As the PlayStation 5 loses its exclusives one by one and players worry about a 2024 calendar devoid of major releases, Stellar Blade arrives at just the right time. First presented in 2019 under the name Project Eve, the game was intended to invest in the PS4 and Xbox consoles as well as the PC. It ended up attracting the attention of Sony, which acquired exclusive rights in 2021. Two years later, the title is ready to make its debut and promises to make people talk about it.
Whether it's through its aesthetics that have sparked debate or its gameplay revealed in a demo version, Stellar Blade has managed to make its place in the news on many occasions, even before its release scheduled for Friday, April 26. After all, this new gem has managed to stand out from the crowd by drawing inspiration from mechanics that are particularly popular with gamers. For a first game of this magnitude, Shift Up Corporation has managed, against all odds, to rise up alongside the biggest names in the industry to serve us a memorable PS5 exclusive. Far from being flawless, this Souls-like boosted by action and adrenaline nevertheless has all the ingredients to convince a wider audience of players than its competitors.
A game that puts an end to the elitism of Souls-likes
Difficulty in video games is certainly one of the topics that divides the community the most. While some advocate the interest of complex experiences without possible adjustments, others campaign for increased accessibility across all video game genres. In the case of Souls-like games known for their legendary difficulty, this debate is all the more virulent. And yet, in reality, this discussion does not deserve to be. Including different gameplay options to accommodate various player profiles does not in any way take away from the maximum difficulty that the most experienced gamers can aspire to. Just like the Star Wars Jedi series in the past, Stellar Blade has understood this well and has no use for the elitism inherent in the genre.
The title takes care of its players from its first configuration menus, to ensure that everyone can get what they are looking for. While regulars will not hesitate to launch into classic difficulty, newcomers will be able to let themselves be tempted by a “story mode”. As its name suggests, this one was designed for gamers wishing to dive into the world of Stellar Blade without worrying about being held back by overly complex confrontations. Without transforming the adventure into a walk in the park, mistakes during parries and dodges are much less fatal and allow you to understand the game mechanics with complete peace of mind. This mastered balance offers a perfect training opportunity for newcomers, who will then be able to try the normal mode, which can be activated at any time.
The gameplay of Stellar Blade truly shines thanks to this emphasis on learning. In addition to these two difficulty modes, the title benefits from other options designed to promote the progression curve for players. This sense of growth that Souls-like aficionados are particularly fond of is here within everyone's reach. In story mode, players can decide to transform reactive mechanics – such as the parry or the perfect dodge – into QTEs in order to better understand the timings applied. By adding to this a virtual simulation system in the rest camps in order to train the triggering of certain techniques or the confrontation of certain enemies, we obtain a particularly effective learning system. Stellar Blade does everything in its power to ensure that players remove one by one the small spare tires that it offers, if that is what we want of course.
A lot of good ideas, but not only
In addition to being particularly effective in accommodating different types of players, the title manages to capture our attention in different ways. It doesn't take long to spread out all its good ideas to make us understand that the journey promises to be remarkable. From the very first encounters, we are confronted with this devastated universe where creatures named Naytiba can destroy any living being (or any structure) in a few attacks. Despite all her training and equipment, the protagonist named Eve struggles to face the threat. Following this introduction as grandiose as it is brutal, the tone is set: the adventure promises to be tough. But what are these aliens? What happened to Earth? Is Eve human? These are so many questions of this kind that jostle in our heads after these few minutes of play that are enough to captivate us.
Before even convincing us with its gameplay, Stellar Blade draws us into its storyline brilliantly. This focus on the lore proves to be particularly effective throughout the journey. Many elements of the scenery allow us to trigger dialogues and other cutscenes to obtain new story elements. The world around us is not a corridor designed for chain clashes: it is above all an immersive whole. But you still have to be sensitive to post-apocalyptic sci-fi universes, in which case the world building risks seeming as cliché as possible.
In terms of gameplay, Stellar Blade offers a clever mix between classic action RPG and Souls-like, which can sometimes be confusing. Aficionados will find skill progression and camp rest systems that have proven themselves. As for the movements: that's another story. While the heroine's movements are reminiscent of those of Bayonetta or Cal in Star Wars Jedi, the attacks benefit from a dynamic specific to Souls. This disparity ends up accentuating the fluidity of certain movements and the heaviness of others. The fusion of genres is also found on the controls side. By offering to attack with square, dodge with circle and protect with the triggers, this unusual control model risks destabilizing the regulars of Souls.
Among the list of bad ideas of the game, we find in particular the placement of special attacks on the same button as the parry button. It is easy to waste this power bar by pressing the attack button too quickly after a successful counter. The same goes for using the R2 trigger to collect resources on the ground: who had this idea? We end up leaving valuable resources behind because they are visually discreet and not intuitive to collect.
A technical feat to highlight
Fortunately, these few flaws quickly fade into the background as the rest of the experience is fluid. Despite an almost constant linear aspect, the levels follow one another with pleasure and are full of surprises. The environment scanning function will push more than one player to explore side paths to seek out rewards at their own risk. In addition to an effective structure and gameplay, the satisfaction provided by Stellar Blade is also amplified by truly stunning visuals. The Korean studio did not take the AAA affiliation lightly and offers us one of the most beautiful games on the PlayStation 5. Nothing in this title leaves anything to be desired visually speaking.
From textures to facial animations, particle effects and even environments: each element is a feast for the eyes. If we could have done without the slightly too pronounced physics of certain parts of the body, the real-time animation of Eve's hair has nothing to envy to the long hair of Rapunzel in the animated film of the same name. The immersion provided by the scenario is therefore all the more powerful thanks to the monumental efforts applied to the graphics. Better still, players can also decide to customize this aspect of the game. With three different graphics modes – frame rate priority, resolution priority or balanced – everyone can enjoy the show according to their favorite criteria. In frame rate mode, the title does not suffer any slowdown and still offers a real visual slap. This is to say how much Stellar Blade is optimized.
To top it all off, the game comes with excellent French dubbing. This one manages to convey the right emotions, while letting us understand what is happening during action scenes that require all our concentration. For a first attempt, Shift Up Corporation has left nothing to chance and will not fail to make a name for itself among players.
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