The latest PS5 exclusive has caused great controversy because of the way its female characters look but what is the game itself like?
We really wish Korean developer Shift Up hadn’t chosen to design its protagonist the way it has. Whether you find it offensive, absurd, or irrelevant it’s become such a distraction that too few people are going to end up talking about the game itself. The unfortunate truth is that Stellar Blade is a terrible advert for female representation in gaming, but it is an excellent action game and one of the best exclusives on PlayStation 5.
The simplest way to explain what Stellar Blade is (other than just trying the demo yourself) is Bayonetta crossed with Dark Souls. The influences from both titles, and the rest of FromSoftware’s oeuvre, are tightly interwoven, so while the combat and traversal is obviously inspired by Bayonetta, and similar titles such as Devil May Cry, the importance placed on parrying and staggering enemies is reminiscent of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
You also have the bonfire equivalents of Dark Souls et al. but while the game can be quite difficult it doesn’t go so far as to take away all your resources when you die, and then make you go back and get them afterwards. Stellar Blade can often seem like a hotchpotch of other game’s ideas, but it picks and chooses what it takes sensibly, and with a degree of competence, that is impressive for a developer with so little experience in console gaming.
The reason we compare Stellar Blade to Bayonetta is primarily because of the combat, whose wide range of optional combos are clearly inspired by PlatinumGames’ trilogy of games. Both franchises also feature highly sexualised female protagonists but the odd thing about Stellar Blade is that while it looks like it was designed by a horny 15-year-old boy, there’s very little sexual content in terms of what anyone says or does.
By comparison Bayonetta, who was originally designed by a woman, is constantly using her sexuality to mock both her opponents and allies, but Stellar Blade protagonist EVE is far more subdued and unemotional. Almost no-one reacts to the fact that she looks like a supermodel and is dressed so absurdly for battle (her first outfit features knee length hair and a cross between a wet suit and an evening dress, while she wears a tie and high heels) to the point where it almost feels like her character is a mod, replacing a far less exploitative character design.
The game’s plot involves the Earth being overrun by aliens, many of which look like rejects from Silent Hill, and as the game begins a large force of female supersoldiers are sent to liberate the planet. Even before the end of the prologue, EVE is the only one left, beyond a male assistant who follows her around via a drone and a few other non-descript characters you meet along the way.
You begin the process of tracking down the lead alien by exploring tightly designed environments that, especially with their unlockable shortcuts, are very reminiscent of the early Dark Souls games. As you get further though more explicitly open world areas are introduced, which are less interesting visually and design-wise but allow a greater freedom in how you approach objectives.
The combat is clearly Stellar Blade’s primary appeal, and it does a very good job of slowly introducing the various nuances, that go far beyond what at first seems to be a simple light/heavy attack system. There are guns in the game but they’re not available from the start and are very much treated as a secondary weapon, compared to EVE’s sword, which can block and parry incoming attacks.
Performing a ‘perfect’ parry is often essential for having enough time to get in a sizable number of hits or initiating a special move, while other enemy attacks can only be avoided by dodging.
EVE also has a range of four chargeable beta skills, which can be accessed instantly whenever they’re ready. One of these, for example, is specifically designed as a shield breaker, and the first thing you’ll need that for is a weird ant-like creature that is otherwise extremely hard to get at, as it hides behind its chitinous barrier.
Then there are other moves which you unlock via one of multiple skill trees, allowing you to do things like skip behind an opponent for an attack or put some distance between them, and then target a suddenly revealed weak spot with a gun. New abilities are still being introduced several hours into the game, such as burst skills that are especially powerful but can only be performed after a perfect dodge or one of the other special moves.
Although skilled players will be able to chain together moves and combos easily that is not required for success, especially as the combat’s pace is generally slower than Bayonetta and its ilk, and closer to a From game. The sense of feedback, when an attack lands, isn’t quite as tactile as it could be but otherwise Stellar Blade’s combat is excellent and particularly good for those not used to the genre.
Although at first glance the backdrops all seem fairly linear and straightforward there are an impressive number of secrets hidden within them, as you try to obtain the resources to upgrade EVE’s gear and armour (and unlock even more bizarre clothes). Surprisingly, there are also a range of different puzzles interspersed at random, from simple maths problems to logic puzzles and even the odd obstacle that involves moving around objects using the physics engine.
Shift Up is not a new developer but, as far as we can tell, all they’ve done before is mobile games featuring even more dubious portrayals of women. There’s no point mincing words, Stellar Blade’s presentation – including its horror-inspired monsters and gory moments – are extremely juvenile and, frankly, pathetic in terms of EVE and the other women. EVE’s implausibly weightless boob physics and gigantic posterior would be laughable if they weren’t so creepy, even with the excuse that the she’s based on a real Korean model.
If you want to have attractive women, or men, in your game, then that’s one thing. There’s always a risk of objectification but less so when the characters look and talk like actual people. Not only is EVE’s preposterously proportioned body, and ridiculous dress sense, impossible to justify, but there’s no wit or cleverness to the game’s script, to acknowledge what it’s doing.
If you can look past that (and we’re not saying anyone should) Stellar Blade is a very good action game. There are some rough edges but given Shift Up’s lack of experience they’re easy to forgive, with the biggest problem, in gameplay terms, being the game’s odd pacing, which is far from non-stop action.
The open world city you first come across a few hours in, housing humanity’s last remnants, is an absolute chore of mindless side quests and talking to badly translated non-player characters. You can mostly ignore it, but you go from there straight into another open world area in a desert, which barely sees the pace pick up for another few hours. This happens more than once, and you begin to get the feeling the game needed a good editor.
Most of its ideas and mechanics have been seen elsewhere before but Stellar Blade is no clone and feels like more than just a Frankenstein’s monster of other people’s ideas. It’s far from perfect, but in terms of the core gameplay, this is a highly impressive console debut. As a result, we’re very keen to see what Shift Up does next, although in terms of how they treat female characters we hope Shift Up manages to grow up.
Stellar Blade review summary
In Short: Its main character is an embarrassment to gaming but if you can ignore that this is a very competent action game, that borrows wisely from both Bayonetta and Dark Souls.
Pros: The combat system works extremely well, with a huge range of options and tactics. Excellent graphics and the more linear sections are very well designed, with lots of secrets and unlockables.
Cons: The combat is well honed but unoriginal, with a slight lack of feedback. Very poor pacing at times and some terrible side quests. The female representation is embarrassing and childish.
Score: 8/10
Formats: PlayStation 5
Price: £69.99
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Shift Up
Release Date: 26th April 2024
Age Rating: 18
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