Stellar Blade Is the PS5 Exclusive Enthusiasts Have Been Praying For | Push Square

31.03.2024 - 01:17 / pushsquare.com

If you were raised on a diet of Japan Studio oddities and quirky PlayStation published exclusives, then Stellar Blade is the game you’ve been praying for. Developed by Korean studio Shift Up – the infamous outfit behind the wildly popular smartphone shooter NIKKE: Goddess of Victory – this single player PS5 console exclusive feels like it’s stepped straight out of the PS3 era, and we mean that in the most positive possible way.

Korean dev details console debut

You play as Eve, a top-heavy tough girl in a skin-tight latex outfit. Set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi future, where Earth has been conquered by an aggressive alien race named the Naytiba, you represent one of humanity’s few remaining hopes – and you have all of the acrobatic acumen to overcome the odds against your intergalactic enemies.

Enormously inspired by anime, the demo – which documents the opening hours of the campaign, and will be available for everyone to play from 29th March – is stylish to a fault. It opens with a fleet of pods descending on Earth, as Eve and her allies spring an attack on their Naytiba nemeses. This beach scene is seriously impressive, as buildings collapse, space ships soar overhead, and trees wilt in the wind.

While the Japanese-style character designs may lead you to believe this is a character action game akin to Bayonetta and Devil May Cry, the combat is actually much more deliberate than that. While it doesn’t have the stamina system of Dark Souls, you’re forced to play cautiously, as hammering the attack button will consign you to an early grave.

The gameplay, in these opening exchanges, relies heavily on counter-attacking with perfect parries. You need to read the movements of your opponents, and react appropriately. Timing your guard just right will lead to a perfect parry, and sometimes you’ll need to chain these in quick succession. It’s rhythmic and challenging, but it feels sublime when you get it right, and we can already imagine the “pro level” gameplay streams that are going to come out of this.

Each time you successfully execute a perfect parry, you’ll remove a point from your opponent, and when these are all gone, you’ll stagger them. This is the perfect opportunity to unleash a flurry of attacks, including your Beta abilities, which recharge each time you execute an offensive action. While these represent the core systems in the game, there’s a lot more going on under the hood.

Indeed, it’s clear that combat will be dramatically different at the end of Stellar Blade than it is at the beginning. A robust skill tree, filled out by earning and spending Skill Points, teases Street Fighter-style depth. For example, coloured attacks from your opponents can be countered by pushing forward and dodging