of humanity, becomes their base of operations. The mysterious Orcal sends our heroes on a series of missions to both rebuild the crumbling city and learn more about the Naytibas in order to remove their scourge from the planet.

If some of these story elements sound familiar, then it isn’t just you. The eerie post-apocalyptic world is reminiscent of the Nier series, and Nier Automata specifically. The Shift Up team have confirmed in previous interviews that the Nier series was a huge inspiration for this game, and it definitely shows that they love Nier, though there are plenty of nods to other classics of sci fi as well.

What does this remind you of? Thats right – My Little Pony

The modified humans who are denizens of Xion are weird and wonderful that provide a variety of side quests to flesh out, not just the main story, but also the history of our devastated civilization. The world of Stellar Blade is large, beautiful and mysterious with many secrets to discover. In addition to inter-character interactions, there are a massive amount of collectables to find including letters and other messages left by long-dead humans that provide further backstory which includes an understanding of the horrors the Naytiba brough to Earth.

Where did all the people go? Rummage through some dead bodies to find out.

The story progresses at a reasonable pace with an interesting cast of characters. There are some obvious twists through the story but there are some gripping and surprising ones as well. This is also a game with multiple endings (three in total), and your actions though the game may influence which are available to you as the tale progresses to its satisfying closure.

Tell me all about it over a coffee. Waiter!

Stellar Blade Review – Gameplay

Stellar Blade is a combat focused action game with light RPG elements. The defense focused battles definitely give off a ‘Soulslike’ vibe where dodge and parry techniques are essential to be successful. This is particularly important during the very challenging boss battles scattered throughout the world. That being said, the game’s combat clearly borrows from other sources as well and is nowhere near as deep as a FromSoftware title.

Eve’s battle abilities are learned through a series of simple, uncomplicated skill trees. Some of these are available straight away while others are unlocked as Eve meets the entities of future Earth and obtains their assistance in her mission.

Many skills but all are helpful!

Stellar Blade only has one melee weapon, a sword called the ‘Blood Edge’ and Eve’s fighting style revolves around a combination of this and a ranged weapon that is obtained after a few missions. In this sense it has more in common with a game like Devil May Cry or the modern God of War games where the focus is on timed defensive actions in combination with swordplay, ranged attacks and powerful skills to overcome swarming enemies in large open areas or complex manicured boss fights in smaller arenas.

I said less clothes, not more!

In addition to the Blood Edge, after some tinkering by Lily, Eve’s little drone friend is able to transform into a powerful firearm that uses a variety of different ammunition to devastating effect. Indeed, there are some dungeon sections of the game that have much more of a ‘survival horror’ feel. In these areas Eve is unable to make use of her sword at all and must rely solely on the Drone’s firearm capabilities.

Learning boss combo attack patterns to pull off three or four parries in a row is extremely satisfying… except for the first 20 times when you fail and die. One negative design choice that was slightly annoying was the revive system. If you die (and yes, you will die often), you will revive back to the last save point, typically at the last ‘camp’ you visited. On the positive side, any actions you took or items you picked up will be retained, however the flip side of this is that any items or ammunition that you used, including use of your Beta Skill and Burst abilities, will also be maintained from when you died. This is most frustrating when attempting a difficult boss multiple times (fights when you use a lot of ammo and skill gauges).

Get ready to use all your ammunition on me the first time, and then not have any available for your 2nd try

Traversal is quite basic, but nothing to complain about. The main hub city of Xion is directly linked to two of the large ‘open world’ regions and provides a transport option to the others (once they are unlocked through the story). Completing missions for the citizens of Xion out in the Naytiba infested world will give the option to immediately fast travel back to the individual that gave the quest. This is somewhat useful, though getting back out into the field can take a little bit of time so make sure you only accept the fast travel offer when you are all done with your multiple missions and are ready to return.

The first humans killed by the Naytibas were the cleaning staff apparently

There isn’t only combat here though. Stellar Blade offers some infrequent but challenging platforming sections. Eve tends to feel a little ‘floaty’ when mid-jump. Despite this, in general these sections are great and are certainly a good opportunity to enjoy some of the non-combat parts of the game.

Overall level design is excellent, with both the large open world areas and the enclosed dungeons fun to traverse. However, the fast travel system only has very specific nodes available to transfer to and from, and these aren’t always in the most useful locations.

Complicated, but not in a bad way

Finally, there are a bunch of quick-time-event challenges and other puzzles that need to be completed to unlock chests and utility crates that are scattered throughout the levels. Again, these are a great little distraction from the combat and honestly I would have liked to see some more of these given that some of the puzzle types are seen only once or twice in the entire game.

Of course, a game with RPG elements isn’t complete without the essential fishing mini-game. The fishing iteration in Stellar Blade is relatively standard, though once you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. After completing the main story, in the post-game there is the chance to go through the game in ‘New Game +’ mode with all of your items and equipment maintained from your first playthrough. In addition, after getting your first ending the ‘Boss Challenge’ mode is unlocked where you can battle for your best time in taking down the Elite and Alpha Naytibas without the fuss of completing their dungeon areas first.

Stellar Blade Review – Visuals

Booting up the game presents an initially drab and non-descript start screen that had me a little concerned. However, that quickly broke away to a massive starship battle, a scene evocative of the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope. This is just a taste of the visual feast we are about to devour.

Shift Up didn’t hold back in the visual presentation of Stellar Blade. It was definitely the highlight of my time with the game. Not just the scripted cutscenes like the one above, but just the standard gameplay itself. Special mention goes to the textures (especially Eve’s outfits) and particle effects within battles as the pinnacle of Stellar Blade’s presentation.

Some sections of the game do fall victim to the typical ‘brown and grey’ colour palate of a ‘post-apocalyptic world’ game. However, that does help to further emphasize the contrast between the devastated parts of Earth when compared to some other areas that are visited during Eve’s adventure. Finally, the design of the majority of the Naytibas in the game are excellent. They are weird and disturbing, and I’m here for that!

I have no clue what that thing is, but I love it!

Stellar Blade Review – Audio

Audio presentation in Stellar Blade is great. I love a game that makes strong use of audio during combat to assist the player, particularly where timing is essential to success. Throughout the game the clash of weapons and the eerie screams of Naytibas contribute to the game’s atmosphere. The music composed by Hwang Joo-eun, Oliver Good and Keita Inoue suits the desolation of future Earth whilst also appropriately supporting the frenetic pace of combat.

As always, voice acting plays a significant role in conveying character emotions and deep story moments. Despite how Eve looks she is an emotional character (as much as an android can be) and the English voice performance is perfectly portrayed by Rebecca Hanssen. I don’t know about you, but I always prefer performances by British actors in video games. They almost always give a level of gravitas that cannot be matched by their American counterparts. Rebecca’s performace for Eve is excellent, and the rest of the cast did a great job as well.

I also enjoy looking at…uh…books

Stellar Blade Review – Controversy

If you haven’t read much media about Stellar Blade prior to this review, you may not yet be aware of some of the (minor) controversies surrounding the game. These revolve around the ‘appropriateness’ of some of the unlockable costumes available for Eve to wear, such as the one below:

Yeah, it is a new experience to play a PS5 game with one hand

Yes, I make fun of images like the two above, but there is an interesting contrast presented in Stellar Blade that needs to be pointed out. Eve isn’t just a ‘damsel in distress’ character. She is a Naytiba murdering machine. A strong female lead character that isn’t put in any compromising positions throughout the entire game (except for the costumes that the player chooses for her to wear). There is a great variety in the costumes as well, so you definitely don’t need to pick a ‘sexy’ one if you don’t want to.

Personally, I didn’t have an issue with the costume choices, particularly as it is up to the player to choose which one they want to utilise. Just make sure your wife/girlfriend/mother isn’t in the room if you are going to use one of the more risqué options.

Stellar Blade Review – Conclusion

My first playthrough took about 40 hours, during which I completed most (but not all) of the side quests given to me by the denizens of Xion. During that time I encountered no major bugs, glitches or crashes. A couple of times I did get caught in awkward positions during traversal of the open world, but nothing that required a reset of the game. I honestly can’t believe this is a first up effort from a new studio. Stellar Blade feels like a veteran studio effort due to its level of presentation and polish.

Felt cute, might kill some Naytibas later.

Shift Up is a developer that loves what they do, and it shows from landscape and enemy design right down to Eve’s facial expression detail and mannerisms. Little things like putting a leg up on a chair as Eve approaches it – that is completely unnecessary to animate and program as it serves no functional gameplay purpose other than to immerse you in the game (and to look cool).

With Shift Up, I have hope of seeing more amazing games in the future.

Stellar Blade isn’t a perfect game. But in my view it is a great one, particularly as a first major ‘AAA’ release, and the first release for the studio on any console. Sony definitely did the right thing in snapping up Shift Up Corporation to bring them into the Sony Studios family, and I am looking forward to see what they come up with next!

So, why should you play Stellar Blade?

• Anybody looking for a game that sits halfway between a true ‘hack and slash’ action game and a ‘soulslike’ RPG should give this one a go
• Fans of NieR Automata and/or horror-science fiction stories will definitely find something they like here

But, why shouldn’t you play Stellar Blade?

• You somehow fall into the part of the Venn diagram where ‘I hate playing games with female protagonists‘ meets ‘I don’t enjoy looking at attractive women‘
• You don’t enjoy timing-based combat where twitch reactions are essential for success

A review code was kindly provided by Shift Up for the purpose of our Stellar Blade review. You can check out our other reviews here and if you haven’t already, be sure to join the Qualbert Discord to find out about the latest game and review updates!