Revealed as a PlayStation 5 exclusive back in 2021, Shift-Up’s Stellar Blade surprised many.

Stylish action combat, beautiful character designs, and a NeiR Automata-inspired tone made it a stand out. But PlayStation in recent years focused more on games with Western sensibilities.

When you think of modern-day PlayStation, Nathan Drake or Joel comes to mind. Not a character like Eve with her beauty on full display. In addition, the title seemed to fill a void left behind by recent NieR titles.

After completing the free Demo on PlayStation Network, I came away quite surprised.

Familiar Trappings – Premise

Crash landing on what appears to be a war-torn Earth, combat android Eve and her mentor get surrounded by dangerous monsters. Her mentor takes the fatal blow for Eve, leaving her stranded. Being saved by Adam, the duo agree to work together. The demo picks up not long after Adam saves Eve, with the two exploring a ravaged city.

The narrative included in the demo reminds me a lot of NieR Automata. Eve and Adam have great chemistry and their conversations were enjoyable to listen too. And the English voice acting was strong. The voice actor for Eve gives off a British tone, reminding me of Bayonetta or Lara Croft.

The demo left the story off on a question mark regarding what happens next but my interest is very much peaked.

This Peach Isn’t Just Sweet – Combat

Stellar Blade isn’t what you think it is. The title appeared on the surface in marketing and promotion to be a Devil May Cry or Nier: Automata like experience. In many ways however, the game’s combat draws more heavily from Souls likes. Eve has a light and heavy attack, can block/parry, and can move away from attacks with short jumps and dodges.

These sound simple on the surface, but the threats Eve encounters pushes blocking and parrying. By successfully nailing these moves, you build up Memory. Memory allows you to use special attacks, dealing more damage to monsters. Eve also has a special dodge ability, where if a monster glows blue, you can get around them far easier.

For someone like myself who is very lackluster at Souls-like experience, Stellar Blade is thankfully very inviting. There is a Story Mode difficulty option that still pushes the player to skillfully play the game. The major difference is damage you take is lessened significantly compared to Normal Mode difficulty.

Ravaged World – Exploration/Systems

Combat is not the only element to Stellar Blade. In the demo, you have a sizable level to explore. The destroyed city invites exploration, with pools of water to dive into for loot and platforming sections.

Treasure boxes are hidden in clever spots as well, making exploration enjoyable. Similar to other Souls-likes, you also have campsites. These restore used potions, revive fallen monsters and you can explore the game’s extensive skill tree.

A Challenge boss mode grants players access to a late-game Eve. This reveals a ton of depth for players that want to invest into the game’s combat mechanics.

Beauty and Grace – Presentation/Performance

The world of Stellar Blade is nothing short of breathtaking. The opening portion features a chaotic battlefield with explosions all around Eve. All while showing how beautiful the character models are. Eve and her mentor are the embodiment of Japanese beauty, seen in titles like Dead or Alive and Bayonetta.

And when you explore the ruined city, this impressive presentation continues. Rain hitting the screen, reflections looking life-like, and the animation work on Eve herself impresses. Even after completing the demo, I just realized that Eve’s weapon is her headband. The animation work that has that effortlessly morph into an impressive Blade is awesome.

The biggest accomplishment has to be the performance. In both Performance and Balanced Modes, the game runs like butter on PS5 and maintains a sharp resolution. And when other current generation games struggle to run well, accomplishments like this need to be celebrated. The game also offers a Quality Mode at 30FPS/native 4K for those that want that as well.

A Siren’s Call – Music/Audio

The music in the Stellar Blade demo is nothing short of amazing. It potentially is 2024’s best score in the making.

The overworld theme playing throughout the demo is simply stunning. It channels so much of what made NeiR‘s score so iconic. Haunting female vocals, mixed with effective beats and a powerful piano… It was a major reason I fell in love with the experience.

Other audio positives worth noting are the ‘item pick up’ sounds. When you pick up items with the R2 button, it has this almost music note effect to each time you pick something up. It is very soothing and triggers a positive ‘awesome, got the thing’ reaction. It reminds me a lot of the Bolt pick up sound bite from Ratchet & Clank or the ring sound bite from Sonic.

Overall Thoughts

I didn’t expect all that much from the demo to be honest. I expected a mindless action experience with an attractive female lead character. But playing the demo, this quickly shot up my ‘most anticipated game of 2024’ list.

Strong presentation, some of the most stable performance this generation, haunting musical score and a premise that has me asking more questions; Stellar Blade is a game to look out for.

Look forward to future coverage on this exciting action title here at Lords of Gaming in the future.

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