Cutting aliens to free the Earth is not what scares EVE, and even less so for seasoned Sekiro or Nier players like us. Immediately identifiable as the spiritual child of many titles, Stellar Bladeand if mastering very complex gameplay is a successful ambition, the game still lacks an additional dimension to finish conquering us.
ShiftUp has ambition. The ambition of a Korean studio to break through internationally, the ambition of a studio known for its mobile games to release a game on console, the ambition to offer a game spanning multiple genres; narratively, structurally, and in its gameplay. But sometimes ambition works against us, so what conclusion for Stellar Blade?
SF…SF never changes.
Stellar Blade ambitiously tells us the story of Eve, catapulted to Earth to face the horrible Naytiba who inhabit the planet. The game addresses already well-tested themes, humanity questioning its condition, an omnipotent artificial intelligence that is not always very nice, endless wars between mechanics and organics, all wrapped in a biblical lining that never ends. ultimately doesn’t bring much. The result is a bit confusing, despite an intriguing basic proposition, if certain twists work, others do not hit as hard as expected because they are not necessarily prepared or, conversely, relatively predictable.
Conversely, the side quests and their characters have much less difficulty in touching us, because they are more anchored in the reality of this devastated Earth and helped by a small gallery of secondary characters to whom it is easier to become attached (D1G -g2r, my bro).
For her part, Eve is a discreet protagonist, who lets herself be carried away a little by events. Beyond her badassitude and the panache with which she executes the toughest Naytibas, she does not overflow with personality and “slips” a little in the exchanges with the other protagonists or secondary characters. Only the succinct passages where she marvels at objects of everyday human life set her apart a little from the crowd. She lacks that little something, that visual or narrative X factor, which would elevate her to the level of other great heroines of the genre.
Otherwise, we deplore certain design choices which sometimes give the impression of playing a completely different game, very far from the serious and quite dark atmosphere maintained by the daily fight for survival that most humans experience on this Earth. They totally took us out of the game more than once.
Open World but not too much
Structurally, Stellar Blade takes the side of being a hybrid. We alternate between large open areas, home to most of the side quests, in which we navigate via a map, and more classic, more linear levels, with a few departures from the beaten track here and there.
The content in the open areas ranges from side quests to small puzzles scattered everywhere, there are a lot of basic puzzles typical of Sony games, such as pushing a crate to access a ladder, but also some more advanced and fun puzzles. which allow you to breathe between two fights. This is also an opportunity to obtain valuable materials and other rewards, which we will return to a little further down.
In the classic levels, the absence of a map does not make navigation particularly more complex but we regret the fact that the game relies quite a bit on the same skeleton of “turn the power back on to take an elevator / open a door” before move on to the next room. The architecture of the levels, however, varies sufficiently throughout the game with phases unique to each, which we won’t spoil!
We sheathe well, and we cut the jugular.
If being able to switch from one to the other is pleasant and allows you not to “burn out” in the open world, the game nevertheless suffers from a very small problem with rhythm, in its last third, for which we definitively says goodbye to open areas (and therefore to side quests), for an (almost) straight line until the end. If this intervention allows several big climaxes to the toughest fights in the game, the alternation is broken and it’s a bit of a shame because the rhythm between intense story missions and side quests and more leisurely exploration was quite good. balanced so far.
Some side quests, however, require returning to linear “levels” and the backtracking is a little painful in places for the completionist in us.
ShiftUp in the big leagues
Where there’s no denying Stellar Blade shines is in its combat. Parry, dodges, combos, weapon skills, ranged options, five skill trees, all the ingredients are there for an ultra-nervous cocktail, at the crossroads of Sekiro, Nier and Devil May Cry, whose impressive presentation does not takes nothing away from the requirement and the pleasure. If the passages which transform Stellar Blade into a shooting game – via levels where you cannot use the sword – are a good refresher without being too long, the star of the game remains by far the melee.
The patterns and warning signs of enemy attacks are for the most part clear and very readable, each enemy, whether it is a Naytiba or a drone, can be dismembered or reduced to a thousand pieces at the end. clashes, all reinforced by a sound design as exhilarating as it is important since it is very useful for adequately countering certain attacks.
These elements are enhanced by a robust bestiary which varies well from one zone and one level to another, and especially by the bosses, which almost rival in difficulty and refinement the work of From Software in Sekiro. For a first adventure in the genre and on console, the success of ShiftUp in this aspect can only be praised.
Stellar Blade also stands out with its design. Each Naytiba is a veritable nightmare of flesh, each human NPC is strangely disturbing, bordering on robot as their cybernetic implants are omnipresent, without forgetting the design of the bosses, also quite striking, whether it is a very big Naytiba, or a more humanoid enemy… The character models are very detailed, making the inhabitants of this dystopia even more alive.
Ah… so you’re a fishmonger, right?
The same thing applies to the places we visit. Without being particularly impressive, Stellar Blade skillfully depicts a battered and ruined Earth with some superb vistas and detailed areas each telling a story, even if we would perhaps have liked a little more typology of different places since we orbit there between deserts, ruined cities and ultra-futuristic underground complexes with too little variance.
How can we not end on the other hand, by mentioning the game’s soundtrack, which we still hum while writing, particularly the softer pieces that we find in the camps and the hub of the game, dressed by female hearts we giving a little less the impression of being alone on this desolate Earth.
Léa passion Cyber-Waifu
By exploring and completing quests, you will obtain skill points which are distributed quite generously by the game, as well as exospines and modules to customize your play style: criticals, combos, ranged attacks, more resistance, spam of weapon skills, etc., a robust system that has a real impact and allows you to “build” towards a tangible direction in game with room for progression since the modules give higher and higher stats as you advance in the game. game.
Skill trees fill fluidly and offer real new options.
But Stellar Blade’s number one pursuit is Eve’s customization. This involves outfits, which we already saw in the trailers, but also accessories like earrings, glasses, and even a quick trip to the hair salon if you feel like it.
The accessories are relatively discreet, but the outfits range from alternative jumpsuits, lingerie, tight jeans, swimsuits, very short skirts, you get the picture. We like it or we don’t like it, in our opinion, these goodies completely clash with the rest of the game, its artistic direction, its purpose and fuel the dissonance that we mentioned above. If you want to immerse yourself, you don’t care a little about unlocking them and since it is the cosmetic loot carrot, the title is diminished.
Stellar Blade definitely exudes ambition: open world, detailed linear levels, exhilarating combat, memorable soundtrack, story with complex themes… The result is a solid game, which even excels in certain aspects. We would have liked to be more marked by the protagonists than by their outfits, even that does not detract from the feat achieved by ShiftUp in moving so successfully from mobile to console.
