Stellar Blade is superior to NieR: Automata, says Yoko Taro

Stellar Blade is better than NieR: Automata, according to the latter's esteemed director Yoko Taro.

Shift Up's upcoming action game has been compared to Taro's work since its reveal and now IGN Japan has put the two together in an interview between Taro and Stellar Blade creative director Hyung-Tae Kim.

So why does Taro think Stellar Blade is superior? The “next-gen quality” graphics and “cute female characters”, among other reasons as the pair pat each other on the back.

“Stellar Blade is a really amazing game. I'd say that it's much better than NieR:Automata,” said Taro, before giving more detail.

“The graphics are completely next-gen quality and the character design's direction is amazing. The cool male characters and cute female characters unique to Mr. Kim's style are really appealing. Shops in RPGs often have a close-up shot of the shopkeeper, which I don't like it because I think it feels unnatural. Stellar Blade has a shot like that too, but the shopkeeper was so cute that I didn't mind! Her cuteness felt more important than any design choices.”

Taro continued: “Actually, I kind of knew that Stellar Blade was going to be compared with NieR: Automata, and I told Mr. Kim when we first met. If you actually play it, you'll instantly realize that it's a very different game, but a delicate female character doing cool action is bound to draw comparisons. If Stellar Blade would have been the same game with a macho male character, I think people wouldn't have pointed out the similarities It just happens to be that there. “are not many games with a similar style.”

The pair also discussed the difference in difficulty between the two games. Taro described the combat in Stellar Blade as “very deep” but admitted he struggled to get past the first boss. NieR: Automata, by comparison, was made for Square Enix's RPG audience who weren't as familiar with action games, so Taro developed simple gameplay.

Further, a comparison is made against FromSoftware's Soulsborne games and the prevalence of high difficulty.

“When it comes to how difficult a game should be, I think that there is no correct answer,” said Kim. “It's true that there are more and more difficult games due to the popularity of Soulsborne games, and I have been inspired by the genre myself. That being said, since games like that usually have no difficulty settings, it is extremely hard to get the perfect difficulty balance. For Stellar Blade, we wanted a game that can satisfy players who want a challenge as well as players who want to focus on the story, and we did our best to get the balance right for that.”

Taro added: “When looking at Soulsborne games from a business perspective, you can see that FromSoftware invented the idea of ​​selling difficulty as a product. Until then, it was the trend to make things more casual and stress-free, but they made stress in itself a product. However, since this is Hidetaka Miyazaki's invention, I don't see any reason to try to copy that.

Additionally, both directors discussed the key influences behind their games. While Kim has previously stated that Battle Angel Alita and Blade Runner inspired Stellar Blade, both directors were inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Taro even admitted: “I thank you for praising NieR: Automata's story, but actually it's pretty much just a retelling of Evangelion, so there's not much originality to it. I don't really watch recent movies, so I'm mostly inspired by memories of works I saw in the past.”

Stellar Blade's demo has proven exceptionally popular, with the developer asking players to “go easy” after some players have racked up over 50 hours of playtime. He also warned players of using the sexualized lead character's skin suit as it lacks defensive capabilities.

Stellar Blade is due out on 26th April exclusive to PlayStation 5.