Unstellar Blade

A game so milquetoast that it literally crashed my PC in switching inputs from my PS5 to my main display so I could write this review, and thus I lost all of my notes I had carefully constructed over the past three days of playtime. What I pulled together is that this was an attempt at making Nier: Automata without actually making it fun and without Yoko Taro.

I remember Stellar Blade's Official Reveal as Project Eve, named after the game's main character, jumping out of an otherwise uneventful and boring Sony State of Play with its flashy combat, beautiful environments, and overwhelmingly attractive protagonist. Hot character bait aside, I was interested in this game because of the influences it was clearly wearing on its sleeve in the aforementioned Platinum Games magnum opus. Many have tried and few have succeeded in nailing hack and slash as well as Platinum or their cousins in Capcom have done with the plethora of impressive titles between the two. Did I think Stellar Blade was going to go one on one with Nier, DMCV, or Metal Gear Rising? Absolutely not, but I did think it was worth a try, to see if there was a company out there who could go to bat with the best of them and put an effort forward that would be worth paying attention to in the years to come. I was excited for Stellar Blade as the release date neared, because it meant that I could one quell the discourse over the design of Eve by providing actual input on how the game plays, and secondly because the need for a fast paced hack and slash was weighing heavily on me after playing slower burn titles like FF7R2 and P3R fairly recently. Within a day of playing my interest waned but I remained hopeful, however on the third complete day of playing and the day I ultimately completed the game... I came away fairly perturbed.

The good, lets start with that why don't we? This game is downright beautiful. I played it on my PS5 on my 4K display with HDR enabled and woah nelly, it looked great. One of the greatest aspects of this title was how great both characters and the world looked from a graphical standpoint. As you transition from dilapidated buildings and streets into destroyed railways and misgiving deserts, your eyes will feast at the eye candy abound in the backgrounds of the world. I found myself navigating the camera up and down constantly at the world I was interacting with as it was tremendously rich in flavour and care from a design standpoint. I felt like the developers put a great deal of effort into creating a visually striking game, which unfortunately seems to have accompanied a trade off in other aspects of the title. More to come on that shortly, as I do want to praise the team for putting some of the best facial and body design in gaming forward. As I've already experienced, much of the conversation about Stellar Blade has been lost in the perceived attractiveness of Eve, but every character you interact with truly looks incredible. Though their proportions and mannerisms may not be totally... human, they are indubitably crafted with an intricacy and care to look astonishing. Stellar Blade if nothing else is a journey of eye candy, but that's kind of... it.

While not exactly fast enough to be a Nier-like, and not fun punishing and explore heavy enough to be a Souls-like, Stellar Blade attempted to forge a path forward that played out like a middle ground between Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor games. Eve's combat relies on using a plethora of learned abilities and tech to parry and dodge her way through a litany of grotesque alien foes who have claimed Earth to be their own. Where this goes wrong is in quite a few places, but the most apparent and earliest was in the poor "janky" feel and lack of reliability in both parry and dodge timings. This can be sort-of remedied by investing in Eve's skill trees and upgrading Eve's exo-spine but never really feels... good. Even if I was a dissenter of Sekiro over all, I felt like it mostly gave the right kind of feedback and snap to the parry/dodge timings required to master such a difficult title. For a game as infuriatingly hard as Stellar Blade gets in its late game, I felt like I was at the whimsy of luck in my dodges not directly feeding into a followup attack by a boss and my perfect parries not being read by the game because of poor latency or buffer timing. Time after time I'd land a perfect dodge only to be hit by the boss moving faster than Eve could recover right after. Cheap is the way I'd put that and it proliferated throughout the entire runtime of the title.

Difficulty is something I've spoken about ad nauseum in action-rpg titles and I'll continue to do so as I have an affinity for these kinds of games. After grinding my teeth in the (generally) slower paced Fromsoft classics and the speedy Platinum/Capcom games of the last decade and change, I feel like I'm fairly qualified. Stellar Blade early on feels hard, but not in a way that cannot be conquered. If I was getting my tail kicked by a group of world enemies or a boss, I found that I could readjust my stratagems to craft a better gameplan, coming back smarter and using my abilities at optimized times to come out victorious. I found my confidence growing, something that did not happen this early in Sekiro, and I continued on to the later stages of the game. I opened up my Playstation menu to check my progress, a feature of the console that tracks how far you've made it through the main story, and saw I had notched at 89%. I labored on to the area boss on one of the last major quests of the game. It was here I through my face into a wall, stressing with every ability and item I had to make it through the three phases and effective six health bars that the boss had. I double this up because of the way shields work. See in Stellar Blade, simply doing damage and having fun taking down your enemy's health bar is simply not allowed, you must first deplete their shields before you can do any "meaningful" damage to their hitpoints. Meaningful in quotations because even then on a fully upgraded weapon, after laboriously taking away the superfluous shield bar, you are granted the ability to do slightly more damage to the bosses health per hit. I've played Dark Souls underleveled and with un-upgraded weapons enough to know torment when it comes to weapons doing very little damage to bosses... and even that does not compare to how insulting Stellar Blade's damage counter feels.

It wasn't even until a few bosses later that I truly came to terms with my disdain for the needlessly draconian difficulty that exists within Stellar Blade's late game boss fights. I threw everything together that I could into defeating the (name kept out of review due to spoiler) boss. I thought I could craft a winning effort of combining my ultimate abilities with my tertiary skills and burst maneuvers, but nothing was taking. I couldn't perfect dodge and parry any longer against the multi-faceted and multi-phase boss fight at hand. Visual clarity was completely nuked from orbit as I could barely tell what moves were hitting me, where certain objects were, or where my Eve's reactions would take me next. A greater qualm I have with games at large now, I wrote about these most notably in my FFXVI DLC reviews, is a complete lack of being able to actually see what's going on in boss fights because of the "ooh how cool" quality that moves need to have. Keeping this in mind, the bosses began to teleport away CONSTANTLY from Eve so as to reposition their efforts while tarnishing any offensive effort I had put forth. This was rhythm breaking and tore any motivation I had towards chasing the enemy down, I felt discouraged and unmotivated to capitalize on optimized windows because I knew the boss would simply teleport away at any given moment. After being unable to keep up with this, the visuals going on, and the randomly included DPS checks, I put the game on "story mode" (reminder this is in the last hour or so of a medium length title) and kept chugging. I'm not actually sure this did anything to make the game easier. What it does in theory is give you windows to dodge and parry, popping up with on screen prompts of what button to press to not be hit by the enemies maneuvers. Does this work? Absolutely not. Most of the time these move to fast to even parse what move you're supposed to use, and half the bosses moves don't even populate your screen with a prompt at all. Through the next couple bosses and into the final boss I became increasingly confused if this was actually a difficulty slider at all or simply an effort to make you "feel" better by putting a semblance of choice of difficulty in front of you.

A best in class soundtrack (potentially one of the best of the year) and impressive visuals couldn't prop Stellar Blade up enough to go against its resoundingly poor English VA (I eventually played in Korean,) drab narrative heavily borrowed from Nier: Automata, and impressively frustrating and unrewarding combat. This is absolutely not a title worthy of purchasing at a $70 price tag, maybe half of that at best. I commend Sony and SHIFT UP for putting together a brand new IP and throwing some serious marketing at making this game stick out, but it felt like a great value Sekiro meets Nier at best. I would not recommend Stellar Blade to anyone with a PS5.

I think it’s safe to say that 2021’s “Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion” caught everyone by surprise by blending competent 2D Zelda-like gameplay with quirky, plant-based humor and a pleasant visual style. I enjoyed it quite a bit and was looking forward to its sequel. And I was caught by surprise yet again, because it turned out that the devs decided to switch the genre from an old-school adventure game to a roguelite mixed with bullet hell. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as well as the original.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of roguelites, and this is no exception. Running over and over through the same couple of areas and mowing down the same enemies gets old really quick for me, and Turnip Boy doesn’t provide enough scope or variety to make traversing through the map a truly enjoyable experience. Most of my time playing the game was searching for NPCs that I had an outstanding quest with - there are a lot of characters you can help throughout the 5 hours or so that it takes to finish the story. Honestly, I mostly walked aimlessly searching for an NPC whose location I had completely forgotten (the map is utterly useless) or simply because I had confused one NPC with another. This can be frustrating not only because there is no good way to memorize this (and some NPCs only show up in rooms that spawn at random, so you can be looking for a guy and never stumble upon him simply because his room didn’t spawn for this particular run), but also because you’re always under a time constraint. At one point I found myself with a long list of NPCs to interact with, a map that doesn’t help at all in finding them and a thought “yeah, I don’t remember where any of those characters are”.

Perhaps this problem is exacerbated by the writing. The trademark quirkiness is still there and some NPCs’ lines should make you smile, but either the novelty factor has worn off or the writing simply isn’t as sharp because I found the NPCs in “Tax Evasion” funnier, more memorable and their plotlines easier to follow than the ones in “Robs a Bank”.

Overall, I enjoyed the gunplay - I think there is a good selection of weapons available (a lot of them, obviously, are very comedic in nature) and they’re fun to use, but the fact that you can’t really store them conveniently (there’s one particular room where you can keep them for your next run, but it’s an extremely tedious mechanic) and that the only weapons that you have permanent access to in your hub are the most standard shotgun/rifle/bazooka spoils the fun of trying out new weapons.

Two other issues I’d like to mention are underwhelming boss fights (they’re all very similar and at the very end you have to repeat them all in one go, which is a chore) and the fact that about halfway through the game you find a way to earn tons of cash quickly and run out of things you can spend them on. I think the upgrade system could’ve been expanded to account for that.

I don't think this game works as well as its predecessor. There is a silly relief at the core of Tax Evasion (I like this sentence), but I struggle to find the same alignment with my actions here. Without something suitably compelling, I think this makes a lot of the humor fall flat.

I also don't think that this is a very good roguelite? There's just so little randomization on display here, and I don't think that randomization is interesting enough on its own to encourage replay, which is a pretty big part of the genre!

It's still fun, and I'm still excited for the next Turnip Boy adventure, but this doesn't necessarily "work" like its predecessor.

Spirit of Justice reeks of desperation.

Following up a game that stifled continuity so severely left the series very little room to expand. Phoenix and Apollo’s trajectories were cut off after AA4. Athena’s poor excuse for an arc was open and shut in her debut game. What ground does the series have left to stand on? Naturally, Capcom didn’t aim to slip out of the corner they backed themselves into. They raised the stakes and cornered themselves even further.


It would be remiss of me not to mention the overt orientalism present throughout the game. The original Ace Attorney trilogy centralized a family drama around a modernized depiction of spirit channeling. The ritual was used not only as a component to multiple murder mysteries but as a conduit to express generational trauma. The design aesthetics of Kurain Village and the Fey family borrowed only from traditional Japanese architecture and fashion, harmonizing with the cosmopolitan city life of Japanifornia.

Spirit of Justice not only contains uninteresting and stagnant characters that make far worse use of spirit channeling as an in-universe plot device, but the aesthetics of Khura’in (additionally a full-blown kingdom…one of this game’s many retcons) seem to broadly take design inspiration from the Middle East and South Asia without any tact or reason. The kingdom is presented as a theocratic (while also secular?) monarchy that has a ridiculous hatred of defense attorneys and wishes to execute them alongside their wrongfully charged defendants. While AA5’s only overarching theme to stand on was the pitiful and heavy-handed “dark age of the law,” completely overturning the moral argument presented to the player in AA4, Spirit of Justice’s moral argument, if you can even call it that, disavows a fictional and vaguely oriental monarchy for having a made-up law that criminalizes being a defense attorney.
I never thought I’d say this but maybe The Great Ace Attorney should learn a thing or two from this game about being anti-monarchy
AA6 continues to cast away the character drama present in the first four games to tell a story about a strawman political viewpoint and stereotyped culture that doesn’t exist, simply to raise the stakes for the player in an act of extremely misguided fanservice.


Speaking of fanservice, all of your favorite characters are back and they’re all shells of their former selves! I could go on about how The Magical Turnabout in particular is a masterclass in character assassination. In fact, I will.

Well written characters have desires. In AA4, Ema Skye was introduced to the player as a disillusioned police detective who never accomplished her goal of becoming a forensic scientist. Her grudge against the police force extends back to her debut in Rise from The Ashes, and her bias against the current justice system go hand in hand with AA4’s broader themes of disillusionment. Her viewpoint is remarkably different from the police presence in past games, and her willingness to cooperate with Apollo and Trucy (along with her past allegiance to Phoenix) subverts the player’s expectations to create a distinct web of relationships not present in newer games.

In AA6, Ema is not a police detective anymore. She achieves her goal of becoming a forensic scientist offscreen, and her disillusionment with the justice system is cast aside completely. She no longer has greater desires, and her character is no longer multidimensional. She isn’t set up to change or grow at all.

Here’s another example. Trucy was introduced in AA4 as an assistant with a lot more agency and wit than her predecessors. She frequently held her own during courtroom conversations, stalled a trial with a fake hostage, and was brave enough to confront her family trauma in Turnabout Succession. In the post-trial conversation between Phoenix and Thalassa, Phoenix mentions that he’s the only one who knows how hurt Trucy feels deep down. She puts on a face, but never truly reckons with the evil deeds done by her father, grandfather, and Valant.

In AA6, Trucy is accused of murder during her magic show. Not only does this magic show retcon a secret fourth member into Troupe Gramarye that was entirely irrelevant to the love triangle and accident that formed Trucy and Apollo’s original backstories, but this case also seems to completely rewrite and exonerate Magnifi Gramarye from his original misdeeds. Remember that original source of Trucy’s anguish? Yeah, it’s totally erased. Magnifi is genuinely portrayed as a kind and benevolent mentor here (You know, the man who blackmailed his troupe, tried coaxing one of them into murdering him, framed his suicide after that failed...). The game still tried to keep her concealed anguish as a character trait, so we’re left with a Trucy who feigns a smile for no discernable reason.

I talked about Apollo’s rewriting in my AA5 review, so I’ll keep this one short; once again, he is portrayed as a protégé who looks up to Phoenix, when his debut game had them act more like puppet and puppet master respectively. It’s the same in AA6, Apollo simply sees Phoenix as a generic mentor and the tension he felt towards Phoenix (which also fueled his desires as a character!) is completely gone.


I think it’s funny that spirit seances were chosen as the new big mechanic for this game even though the video analysis minigames in past entries were like, universally hated among fans.


Look, I could go on about how the Ace Attorney series effectively backed itself into a corner with stagnant characters and childish shonen writing (…and I probably will in a separate review for the Trilogy release), but in short, this series is left with nowhere to go. Phoenix Wright as a character is a husk of his former self, Apollo Justice is whatever the hell each game wants him to be, and Athena Cykes is a focus grouped cookie cutter “new protagonist” whose goal of exonerating Simon has been accomplished, leaving her with no more desires as well, effectively also making her a husk of what little depth she had.

Also I’ll say it as many times as necessary: DLC cases in this manner are inherently depraved. Remember when RPGs were sold as full games? Oh right, that means there has to be an actual cohesive story arc.


The stakes have been maxed out, and we’re 6 numerical entries in. This is unsustainable. What next, yet another hostage situation?

Starting a new log just to say some criticisms of the game after my time with it, still stand by my earlier review.

AMAZING game that deals with topics of abuse and human nature, such as topics like jealousy and love. I feel it does it very well and the setting is perfect for exploring these topics. The story, I feel, is FLAWLESS. The way the story is presented- kinda weird- as Dear Martel (the second campaign in this game) is the first in the Theresia series, and you start out playing Dear Emile. Still, i feel both arcs complement each other well.

The gameplay? NO. I'm not joking, if you managed to play through it entirely, I'm so proud of you. I've really wanted to revisit this game, especially Dear Emile in particular (since Dear Martel suffers less of the gameplay issues, I can play it more) but that first chapter of Dear Emile gives one of the worst first impressions you could have with a game ever. It doesn't seem to have much plot development, and from my experience, it's 5 hours straight of confusingly wandering around. FIVE. HOURS. DEAR MARTEL IS FIVE HOURS AND THAT'S THE FIRST THERESIA GAME!

This game is punishing too, and I have a major issue with that, especially now knowing you can only get a certain piece of important lore if you play it hitless!!

Really, if you're interested in the plot, watch a playthrough. It'll be easier for you then, and that's how I initially got into this game until I finally decided to force myself through actually playing it.

Starting my account with this, the absolute pinnacle of gaming. This is one of the greatest pieces of media ever made, and the bar that all games need to meet. It is by no means perfect, it has tedious sidequests, some issues with the narrative, and annoying enemy types. But the universe, characters. the narrative, the voice acting, the music... Just every aspect of this game is just on another level. This is one of the most magical experiences you can ever have. I played this for the first time in 2015 and to this day nothing has topped it.