Introduction
A few years ago a small team released a trailer for a game simple known “Project Eve”. What we saw was big demon like beasts, a destroyed earth, and some sci-fi like heroine using a fancy sword with a super long ponytail, and the ponytail is what I remembered. I remembered commenting to a friend that the physics of it were so precise and they’ve gone to a lot of effort to make that ponytail work, and from there my interest in these game started. Project Eve would eventually become Stellar Blade, another PS5 exclusive that would start to receive a lot of attention, for various reasons (more on that later). A demo was released in early April, a demo that did so well that it neared 700k daily players, nearly double that of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo. Reports also came out that people were relentlessly playing the demo again and again trying to make the most out of what little they could. Even now a few days up to release the Stellar Blade Reddit is wild with hype, with people literally buying a PS5 JUST for Stellar Blade. So is it all worth it? Is Stellar Blade worth your time?
The Story and Setting
Stellar Blade takes place in the far future where earth has been destroyed by a cataclysmic war. What remained on the surface is a race of beast like creatures known as the Naytiba, whilst others escaped to “The Colony” which orbits earth. Our titular character is called Eve, and she’s part of the 7th Airborne Squadron tasked with descending to earth alongside other members to take out the source of the Naytibas and cleanse earth from the evil that roams the land. The overall feel of the game is always over the top and elaborate, and the more I played it the more I came to realise that this type of game is extremely reminiscent of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in a sense that it’s a wild concept but remains serious throughout. Eve is a small framed girl that has been sent to earth with a plasma sword to defeat giant beast like demons and I love it.
Gameplay and Features
As previously stated Stellar Blade is somewhat reminiscent of MG Rising, fast paced sword based combat in open spaces, but I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s a “hack and slash” game. Some people have called it a Soulsbourne type game and there is some truth to that but it really is a blend of a few game types. After some initial setup you are essentially free to explore as much as your abilities will let you, which early on in the game isn’t much. An worry I had earlier on was that everything felt quite linear and that you were pretty much following a path and I was concerned that it was going to be a earlier hack and slash type game – like the PS2 God of wars where it was just a linear path broken up with combat areas, puzzles and climbing parts, however once you break this initial mould the game opens up and you’re given more areas to explore.
Visuals and Sound
it goes without saying that that the game world is deep with lore and world building, whilst also looking amazing. The main characters all look so well designed and love and attention has been given to each, as well as the enemy design themselves. It’s one of the prettier games on the PS5 and the colour palette adds some real fine details to each area. The first overworld Eidos 7 is a crumbling city overgrown with greenery taking the city back whereas the Wasteland is a desolate area with sparse ruins to explore. Further more it runs incredibly well, with no screen tearing and looks amazing, but it is DYING for a photo mode! The music also is FANTASTIC as each areas adds some background effects to the area. This isn’t like Breath of Wild with random noises chiming in, these are fully fledged toned down background songs that reflect the area you’re in.
Conclusion
Obviously none of this ties together if the main story is lacking. The premise of the game is quite strong, and within the first 20-30 mins, you get pretty established with the game and it’s characters. However for a short time after that everything goes quite bare. Eves only interactions are when she’s at a rest stop and she has some back and forth with her companions, but even then the convo is quite light and I was worried that it was going to be this linear adventure with some very cliché chats between characters. However towards the end of the first area everything starts to open up. Eve is more involved in the plot, more backstory is given on the game world, other characters you meet have their own stories to tell and Eve goes from a framing device to an involved character and it was in this first visit to the hub world I really started to get intrigued by the story Stellar Blade was telling me.
The game world, the combat, the story, the music, the characters – this is a fantastic game, in fact Stellar Blade goes down as one of the best games I have ever played. The combat is so refined and satisfying to pull off that you look forward to every interaction. The music hits just right when accompanying your adventure, or when it’s blasting out whilst you’re fighting a boss. There’s so much to do in the game, so many collectables and stories to hear that I kept putting off the main story to do so. The story itself, whilst starts out slow had me stopping well late into the night to see where it went because I cared about what happened to Eve and her companions.