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Stellar Blade Is Shallow And Deceptive | Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2024
- Stellar Blade Is Shallow And Deceptive | Review. I'll admit I bought into this game's marketing hook line and sinker. Like everyone else I was interested and excited to see a new game come out with bold sexual appeal, graphic violence, and interesting combat. I am a hardcore Team Ninja fan and I miss the 2000s era action game of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden like everyone else. Stellar Blade is definitely teased and aimed at this audience with its marketing and demo.
Because there is a law that every game that is made these days needs to be influenced by Dark Souls, I wasn't naive enough to think that Stellar Blade would be pure uncut character action. I knew from playing the demo that it would have that slower more 1 versus 1 feel and pace like the souls series and I was open minded to this possibility. I do enjoy souls games especially Elden Ring.
Day 1 I bought Stellar Blade and starting playing and after a few hours it became very clear to me that I had been played by this game -- rather than the other way around. Everyone is so wrapped up around the controversy of this game's visuals and the various culture wars that somehow have attached themselves to it that sadly no one has actually bothered to review the game itself. On top of that the people who do review games -- like game journalists -- are the exact market this game is targeted towards. What Stellar Blade does is takes the skin of a real action game and then guts out everything that is inside of what makes a game good. The section immediately after the demo ends is literally a swimming section ha. Honestly I do think Stellar Blade is the case of a small and limited action with a few interesting (but unfinished) boss fights that then got mixed in with a giant sludge of empty gamification and then passed on as a full release. And none of it is accidental. Let's not forget that at that core Shift Up are Gacha games makers, not classic arcade devs like the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta teams. They are more than comfortable treating game design as casino inspired mental manipulation rather than as an art form.
I won't spoil all my thoughts about the game in the vid description but I think after the initial hype wave and culture war boost this game has received has moved on (which it always does, like Bayonetta 3) players will calm down and see that Stellar Blade is more of a brilliant act of marketing than it is game design.
Incredible thumbnail made by the master @boghogSTG
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00:00 Modern Game Design Is a Scam of Empty Engagement And Gamified Mechanics
07:53 Filler Engagement and Pretend Challenge is the New Monetization Model - Sawdust Instead of Meat.
15:15 The Misleading Marketing of Stellar Blade - This Is Not a Genuine Action Game (Or Even a Souls-Like)
17:52 Stellar Blade’s Combat Mechanics Are Heavily Restricted, Prescribed, and Shallow
25:17 The Enemy Design is Passive and Uniform. They Don’t Trap or Challenge the Player
28:15 The Boss Fights Are the Best Part of the Game and Start Fun, But Are So Static They Don’t Have Longevity.
32:00 There was a Potentially Fun Game Here if Stellar Blade Developed Its Combat More and Didn’t Crush the Player Under Bloat and Intentionally Padded Content.
33:32 Don’t Put the Meow On a Pedestal Fellas, Wait for a Significant Sale at Least
#stellarblade, #stellarbladereview, #sekiro
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I'm starting to feel like soulslikes have become *so* popular as a genre, that it made people forget how DMC plays like.
Dark Souls has no mini games. Your third Person action games (bayonetta) is the influence here.
@@thefebo8987 What mini games? lmao
One thing I remember more from Bayo than anything is very engaging combat.
@@wub9044 you played bayonetta 3 ? It has so much non combat down time
@@thefebo8987 No, and okay, but what does that have to do with my main issue tho?
The one I brought up in the first comment.
Soulslike? This is more of a bootleg Sekiro-like with Nier aesthetics and blatant fanservice... Either way, soulslike or Sekiro-like, I'm so sick and tired of From's sh*tty influence in the industry. Why arent more studios looking at Nioh for example, which is a million times better than any From game (combat-wise)? Or Sifu, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma, or DMC...
"Whether or not women should be sexy in games" is such a fake debate. There's no answer, because not all games are the same. In some games yes, in some games no. In order to be healthy, the industry must maintain variety. I feel like the discussion only exists so that people can make content about it.
Ding ding ding ding
Tell him what he's won jerry
Well our contestant has one
1.nivody giving hi truthful comment attention cause they are too busy battling the "culture war"
2.being accused of being a troll and or sjw cuck
3.accusing others calling them Incels.....when that wasn't what he said in the first place
I mean I get it, some women in gaming look like...really bad. Not how women commonly look. I think it's more of a "GET better at making character models" instead of females being attractive in games.
That’s why they marketed eve like that bc they knew they’d make content about it
I wish it had just committed to the DMC combat. God I love DMC and I want more of it. Nothing really scratches the action itch like that series.
Capcom has recently embraced DEI so don't expect any good games from them either
@@vincentturnt6635 Who cares about DEI? You mad black people are in your games? If the gameplay is good I’m chilling.
@@vincentturnt6635Monster Hunter Team is still holding strong at least
@@vincentturnt6635 Sucks that any time someone criticizes the sad state of modern game design, there's always some dumbass waiting to stink up the whole discussion by making it about "le woke mind virus" after seeing a single gay person in a game
@@vincentturnt6635 Who cares about DEI? I want a good game that plays well. I don’t care what race the character is.
Sorry for my english.
As a dmc fan myself, I still can't agree on things like "every game needs a juggle system", "in every game enemies should be stunlocked with certain level of ease". It heavily depends on the vision and balance of a particular game. I often see people that are too limited with their preferences. Like ninja gaiden fans who can't stand playing dmcs. Or dmc fans who can't play anything if it doens't have a juggle system. You can't force your preferences on every game in existence and calling them bad solely by that. Soulslikes in general are more reaction-based than proactive. This is the game design these games chose, and I'm glad we have different approaches in the industry. Nioh 2 takes this basis and make you extremely proactive with stance switching, ki pulses, youkai skills, weak spots, youkai burst cancels (this is important one and what makes Nioh 1 and 2 play like different games), and dozens of other small things. Sure you don't have juggles in this game, but you still have combos in another way, in which I find even more enjoyment than in dmc combos. Fromsoft games are typically more about waiting and reacting to attacks with your limited moveset, which make them different and engaging in their own way.
Like you value replayability, but not everything should be centered around that. Sekiro is Punchout and gets old after one or two consecutive playthroughs but I still boot the game from time to time and get that beautiful deflecting experience. Same with Furi or Celeste. There isn't much depth in them, and they lack the replayability factor, but they're extremely fun to be played once in a while.
Your English is more than fine and i think you express your viewpoint well. Fair enough stuff.
Don’t you come at kingsfield, she’s not slow, she’s *methodical*.
Ha no shade meant towards kingsfield at all :-) It's just a really funny example because of how slow the attack animations are.
Is Kings Field worth playing as a Dark Souls simp?
@@A-Dubs398 If you really want to play one, play Shadow Tower Abyss or Kings Field 4, but maybe just watch a play through. Its cool to see where a lot of Souls concepts originated, but they are very slow and clunky (most of them predate the idea of dual analog first person controls) and can be hard to go back to after playing modern games. Just know that if you do decide to play them.
@@TheCrewExpendable I even thought Demon Souls was lowkey bad, but Dark Souls OG improved and made everything a million times better from Demon Souls. But Demon Souls was cool to play just to see where things originated. King's Field sounds like that, but x10.
@@A-Dubs398definitely. I started with the series. Played and loved them way before the Souls games. Best and 1st 3d dungeon crawlers. I highly recommend them. If you think souls games can be challenging, prepare to be tested. Start with King's Field IV: The Ancient City (PS2) and work back from there. Also don't forget the true OG souls series that From made alongside King's Field. It's called Shadow Tower (PS1/PS2). Shadow Tower is my personal favorite. I also recommend Arx Fatalis (XB). Peace and happy dungeon crawling.
This is the best review of GOW: Ragnarok on the internet.
Ragnarok is the entire reason I hold off on these $70 games now. I felt absolutely bored to tears and robbed by the end of Ragnarok, I didnt buy a rated M video game to watch a movie and have my hand held
at least that game lets you juggle nearly every enemy, even if they're high level
Except Gow Ragnarok combat is nothing at all like stellar blade and isn't prescriptive
Was literally just gonna come comment this same thing. The ramifications of that game alone have been disastrous to gaming. As soon as he said ""All the game cares about is including as many mechanics on paper as it can, and then is incredibly strict about making sure none of them interact.", I could tell the review worked for GoW:R just as much as Stellar Blade.
As someone who liked GoW Ragnarok, it's issues do pop up extraordinarily on give me God of war mode and hard modes. Animation > physics/damage etc. Sifu as well. Still think it goes hard though but it's like a popcorn blockbuster and it's development cycle did have negative effects on Sony's output. Recycle the first entries gameplay with more setpieces and nothing else
In a world where the average modern game is swamp slop being mid is excellence.
I've been around for a long time. Most games in the 2000's and 90's were also very mediocre.
This is slop
@@micshazam842but there were more games in general , so more great games even if there were more bad games as well
Complexity: a few ways to use many things.
Depth: many ways to use a few things.
the word you're looking for is "breadth"
Nailed it.
Depth is when few principles give rise to many things. But if "few things" are the few principles, then yes, we are on the same page :)
If there are many ways to solve a puzzle, usually cheap one included, then it kills the depth of the puzzle. So that contradicts your definition of depth. EDIT: Ah, I think I have misunderstood it. The analogy is then this: "few things" are the core principles and they can be used in many ways. Yeah, it is then isomorph to my definition.
Dante in DMC5 is hailed as the deepest combat character of all time largely due to him being able to use 7+ weapons at once
I think wasting player's time is a problem in most if not all modern games. I would rather have shorter games packed with gameplay but they can't charge me 60/70 dollars for that so they will never do that.
I would pay 70 bucks for a 20 minute game if it's really good and replayable like an arcade game.
Agreed, I've gotten 20+ hours out of even half decent shmups (20-30mins a run) and have barely made it to hour 5 of a 50+ hour RPG before burning out. I'm at the point where I'd gladly pay for a high quality, highly replayable game whatever price that it needs for it to be properly supported. I don't think game length should define our perception of game value.
Gameplay density
Unfortunately, replay value is something modern gamers don't value anymore. Most people buy a game, play it once, and then never play it again. We didn't have that luxury in the 90s. 🤣
@@G-Self the Way of the Samurai franchise is one that focus on replayability, but a playthrough usually lasts for 1 or 2 hours. It will never go mainstream, gamers want the bloated 80 hours games.
"Videogame equivalent of the mouse monitoring software at your job" lmao
It really feels that way doesn't it. Glad you liked that analogy ha.
The funny thing about King's Field is despite how simple and slow is looks you still have to be more aware of your positioning than a number of modern action games because you don't have some catch-all counter or dodge button.
I didn't mean any shade towards kingsfield at all . I just thought it would be a really funny example because of how insanely slow the attack animations are ha. I do understand though that it's doing something entirely different from traditional character action.
@@TheElectricUnderground Oh don't worry, I didn't interpret it as shade at all.
Yeah the super slow player and enemy attacks does mean that at least King's Field has actual footsies (which you can see in Mark's clip)! A 30 year old game has a more in-depth spacing game than a lot of modern games.
@@Emarrel imagine defending that garbage, clunky af franchise lol
Finally, a criticism of Stellar Blade that isn't "too sexual, waaah" or "they made it minutely less sexualised, reee, the wokies have won"
For a brief moment I read: "The Wookies have won." 😂
I'm actually really glad I found The Electric Underground, Mark can be a bit preachy at times but he's at least talking about real issues, and formalizing them logically as well, as someone who has created games since high school and still may want to create my own game, his analysis of games has a very decent consistent logical foundation that I have not seen before.
To put it simply, you can have really strong rigorous values when it comes to video games that's not just superficial bullshit? Holy shit, mind blown, I thought that was only reserved for like politics lmao. I do wish I could find more gameplay review channels like Mark's - people who put a ton of effort into rigorizing their gaming philosophy.
Same, and I’m just gonna say this, the internet has a fuckin design illiteracy problem.
Another fun thing: if you don't buy the L1+circle -skill you can use dodge while blockung.
Why am I learning this now that’s genius. Never use it anyway. Thanks xD
"Oh no, how do you dare to criticise this game, do you hate "pretty" women in games?!" Ever since Stellar Blade got announced, i had my suspicions that it's actually not that great and has nothing special about it, apart from it's main character; although if you ask me, Eve looks like a generic female character model from any korean MMO, so i don't get the "hype" for her. The game overall looks so uninspired and boring. Something like Nier: Automata had it's own fair share of issues, but at the very least it had an interesting and multi-layered story.
Blame it on how far games journalism has fallen, resulting in an incredibly "Us vs Them" mindset, where the correct side always appears to be against Game Journos.
The result is that actual criticism gets stepped over, since people are too busy strangling one another on social media.
You are the only game reviewer who actually talks about game design. Every other review is just "how many buzzwords can i shove into my surface level analysis until it's long enough that i get paid?"
With a title like that i don’t think he played the game because this game is beautiful above and under the skin its actually amazing all around so i definitely think if the title and video is aligned then he is full of shit
I'm glad you appreciate that my dude! Yes this game has been such a battle ground of internet warfare that people seem to have forgotten the review the actual game design as some point ha. Also yeah these buzzwords are getting really silly. "Flowstate Combat" that could mean anything.
@@zerooskil7161 ( I'm playing the smallest casual violin, for casual tears) 😂.
To be fair, if you haven't dismissed 90% of mainstream reviewers already, that's your problem. These people have been worthless shills for almost two decades. There are independent or niche reviewers like Mark for various genres, you just have to find them. I do appreciate Mark's work, but hyping him up as "the only game reviewer who actually talks about game design" is a self-report.
It’s unbelievable. Mark’s montage of elevators and box pushing just saved me $70. What is everyone else even talking about!?! It’s bad out there if this what’s being hailed as a “gamer’s game”. What are people playing!?
I think we're at the point where we need to question if the influence of FromSoft has been an overall positive for gaming. Like you pointed out, mechanics that we would have taken for granted 20 years ago are now being drip fed to give a false sense of progression. Even something as simple as being able to dodge without draining stamina is being treated as some incredible innovation now.
I still think it has. If these games weren't following the soulslike trend they'd be following some other one. At least the Souls games changed the framing of difficulty in games to something more positive than it was at the time. Punishing difficulty and harsh skill curves in singleplayer games are probably gonna take a lot longer to stop being called "archaic", though.
I still think it's good because I remember all 2010s every game being easy as piss on the highest difficulty. At least sometimes I turn the difficulty from very hard or extreme to just hard nowadays.
I think Sekiro has done more damage than anything. Why does every fucking game need a parry as a core mechanic
@@Stigmaphobia777 Honestly, I'd rather go back to the days when there was a clear line between games for the hardcore crowd and ones for the general mainstream. There's no such thing as niche anymore. Everyone's going for this hybrid approach, and it's leading to titles that are confused and lacking in mechanical cohesion.
I agree firehaps and this is such a great topic for a follow up video. I'm seriously making a note of this cuz it's such an interesting subject. I think at this point (though I'll think about it more for the vid) that Fromsoft has been an overall positive influence in most respects. However, there are some drawbacks absolutely and one of them is that we're losing a lot of the foundations of melee combat design in favor of Fromsoft's Boss Fight focused mechanical design. I touched on this a bit in the review but where Fromsoft really shine is of course the boss fights of their games. Their boss fights are genuinely really well made (for the most part). But what the fromsoft style of combat REALLY struggles with is engaging multiple enemy combat or mook combat. This is where traditional character action games like DMC, NG, and Bayo are strong. So I think if this limitation was more widely recognized that would really help avoid situations like Stellar Blade where the dev is just mixing and matching mechanics without knowing how they should fit together into an overall picture.
I think the game is alright on balance, but I'll draw a mini list of things I expect Mark not to like...
* Unskippable cutscenes/walking sections/gimmick segments - the former is very rare in games, the latter even affects combat if the drone flies away to signpost some story elements but the latter is surprisingly moderate (so far) given what its comtemporaries do.
* A lack of cancel options and weird input quirks - the game didn't think L3 + R3 was enough, but also has some odd input lag, doesn't buffer guard out of a fall and has some of the weakest air combat interactions.
* Lots of filler in the way of combat to the point that it out Astral Chain's Astral Chain - massive map, unneeded barriers to unlocking moves - EXP is tied to so so quests and collectables (I think some of this could be good with the right execution).
* Dry Simon Says combat where you follow colours at prescribed times to break out of situations multiple mostly indistinct parry types with amounts of context sensitivity that would make Matthewmatosis mad.
* Tons of indistinct combo strings which barely serve a purpose especially when you get into the sport of using stats - some are reversible but others aren't. Stealth can delete a number of encounters without even trying.
* One save file with no manual save or boss select - could be fine if the game was significantly shorter or didn't save left and right when you may not want it to, the game doesn't even commit to proper soulslike checkpoints.
Ha excellent list Gogeta! Yeah you know my tastes and values (in terms of game design) really well.
Damn you nailed it!
just an FYI.
THE GAME IS 6 STORY MISSIONS LONG.
Yeah. This confused the hell out of me when I finished the game yesterday. Feels like you could beat the main story in 4-5 hours. Bloated with side missions to disguise the fact.
@@moriarty2666 the story doesn’t need to be all that great to make a game good if your that type of person that cares about how good a story is I suggest find a game that has a good story
@@edwardjones1482 where did I ever say that stellar blade doesn't have a good story?
Criticism is good when it's done in good faith, here I feel there was no good intention.
The game did not deceive anyone, nor it is a movie that goes from cutscene to walking simulator, this is far from the truth, traversal and platforming is fun, there's fast travel (although some waypoints are weirdly placed, that I can say), and there are always enemies to fight or items and upgrades to find. If you can't keep up your attention for a walking section (with story relevance, dialogue and great looking scenery) that lasts about 40 seconds then you have bigger problems to solve. This is nothing like FF7 Rebirth's obnoxious forced crawling scenes.
Also, the issues he had with combat just stem from the fact that he wanted to play DMC, but got a Souls-like. The game WORKS well, parry timing is fine, dodging feels good, and the various skills flow together just fine, with perfect dodging or parrying always taking you to the combo system which then also connects to both the BETA and Burst mechanics. Maybe only the "Powered Up" mode feels slightly undercooked, but it also has its own little combos and is more of a panic button than anything else. Yes, it does not have the complexity of a DMC, but it's NOT trying to be a game like DMC, it never did, and it's far from shallow or mind numbing, it is entirely a different style of gameplay which you simply do not enjoy.
That said, we can agree on the fact that it doesn't have the most original art direction nor the greatest story, but it also has a lot of care and detail on character designs, animations, outfits, all the collectibles help with world building and are not walls of text, Cans are honestly fun and all have their unique quirk in design (and also tie into concrete mechanical advantages), and then there's the music.
This soundtrack is fantastic, has incredible nuance, and is anything but generic and derivative, and while I'm not a professional musician I do have SOME music knowledge, enough to grasp that many of the songs have unique structures, unorthodox genre mixes, and interesting chord progressions (or lack thereof), like in the more EDM-y boss themes, where the sense of unfamiliarity in the song structure (even without any knowledge you can feel this) helps building on what the game is showing (big bad alien thing feels alien). I'm not even the only one praising the OST, people far more experienced and professionally trained are saying the same things. This alone helps giving the game it's own identity.
Sadly though bias is a thing, and it shows heavily. The game even had a demo for god's sake, how the hell can It be deceiving? They delivered exactly what was shown in the demo and then some.
Also, touching on the censorship controversy: it is so blown out of proportion that I find it almost funny: the "censored" outfits are not even the most revealing, and they probably really thought they looked better the way they are now. The truly sad loss was gore, and THAT is a huge bummer, but let's be real, all the fuss is NOT around gore, which is why I think the controversy is mostly bullshit. Pick any bikini skin and you'll see for yourself that censoring nudity wasn't really an issue, or pick any suit with a skirt and youll have a microkini in your face on every double jump to the point that it becomes bothersome (fully clothed EVE is way better, fight me).
With all that said which no one will ever read: if you were interested in the game before this review and have not tried the demo, just download it instead of blindly listening to what people on TH-cam say, they will ALWAYS have bias and will never be truly objective or free from prejudice. You might still not like the game and align with the reviewer's opinion, but at least it's YOUR own decision, but if instead you do happen to like it, you almost missed out on something you might have otherwise thoroughly enjoyed.
And couldn't you be biased in favor of this style of games?
I mean, a crack addict will talk positively about crack in comparison to the non addicts despite the facts known about crack
@@beoful There's a heavy difference between me being biased to like the game BUT praising what is legitimately present, and him being biased against it causing him to slander the title with false accusations, misleading claims and flat out wrong information.
And yeah, I might be a "crackhead" with Stellar Blade being crack, but at least I'm talking about the actual product I'm consuming, not what I envisioned it being in my mind.
This guy is speaking about the game being a scam (which is an actual crime) not on the basis of it being actually a bad product with a misleading marketing campaign, but on the basis of it not being what he wants it to be: to stay in the drug allegory realm it is like if he went to a dealer known for selling marijuana, bought some after trying a free sample from the guy, and then complained about it because he actually wanted cocaine
I never denied my own biases, I just listed what I thought were strong inconsistencies between what I heard and what I actually played through, while also inviting people to form their own opinion by playing the free demo. Obviously you could say that every point I made supporting Stellar Blade is subjective, but it still is praise relevant to actual gameplay mechanics, while saying that it lacks a style meter or juggling, thus making it shallow and "skin deep", is flat out wrong and outside of any acceptable critique metric, because it was NOT their intention nor it was needed to implement such mechanics.
You are absolutely free to viscerally dislike this game, but at least don't do it just because you listened to somebody say that it's a scam and a misleading game (easily disproven by the demo and the publicly available marketing material), do it because you tried the game and just couldn't enjoy it one bit.
You also can be free to say "man this is really not what I wanted, I hate it", but you cannot shit on a game for that, you have to just accept that it wasn't made for you.
I felt the same way about their hour long debate whether Elden ring was a good game or not. I know a review is but a reviewers opinion but when the arguments are like "Imagine if Devil May Cry were like this? it would suck" I find it really hard to take seriously.
@@vaxellimusfor me his critique is stellar and done in great faith, plus he just being real about the game and not faking anything just to please certain people
@royalecq Yeah this dude is a huge dmc fanboy and it shows. Not that there's anything wrong with that but when you compare literally fucking everything to dmc it becomes an issue. Makes it hard to take his opinion seriously and looking at his fanbase I'm willing to bet most of them are just bandwagoning his opinions and haven't actually played the game for themselves either.
Mark you always mention the "Fundamentals" can't you make a video explaining this interesting concept?
I enjoyed the game overall, but yeah... the "RPG system" is one of by biggest gripes of this game. It's just there to gimp the player early on & elongated the time in the game. Doesn't help it was marketed as a character action game when it's a precision combat game that isn't very precise until you grind out skills.
I tried my hardest to chain combo, attack cancel, juggle, you name it... but like Final Fantasy XVI it felt like the game was actively fighting against me. Each battle was just a waiting game of either turtle or parry with attack patterns that become easy to memorise when you are grinding SP from the same enemy, over & over again.
I found the major story linear levels were the highlights over the larger open environments because I did enjoy the exploration along with the mini bosses & bosses, but man do I wish this was more like a character action game like Nier since crowd control sucks here. I also found the dollar store Dead Space moments a momentum killer because this game doesn't feel like a shooter in the first place & shoving in those survival horror-esque moments just felt rushed.
As for the censorship thing... I personally hate the toned down blood & all the pro-censorschip people fighting with the people who care a little too much about the costumes.
This review’s description of the game reminds me of how I felt playing God of War (2018). I was surprised that I was so bored that I quit playing entirely.
The original God of War trilogy had real puzzles; ones that actually taxed your mind
Yep exactly and there is an overlap here where I think Stellar Blade is directly inspired by God of War 2018 in terms of game design. Very much so. Because as much as it looks like Bayo and Japanese Character action visual design wise, it's actual gameplay design is much more western. I think it's intentional as well. Overall I think Shift Up are really pleased with how this all shook out, really the only people left holding the bag are the action game players (as usual ha).
I'm having fun with Stellar Blade so far. It reminds me more of old god of war than the 2018 soft reboot (which I hate):
Some examples: playable action set pieces, QTE's, style over emotions, a jump button, puzzle variety (not difficulty)
God of was 2018 is boring
@@aldoushuxleysghost FUCK! I LOVE the original God of War games! I think I need to continue my playthrough of Ascension sometime because that game's combat system is some of the best in the entire series and is more engaging than whatever the new ones are with that shit 3rd person shooter camera ruining a hack and slash game
Absolutely cathartic review. Not only does this review describe the problems of this game, it also describes the state of modern "action" games in general.
Exactly my dude! You get it! :-) Yes I really wanted to describe the issues I see in Stellar Blade specifically and then also how these issues relate to modern action game design generally.
You summarized this new wave of obscene filler and extreme padding perfectly. FF7 Rebirth has been the worst example of this I've seen so far and almost every reviewer just mentioned it offhandly, saying something resembling "the game does have some pacing issues but the story was soooo good that I didn't care".
Rebirth not Reborn
@@JVision1 Thanks, corrected it. FF games have too many Re(insert)s nowadays lol.
Thanks very much my dude!
Yes I really hoped to convey that the issues I had with stellar blade are not accidental and that they will apply to a lot of mainstream big content games like the FF Remakes
Stellar Blade was my first game in awhile where I didn't really feel the burden of the game padding out the game time with useless stuff. I bought FF7 Rebirth recently and was very excited for it but have barely gone into the third open world area. I've been waiting for this game since they revealed it as Project: Eve 5 years and even if they didn't make Eve as attractive as they did I still would've bought the game since it was the action-adventure and sci-fi theme that interested me. The game isn't perfect, not all of the boss fights are super interesting, but it doesn't make me appreciate the game any less. I thought the puzzle boxes were fun and rewarded me for exploring the area by allowing me to unlock more outfits or upgrade my gear to become stronger. I think the story is pretty intersting, the writing isn't the best and the english voice acting is not the greatest. Nier: Automata and Sekiro are some of my favorite games ever. I don't think this game is as good as them, but it is still fun and unique in its own way. There are definitely a few things I can think of that could improve the game, but they weren't a large enough deal to take away from my experience from the game. The game gives you 2 options for difficulty (a story and an action mode, an easier and a harder one respectively), while I played on the harder difficulty I could still experience the story and appreciate the combat and boss fights. The 12 expospines and a large variety of gear options allow players to vary their builds depending on their skills and playstyle. I think the developers deserve praise because they did put a lot of work into this game and it payed off. I think the game review industry needs to understand that not every game is made for everyone, and that they shouldn't let some random people on the internet to decide for them to buy a game. Sure they can still help but it shouldn't always be the deciding factor, let the players decide for themselves. Sorry for the essay but I don't think Stellar Blade deserves the hate it has been getting.
well said
Finally someone said it, stellar blade is pretty but basic
Ironically one of the most fun action games I've played. The formula is pretty old school but the gameplay is solid af and the pacing isnt bad
I really struggle to see how it could stand up well in any context compared to strong action games or even souls games, but if you enjoyed it my tastes aren't going to line up with everyone else's. I do wonder though after the initial play through how well you think the game will hold up over time because like I talked about in the review the boss fights are all static (the patterns don't randomize much or at all mostly) and it's pretty easy to learn how to no hit no damage the few bosses the game has and there are no ranks or performance metrics so once you beat raven once that's kinda it. You could go for an entire no death run of the game (which i did with Wanted Dead) but then you run into the problem of all the constant padding making the game much longer than it needs to be. Imagine having to repeat the mid section of the game like 20 times ha. That's one thing that's really important to me with the game I review, not just the initial play through but how long will the game sustain over time. Anyway even though we don't agree I appreciate your comment is chill in tone ha.
@@TheElectricUndergroundyou gave a shit overblown nitpicky review that I bet you'd never bash a Zelda game for. Wastes time with puzzles? Man shut up
@TheElectricUnderground
Souls repeats the same bosses over and over as well... just because they are unnecessary hard because they spam everything with less then a second to hit widow to react to.
Doesn't make it better.
I don't have time to grind my whole week away to get good at a game.
Because the game makes it impossible to beat
@@TheElectricUnderground Because it does those things well enough. The padding is an issue and I'm not sure if Shift Up's older games had the same problem (I'm gonna guess you have no idea of their development history if your knowledge of them begins and ends with Nikke, a game with shit advertising but really good writing which somehow this game lacks) but generally the combat is fine and the fact that enemies have ungodly high stagger values is something that post DS1 Souls games also share. It also generally gives you more angles to approach things. It doesn't do one or two things incredibly well like Sekiro's parry system but it does many things well enough. Generally I don't mind having a ton of options since it lets you have multiple angles of approach.
Old school is the best school, Battletoads has two buttons and NO SKILLZ TREES.
I love how the average TH-cam viewer's assessment of a video is "does my social media hive mind agree with it? If yes, it's a good video. If no, it's bad."
Nobody is giving this game a real review. Most reviews (from both sides) read like "yes, yes, it's a kind of fun mindless hack and slash game which I enjoyed, now let's get to the real meat of the review: how bad people who politically disagree with me are."
if you keep psychologizing like that
you will start asking for hormone blockers in the future
@@Senumunu I mean he speaking straight facts. If your T levels is too low to handle the truth, take supplements.
@@Senumunu "You disagree with me? You must be a [person i don't like]"
I'm honestly disappointed in my own political sphere for falling for this and hogwarts. Mediocre games marketed by manufactured controversy.
@@HighKnighter honestly anyone who mentions hormones when talking about videogames is really obviously deeply insecure. I feel bad for them and I don't mean this an insult.
@@HighKnighter my T levels and IQ points are high enough to understand that psychologizing motivations is the tool of histrionic women. not a state you are going to reach any time soon.
Also , I play your aforementioned games
Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, NieR Automata, Chaos Legion, Castlevania, Bayonetta, ...
I miss games like those.
Now its disappointing that souls-borne combat seems to be the standard.
At least we still have those amazing experiences to return to. Personally, I have given up on modern gaming. I don't care about the releases of anyone other than Fromsoftware.
Thank you. Mainstream modern game design is so fucking bad.
Love the expression "The real Resident Evil 4" lol.
Listening to this sounds so sour, equating to 'I wanted a hack/slash action power fantasy not action/adventure rpg' this game plays closer ps2 era with deliberate combat mechanics that requires commitment and punishes you for treating it as hack n slash.
Despite the controversy, eve's 'sexiness' isn't a gameplay gimmick or a tropey 'I'm sexy so it defines me and empowers me'. If it was, there would be merit in the controversy.
The game has its short comings in story and delivery but it not being gamified, must dopemine drip 'you did good, have a grade/score', enough isn't a short fall.
Honestly, taking any marketing to sum up expectations for anything is a fallacy in itself. When's the last time marketing actually portrayed a game, movie, anything... Accurately in the last decade or so?
“The game only picks up the last few hours” that sums up modern single player games in a whole nutshell.
Hate how modern games do not respect your time
All praise Id software for making the DOOM games not follow this line of thinking. They are just perfect in terms of pacing and respecting the players time
@@shawklan27 For Doom Eternal, I would say except for some of its platforming parts, and the inclusion of the slowing slime thing
Doom eternal, doom eternal, this game that everyone and their dog seem to be praising, I played for one hour and stopped, I thought that games like the modern Wolfenstein games were way better, and for stellar blade, I enjoyed it and didn't play it only one hand, as people like to parrot that saying over and over again, different strokes for different folks
Good day/evening
@@babaduk7679 Wolfenstein is a pretty straight forward shooter that most FPS fall under.
Doom Eternal is a fast paced shooter which encourages weapon swapping and gives a much different playstyle to most FPS games. Probably just not your style.
I've actually enjoyed my time with Stellar blade it's pretty fun
We all have different tastes and preferences I'm not on a crusade against the game or anything, just speaking my honest thoughts about it ha. What I am curious about though is that even though you have a more positive impression of the game than I do, did you connect with my critiques or at least some of them? I would have to imagine most fans of the game would still agree with a lot of the points, but it's hard to know of course.
@@TheElectricUndergroundFirst of all I am also one of the people who enjoyed this game, from world building, visuals, combat (especially the boss fights) and music.
It's a pretty solid game.
Now to your critiques:
I see and agree with some points that are a bit questionable 'design choice'-wise.
Like the password inputs or the 'Dead Space' like passages with the guns.
You also mentioned the problem with the cancel animations.
I had just once an issue where it annoyed me and that was against the yellow lurkers in the Great desert.
When they die they have like a final grab attack and i was 'stuck' midair during my triple thrust beta animation, so i have to eat the move every time. '^^
But other than that i haven't had any problems, maybe cause i got used to EVEs 'behaviour'.
I also noticed that the combat was rather designed for 1v1, so it was always a problem when facing multiple enemies. Due to no real poise on EVE you could get 'combo staggered' to death.
But this no poise situation also counts for the enemies or better said bosses.
Betas, Burst and Tachy mode are too busted in the game. You could beta stagger some bosses into oblivion.
To the general presentation of your review:
I don't know what your background is (like if you are working in the gaming industry), cause some points are very technical (cancel animation etc) and if this way is your general style (sorry first vid i've seen), but i don't like this bashing style (maybe i am too sensitive).
But why not a 'what could've been done better?' style rather than 'this is shit - that is pathetic'.
But again I don't know if it's your general style or what your background is.
And I don't know if one could take into account that this is 'shift ups' first triple AAA attempt.
My two cents
Cheers
It's a solid game! But it has 0 caloric value.
Yeah, hopefully a sequel will be in the works at some point.
@@DjavoJAll of this word salad to say nothing, typical coombrain defending garbage gameplay because it makes his monkey brain hornee
Lol, I've been enjoying the game a lot actually, but I knew you were gonna be reviewing this and I have said to myself on multiple occasions while playing 'Oh, Mark is gonna HATE this" for some aspects of it lmao.
I'm glad my tastes and values are clear enough that you started the pushing blocks section and knew somewhere in the world I was playing that section and completely annoyed by it ha. It's one thing to have a few sections like this but the game just cannot find any rhythm until literally the bosses at the end. When I had to do the 2nd gun only section ... why shift up why? Also did you notice that the boss before the gun sections, the Katana looking girl, only has 1 attack pattern? Literally just repeats the same pattern over and over.
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of flaws, for me it’s mostly QOL things that bother me the most, but I still have had fun with it. Totally understand it not hitting for everyone though. It’s nowhere near a GOTY or any of these outlandish claims I’ve seen lol. But I don’t regret my purchase.
@@TheElectricUnderground The first girl has 1 attack pattern and the 2nd has two, but yes it holds.
Btw, I don't fully agree with you, but as I watched the video more and more, I agreed more and more with you, hence why my original comment is so long.
@@TheElectricUnderground I like deep gameplay and had fun with stellar blade but i also went for all side things etc. That helped the pace of the story and it also had some main bosses getting reused with different patterns or phases. That was actually fun and a creative way to reuse the bosses. The biggest problem i had with the combat is eve having too much CC and that the stun or more so knockdowns and the long endlag on most action/reactions messed the flow of the combat up but other than that i found it to be step up from the usual "soul's like" combat. I can see the points you bringing up but i guess these things are not that important to me if i enjoy the core gameplay for the most part.
@@TheElectricUnderground 90% of the game is exploration, and it was good (it avoids all the pitfalls of AAA open-worlds). You not liking exploration in games is a you problem, not an issue with the game. Also: "The game is not DMC" is not a review, it's rambling. Games are judged based on if they accomplish what they try to do, not on if they do what TEU wants them to do.
At this point I have to wonder if any modern AAA game actually understands why games were fun in the first place. Seems like most of them are now designed to waste the player's time as interactive movies.
Instead of spouting typical baseless nonsense, how about you play something else? The highest rated game of the year so far is a JRPG that is gameplay first with a fantastic narrative to boot. Play FF7 Rebirth and you'll love gaming again. Better than any GTA.
I'm Korean but I could not dig into the demo. I'm Vergil main in DMC5 and every action game will get compared to my boy. This video verbalizes all the weaknesses i felt from the combat but didn't have the analytical acumen to identify them. And if dudes are playing this to stare at a CGI cutie, they should do some reevaluations of their priorities. Tekken 8 is already tons of work as it is.
Hell yes my Korean Vergil playing brother. Yes this is a funny trend I'm noticing in the feedback of my review where the character action players, like yourself, really vibe with what I'm talking about but viewers that are more in tune with western games like God of War and western game design are a bit more confused or mad ha.
I believe the sawdust is listed in Taco Bell's ingredients as cellulose btw.
Gross wtf
Ha yeah i love calling it Sawdust because of course it isn't literally sawdust but it's a really poetic way to describe the fact that they are cutting their meat with wood pulp or whatever they want to call it. I think cutting the meat with anything is outrageous but it's such a great analogy to what's going on with game design now where the meat of the content (boss fights, mechanics, enemy design, level design) is getting diluted and watered down by passive idol sections to fill out the inflated runtime.
Same as dog food. Cellulose or powdered cellulose. Crooks everywhere!
Reject sTelLar blAde, return to Castlevania 64
imagine if wanted dead had SB's art direction and character designs, that could've helped its reception
Imagine if they hadn't blow all the budget on terrible Kraut karaoke. You should look more into the publisher. The combat is serviceable but everything else about the game is bad.
@@cartoonvideos5 I think they developers even said they had to put all the terrible side stuff in the game because one of the big funders wanted them to put terrible mini-games and side content in it rather than focus on the core game.
@TheCrewExpendable That doesn't surprise me in the least. I can bet you that the funder was European and the reason 110 industries was moved to Switzerland and added in all that unnecessary garbage and bad karaoke. They probably saw Yakuza and wanted to copy it, thinking they were gonna make Eurokuza 😂
tbh i think the wanted dead had way better art direction lol
Imagine if wanted dead had a budget.
Oh man Mark, you are so far off the mark on this one it's unreal. I'm not even gonna get into the variety the game has with the minigames and platforming, that's a taste thing and I can understand not liking it, and I'm there with you with not enjoying the desert levels but that's mostly because they're meant for the sidequests and I don't enjoy sidequests, but your comments on the combat make it clear that you wanted Stellar Blade to be something that it's not: a character action game.
Yeah, you can't juggle enemies and there's no focus on aerial combat. That's because this is a grounded game with an emphasis on defensive play. It's not Devil May Cry or Bayonetta; it may be inspired by them, but it's not trying to "be" them. For most fights, you're intended to parry and use the different dodge maneuvers, and follow up those actions with attack strings. It's not a game with a focus on offense, which is why you are punished for finishing a combo string if you try to spam attacks without considering your defense. The last hit of a combo performs the most amount of damage, but you need to commit to it, which is why you can't cancel the attack and are punished if you try to slip in a full combo during a small window. BUT HEY, if that's the playstyle you like, you can stack attack-speed gears to fix this issue by allowing you to squeeze in longer combos during shorter windows. I get not liking the "RPG" elements of the game, but by refusing to engage with them and then comparing Stellar Blade to games that *don't* function the same way, you're dinging the game for not being what you "want" it to be.
You wanted a fast-paced game with "air parries," "dash cancels," "jump cancels," and so on, but Stellar Blade isn't trying to be that fast-paced game. Enemies track you because, again, it's a game focused on parrying and dodging. If you could simply walk or dash away from an attack, you wouldn't be engaging with these defensive mechanics. Look at your footage of you fighting Raven, trying to outspace her, and then look at the footage you shared of the guy that did it hitless. One person engaged with the mechanics, the other chose to ignore them.
You even say "Spacing doesn't matter at all." It's not trying to be a game about spacing and footsies. Every system in this game rewards defensive play. You said there's no hitstun for normal attacks, and that's because you're incentivized to parry to build Beta Energy meter for beta attacks which have insane hitstun. You said crowd control sucks, and that's because you build Burst Energy meter by dodging attacks (3 full blips per dodge), and all burst attacks grant invulnerability which are great for crowds, and there's even a pseudo screen-bomb burst attack.
Same reason why inertia exists; this isn't a shmup where you need quick-reflexes to maneuver out of the way from a speeding bullet. Attacks are telegraphed with enough of a window for you to react with a parry or dodge. And in regards to air dashing, it's meant for platforming; the game makes it clear that aerial combat is *not* a major component (only one air combo) so there's really no reason for you to even attempt to use it during boss fights. I get wanting to try different things out to shake things up, and try to discover if there are some extra layers of depth, so that's why you tried out aerial maneuvers during battles, but this isn't Devil May Cry, stop trying to play it like it is. You don't play Dodonpachi as a cover shooter, do you? You don't get upset that you can't hide behind the environment to dodge bullets like in Deathsmiles, do you?
in regards to enemy design, you're just flat-out wrong. There *is* variety here; not in terms of defending or attacking, but in more unique ways. In Matrix 11 there are tentacle enemies that posses corpses, and when you kill a possessed corpse they will break free and actively search for another corpse, so the game becomes this juggle of trying to kill these little dudes before they turn into a bigger problem, while also dealing with other enemies in the room. In Spire 4, the robots break apart when they die but only sometimes, so if you're fighting multiple at once and you kill a robot, you have to be alert because it can split apart and crawl on the ground chasing after you while you're fighting something else. Hell, simply putting multiple different enemies in a room changes your approach to combat; did you know that in Devil May Cry 1 only a single enemy type appears on screen at any given time? You wouldn't say DMC1 lacks depth in spite of that.
And since when is score or a style meter needed to encourage getting better at a game? Try New Game hard mode (not NG+). Yeah it sucks that hard mode is locked behind completing the game (which is a genuine issue), but try the skinsuit. Try getting a 1CC. You're an arcade gamer at heart Mark, you know how to squeeze extra gameplay out of a game without being directly incentivized. You proved as much by ignoring health upgrades; the game caters to players of all skill levels.
And I'm floored that you spent time criticizing the story in Stellar Blade, but will defend Wanted Dead when that game has by far the worst dialogue and voice acting ever presented to humanity. I'm guessing it's because you can skip cutscenes in Wanted Dead, but if you're trying to present this game as having an awful story, but don't mention the story a single time in your Wanted Dead review, it comes across as disingenuous.
But you played the demo; you knew what kind of game this was going into it. You weren't tricked. You could tell from the demo that this was going to be a grounded game, and that you couldn't skip cutscenes. You knew how the hacking minigame worked. You knew there was gonna be platforming. What you saw in the demo is what you got. It's not a perfect game, it's not consistently enjoyable at all times (wasteland, great desert, the tower climbing, abyss levoire), it has big pacing issues, you won't see me defending the inability to skip cutscenes (it's even an issue on NG+), and I utterly despise forced walking, but your criticisms are fixated on Stellar Blade not functioning the way you want it to.
It's not a game for you. And that's perfectly fine. Thanks for the review.
Wow good stuff. I like you pointed out his bias on Wanted: Dead.
Great comment! I love Mark but sometimes he can get a little short sighted, or specific in his tastes. I always enjoy a well written contrary to his opinions. I also assume he didn't mention cutscenes in wanted dead because you could skip them. He's mentioned from time to time that he isn't anti-cutscene as long as he has the choice to instantly skip them (and that he will skip and never watch them). The game is sort-of forcing him to mention it when it isn't optional and I would assume thats probably his perspective on it. I do agree it comes off weird though.
I haven't played it yet but Im generally under the opinion that games are grounded and defensive for realism or horror. The appeal of the game seems questionable at first glance.
"Try getting a 1CC. You're an arcade gamer at heart Mark, you know how to squeeze extra gameplay out of a game without being directly incentivized"
I don't think this point quite works here, man. At all. You're comparing the replay experiences of arcade titles that average around 20 - 40 minutes of all-killer-no-filler gameplay to a triple AAA one that is around 19 - 30 *hours* long with multiple decently large segments and unskippable cutscenes that apparently don't compliment the core experience at all, if not downright detract from it. It honestly sounds like you're dealing arcade gamers that put a lot of value into the nature of constantly replaying games and completely mastering their systems the worst possible hand.
I will admit that I haven't played SB yet as of writing, which is why I won't make any personal comments on it, but I feel it's kind of a tough ask to request him to just do it all over again for an unlockable hard mode that MIGHT change his opinion. Slightly. Over the course of another 15 or so hours.
Preach brother
I got into a Twitter war with some guy claiming that this is a “better action game than Ninja Gaiden 2”
I then got dogpiled by a bunch of other weirdos
To each their own. While I don't share your hatred for the game, I respect your opinion.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.
That is a mature response, thank you for being a gentleman.
Most responses on here are mostly from butthurt crybabies.
Rather annoying. 👍
LOVE this game
Same, Im currently playing it right now and disagree with Mark on just about every point of contention he has lol. Non the less that's the beauty of it, we all have different likes and dislikes and varied opinions, Such as wanted dead. I absolutely hated the game and thought it had terrible design or rather I didn't find it's design choices fun. Unfortunately I don't think most know how to get their make their argument without being offended because somebody feels differently
it takes balls to attack the game in this way. Speaks strongly to your honesty as a reviewer, and your critique seems valid - this game is getting a lot of praise but my gut reaction to what I have seen is a lack of gameplay ambition.
Says a clown who only "seen" it and not actually played the game. Shut up, it has great combat
Remember, I am saying cynically.
Spectacle Fighters are now old antique from the past.
GoW became souls-like combat, Nioh & Sifu have more deepness but no one can deny that they were heavily inspired by Souls-like/Sekiro. Ninja Gaiden 3 was 10 years ago. Metal Gear Rising : Revengence was 10 year ago. Only Bayonetta goes on but it`s on Nintendo exclusive, Which is not considered as "mature" because Nintendo exclusive titles are supposed to be "family-friendly".
The new normal is Souls-like parry-heavy action with "RPG stuffs" and GAMERS LOVE THEM. WE DESERVE THIS.
P.S.
In perspective of Korean gamer, I am mixed up. I was skeptical from the begging and get "I told ya" moment. But also... It is rare that korean game devs make a "package" game(we call "single campaign foucsed" title as a "package") now days. Because MMORPG and Network-based competitive games are normal to us since 2000s. Usually PC "package" games were there till mid-2000s, but honestly they were not that good enough to overwhelm other PC games and Console games from foreign nations.
Some of devs challenged a console games. Like Kingdom Under Fire(Xbox) Magna Carta2(Xbox360, Which is involving Kim hyeong-tae, director of Stellar blade, as a key artist). THAT IS IT.
And in that circumstance, Even if your statements are all correct(and I believe so), It is quiet big shift in South korean game industry. Dave the diver, Lies of P, Stellar blade... all things are told "not unique", but it is a baby step for MMORPG & Mobile service addicted industry. I don`t know where devs would go, but I *want* to encourage them -- though They are not my cup of tea.
I am just playing Wanted : Dead with combat overhaul patch.
At the moment the big studios indeed aren't giving a lot of love to the genre, but they *are* still being made or leaving their mark for inspiration.
Soulstice from 2022 is much closer to stuff like Bayonetta, DMC, Darksiders etc. (and a hint of GOW, mainly in views and vistas). There's the upcoming Genokids. And also Yasuke: A Lost Descendant, Enenra, and a game that mixes skate/hoverboarding with combat inspired from this genre, called Gori: Cuddly Carnage.
Loved Soulstice and am spreading word on the others (plus stuff like Blud, Cookie Cutter, My Familiair, Resistor and more) where I can.
Want to mention Clash: Artifacts of Chaos too. More in line with something like Sifu, God Hand and Absolver in terms of combat rather than DMC, but nonetheless very much worth looking into.
@@jurtheorc8117 Yeap, I played soulstice a bit, too(I didn't paly to the end though. I should roll up my backlog). And onechanbara origin was solid enough so I wonder how tam soft make a sequel at this point. But as you said, most of Spectacle fighters are made by small studios for a niche audiences, nowdays.
I even miss free-flow combat experiences because titles of melee-combat action genre nowdays are so similar, homogeneous.
@@nepu47 Wish you a lot of fun on Soulstice when time and opportunity allows, and same with the other games that are YEARNING FOR THINE GLORIOUS RETURN :P
(Very much recommend to get the grappling hook movefor the Tearing Penance --the whip weapon-- in Soulstice as soon as you can. If spellcasting and flying enemies give you trouble: the Merciful Blades, those being the punch daggers, are your friend. Good for interrupting casting/wind-up animations as well as keeping you in the air.)
Not the most interested in Onechanbara, but positive statements on such games from other directions/branches is good stuff.
Thank you for replying!
I like the term "package game".
I love Souls games, including Sekiro, but even someone like me really, REALLY wants a new action game WITHOUT parries and invincible dodges, and to have very few high-risk moves with armor/invincibility.
Armor/Invincibility/Parries seriously de-emphasize fundamentals and quick thinking.
These modern action games feel more like Rhythm games in disguise.
This gonna be good :P
I can prob already tell he's annoyed by a couple of things I also noticed:
* After Sekiro every game needs to have a fucking parry mechanic embedded deep into its combat system. It's like they now want parrying to be the main method of expression in a combat game instead of this optional thing that it always was prior to Sekiro. Except here it's not just one parry counter system, it's like they implemented 4 of them in a very convoluted way, and they are all dependent on some 'simon says' color flash telling you which counter you need to do now. It's like your regular attacks barely do dick all damage and you need to solely rely on doing these various counters every time to build up burst and beta so you can exchange them for attacks that actually do dmg. It's like you're constantly taking turns with an enemy, like it's a turn based game.
* The heavy amount of input latency in a game that is so dependent on parrying at the right time. Even though the game is running at 60fps and I am using a VRR display and have HDCP disabled, there is no way this is regular input latency for a 60Hz game. I think there's no question that PS2 60fps games were at least half as laggy as a game like this, there's just no way they're even in the same ballpark. Compare DMC3 on the PS2 to this game from an input latency perspective and it's like DMC3 PS2 is running at like 120fps from a latency perspective vs. this game. I don't know if UE4 is to blame or the PS5 but there's something seriously wrong with a lot of modern games when it comes to latency, no way should a 60fps game be this LAGGY or inconsistent when it comes to frame timing, ESPECIALLY in a game that forces you to time your counters so precisely. How did gaming ever regress so badly when your average PS2 action game running at 60fps would have HALF the latency of any action game made in the year 2024?
* Only one weapon, only four fundamental special moves (I guess 4 extra ones if you count the burst modifier button introduced later in the game). Compare it to say DMC3 or Ninja Gaiden where pretty early on you already get your second weapon and then your third and so on, all with their own attacks and unlockable skills, etc.
* This game really didn't need open world sandbox areas. At all. Nobody asked for fetch quests/side quests or 'find the Ubisoft watchtower to activate the bonfires in this area'. Or fishing. It feels like they threw this in to justify the $70 pricetag.
Even Re4 Remake has to have a parry mechanic. It is indeed infuriating.
Yeah the new God of War games also have the color coded counters and it's just like why? Why have multiple different ones if the color just tells the player what button combination they have to press anyway?
The reason games have regressed this badly is most gamers are now casuals who have zero interest in actually learning a game's mechanics at a deep level, most developers are college graduates who are essentially being pushed through their schools' education programs because the bar keeps getting lower and lower, and AAA gaming has become such big business at this point that high level design principles are all about cost effectiveness, player manipulation and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Welcome to the video game dystopia. The future is hell, the 80s and 90s were better.
@@crawlingamongthestars3736100% agree..we are DOOMED..and not the id soft way 😢
Great summary my dude! I also really like you brought up the input lag because that was another thing I noticed and was going to talk about but it felt like the review was already massive ha. yeah the input lag of this game is extremely noticeable and it's shame that as much as digital foundry go on about the graphics and framerate, they never seem to dig into the input lag of the game with their performance analysis. You know I might do an input lag video where I take a bunch of PS5 action games and compare their input lag cuz it's really noticeable in stellar blade. That would be a good way to show it in comparison to other games. Problem is that it's really hard to prove how laggy a game like this is because of input buffers ... hmm I'll have to think about how to approach that.
It feels like they tried to copy a bunch of great Japanese games(dmc5, Nier, sekiro and so on) mechanic and design together without using much thought.
oh my weeb~!
@@jhp9803 Stellar blade is literally a weeb game tbh, anime girl with jiggle physics. It's like the game is telling you to go outside.
@@ohpeep3723 bc of your thinking that it is a weeb game, You are a weeb.
All weeb is saying japan culture is great and Korean culture is sucks
great japanese games? and copy? you are weeb for sure.
Dmc5, nier and sekiro are real games. Stellar blade is just another form of gatcha
i hate the muliple endings.And this game has dumb story,makes no sense.It swing from sci-fi to mythical...wtf?
I dislike all the monsters,everything is loosely connected.
"All the game cares about is including as many mechanics on paper as it can, and then is incredibly strict about making sure none of them interact."
Ah, the "God of War: Ragnarok" approach. Everything I hate about modern action games in one sentence.
I first noticed this trend in GoW: Ragnarok, but I'm sure the rot started much earlier, but Ragnarok is where it became crystal clear what the modern template looked like. A million different systems with 0 overlapping interactions, and then a full game of prescribed gameplay to force usage of each mechanic in an isolated manner.
You're exactly the reviewer modern gaming needs right now and I hope this review blows up and people start seeing behind the curtain of modern gaming.
This type of review was out 20 years ago
Things have only doubled down and gotten worse
God of War Ragnarok has plenty of cancels and even dodge offset. The moves interact together fine. Have you played it?
Right? The combat in it is much better than the vast majority of games. The problem with that game is that the devs treat the player like we're all fucking idiots by having companions tell us where to go and how to solve every puzzle. That ruined what otherwise would've been an amazing game. Very sad and definitely one of the worst trends in "modern" gaming! They won't let us struggle to figure ANYTHING out on our own.
God of Four was already unacceptably poor. I can't believe any of you gave the second game a chance if you actually had standards
4:40
Hey this is extremely misleading and blatantly false, the wakeup move *ISN'T AN UNLOCKABLE* , its unlocked by default when you start, the game even tells you mid combat when you start
The guy made a lot of falsehoods here. The cutscene-walking-cutscene part is also such a lie. The game has very small cutscenes. There are no huge cutscenes watching ton of stuff like a movie.
That scene is just a half minute cutscene where Eve walks in that room and then a small few seconds cutscene where she removes the item that she needs from that room. It doesn't even feel like a cutscene at all.
This is so deceptive.
@@SIPEROTH agreed. blatantly dishonest and greatly exaggerated troll review. trying to get engagement like that will end up in him losing what few subscribers a shmup/action game dedicated channel already usually has.
@@SIPEROTH half a minute too long
Yep, dude just lies to get views and over half the garbage he spews here isnt true in the least
There are mad chud gamers ITT who are mad that their culture war game has trash gameplay
If nobody on twitter kicked up a fuss, this game wouldn't have had even one day of relevancy. Its just an okay game and nothing more.
King's Field combat looks actually pretty tight when compared to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 🤣🤣🤣
But also, Chun-Li is still a fun character to play as, and proves a creator of a game can get obsessed over the perfection of their favorite character, and that character can still be playable, competitive, and fun to play as. 😉
Where do combat games go wrong? When the combat stops being the top priority.
does it even have a gimmick to make it unique over the greats or even over Sekiro, the game it's based off of. it looks like it barely has hit-stun, a staple of good action games, even Halo had hit-stun
@@westonstaufenberg7278 you don't know anything. LOL
I'd be curious to know the logic behind praising a game like Wanted Dead which has several of the negative things you mentioned in this video such as unskippable sections that drag down gameplay i.e. minigames which have to be completed, a poorly written story that doesn't even have a proper conclusion, and an RPG system that locks several basic abilities behind it to give the illusion of depth. It's just kind of strange since both games seem to be very flawed but your Wanted Dead review is very generous while this one seems to be overly negative.
The developers updated the game to not lock redundant skills behind points like easier parry timing in Wanted: Dead. But yea, it doesn't change the fact that the game is mostly a steaming crap and he praised it. Extreme bias.
If I had to guess it's because while Wanted Dead has a ton of flaws, to the point where the game kinda sucks, it at least does a couple things really well which gives the core combat much greater depth than this game. This game seems to take every popular mechanic in modern action games and does them at a surface level of quality. Wanted Dead at least has a good challenge, requires risk vs reward to succeed, and is great at forcing the player to take on many enemies at once (something that no modern games do well anymore, unlike games like mgs rising and Ninja gaiden during the 360 era).
Even tho Stellar Blade does many things better than Wanted Dead it doesn't do any one thing exceptionally well and has absolutely no real depth to the combat.
@@Gnasheress Wanted: Dead is a Japanese game and about as anime as it gets. Mark also dunks on Euroshmups while praising Japanese style shmup design. This has nothing to do with racism.
It also has nothing to do with Eve's appearance. You'll see that Mark's previous video on Stellar Blade was very positive about its visual style. He's been a proponent of sexually appealing character design since forever which should be obvious from his thumbnail choices really.
Challenge also results in fun and player expression. Fun is a result of feeling accomplishment from overcoming the challenges presented by the game while self expression comes from how you choose to tackle said challenges. Fun and self expression without any sort of difficulty behind it will ultimately be shallow and for naught. You're right in that Mark does tend to prize difficulty a little too much but no challenge at all is the bane of good game design.
@@Gnasheress Stellar blade bosses were boring too. I honestly think this review was overly positive towards SB, when its just pure turd. But what you can expect from developers of nike, a mobile game that is shallow even for a mobile game. Maybe this game is good for a people that are even struggling to fight out of a paper bag.
@@markoliimatainen2565 Nikke isn't shallow though. The characters look good and actually have character and the story is very good actually. So please kindly, shut up.
Must admit I bought DOA scarlet and was mortified to find out after the fact that this one has had the breast softening cream removed 😅
I definitely agree with some of your points, and can see the reason you disliked some elements in the game, but personaly I can't say I had as much of a bad time with the game as you did. I believe the game tried to mimic the souls formula more than DMC, so having DMC expectations will definitely compromise the experience. I didn't see the cutscenes as padding and the story as shallow as you did, in fact they deeply increased my interest in the game. Not every game has to go lightspeed all the time. I think the two open areas of the game did felt a little like padding, and yes the skill system does feel like reseling to the player skills that should have been there from the beginning. Overall, I did enjoy the game a lot. It leans more to the interactive movie experience than to the arcade style game and I can see how that might impact replayability, and yes there is a lot of improvement to be made on combat and other systems, but there is a lot of fun to be had.
Not trying to downplay your arguments, I haven't played Stellar Blade beyond the demo but I love the pettiness of shit like 'stand around timer' and 'Spyro gameplay' lmao
The point about locking basic mechanics behind RPG progression reminded me of the Yakuza games because they do mostly the same thing: unlock these abilities so the combat doesn't feel like garbage. I forget if the earlier Yakuza games had you do this, but in Judgment you even need to unlock quickstep canceling (being able to cancel out of combo strings), a basic key component to making the flow of gameplay not feel like walking through molasses.
Maybe they do this in games to help get played acclimated with the basics first before the more complex moves become available ?
@@Gnasheress sounds good but in reality there's too many damn moves to unlock
This is true and I appreciate that in yakuza 4 Kiryu comes with a lot of his important moves already unlocked, however Yakuza has always been kind of a jrpg with "random encounters" that use beat em up combat (when viewed this way it makes a lot of sense why the new games are turn based rpgs), so I think it's less egregious that the upgrades and exploration are more incentivized there.
You spittin’ heat with this one.
Felt like I was being gaslit by the critical acclaim for what is an all around mediocre gameplay experience, outside of the somewhat decent, yet linear, combat.
This guy is on point. The biggest problem with this game is the fact that gamers have become so mentally dull that it’s easier than ever to keep them satisfied by providing less and less. I’ve already put 50 hours in the game and honestly i felt more frustration than fun, about 60/40.
Honestly I'm loving my time with stellarblade. It's fun and entertaining. It has it's flaws but it's actually a great game.
For those of u concerned with the costumes, just don't wear what offends u. The game gives u the option to choose.
The story is okay, the characters are decent. Even eve with her stoic interactions suit her very well. Honestly I have zero complaints about this game. To each their own.
This game is better than 90% of the "modern" games out there.
You’re right, this boring terrible game is better than most of the other boring terrible games.
My left testicle is better then 90% of modern games, doesn’t make it good.
@@StabbyStabbyStabstellar blade is better than your favorite game
@@dnimni my favorite game is ocarina of time. Yeah that’s right kid.
@@dnimninier clone*
Stellar is dollar store nier thats about it
No good gameplay no good story only graphics are good
I thought i was crazy after i played the demo and thought it was rubbish, but then saw the rest of the internet praising it. I can't express how much i appreciate you expressing your opinion without conceding an ounce of your mindset to compromised thought. You know what you value and how it informs your analysis. It makes for a much more interesting viewing experience than 95% game criticism on this platform.
The demo isn’t a good depiction of the game tbh. That’s on them though. Shit had insane lag and has nothing fun in it. One of the worse demos I’ve tried.
@@antsoswagfor real, I was super ready for a Bayo successor and when I got watered down Souls I instantly cast it aside from day 1 purchase to a potential never play.
None of these dumb “puzzles” have been show or brought up in any other video I’ve seen on Stellar Blade. This is the reason I buy Electric Underground t-Shitts
I'm impressed at all the time travellers in the comments disagreeing with the video before it's even premiered
He stated his opinion in the title already, no?
@@Rihcterwilkeryou still didn't hear the reasoning behind it .
@@Rihcterwilker It an argument to be supported. If you dismiss the argument out of principle (lol what principle), gotta question if it isn't just because you are sex starved and mentally underdeveloped
Thing is I'd guess these people don't care for the reason, they disagree with the conclusion and are not interested in having a conversation @@DiegoXRA
Most of them are probably astroturfers.
In the description you say there's a swimming section inmediately after the demo ends, but that is a complete lie. There's an entire hour worth of combat and exploration after the parking garage boss.
The swimming section you speak of is basically a small puddle after hours of gameplay. You're just making the game sound worse to back up your arguments.
How would you say the game is? All of the reviews online suck.
@@sonwig5186 The combat is very parry/counter/armor-break focused. If you enjoy games that focus on those aspects, I think you'd like it. You can parry and dodge normal attacks or you can wait for certain color-coded attacks that have strong counters. You'll want the Blink and Repulse abilites from the survival tree for that asap. They make combat feel so satisfying.
You can also mix in a bunch of regular attacks/combos to quickly charge up powerful skills. Once you break the enemies armor, you can go in for a takedown that does massive damage. The game can feel heavier than you're expecting at first, but I think it clicks once you get into your first boss fight.
Take what this reviewer says about any combat system with a grain of salt. He seems to automatically hate any action game's combat if it doesn't resemble old ps2 games. He's constantly moaning about how modern games are all the same, and yet he wants all action games to play like Ninja Gaiden or they're bad.
When it comes to exploration, this reviewer also makes it sound like you're constantly solving puzzles and swimming but in reality there's a nice balance of combat and exploration. You're never doing one thing for too long. Even his old ps2 games that he loves so much broke things up with little minigames and stuff outside of the main combat, so idk why he has such hatred for those aspects.
@@shadowfirec1681 Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I mean, I don't have a PS5 so it's a bit philosophical right now, but I might look forward to it in the future.
@@sonwig5186 Currently, PlayStation isn't doing that hot, personally have a PS5 and ive technically shelved it for gaming, started to use it as entertainment for watching stuff on Netflix, HBOMax, and Prime Video. I finished Stellar Blade awhile ago and I agree with what this commenter said; this "reviewer" rather "ranter" pulled any and every negative aspect of the game to sh*t on it, and is a DMC fanboy (dont get me wrong, DMC is great), DMC franchise is not godly and it has flaws for sure in all its installations, but the positives are always highlighted. It seems he felt this one was reaching to be *like* DMC or of the same, when literally the devs and producers shared that they based this game off their love and appreciation for the Nier series.
I say go to a friend's place who has a PS5 and has this game, play for yourself instead of listening to someone like this TH-camr rant about it.
Damn! Your analysis is so deep. Have you ever consider to write a blog or a book? Love to hear more from you. Cheers.
So Stellar Blade is deceptive as you call it because you wanted it to play like DMC and a Koei Tecmo game? Bro I can't with this guy. Here's a mind blowing revelation
It's a different franchise. It's not DMC. It's not Nioh. There's no rule that it has to play anything like them. This would be like if I played MK and got mad it doesn't play like Street Fighter.
Well, it seems like stellar blade has nothing original to it whatsoever. Everything in the game is taken from other games. So it would seem fair to compare it to all of the games that it takes from.
@GreenTygur No game ever has had an original thought. Expecting any game to just invent something new is incredibly foolish. Not even highly praised games like the souls series are completely original and they recycle their gameplay for pretty much every single game they've ever made with the exception of Sekiro, which still heavily shares elements. The devs were pretty open as to what this game was inspired by so if you came into this game expecting it to reinvent some formula then that's on you.
The gameplay is entertaining and personally I haven't had this much enjoyment from an action game in years. Outside of the bad pacing, poorly written dialogue, and lack of character depth I really couldn't find anything in this game worth complaining about in my 45 current hours outside of nitpicks, which this individual poses as being major flaws.
Game is a 7 out of 10 if you heavily value story over gameplay and an 8 out of 10 if vice versa.
This review is just simply put, not a good review, because rather than solely focusing on what the game does wrong on its own he'd rather rant about it not being like X Y Z action game, which immediately means he isn't critiquing the game objectively, he's using personal bias to argue that this game is deceptive (which is bullshit) and not good. (Which is a subjective opinion formed through his bias with other action games being better.)
Stellar blade is far from a flawless game, but every game seems bad if you're constantly making comparisons to other games you like better instead of focusing on the game itself.
Does seem like a strange point to keep bringing up.
@gibbygibbstein7858 well now you're accusing me of words i came no where close to saying. Seems like you're doing exactly what you're accusing others of.
@GreenTygur "Well it seems stellar blade has nothing original to it whatsoever so it would see. fair to compare it to the games it takes from."
The point of my comment was to address that statement in the first place
You’re probably my favorite gaming channel now. It’s nice to see somebody skewer something for once.
you won't be disappointed. he gets into the actual meat and potatoes of a game and its mechanics. there's not many that do
He understand game design
Mf out here pressing squarex4 and says game is shallow 😂
We have come to a time when we cry when games aren't like other previous games
As usual, culture warring distracts us from what really matters. Great video.
I didn't think Stellar Blade was a terrible game or anything, but it made me wish I was playing a game like Bayonetta instead.
You made a lot of good points but some of your combat notes sounded more like complaints that the game doesn’t have any significant exploits. Not every game is Smash Melee
First of all, this is the first-ever footage of Stellar Blade's combat: th-cam.com/video/p3YKZJhbctY/w-d-xo.html
It was _always_ meant to be derivative of Demon's Souls combat, so there's no deception there.
Second of all, it seems to me like you're better at analyzing the mechanics of arcade and arcade-like games than home console/PC ones. Arcade games have, at most, a 30-second-long "gameplay" loop repeated ad infinitum, so those 30 seconds better be the best damn 30 seconds ever. In console/PC games you need some sort of _variety_ to break the _monotony,_ you just can't have a 10 to 20-hour-long game be nothing more than juggling NA:tives with over 9000 different moves in order to achieve *Smokin' Sick Sexy Sadistic StyleSSS.*
Which is most probably why PlatinumGames' titles sold so poorly despite the usually very positive reception and great word of mouth, and their single best-selling game, NieR:Automata, has an underwhelming combat system when compared with their previous efforts.
Finally someone who gets it. Devil May Cry fans are the most annoying and disagreeable sods because of this. There’s no one size fits all for the genre. But I disagree about what your praise(?) is for this game. I would not say anything of this is like demon souls.
What this game reminds me of is those generic rpg maker games where the guy who made it just throws in as many pre made mechanics as possible to make their game SEEM complex, but it’s now. It’s a bunch of stuff thrown together haphazardly try and badly imitate the real thing.
Throw in a curvy lady in todays sex starved political climate or people who literally live with hate and inferiority complexes in their hearts and you have a group of people who’ll buy it just because they think it’s protecting their “right” to treat women like lessers
Well the thing is the stuff this game chooses to break itself up with is either tedious, boring, requires barely any effort, or treats the player like they're stupid. Which is the issue I have with it.
I'm playing darksiders right now, it has basic hack and slash combat with a few flashy combos, but it breaks up the combat with fast moving platforming and zelda like dungeons with puzzles that aren't solved in 30 seconds. This is what I like about older action games. Flashy fun, deep combat, broken up with puzzles and platforming it just felt like a complete adventure.
Stellar blade feels like a 10 hour game bloated by 20 hours by mandate.
I said the same thing about Nier Automata and apparently, that triggers hordes of coomers and weebs.
Nier automata story is good though, relative to the medium. Existentialist themes in any medium also have the habit of attracting every intellectual and pseudo intellectual across the planet though. People are starved for media that is not vapid and shallow.
@@HighKnighterI don't care about the themes. It's just a good sci-fi story. I was already familiar with the philosophy in Automata years before it came out. I consume nonfiction for deep intellectual stimulation.
@@HighKnighter
Lol, for you. The game's story is just ok at best. Nothing amazing about it. It's only amazing for those who just found out about the concept of nihilism and existentialism through a video game, and there are other games who has done this through the medium of storytelling.
@@zeonmx From skill up 3.5 Million view video to plenty of others with 500K+ views and highly positive ratings, people seem to think the story is amazing. You can stay out here being different though.
@@HighKnighter
That's fine? I mean that implies I should care about their taste, but I genuinely don't, though. Don't get butthurt because I don't share bunch of hivemind's thoughts, lol.
Just want to say, I fucking love your channel. So hard to find peoplw who genuinely just love games as a medium this much. Kudos to you and wishing your success.
Stellar Blade fans automatically think you’re a woke activists if you think their mid generic nier wannabe is just ok. Very much a Hogwarts Lwgscy situation where a generic game is being overhyped and overrated by one side defending its honor from a few journalists. When it isn’t nominated for GOTY they will cry propaganda even though it’s just because it’s mid.
who care? it's just GOTY meme. do you believe that seriously?
The first actual review of Stellar Blade
yeah, the review is so real, that everyone who actually played the game, disagrees with it being bad.
go figure.
@@arturiaarthus8367 seethe
@@arturiaarthus8367 It's a subpar game that I would consider closer to average than bad. Not many reviewers give this level of critique to game mechanics and that's why this channel is valuable whether everyone else agrees with his opinion on a specific game or not.
@@edmaibatsu8625 if there were actually valid points, i would agree with you.
you can watch Sphere Hunter's video on Stellar Blade and you will get to hear the actual solid criticism.
there is alot to criticize here, but gameplay and progression is none of that.
calling the game skindeep is also extremely missleading.
but whatever, to each their own.
@@arturiaarthus8367Dude, you unironically recommended a Sphere Hunter video. 🤣
I only have time to commit 5-9 hours max for a game anyway. Both physical time, and mental energy/interest. The last modern action game I've enjoyed was uncharted 4 lol for this reason. Beyond that, I'm all about arcade/sports/retro gaming
Thank you for the honest review. Another game where literally everything but the core gameplay experience was talked about in reviews and fake "controversies". I felt about this game exactly the same way I feel about any current Western "action" game. Shallow and BORING! ah well, I've been itching for another playthrough of God Hand. man I love that game. Cheers!
I think you nailed it with your remarks on the demo and the vertical slice of what the devs want you to think you're getting. I kinda knew it was gonna happen because it happened with Nier Automata's demo and then game. I'm a fan of this game and am having a great time playing it. But, yeah, I always think about other things like "why is this area here" and "can we remove that part?" Then I start to think about other things that can be cut, eventually trimming down to not even having a game at all. (Make it an idle game as it's simplest form. I don't want this btw. Just where it always leads for me.) It's a weird loop I go through wondering if I'm wasting time playing games. I think sometimes I am because I should take that money and invest to make "PASSIVE INCOME"... so that I don't have to worry about buying games. Another endless thought cycle. To get to the point, I don't disagree with your thoughts on the game. I think the overall sense of padding is what I'm struggling with in newer games. I'm truly waiting for a boss rush or bloody palace mode. Older me right now mostly wants dense gameplay in my action games. Cheers Mark. Cheers All...
Very insightful analysis. Your criticisms brought to mind the original Nier and Killer is Dead. I'd love to hear your thoughts about those games in contrast to Stellar Blade.
Stellar Blade is the Euroshump of Darksouls games.
All hail euroshmups!! Euroshmups are good
That Punch Out comparison is good.
People are already losing it at the title in the comments lmao. Excited to see your take on the combat mechanics
🍿🍿🍿
I wonder how many people were suckin him off with him bashing modern games
But as soon as he dunked on everyones new favorite waifu,they smashed that unsubscribe button lmao
Where's the comment of people losing them shits? I've scrolled down the comment section and most are just agreeing the video
@@rena_sukii you are being willfully ignorant
@@Brandonweifu what an intelligent reply
>Calls Stellar Blade shallow and deceptive
>Praises a turd like Wanted: Dead
Ha ha thanks for the laugh. I needed that.
Fr tho😂
He actually criticized this game for having game design choice like waiting for 30 seconds while Wanted Dead actually had an unskippable karaoke section. It's not even a good karaoke section like Yakuza lol. This mofo is shallow and biased as hell lol 😂
I miss when mediocre action games were either DMC clones or God Of War clones. Atleast they were flashy and cool, compensating well for their lack of depth.
Dante's Inferno is a masterpiece compared to these modern "action" games
@@lazorsbear7068 preach the mix between genuinely terrifying imagery and stylish as fuck combat really makes it a unique experience.
Have a look at Soulstice from 2022. Some DMC and Bayonetta influences, plus some stuff that in my eyes is Darksiders-like (mainly in terms of tone and writing). Got its issues like some annoying enemy types, camera sometimes, and dragging a bit in the middle, but has a lot of cool stuff on offer for monster designs, the majority of the enemy selection being solid, all seven weapons total having their own utilities, plus good characters and writing for them.
Bit hard to get into at first due to certain mechanics, but has a lot on offer.
There's some upcoming stuff too such as Genokids, Enenra, and i believe Yasuke: A Lost Descendant and Gori: Cuddly Carnage as well, if in a different direction for Gori (kinda mixing the hack-and-slash with hoverboard/skateboard riding).
Ninja Blade😂
>No final boss
That alone with my (Bar all of my criticisms of how shallow this game is and it involves ZERO of how goofy this girl looks) worries were warranted before release. A shallow souls like console game with gacha level gameplay.
>Recommends DoA over koreanslop
BASED
DoA Extreme Venus is one of the worst games I have ever played. That is actual gachaslop for a full price game. The only way to get Zack Dollars in a reasonable amount of time is either cheating and using exploits at the casino or buying micro transactions on the Playstation store. Absolutely trash.
@@micshazam842 I'd rather take an honest to god gachaslop over a "game" from a gachslop dev.
Have you tried Furi? It's just a series of boss fights, it has the reactive combat you complain about but it just feels right, everything remains interesting til the end.
Fantastic game!
he knows of it, but not a fan but I think he would respect it more than this game because it sticks to the boss rush idea (except for the walking sections). which what Sekiro, and all its clones should have done but instead they padded their games w/ pointlessness inbetween. if you can run past all the enemies is it a true action game
@@westonstaufenberg7278 sekiro has a boss rush mode though
Great review. Funny how dire the industry has become when nobody and not even the " traditionalists " want to address the elephant in the room ; the combat fucking sucks.
“Traditionalists” are not post 2016 sex starved porn addicts but i get what you mean
The opening line alone really is the truth. But I hate how this is "modern". A lot of practises are regressive bullshit.
I'm gonna rant for a minute but this review REALLY drives home to me the fact that the concept of "Art" has been highjacked by greedy clout-chasers that can't, not won't but CAN'T put their own mind into the perspective of another human being. Art is not about superficial beauty or long-winded 'emotional' conversations about NOTHING, that is what we call shallow Oscar bait. At it's most shallow, art is about showing other's the world from your own unique perspective. At it's BEST art portrays the world on on multiple levels of consciousness that aren't obvious from the first viewing. Action games like ninja gaiden and Devil may cry are works of art that require a deeper understanding of it's mechanics to fully grasp, but that is an optional process for those hungry for a deeper experience, like a film that gets better with each viewing. Games like Stellar Blade con you into believing a hot girl and jiggle physics give you something deeper because of the current political climate, but it's low effort shlock. A hot girl is only art to the coomers in her DMs, and people have forgotten that art belongs to people who love visceral action and adrenaline as much as political flower children.
Completely agree. Funnily enough, Tetris, a game with no dialogue or story makes a greater case for computer games as art than any oscar bait faff that gets hyped to the stars. Seemingly simple, deceptively deep, endlessly remixed and replayable. Jimmy Mcgee and Matthewmatosis have great videos on Tetris I recommend.
@@cloverfan7486 that Jimmy mcgee recommendation was great, thanks! I have to agree with you on Tetris after watching. When you think about it, it's funny that Tetris was invented as recently as it was. It feels like a game we should have been playing for hundreds of years, if not for the fact that it's a bit slow without a computer to exist on. People are going to look at Tetris hundreds of years from now the way we see chess today, imo.
The Jimmy Mcgee video was a great recommendation, thanks! I have to agree with you on Tetris after watching. It's funny when you think about it but Tetris seems like a game that we should have been playing for hundreds of years by now if not for the fact that it's a bit slow without a computer to exist on, lol! I think centuries from now people might look at Tetris in the same way we look at Chess today. (pretty sure I made this reply once but I guess TH-cam ate my comment)
Well said
I don’t think you really understand what art is either.
Less button presses compared to Diablo Immoral draining your bank account with every click.
OMG yeah i mean if we're getting into the trenches of western monetization hellscape yes Blade looks much better in comparison ha. I don't come from that background though and instead focus on comparing the game to a higher standard set by games like DMC, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, and Even Metal Gear Rising (which is slept on). But I can see if you come from a background of playing Diablo 3 or something, yeah Blade is gonna be a big change of pace ha. I try not to use terrible western games as the measuring stick for my reviews though, that standard is crazy low.
I was surprised by your take that the game is slow, then I watched how you needed to get the password hint at least 3 times to get it right.
I get it, you were the slow one all along 👁️
Stellar Blade will never be as polished, engaging, entertaining and clever as Nier Automata. PS5 is a disaster with it's exclusives that's why I rather play on PC and Steam Deck then a console.
You can't play your own games without updating on PC, even if you lost internet connection for days, you can't play offline. You have to wait to get online again to update before playing.
What are you even babbling about, bro?
I like this game, its probably the first action game ive been able to play, I really suck at these, its a 7.5/10.
You did a great job of listing alot of the flaws, because there really are alot of annoying stuff with the game.
The stuff i did like was the sexuality "not patched", I like the stages that feel like the cat game Stray. Its almost like it kind of ripped that off but its still a cool setting. The music is a solid 8/10, it kind of sounds like alot of genres and anime like demon slayer. The jumping platforms XD, oh my gosh those were a pain lol. I like the combat for the most part, the jumping to try to dodge is really annoying. I dont like the point of no return in games, just 1 save is something I dont understand... Also, u accidently just gave tips on how to conquer this game, and for that thank you lmao.
We live in the age of paid reviews. They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.
Yeah and I think it's even more internalized than that touraline, which is perhaps more concerning. I talked about this with bog in our Game Journalism podcast but I think a lot of it now is that the general average tone of game reviews is very soft and pandering generally. So even for reviewers who are not being directly paid or anything, that tone has become a plague and infected them as well. For example I think my review is critical but not insanely so or anything and already people in the comments (not generally just stray ones) think I'm a raving madman ha.
yes because any reviewer who actually likes the game must be getting paid. That was sarcasm btw, in case you missed it.
@@rossing4463beat it kid
@@TheElectricUnderground yes, even "good" in past reviewers can't be trusted now. They have no vision of their own and just try to tell people what they want to hear (or repeat what others say, so approved things to say). They avoid being negative or too critical like plague. If it's not something safe to hate on of course (again repeat approved things).
It's not even that they're getting paid, it's just access journalism. A review that comes out a couple of weeks after the game's release won't make nearly as much money as one that comes out before the release, so the reviewers are absolutely dependent on getting early review copies. One or two really negative reviews, and the publisher will cut off access to review copies and you'll have to wait for release and buy a copy to review it. We see this everywhere like tech reviews (I've seen PC Magazine and PC World both give 5/10 reviews to products that didn't even work when they tested them), food/drink reviews (Jim Murray once reviewed a single malt from a distillery he openly despises, either Littlemill or Pittyvaich, noted that they must have added soap to the still to try to bring foaming under control but it failed and ended up overflowing into the condensers, with actual soap in the final product. Absolutely undrinkable, 55/100.), and presumably everything else. I always assume the lower half of the purported scoring range is just padding and subtract it out.
It's always weird when I check in on AAA gaming. All those tropes and the psychological tricks they use to keep you placated while playing just ring so hollow to me just like you were discussing. Didn't know about some of the terms, I'll have to check out that site shown in the screenshots with the definitions. Looks like a fun read on the side at work.
Everytime Mark switches to the voice modulator, my brain instantly thinks I'm watching a Tim Rogers video lol
lol so I’m stupid. What the purpose of the voice modulator?
I got 100% platinum NG+ if they announce stellar blade sequel tomorrow I’ll buy 🤷🏻♂️ I’ll give you the view cause I like hearing others opinions