Developed by Shift Up from Seoul, Stellar Blade is a third-person action adventure featuring an eye-catching protagonist donning a skin-tight armour.
From all the marketing and hype, Stellar Blade looks like it’s all about a scantily-clad and shapely chiobu (hot girl in Singlish) fighting monsters. But does Stellar Blade offer more than just eye candy?
All about Eve
You play Eve, a member of the 7th Airborne Squadron with outstanding combat abilities who returns to Earth from an offworld colony in an attempt to save human civilisation.
As Earth had been ravaged by monstrous creatures of unknown origins called Naytibas, the last remaining humans live an impoverished life in the remains of cities and fear for their lives.
The story echoes Nier Automata, a Square Enix game released in 2017 with similar themes, level designs and gameplay. There is even a similar companion drone that travels alongside the heroine and provides remote communication with her comrades.
Eve is definitely designed for a certain demographic in mind, with her skin-tight armour that leaves little to the imagination, complete with an otherworldly butt and well-animated jiggles.
Her superpower is performing incredible jumps and doing kickass moves in heels. When done with combat, Eve can tuck away her sword that folds up into a hair accessory, which is a pretty neat design.
However, I found Eve’s movement rather clumsy and overly showy to show off her body. For instance, she tumbles dramatically up slopes and does an exaggerated high leg spin when moving over a couch after bumping into it.
I tend to have Eve knocking over stuff while moving around, which makes her seem strangely graceless and boisterous despite her graceful looks.
Thankfully, in spite of the rather exploitative design of Eve, the game has enough gameplay action and thrilling combat to carry it through after one gets past the wholly unrealistic body standards.
Kickass combos and combat
The real-time combat in Stellar Blade is pretty “stellar” featuring plenty of special abilities and weapons that Eve can use. Combat is challenging but Eve has enough combos and abilities that make it fun.
Some of the boss battles are tough and take everything in Eve’s arsenal to defeat, but it is extremely satisfying when they are beaten. There are also quick-time events that keep you on your toes especially during lengthy boss fights, so don’t celebrate too soon.
The key to beating the bosses are well-timed dodging and parrying, which are also skills that Eve needs to develop in her skill tree. The going is definitely tougher earlier in the game before unlocking the many abilities that Eve can have, but once you unlock ranged weapons, special combos and abilities, as well as added health and restorative items, Eve’s chances of survival go up.
One thing that irks me during combat is Eve’s constant high-pitched yelling while executing her combos, which can wear you down after hours of gameplay.
The game features various elaborate skill trees for upgrading attack combos, beta skills, and burst skills. Beta skills are similar to “limit break” type of attacks that can be executed when the beta meter fills up to a certain level during combat.
Likewise for burst skills that have a separate meter to fill and unleash a flurry of fast attacks on your foes. As Eve explores, completes quests and defeats enemies, she gains Skill Points that will let her unlock more skills in the skill trees.
Besides Eve’s many special attacks and abilities, there are also ranged weapons as well as grenades and mines to use against the various Naytibas, which pack a pretty powerful arsenal for Eve.
Post-apocalyptic exploration
Stellar Blade takes you to a variety of locations to explore including abandoned cities, open deserts, wastelands and derelict underground facilities. For gamers who are thorough and leave no stone unturned, you are in for a treat as there are plenty of rewards to discover.
Apart from currency in terms of gold, upgrade materials, new suit designs and accessories for Eve, there are also collectible drink cans to be found. What makes it so rewarding is the kawaii pose that Eve will strike when a can is found!
As Eve explores, she finds notes and journals on corpses, which add to the level of tragedy of the humans in the game. But other valuable finds on bodies are codes to opening locked chests with plenty of rewards in store.
Stellar Blade isn’t all beauty and no brains, to be fair, The game features a good variety of clever puzzles in the form of climbing, jumping, memory, reflex as well as some more cerebral puzzles.
While Stellar Blade’s climbing and jumping puzzles are sweaty-palms inducing, part of the challenge is Eve’s imprecise movement which means she tends to take an extra step forward after stopping, causing her to fall to her death quite often. I knew those heels were a bad idea!
Thankfully, Stellar Blade offers a generous number of supply camps where Eve can rest and the game can be saved. Some of the better equipped camps come with a phone booth for fast travel, vending machines for restocking consumables, and consoles to upgrade Eve’s skills and gear.
Things get more interesting when Eve arrives at the town of Xion. Here, there are plenty of NPCs (non-player characters) to interact with, and who regard Eve as a saviour to help them in some emotionally-manipulative side quests. These come in the form of a bulletin board where Eve can accept or reject quests, and also from speaking with NPCs in need.
Treat for the eyes and ears
Stellar Blade’s graphics are as beautiful as Eve, with a well-varied collection of environments in the claustrophobic underground, wide open deserts and decrepit cities.
The spectacular designs of the monstrous and gruesome Naytibas are the stuff from nightmares, with all manner of fleshy, bloody horror and fantastically grotesque features.
Some will puke toxic slime, others have spiky rotors to tear flesh while others have cruel appendages that can do damage from afar.
Eve’s dramatic combat animation, with lightning arcs and fiery swings, makes every battle a spectacle. But despite her stylish moves, Eve is rather dull and insipid, spouting predictable lines flatly with a very British accent in the English voiceover.
Her comrade, Adam, the drone engineer, can be easily mistaken for a cardboard cutout with his complete lack of expression and wooden delivery. Thankfully, the squadron engineer Lily is slightly perkier and contributes a bit of humour in an otherwise monotonous script.
There are also some more colourful NPCs who offer more interesting dialogue but they make Eve seem so much duller in comparison.
Another highlight of the game is its soundtrack that features chill café music with soothing vocals that makes for an enjoyable accompaniment during exploration and when winding down after some serious combat. I actually find myself lingering at supply camps where Eve can rest and save the game just to listen to the music.
TL;DR
Despite the focus on style rather than substance in the protagonist, Stellar Blade is a solid action adventure game featuring thrilling combat that gets better as more abilities and skills are unlocked.
The game’s beautiful graphics go beyond the sexy protagonist, with gorgeous post-apocalyptic scenes of an abandoned world and grotesque monsters.
With a fast-paced main story, generous and rewarding optional side quests as well as fun collectibles, Stellar Blade masterfully tantalises and will keep you playing for hours on end.
The chill café soundtrack deserves honourable mention as it makes exploring the post-apocalyptic world so much more enjoyable.
Stellar Blade is available for the PlayStation 5 at S$97.90. You can also try out the demo before buying, but be warned that the demo does not do the game justice, as the beginning of the game is rather linear and most of Eve’s best skills are not unlocked.
