Stellar Blade was a title that caught my interest from the first time it was showcased, long before it became one of the biggest and most relevant titles of PlayStation’s 2024. It just feels like a ME game, from its art direction to its combat, a blend of old-school styles with new-school implementation. Despite how excited I was though, I couldn’t help feel this gnawing in the back of my head.
A while that nagging will not go away, at least until the game releases, the Stellar Blade demo helped ease those fears that Eves’ journey is everything that I hoped it might be. While the demo only offers a brief glimpse into the post-apocalyptic Earth we are set to carve our way through, there was enough there to confirm at least that I can’t wait to sink my blade into it.
Adam and Eve
Originally titled Project Eve, Stellar Blade has never shied away from the biblical allegory it structures itself around. Honestly, Sci-Fi has always been the genre to use when trying to present how the faith of our ancestors is often mimicked through modern lenses with a differing resulting understanding.
The demo begins right from the start of the story as a few ships move into position above a planet, dropping soldiers onto the dying rock to bring the fight to the alien Naytiba who drove humanity from their home years ago. In this way, our protagonist, Eve, is a potential mother to a new humanity that will flourish if she is successful in her mission. Joining her to complete the allegory is a robotic companion named Adam who helps.
The demo runs through what developers have stated is the first chapter of the game to the first boss and, while narrative moments occur to set the stage, much of the experience is raw gameplay. In one scene early on, after fighting the intro boss, which like most Souls games, is not impossible to beat but not expected to, really helps to set the fact I want to know what happens next without bogging me down in exposition.
At its core, this reminded me of classic games like God of War or Devil May Cry, where a well-placed cutscene could engross me and give me the info I need, but then know to make way for my time to kick some ass. Based on trailers though we should probably expect the narrative to take center stage later on at multiple points, but for a Demo (and an intro) Stellar Blade does pretty much everything right.
A Hero Who Hits
With action-packed games it is hard to figure out just how it will feel in your hands and Stellar Blade turned out to be slower than I initially expected. At first, this kinda irked me but as I kept dying and figuring out the rhythm, it grew on me in a way few combat systems have (except for games like Nioh).
There is a soul-like element here amid a much faster combat. Identifying where and when attacks are coming is pivotal as blocking to unbalance an enemy is key to your ability to counterattack. Pleasantly I found that both block and dodge were viable in most situations meaning that the game allows you to address combat with your style. In cases of blocking you will need to be ready for combos since even a perfect block will not break a flurry of attacks. Thanks to the last two games I played being Rise of The Ronin and Hi-Fi Rush I was far more ready for this combat than I would usually be.
Dodging works similarly as most follow-up attacks extend the enemy forward and even a perfect dodge does not take you to a safe distance.. I was happy however to see characters have actual range, similar to From Software titles. I could dodge out of range five times and the enemy didn’t just twenty miles to hit exactly where I was standing. This has become pretty common in Japanese games but thankfully Shift Up seems to understand how annoying that is. Since all combat in the demo was done using a sword you were never really safe anyway, always needing to jump back in to unleash a combo flurry.
There is also no stamina bar, which puts combat in the ballpark of Nier: Automata and Devil May Cry anyway, and less similar to Elden Ring or Dark Souls. This gave the combat a combo-based flow that is diversified by upgraded abilities. For instance, right before the final boss, I invested in an ability to teleport when hitting a perfect dodge on certain attacks, little did I know this would come in handy for the boss. I was treated to my character quickly dodging out of a deadly it, straight behind the boss to unleash a quick flurry of attack before cartwheeling out for distance. It all had a slow, methodical speed to it in practice but felt so fast and powerful when executed.
This World of Ours
While we know that the world of Stellar Blade will open up at some point, with plenty of exploration, we are treated to a Vertical Slice of linear gameplay meant to showcase our tools. That doesn’t mean that isn’t awesome to explore though. Most of this will take place on the overgrown streets of what used to be a city. If there is one thing you are supposed to take away from this demo it is that the world is beautiful and it runs smooth.
It’s a fairly simplistic world design that we have seen before but in this case, the wheel isn’t broken. These rain-slick streets have monsters on them, you fight them, keep moving, and occasionally branch off into an old shop to find a chest, a password, or an enemy waiting to sucker-punch you. I got blindsided a lot…
One of my favorite things to do in the demo was take a quick break under some pouring rain and just stand there watching the physics in action. It was also fun to feel the dynamic rumble of the Dualsense controller pull me into that world. With a large amount of platforming, everything just felt… In its place, and that was a good thing. Could there have been more to do, sure, but it’s just the demo. I can’t wait to see how the world does open up when the main game releases.
There is a lot to love here in Stellar Blade, and a lot of question marks are left hanging which is what any good Demo does, entice. One thing is clear though, Stellar Blade could be the impactful next-generation game we have been waiting for when it releases April 26th, 2024 exclusively for the PlayStation 5.
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