Stellar Blade goes beyond the superficial

When I sat down to write this review, I saw that Stellar blade developer Shift Up officially had it announced that the game would be “uncensored” in all regions. Predictably, there was a lot of joy among those who had been there drawn Unpleasant Stellar blade The shiny buttocks of protagonist EVE are like moths to a flame. Honestly, I can’t blame them; she’s a shockingly attractive virtual person, a trait she shares with virtually the entire cast of the game, all of whom are either incredibly handsome, badass cyborgs, weird fleshy monsters, or some particularly delightful combination of two or even all three elements. However, as someone who had finished the game earlier that afternoon, I couldn’t help but laugh at my unfortunately non-shiny butt.

While Stellar blade features tight and sometimes revealing clothing, and the main character EVE breasts breasts across the aisle, it’s as safe and sexless as the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, the fanart and fanfic will be fantastic, but there is no fanservice on display here. I’m actually glad because now that we’ve gotten all that mess out of the way, we can get to the review and say that Stellar blade is above all a damn good time.

Stellar blade is a flashy character action game like your Devil May Crys and Ninja Gaidens. There’s a bit of Soulslike in there, but only to the same extent as pretty much any action game these days. Yes, it has checkpoints, respawning enemies and parrying, but that’s not enough for an entire genre, you know? The game Stellar blade is very reminiscent of, and not just because it will launch a thousand cosplays Nier: Automata: You have a beautiful balletic badass with a cyborg-android persuasion who descends from space to rid a post-apocalyptic wasteland of raging nasties so that all the nice people can be safe. Oh, and she’s accompanied by a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack full of soft, ethereal vocals.

It’s not just the surface elements that do that Stellar blade cribs of Kidney, but also a willingness to play with genre to keep things fresh. For example, not too far into the game, EVE’s little drone gets an upgrade that allows it to serve as a firearm. For the most part, I didn’t find it to be a hugely impactful addition to her arsenal, aside from the clearly stated “shoot the glowing thing” moments. However, certain laboratory-like locations have some sort of electromagnetic field that disables EVE’s hi-tech electrosword and the drone’s scanning capabilities, while leaving the shootybang protocol intact. Add some mutated monstrosities to the mix, and suddenly it’s become a bit of survival horror.

Not all experiments are so successful. The movement is generally smooth and enjoyable, but marred in a few places by endless precision platforming and even a section where you have to dodge from cover to cover to avoid instant artillery-based death. Even with the occasional miss, I was happy with the variety, as I’m not convinced the core combat could sustain the game on its own.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad; In fact, it’s a lot of fun. Stellar blade starts with a familiar weak attack/strong attack/dodge/parry setup that is absolutely good. Everything is fast and responsive, and you can string together some impressive-looking combos with the two attack buttons. If you execute a perfect parry enough times, you leave your enemy open to a finishing move that will kill most enemies and take away a good chunk of a boss’s health. Shortly after introducing unblockable attacks that must be dodged, the game adds a number of variations to combat. A blue flash means you need to press forward while dodging, while pink requires you to pull the stick back. The former has you doing a ninja-like sprint behind your opponent, leaving them open for attack, while the latter has you doing a sweet flip kick and opening up a weak spot for you to shoot at.

In addition to the basic functions, you have a series of special moves that you can perform by holding down the L1 button and the corresponding face button. These cost points come from a limited resource pool, which regenerates as you take and deal damage, and, like the core moves, can be upgraded with skill points as you level up. There are also healing items and a small selection of grenade-like weapons available.

The problem is that by then you’ve already been at it for a few hours Stellar blade, then you’ve seen everything battle has to offer. The tantalizingly hidden skill trees on the menu screen get you all excited when the first one turns out to be the gun drone, but the other two end up being another set of special moves, this time tailored only to R1 and with their own energy pool, and a kind of super mode which you can activate for short bursts. They’re fun to use, but they don’t bring anything new to the table. There are no new weapons to collect, no different combat styles, and gear customization falls squarely into ‘number up’ territory, rather than changing the way you play.

As a result, Stellar blade can sometimes feel like a bit of a slog. Enemies look wonderfully varied, but the tactics you use to defeat them don’t need to be changed much. There are sections that take far too long, including a boring dungeon crawl through a sewer where it feels like the game is throwing large numbers of bullet sponge enemies to slow you down. That’s a shame, because when the combat excels it’s absolutely thrilling and most boss encounters are fantastic. Fortunately, the last few parts of the game are nice and fast, alternating between big boss fights and exposition without too much hallway slogging and mafia deaths slowing down proceedings.

Story-wise, I was ultimately pleasantly surprised. It’s definitely 99% standard sci-fi guff, but I’m a sucker for that kind of thing. There’s so much predicting and implying what’s really going on that I was prepared for the big reveals to be more of a whimper than a whimper, but some clever misdirection ensured that a few things remained real surprises. The last few hours of the game were some of my favorites, which I think is an impressive feat, such as Stellar blade became quite stiff at that point.

My playthrough lasted about 24 hours, after I completed most of the side quests in the first open world area but barely touched the second. Stellar blade is one of the rare games that I feel more positively about now than halfway through. The roaring opening and rollercoaster of a final act compensate for the padded middle which, combined with a lack of combat variety, keeps the game from being truly outstanding. But otherwise, it’s an impressive console debut that suggests a promising future for Shift Up.

Stellar blade will be released on PlayStation 5 on April 26. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a pre-release download code from Sony. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.