It's like some old ass pervert came up with the worst ideas of a main character design and story, then everybody else around him pulled a solid game out of it. I'm pretty shocked how well this game ended up coming out at the end of the day.
The combat systems in this game end up carrying the bulk of why this ends up so enjoyable. It sits somewhere squarely between Soulslike and Stylish Action games, pushing further into the latter more than something like Sekiro was willing to do. You're not going to be doing high time juggle combos or anything. Instead Stellar Blade focuses on trying to find the most between balancing offensive and defensive options. Enemies will have long attack strings, huge sweeping attacks, and a rock-paper-scissors styled moveset asking for specific dodges to answer them. Again, think Sekiro. The added layer here is, Eve's offensive moveset is very strong with generous windows to cancel attacks into defensive mechanics as well as having some built in evasiveness to her attack strings. Eve is also capable of inflicting ample amounts of hitstun to bosses, meaning interruption is a strong tool as well. This creates a back and forth where understanding how to maximize your offensive output in between using defensive tools is emphasized. It's a fun spin on the current action game trends, and lends itself well to creating a lot dynamic and ridiculous looking boss fight sequences.
It's still rough around the edges in a lot of ways I find. Movement is rather stiff, jumping is janky, there are overriding inputs in places, awkward recoveries, some balance issues (see Burst Skills), the usual camera issues. and a small list of other weird action game faux pas. It's not perfect. It's also pretty derivative of the current action game landscape, probably borrowing the most from Team Ninja's recent outings. That being said, the game still hits the major notes of creating encounters where players are incentivized to explore movesets, and it rewards the player for doing so with more layers of opportunity to keep flexing their skill. Every parry or dodge leaves a gap to fill, every successful charged attack leaves meter to spend, every knockdown is a chance to pull out the gun, etc. Sequencing all of this together well will shave boss fight times down until you are measuring them in seconds, all while showing off most of the full array of options Eve has. That's the core of what makes action games fun, and Stellar Blade manages to accomplish that in a really stylish way.
Then there is the rest of the game which ranges from a "this could've been a Nier AO3" story to "this is actually a good Nier sound-a-li - oh my god that's Okabe" OST to a whiplash of artstyles. The elephant in the room out of all of these is Eve just looks like shit compared to the rest of the art in the game. The entire suite of angels just look like generic Korean beauty models for dubious reason while being surrounded by really eye catching scifi designs. Even with the flimsy "Angels should be the epitome of beauty" thing going on, it would've been nice to see beauty that felt more natural to the world they exist in rather than catering to the lowest common denominator. There is a compelling world with striking designs and visuals here to explore still, but the camera spends so much time focusing on Eve it's hard to really immerse yourself or even take the more emotional beats seriously.
The story is also just dreadful and predictable, and the general direction of the presentation feels almost like a B movie. When action is happening in cutscenes it's wonderfully directed and crazy fun. When drama is happening it's as if the director wasn't even in the room. If the director didn't have enough interest to watch these scenes, why should I? The overall structure of the game is also decidedly mediocre. It's just a semi-open world that feels like a Nier game, but the sidequests are mostly optional challenges and fetch quests. This isn't bad, but it's not good. It works better in Nier since most of the sidequests contain good little stories and insight into the characters and world, something Stellar Blade completely lacks. Occasionally there will be genre shifts into RE style survival horror, which I like, or into 3D platforming segments, which show the weaknesses of the stiff movement. It's clear the people making this game took a lot of inspiration from other games for all of this, and I appreciate what is cooking. It's just all coming together a bit too unrefined on top of a relatively middle of the road content delivery method.
OST bangs, no notes. Okabe shows more range here too, I love it.
I am biased towards action games, and having a game with fun systems that push for mastery really pulls this over the finish line for me. Just, maybe next time we can do this without the overdone designs and with focusing more on those combat strengths instead of just following in certain trends.
The combat systems in this game end up carrying the bulk of why this ends up so enjoyable. It sits somewhere squarely between Soulslike and Stylish Action games, pushing further into the latter more than something like Sekiro was willing to do. You're not going to be doing high time juggle combos or anything. Instead Stellar Blade focuses on trying to find the most between balancing offensive and defensive options. Enemies will have long attack strings, huge sweeping attacks, and a rock-paper-scissors styled moveset asking for specific dodges to answer them. Again, think Sekiro. The added layer here is, Eve's offensive moveset is very strong with generous windows to cancel attacks into defensive mechanics as well as having some built in evasiveness to her attack strings. Eve is also capable of inflicting ample amounts of hitstun to bosses, meaning interruption is a strong tool as well. This creates a back and forth where understanding how to maximize your offensive output in between using defensive tools is emphasized. It's a fun spin on the current action game trends, and lends itself well to creating a lot dynamic and ridiculous looking boss fight sequences.
It's still rough around the edges in a lot of ways I find. Movement is rather stiff, jumping is janky, there are overriding inputs in places, awkward recoveries, some balance issues (see Burst Skills), the usual camera issues. and a small list of other weird action game faux pas. It's not perfect. It's also pretty derivative of the current action game landscape, probably borrowing the most from Team Ninja's recent outings. That being said, the game still hits the major notes of creating encounters where players are incentivized to explore movesets, and it rewards the player for doing so with more layers of opportunity to keep flexing their skill. Every parry or dodge leaves a gap to fill, every successful charged attack leaves meter to spend, every knockdown is a chance to pull out the gun, etc. Sequencing all of this together well will shave boss fight times down until you are measuring them in seconds, all while showing off most of the full array of options Eve has. That's the core of what makes action games fun, and Stellar Blade manages to accomplish that in a really stylish way.
Then there is the rest of the game which ranges from a "this could've been a Nier AO3" story to "this is actually a good Nier sound-a-li - oh my god that's Okabe" OST to a whiplash of artstyles. The elephant in the room out of all of these is Eve just looks like shit compared to the rest of the art in the game. The entire suite of angels just look like generic Korean beauty models for dubious reason while being surrounded by really eye catching scifi designs. Even with the flimsy "Angels should be the epitome of beauty" thing going on, it would've been nice to see beauty that felt more natural to the world they exist in rather than catering to the lowest common denominator. There is a compelling world with striking designs and visuals here to explore still, but the camera spends so much time focusing on Eve it's hard to really immerse yourself or even take the more emotional beats seriously.
The story is also just dreadful and predictable, and the general direction of the presentation feels almost like a B movie. When action is happening in cutscenes it's wonderfully directed and crazy fun. When drama is happening it's as if the director wasn't even in the room. If the director didn't have enough interest to watch these scenes, why should I? The overall structure of the game is also decidedly mediocre. It's just a semi-open world that feels like a Nier game, but the sidequests are mostly optional challenges and fetch quests. This isn't bad, but it's not good. It works better in Nier since most of the sidequests contain good little stories and insight into the characters and world, something Stellar Blade completely lacks. Occasionally there will be genre shifts into RE style survival horror, which I like, or into 3D platforming segments, which show the weaknesses of the stiff movement. It's clear the people making this game took a lot of inspiration from other games for all of this, and I appreciate what is cooking. It's just all coming together a bit too unrefined on top of a relatively middle of the road content delivery method.
OST bangs, no notes. Okabe shows more range here too, I love it.
I am biased towards action games, and having a game with fun systems that push for mastery really pulls this over the finish line for me. Just, maybe next time we can do this without the overdone designs and with focusing more on those combat strengths instead of just following in certain trends.