Stellar Blade comes from the influence of more than a decade of action video games. The characters and the way the gameplay works, give us a stark revelation about the video games that we have come to love over the last two generations. It does not shy away from showing the influence that these games have on it. They are using not just ideas but themes, designs, and even the styles of games. The influence of Bayonetta and Nier: Automata is pretty evident early on. Understanding the impact of these games is key to seeing the concepts that the game approves of and the ones it doesn’t. All this makes you wonder, Is Staller Blade worth it? Let’s find out.
Premise (Spoiler Free)
Stellar Blade follows the story of Eve who is a human arriving on Earth in the distant future. The earth is now filled with monsters called Naytibas. She has superhuman powers and has spent all her life on a spacecraft. She has been trained to fight Naytibas and other dangers to free the survivors remaining on earth. Eve will try to save the earth from this otherworldly threat.
There are twists and turns in the story but it mostly sticks to the sci-fi realm. The story sometimes feels bad especially, when characters start changing motives quickly just to support a plot twist. They will be back to normal without even mentioning that shift. The quality of its writing keeps changing. At one time, it will hit high but other times, low. The low quality of writing works against the game in general.
The Quests
You might get a perfectly explained quest with really good writing at times. The new quest you get can have really bad writing with not much to share. Such disparity takes a major toll on the quality of the game. However, these better quests are not as prevalent. Just when you are fed up with following waypoints of generic quests, the game will give you a better quest. The better quests have a unique boss fight content or a narrative beyond looking for something.
The main story touches on the concept of transhumanism and morality from different perspectives. After introducing these concepts, Stellar Blade does little with them. The voice acting is bad which does not do much to help you take the story seriously. The voice acting mostly breaks your pace instead of making it. Typically the quality of a character’s story doesn’t really matter that much in an action game. However, if you are expecting more than what the genre has to offer then maybe you should lower the expectation.
General Gameplay
Stellar Blade shines in its moment-to-moment gameplay. Whether it’s running down the desert or fighting a monster that pounces on you from behind. All of it is fun in general. Eve has been given a mission that involves her and a decent amount of dynamic environments and a large amount of Naytibas.
The formula works most of the time. There are some miss-steps in the formula. You can face problems in jumping sections, occasionally puzzles that are usually arcade pipe mini-games, or a keypad puzzle. There are also long sonic-like tunnel surfing sections that do not sit well with the general feel of the game or it feels like a never-ending diversion. Most of the time Stellar Blade knows what it is good at and what it is not good at so it adjusts as you progress.
Combat
Stellar Blade has an intricate combat system that further boosts the gameplay and heavily focuses on parries and dodges. Parries and dodges make up the basics of combat. Instead of relying on combos, it combines all of your actions to perform special and powerful moves. Surviving by deflecting an attack or dodging out of the way helps way more than just keeping you alive. The more you survive the more will be the moves available to you. You can then use these powerful moves when given the opportunity to decimate your foes.
Enemies will rarely defeat you with a surprise attack or an attack that is hard to deflect. So, as long as you follow the moves of the enemies, things will work out. As long as you keep an eye on the movements of enemies, you will know how to respond accordingly. Dying will give you the knowledge to move past the barriers that were stopping you the last time.
The Pacing of Combat
The pacing is not as good as the games that it is taking inspiration from. It’s not that Stellar Blade is short but different sections are just too long. When going through the game, nearly all the doors you face are either locked or out of power. This prompts the search or switch to open the door that you could have gone through long again. With such tactics, finding a straightforward path is a rare occurrence.
From one angle, the game wants to have balanced pacing. On one hand, the game is pushing you in one direction making it feel like it is progressing in another direction. On the other hand, a large number of enemies are so powerful that they can destroy you in one powerful combo. However, you have to unleash a decent number of special moves and attacks to take them down which creates a disparity.
When such encounters become common while you are moving from objective to objective, it becomes tedious. The only price you pay for death is going through these paths again which becomes boring as you play more of it.
General Gameplay
Stellar Blade is structured in a way that allows you to engage at your own pace since you can complete missions out in the world in open spaces. These areas are large but usually take you through existing paths even if more paths can be easily made. To make matters worse, there are only two of these open zones and both have the theme of desert. One is a complete desert while the other has some plants scattered around making it semi-desert. An opportunity for a good variety is wasted with such a choice of environment.
Side quests appear early on the game. It means that you have to take these missions early on when they could have been spread over the course of the game.
Soundtracks are one of the best aspects of the game. It offers one good soundtrack after another. Going through the desert doing side missions for hours feels calm, largely, due to the inclusion of these amazing soundtracks. Boss Fight will have music that ranges from pop to heavy metal. The sound sits perfectly well with what is happening on the screen.
Visual and Environment
The graphics of the game are also really good. From amazing environments and sequences to intricately crafted character models. Priority is given to different NPCs. While some look amazing with their plastic doll-like features, others are made using random assets. The main cast is carefully crafted which makes them shine compared to others.
Even though different regions of the game offer little variety, the main story still goes beyond it. Missions can take place in the ruins or the tunnels beneath them. The post-apocalyptic nature of Stellar Blade has allowed the developers to make any type of environmental and ambiance combination. It can feel disappointing to get into the same looking tunnels again and again. A post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi setting should make up for a pretty good environment but that is something that Steller Blade fails to achieve.
While exploring, players will find a lot of loot that will drop from both enemies and treasure chests. However, the loot does not get overwhelming. A lot of the collectibles are resources that are given to different vendors. Occasionally, loot will also contain equipment. You can only hope that it fits your playstyle. Build-making makes little difference. Different equipable items and spines can have some impact on how your character plays. None of it makes such a difference to an extent that the stats stop to matter. If you just want a bigger number in equipment stat then Staller Blade won’t disappoint you.
Verdict (Is Stellar Blade Worth It?)
Steller Blade has really good quality in some ways. However, that does not mean that everything about the game is good. There are good, bad, and ugly (yes that’s a movie reference). It is one of those games that sticks with you for some time. It will stay in the memory for some of its stuff. You might remember a wrecked train yard, collapsing buildings, tunnels but forget stuff in between. Every part of it won’t be memorable and the majority of it is forgettable.
If you are coming at it with an open mind then it can be a good experience. It is not a bad experience, in some ways, it is far from it. Despite its bad aspects, it is still an enjoyable experience due to the amazing systems that it employs. The biggest weakness of the game is the fact that its bad aspects outstay their welcome. It does not go beyond the games that it inspires from but it does not fall flat on its fa
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