Stellar Blade review – Eve of destruction

Welcome to the future, where humanity’s greatest threat isn’t climate change and Disney’s shareholders demanding infinite growth, but rather an army of monsters hellbent on our extinction. Survivors are hanging on by a thread, and after her squad of photogenic warriors meet their gruesome demise, all hope rests on one lone supermodel-soldier by the name of Eve. No, this is not the plot of a Roger Corman-produced direct-to-VHS skin-flick, but Stellar Blade, Sony’s latest third-party exclusive for 2024.

Beneath the obvious surface-level sex appeal and by-the-numbers post-apocalyptic story, Stellar Blade has a lot going for it. It’s not without a few issues, but overall, it’s a strong debut from developer Shift Up that is loaded with incredible action, gruesome monsters, and exciting moments. If you’re looking for pure edge-of-your-seat gameplay and you can overlook a plot that’s almost as thin as protagonist Eve’s clothing choices, you’re in for a fun time over dozens of hours.

You see, if gameplay is where Stellar Blade puts its best foot forward, then story and character development is where it twists its ankle and stumbles with a careless placement of its opposite appendage. In a nutshell, Stellar Blade follows Eve as she gets her revenge on and hunts down the four super-bosses, collects hypercores, and gets clued in to the origins of the Naytiba and how they transformed the planet into a wasteland for their kind to thrive in.

There’s nothing especially interesting here, and the big reveals don’t exactly hit home when you’ve got characters duller than the antique bread knife in your mom’s kitchen drawer. Eve might look like a successor to Bayonetta with her leggy design, almost non-existent combat outfit, and her ability to make you question how human bodies work whenever she pulls off a finisher, but my paperweight has a more robust personality in comparison to her.

Stellar Blade’s storyline is as forgettable as renewing your car license before the 11th hour, but thankfully, its action more than makes up for those shortcomings. A mix of Souls-like intensity and stylish finishers ala Bayonetta, Stellar Blade keeps you on your toes as you weave between offense and defense. Like From Software’s Sekiro, Eve needs to balance attacking with precisely timed parries, leaning more toward maintaining a perfect defense against powerful enemies until she can stagger them and deliver killing blows.

This isn’t a straight-up copy of Sekiro or Bloodborne gameplay mechanics–hello there, Lies of P!–as Stellar Blade throws in several Burst and Beta Skill special attacks which can be used for specific scenarios, putting a neat twist on the formula. Don’t like your odds when you’re surrounded by enemies? Pop a sweeping special attack to give yourself some breathing room, or when dealing with armored foes, break their shields down with another attack.

The trick here is that these attacks require you to master the basics if you want to have a stock of them on hand. A powerful resource in their own right, Burst Skills require you to build up reserve energy by perfectly dodging enemy attacks or by making tactical use of your Beta energy to build up chains. That layer of balance makes for a fun game of on-the-fly tactics as you manage these two resources, choosing the optimum time to bust them out for clutch moments.

These instances will make you sweat, especially when you encounter Stellar Blade’s awe-inspiring bosses. From chunky variants of standard cannon fodder to horrific monstrosities who look like they were pulled from the deepest abyss of Elden Ring, the boss fights here will make you grind your teeth, rage, and pump your fist in celebration once you conquer them. Plus, Eve just looks cool as hell when she’s dodging death by the skin of her teeth and unleashing Burst Skills to chop these beasts down to size. All while a pulse-pounding soundtrack sets the stage.

It’s worth noting that since launch, a patch has also tweaked certain aspects of the combat. While these changes might sound minimal on paper, they make a difference to the overall experience in subtle and exciting ways. With an impressive amount of enemy variety, challenging scenarios, and lots of depth in its core design, Stellar Blade’s combat is beautifully vicious once you master Eve’s various talents.

Beyond Eve’s monster hunt, Stellar Blade also lets you catch your breath with some light RPG fun. In the city of Xion, humanity’s final stronghold against the beasts outside, Eve can restock her supplies, pick up a few sidequests, and change up her look. Narratively, sidequests offer very little in terms of fleshing out Stellar Blade’s world, and they mostly consist of recycled content as you return to previously visited stages. Here you’ll typically go hunt down an item and take on a boss that has toughened up after its previous defeat at your hands.

These sidequests are nothing more than a chance to earn some extra XP and resources, and it won’t be long before fatigue sets in as they feel more like an obligation to help strengthen you for the battles ahead. This feeling is hammered home when you start to reach the end of Eve’s skill trees to grab incremental upgrades or skills you’d previously skipped out on in favor of abilities to suit your playstyle.

At least general exploration functions better here, as you can pick up resources, collectibles, character upgrades, and even dozens of new costumes. I’m quite partial to Eve’s outfits that give off strong “Emily in Paris” vibes, and hunting down these new runway model looks provided a better reason to venture off the beaten post-apocalyptic path.

These pleasing but unessential extras aside, games inspired by From Software need to function at a high level, and Stellar Blade is more than up to the task with its superb animation and finely tuned combat mechanics.

Released on 26 April, Stellar blade is out now as a PS5 exclusive.