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I am a big fan of fast-paced action-adventure games. From Vanquish, and Bayonetta to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and even Ninja Theory’s DmC reboot. However, many great action-adventure games have recently taken a leaf from the SoulsBorne genre. These include the likes of Sekiro, the Star Wars: Jedi series, Rise of the Ronin and many more. Then there are games like NieR: Automata which have taken storytelling in action-adventure games to a new level. Today, we have with us Stellar Blade – one more addition to the fast-paced action genre. Put simply, the game is fantastic with a good story, frantic action and some stunning visuals – a true testament, especially when you consider that this is developer Shif Up’s first foray into the AAA gaming space. Let’s dive into the details.
Story
There is little that I can tell you about Stellar Blade’s story without getting into spoilers so let’s say this – the game wears its influence of NieR: Automata on its sleeves. You don the role of Eve a member of the Airborne Squad deployed on a post-apocalyptic earth to rid the planet of creatures called Naytibas. The game opens with a bang and the Naytibas are destroying almost all the pods carrying the Airborne Squad to earth and like any good video game story, you are the one that magically survives and will save the day.
You are quickly introduced to Adam, a survivor on Earth who takes you to a colony called Xion which houses the last few survivors. There is an “oracle” in Xiom (yes, I get the Matrix reference too) who shows you the light at the end of the tunnel to help rid the world of the creatures called Naytibas. From here you embark on the quest to save Xion (and Earth) until you hit the plot twist. There are a bunch of side quests and some key decisions that you can make that will affect the outcome of the story. Needless to say, there are multiple endings that depend on some key moments that happen in the game.
Speaking of side quests, their stories range from simple fetch quests to one where you need to check up on a survivor’s wife who is in a form of cryosleep – once again, without spoiling anything this feels a lot like NieR: Automata without being a straight ripoff and that’s very good. Imitation is the best form of flattery and the fact that Stellar Blade reminds me so much of NieR: Automata is good as both have a fantastic take on the human-AI-survival of living creatures theme and it will keep you hooked even though key story moments are spread a tad far apart.
Gameplay
If you have played any of the games mentioned in the opening of this review, then you will feel right at home with Stellar Blade. It is fast-paced but isn’t a button masher. You need to be methodical with your moves. There is the standard light attack, heavy attack and ranged attack, along with a slew of combos. You can hold down the left or right shoulder button and combined with the face button, have access to a total of 8 unique moves which pack in quite the punch. Your companion drone also doubles up as a gun with a range of ammo types from a standard machine gun to shotgun shells and even homing missiles to take on the foes. And then there are special attacks that you can trigger after a perfect parry or after successfully dodging an enemy’s heavy attack which is signified by blue, purple or red colourcodes.
But that’s not all! Each enemy has two additional layers to health – shield and stability. A successful parry reduces their stability and some attacks focus on depleting the shield quickly. After depleting the shield, you can use some heavy combos to deplete the health. It’s fantastic how such fast-paced action can have such complexities that are easy to learn and hard to master. You also have a range of grenades at your disposal that can deplete shield, stability, health and even stun the enemies for a short duration. Mistakes in combat aren’t easily forgiven and that’s where Stellar Blade takes influence from soulsborne games.
The enemies are also quite varied. Some will throw projectiles at you, and other small creatures that can merge with a fallen enemy and revive it to large grunts that are relatively slow but pack in quite a punch. There are also the Alpha Naytiba’s which can be classified as the bosses you fight in the game.
The game has a normal mode and a story mode and on normal after a point, I found the combat to be quite challenging for my ageing reflexes and resorted to the story mode. Just like Final Fantasy XVI, you can extend the window for a parry or a doge making the game more accessible which is nice. Needless to say, while the game is quite challenging there is enough here to keep it accessible to a larger audience without being as punishing as soulsborne games.
Speaking of soulsborne games, their equivalent of a campfire is here too. You have campsites where you can rest to restore your health and upgrade your skills. However, with each save, you also restore the enemies in the area.
The game isn’t exactly an open world but there are vast areas you can explore with Xion being the hub you return to after each mission and side quest. There are also some puzzles thrown into the mix to add some variety to the gameplay. While most of them are quite straightforward, there are a few that will leave you scratching your head.
Graphics and Sound
Moving over to the graphics, let’s get the controversial topic out of the way. Yes, the protagonist is quite an attractive female and will no doubt be the heartthrob of countless teenagers akin to Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil 3 Remake, the legendary Lara Croft and so many other female characters that have defined female protagonists in gaming. You can check out our list of remarkable female protagonists in video games here.
I found the animation and fluidity of the lead character to be spot-on, especially when performing some complex combos. All the moves do not have cancelable frames to immediately jump into a block after starting some attacks, so that’s something to keep in mind if you are looking at mastering some of the complex combos keeping the animation in mind.
Moving on, the game has three graphical modes to choose from – Performance, Balanced and Graphics. As the name suggests, performance prioritises 60FPS at the cost of resolution, Graphics gives you a locked 30FPS with a 4K resolution and balanced aims to give you 60FPS without the best possible resolution. I played the game on the balanced mode and apart from a few framerate stutters and texture pop-ins here or there, I found the game to be quite smooth and enjoyable overall.
While you visit several environments, be it post-apocalyptic towns, to dilapidated subway stations, the hub of the game – Xion is the one populated with people. It isn’t a dense world with NPCs doing a lot of activities. They are largely there to give you quests and a bunch of shops to purchase items.
The star of the game has to be the design of the Naytiba’s. From the slimy oozy creatures that possess corpses to mutated beasts and even some walking cannons, the variety of enemies on offer is diverse. Their design looks straight out of a horror movie and while some enemies are inspired from other games like Prey, they all have distinct features. The bosses you encounter called Alpha Naytibas are some of the best-designed bosses. While they are larger than life and command a significant presence on screen, it is their sheer aggressive combat animation that puts you on the edge of your seat.
When it comes to sound, you have the expected swishes and grunts during combat and while the Naytibas don’t have any dialogues per-say, they do have the usual grunts and combat sound effects.
The voice acting among the humanoid characters is what you’d expect from the game. While they are all good, there are no real complaints here.
What does seem odd to me is the background score. There are times when you are traversing the world, and the background score is pop music – as if you are playing your music playlist in the game. It isn’t bad or anything, just seems strange to me.
A special mention has to be made to the DualSense implementation in the game. Early on there is a section where you traverse through the rain and the pitter-patter of the rain can be felt distinctly throughout the controller. It’s subtle but a testament to how awesome the DualSense is as an immersive controller. Stellar Blade is one of the few games that makes use of the capabilities of the DualSense and I recommend you experience the game with all the features dialed up to 11.
Verdict
Overall Stellar Blade is a fantastic game. It has an intriguing story with multiple endings very akin to NieR: Automata, fast-paced methodical gameplay, and a soulsborne gameplay architecture which is accessible thanks to the easier difficulty and generous parry and doge windows. It is a game worth playing more than once especially in New Game Plus (when available) to truly unlock the potential of your character and explore every nook and cranny of the world. While there are some traversal hiccups here and there and most of the puzzles aren’t challenging, there is little I can tell you negative about the game. It will of course not appeal to those looking for a button masher as the combat does require you to master some truly slick moves.
Editor’s rating: 9/10
Pros
- Frantic methodical combat
- Intriguing story
- Semi-open world to explore
- Stunning visuals
Cons
- Some side quests feel like fillers
- Mild graphical hitches here and there
More
Developer: Shift Up
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: PS5
Price: Rs 4999
We played a review copy of Stellar Blade on a PS5
