sony continues with its commitment to third-party productions to alleviate the severe shortage of games from its own studios. To close this first half of the year after the good results obtained with Helldivers II, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Rise of the Roninit is the Koreans' turn to Shift Up jump into the ring with a title that since it was shown a few months ago, attracted a lot of attention for its modern hack and slash mechanics, in addition to of course, having raised controversy due to the suggestive design of its main character who returns to something he had It's been a long time since we saw the environment. Stellar Blade It is very close to arriving but, what does this title really offer? Is it really as good as it seems or is it just hanging on the media to generate noise?
For several days now, we had the opportunity to play Stellar Blade In advance. To be precise, we were given access to the extended demo that sony will be making available to all owners of a PS5 next March 29. In this demonstration, we are allowed to play what would be the first hour or hour and a half of the title, which introduces us to its game mechanics, as well as the story, setting out the general tone that the complete adventure will have. The truth is that we have been surprised by the proposal, since in large part, we expected a quite different product. By the way, the progress you get from this version can be carried over to the full game, so we can say that we are already testing the final version.
Gameplay we didn't expect
Let's start with what undoubtedly caught my attention the most. Stellar Blade: its gameplay. After the advances that were presented to us, the truth is that I was expecting a modern hack and slash in the full sense of the term, that is, something very close to NieR: Automata, Devil May Cry 5 or any delivery of BayonettaHowever, although it does take elements from said games, the reality is that it also has many Soulslike ingredients. This new PS5 exclusive is between both genres and is rather something similar to what Respawn did with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and its sequel, where we have a game with more methodical combat in which parrying and dodging in time is essential, in addition to carefully marking your attacks is very important and not so much the button smash issue.
EVE, the protagonist of Stellar Blade, has a simple attack and a strong one. In addition, he has at hand a series of arts or special powers that usually cause a lot of damage. Protecting yourself at the exact moment will charge your energy to use these special moves, plus dodging just in time will allow you to counterattack. Making a mistake is usually fatal and enemies, especially bosses, usually have no mercy on us. Yes, it seems that we will be facing a markedly challenging game, but that is protected with a “story mode” difficulty for those who do not want to complicate things. Our character has several skill trees to improve his movements, in addition to different pieces of equipment that, of course, make us stronger during confrontations.
How does combat feel Stellar Blade? Sensationally good. Although at the beginning you may feel EVE a bit heavy, especially if you expected it to be like controlling 2B, little by little you begin to understand how the timing of her attacks and defense works, in order to later execute movements much more agile. Plus, I'm sure that as you progress, you'll get much faster. The above can be seen in the Boss Challenge of the demo, a modality that opens once you complete it and that allows you to experiment with more of the protagonist's movements and skills.
History already seen, but with a good presentation
With such a short demo, it is difficult to talk about the story it will have Stellar BladeHowever, it is clear to us that there is a strong inspiration from NieR: Automata. EVE belongs to an elite group of warriors who are returning to Earth after what appears to be a long period of time. Humanity lost the war against an alien race known as the Naytiba, but now there is a plan to take back the planet. Of course, our job is to serve as a key piece of all of the above. Let's hope that the story lives up to what we are all expecting, because despite the spectacular cinematics with which the game welcomes us, we have to accept that its premise is far from being original.
Regarding the presentation of the title, we are offered three different viewing modes. In addition to the one that prioritizes image quality and the one that focuses on performance, Stellar Blade It surprises with a mode that it calls “balanced” and that comes by default. After having tried each option, we recommend that you stick with the last one, since in fact, it is the one that performs best, presenting a very good quality image and in a resolution close to 4K, without sacrificing the 60 frames per second, the same as They are appreciated in this type of games. At least in this first encounter with the game, we did not encounter framerate drops or technical problems in general. It seems that Shift Up is making good use of Unreal Engine 4. Its graphics don't impress too much, but they are fine, while we loved its dynamic music.
All in order
The first meeting with Stellar Blade It has been truly positive. Despite how short its demo was, it was quite clear to us the objective of its development studio. The truth is that we did not see much proposal at the gameplay or story level, however, that could change once we take the full game. At the outset, I would tell you that this is a title that does not take too many risks, using already proven ideas and presenting them in a good way and with a certain personality of its own. Are we facing a very important game? Probably not, but one that I'm almost sure will love anyone who gives it a chance.
For now we have nothing left but to wait for next April 26 so that Stellar Blade is being launched officially and exclusively on the PlayStation 5. I remind you that this March 29 the demo will be released so that you can try it first-hand.
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