3.5/5 ★ – Davux's review of Stellar Blade.

After putting in over 50 hours on my first playthrough of this game I’m happy to say I’m thoroughly impressed by Shift Ups first triple A outing. To preface my review I did all the side content I could including collecting all the cans and outfits using guides as little as possible. So I have all but seen everything this game has to offer. Before I go into the positives I’d like to get my criticisms out of the way. I’ve heard some people say the story of Stellar Blade was “surprisingly good”. I don’t agree with this sentiment at all. The story is mediocre at best and although it does have a pretty cool ending, 95% of the story is bland and doesn’t have a lot of substance. If someone tells you they’re playing this for the plot, then you already know the real reason they’re playing. My largest and only other criticism is the atrocious English voice acting. I don’t know whether it’s because of the director or the voice actors themselves, maybe a combination of both. But every single line of dialogue is so flat. There’s no emotion what so ever, and when there is, it’s done so poorly it can’t be taken seriously. The worst offender of all is the voice actor for Kaya. I never want to hear that character speak again. A good example of how lifeless the voice acting is is when you acquire the “Fisherman’s Dream” from Clyde. (Minor spoiler for the fishing questline for those who care, skip to the next paragraph). This exchange between Eve and Clyde is clearly meant to be a comedic moment due to how the lines are written. The “Fisherman’s Dream” Clyde has hyped up as the reward for catching all the fish to this point is a skimpy outfit named “Ocean Maid”, and Eve is clearly taken aback when she receives it from Clyde. After looking at the outfit it just had me thinking, “Oh that was supposed to be funny. If only the voice acting was good.” And honestly there are a lot of moments like this all throughout the game. Now with that out of the way I’d like to cover some positives starting with the level of polish displayed in the game. We don’t see many games release nowadays in such a well rounded and finished state as seen here. And especially for Shift Ups first console game this is an incredible feat. If only the rest of the industry could follow suit. The level of customisation here is really welcome. Collecting all the outfits and assorted cosmetics is fun and never gets old. Finding all the cans feels fair and although I did use a guide to find the last few, if I had wanted to put in the extra time to find them myself this definitely would have been achievable. The level of detail that has gone into the main and supporting character models is insane. If you’ve played or seen anything online regarding this topic I’m sure you know what I mean. Although I do wish they had treated the side characters with the same level of care. Then the main attraction is the gameplay. Shift Up have all but nailed this, first try. The perfect parries and dodges feel incredibly satisfying. Paired with the sound design of combat it makes for an incredibly entertaining gameplay experience. Fights never feel unfair but offer a decent level of challenge on the normal difficulty. The progression keeps the gameplay fresh even in the late game. Even the platforming feels like a welcome addition, as much as I hate the yellow paint marking the way that every game is doing now. Overall Stellar blade is an easy recommendation to those who enjoy combat focussed games. I would describe it as a mashup of the Souls series and classic God Of War. I’m looking forward to my new game + playthrough along with getting the extra rewards from the boss rush mode. Honestly this is the most fun I’ve had playing a new release in several years although due to the criticisms I stated earlier I can’t give it any more than a 3.5/5. That said I’ll still be keeping a close eye on Shift Up and their future endeavours. I hope there will be a Stellar Blade 2, I just pray they hire a better writing/voice acting team for it.