Stellar Blade review

When talking about gaming industry leaders, countries such as the US, Japan, or even Poland are constantly brought up. Up until now, South Korea has never been in that conversation. But the gaming industry never ceases to amaze. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely heard of Stellar Blade, Shift Up’s debut AAA title that has the world talking about the game development scene in South Korea.

Stellar Blade is an action role-playing video game with Soulslike elements. It tells an all too familiar story of an extraterrestrial invasion and conquest of Earth. Now, a hero must rise to save humanity by slaying otherworldly abominations of various shapes and sizes. Is this a tired cliché that has been done to death? Yes. Countless books, movies, shows, and other video games have told this same story before. And Stellar Blade is joining that long list.

But I have to give credit to the writers at Shift Up. Through a combination of thoughtful pacing and skillful character development (especially of the main protagonist), they managed to have me invested in the story and immersed in their world until the ending credits rolled. The protagonist, an android named Eve, plays an undeniable role in all of this. Despite being an android, her actions paint a more humane picture of her, and this contrast is what makes her even more likable. While there’s a cast of supporting characters that play a significant role in the story, Eve remains the brightest star.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. Stellar Blade has been stealing the headlines long before its release – and not for a good reason. Whether inadvertently or by design, Eve’s physical appearance has caused a fair amount of controversies. Many believed that her appearance is provocative and overly sexualized and tried to cancel the game. (Let’s hope they never find out about Bayonetta.) Whether or not you believe such claims, it’s undeniable that a lot of people didn’t know this game existed before it made the headlines. After all, all publicity is good publicity. Right?

Now, back to the game. The story did surprise me in a positive way, but that’s not where Stellar Blade’s greatest strength lies. An action role-playing game is as good as its gameplay, and Stellar Blade doesn’t disappoint in that department. At its core, it’s a hack and slash game: strike, dodge, parry, rinse, repeat. But it also takes some inspirations from the Souls series, such as the semi-open world map design, challenging fights, and saving stations. If this sounded an alarm in your head, you’re not alone. Since the overwhelming success of the Souls series that spawned the whole Soulslike subgenre, many games have attempted at catching lightening in a bottle by replicating From Software’s formula, but very few have succeeded. Let me put your worries to rest; while Shift Up isn’t winning the Most Innovative Developer award, it did put its own spin on the tested recipe, making Stellar Blade feel like a solid but slightly fresh experience.

Having said all that, Stellar Blade is not a perfect game. For example, while Eve’s jumping is what prevents the game from feeling like another run-of-the-mill Soulsborne clone, it is clunky at times. The game’s environments and locations, despite being diverse and well-designed, often feel generic and empty. And the side missions can feel repetitive and uninspired.

Not only is Stellar Blade a fun game, it also looks and sounds beautiful. Despite the mass immigration of developers to Unreal Engine 5, Shift Up made the unorthodox decision to stick to Unreal 4. But that doesn’t seem to have had any negative effects on the final product. The developers have squeezed every bit of Unreal 4’s graphical power and mixed it with motion-captured characters to deliver a game that not only looks stunning, but also runs very smoothly on PlayStation 5. The soundtrack, consisting of a mix of dramatic, epic, and emotional pieces, also does a good job of amplifying the emotional aura of the locations and story beats.

Stellar Blade is a well-made action role-playing game that mixes the tested ideas of well-established industry names with the new ideas of its innovative Korean developers. It is definitely a must-play for the fans of the genre.

Rating: 85/100