Korean games are on the rise. After the soulslike adventures of steampunk Pinocchio in Lies of P, the country with the most unpleasant northern neighbors is now also firing Stellar Blade at us. A high-quality, full-blooded action game for PS5 that is anything but woke.
Greetings from Seoul
The fact that we are getting to play more and more Chinese and Korean games on our consoles is mainly due to Sony. He has encouraged several Asian studios to ignore mobile and free-to-play games and focus on console games for the West. Developer Shift Up is one of them.
The developer from Seoul looks beyond the Asian market for once and brings a full-fledged action game to PS5 with Stellar Blade. It has become a visually impressive cross between Devil May Cry and Alita: Battle Angel, with a combat system that many Western developers can appreciate. Although you also notice that this is the studio’s console first. While there will undoubtedly be eager buyers of those typical Asian ingredients such as an unlimited anime admiration for the female form, you see that they have little experience with two elements that matter more: strong storytelling and world building.
Bombastic intro
The boys and girls of Shift Up have our attention from the first minute. And that doesn’t just have to do with the shapely buttocks. During the bombastic intro, a space pod hurtles towards planet earth and – between explosions and collapsing megabuildings – you get to know the occupant EVE. As a cyborg soldier of the Airborne Squad, you must rid our desolate planet of the Naytibas, a parasitic monster race that destroyed human civilization. You do this with the help of a hypermodern sci-fi sword and a talkative drone that can transform into a firearm. Slash, dodge, blast and die. And that in a world that looks absolutely fantastic.
However, anyone expecting a strong story will be disappointed: the post-apocalyptic sci-fi narrative is of a wafer-thin kind. The characters are stereotypical anime with a cardboard personality. The dialogues between the emotionless EVE and her crew fluctuate between lower school level and extremely cringey. And you can see the few plot twists that the makers throw at you from a mile away. Fortunately, there is still combat and buttocks.
Perfect parry
Where Stellar Blade excels is its combat system. That is very strong and combines a ballet of crazy combos and super moves with a lot of parry and counter options. Blocking an attack at appropriate times ensures a perfect parry, after which you can unleash a special Beta Attack. After a few perfect parries (how many depends from enemy to enemy) your opponent also loses his stance and you can give him a spectacular and usually fatal blow. Like a Sekiro light? Right, yes.
Stellar Blade’s combat system is varied. In addition to parrying and dodging unblockable attacks, you also have to deal with fatal attacks. Then your sword lights up blue or purple for a moment and it is important to counter quickly with the right input. Reflexes and timing are crucial. Because the Naytibas are a damn varied army of bastards who always have different attack patterns. Just to fuck with your parry timing. Pretty strong work for a first big game.
Health manager
Fighting in Stellar Blade also means life meter management. Defending is important, but don’t do it all the time. Every blocked attack causes chip damage, causing stubborn defenders to quickly see their life meter deplete during boss fights. Taking healing remedies regularly is important, although timing is also crucial. The animation takes a second and leaves you unprotected. And that can be deadly during boss fights.
These boss fights are visually impressive and invariably spectacular, although you can see that the makers are struggling with the balance. Most bosses are quite manageable, but towards the end Stellar Blade presents some incredibly difficult and therefore frustrating fights that you have to keep trying again. Even though you handled those guns-only boss fights half an hour earlier with two fingers up your nose.
While one moment EVE feels incredibly overpowered thanks to the mess of skills, upgrades and fresh power moves that you unlock at breakneck speed, the next moment you are sent back to square one with three quick, consecutive hits from an enemy. You weren’t even given time to heal. The balance? It could be much better and sometimes causes frustration.
Chasing the abyss
Despite the cool combat and technical highlights – the frame rate remains nice and stable during the often chaotic action – you notice in other areas that this is Shift Up’s very first major console game. Stellar Blade is an action game, but it also borrows from other genres. You often have to climb and clamber like in Uncharted, there are guns only segments where the game is suddenly reminiscent of the horror game Dead Space and it integrates a camp system such as soulslikes. It creates a varied mix, where not all factors are equally successful.
That whiff of Uncharted is actually a malodorous waft. Not only is the control not precise enough during platforming, the connection also often goes wrong during shore running. We have seen this much better in many other games. And the fact that the Korean makers blatantly threw in a train wreck part that sounds awfully similar to Uncharted 3 indicates a lack of inspiration rather than a collegial nod to the team at Naughty Dog.
Semi open world
Stellar Blade mixes different genres and might have been better off as a straightforward hack ‘n slasher. This realization is most evident in the semi-open world segments. For example, you are often dropped into half-empty settings – from a Grand Canyon wasteland to a sandy desert – where enemies seem to walk around aimlessly and you can complete all kinds of side missions. Those segments feel barren and lifeless, slow down the pace and take the momentum out of the game. The worlds are empty and the side missions are nothing more than glorified fetch quests. And we think it is an original shame that the makers miss the opportunity to do more world building.
Stellar Blade is quite fickle and has as many highs as lows. Where one moment you enjoy the refined and quite challenging combat, or you are amazed by a spectacular set piece, the next you are confronted with amateurish game design. Like those scare attacks where an enemy is just waiting behind a corner to grab you. An attempt to integrate some extra Souls, we think, but it feels cheap. Especially when you see him/her/it waiting after an environmental scan.
Anything but woke
That said, we had a great time with Stellar Blade for 20 hours. We had to grit our teeth during the cutscenes with cringey dialogue. And because of the sometimes bizarre distribution of save points. And if you don’t like Asian games, Stellar Blade is not the right place for you. The particularly eclectic soundtrack, for example, combines hotel elevator muzak with K-pop and vague rock songs. The best audio design is the one you never pay attention to while gaming. But when you’re running through a half-empty desert and the same Korean piano ballad is constantly being repeated, then something is wrong there.
The concept of woke has clearly not yet reached the Korean gaming sector. EVE’s body curves, blessed by boob & ass physics, are extremely striking thanks to the tight suits and stiletto stiletto heels. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, although the animators don’t miss a single opportunity to put EVE’s graceful Kardashian butt in the spotlight. The way she leans over to open a suitcase? Or the suggestive posture when she slides down a rope? Hallelujah!
There will undoubtedly be young gamers who buy Stellar Blade just for that reason. Usually we don’t have a problem with that either, but it didn’t have to be that big of a deal for us.
It should therefore come as no surprise that the basic outfit of this emotionless Alita Battle Angel is a flesh-colored see-through suit. As far as we are concerned, it does not increase the final score one point. Despite the successful combat and technical highlights, Stellar Blade struggles too much with some basic elements.
