I lost it at: she looks like a korean mmo character, he looks like a resident evil character, and she looks like a final fantasy character. The diversity in this game is amazing.
19:39 When the Dungeon Master makes an NPC with a really "deep and well written" backstory and refuses to move the game forward until the players listen to it
Let's be real here. While this game had Sony's triple A marketing and push for presentation, this is the first major console game of an Indy Gacha developer. They were in no way are triple A development studio. There last game is Nikke Goddess of Victory. That said, their first outing on console is a pretty damn good first console game.
It's honestly really surprising that they got the hardest part of making a 3d action game right (the gameplay) while completely fucking up the thing that's standardized, coming in far below par for its peers (the art style and character design).
They were Indy yes, but Kim Hyung Tae and just about most of the crew who worked on Stellar Blade came from the Korean MMO 'Blade N Soul'. Plus Destiny Child was technically their first gacha game but it shut down. Indy but with a ton of experience making games from its dev pool
@@Jetsetlemming Art style design sure. But character designs are good. Not every character has to be designed crazy, cluttered and colorful. Unless you meant the characters are traditionally attractive and that makes it subpar. Eve, Lily and Enya's design are in no way far below any games that has been released post-Nier:Automata. You're just bullshitting lol
For some reason I find the in-game justification for the can collectibles just so endearing. Like it's not just an unexplained thing you pick up for a log book. Eve just likes collecting vintage cans because she thinks they're neat.
@@MarvinTobischI think the trait would be enjoyable on anyone. He didn’t say it makes the character good or even better. Just a cute trait. I think you’re looking deeper than this is
@@MarvinTobisch hey dude, if she wasn’t bland how else would the gooners fall in love with her? I think any character just liking an object and collecting them for fun is a cute character trait, not just one that works on a bland character. More games need to add it.
@@BelBelle468 Agreed. My most recent experience in this was Kazuya from Tekken. His ending in Tekken 8 really threw me for loop. I never knew he was such a collector.
@17:34 "They are a AAA Sony Studio" Actually, this game was not made by a Sony 1st party studio. Its a second party game, so it was made with funding directly from Sony, but developed at a 3rd party studio.
Oliver Good and Keita Inoue, the studio Monaca composers who did some music on this game, did *not* make original compositions for either NieR game. they only did a few arrangements for the Replicant remake. Gestalt and Automata's original compositions was mostly between Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi, Kuniyuki Takahashi, and Kakeru Ishihama (I might be mispelling some of these) basically, NieR's composers did not really make music for Stellar Blade. just different people from the same studio.
idk why YT keeps deleting my response so I'll try one last time without tagging There was a tweet that said that, but they corrected themselves after. search "VGMDB Stellar Blade" for actual proper credits
To people not understanding the survival tree, there are start up frames (~3-5) for the dodge and parry mechanic that can only be removed by investing points in those trees. So when you upgrade those trees you go from getting smacked around by certain attacks to perfect parry'ing them immediately.
@@alaintouloucanon5467The problem is that even if you don’t want the option of parries having harder timing, you are forced to have stricter parries anyway. It’s like ghost of tsushima locking the perfect parry and perfect dodge behind an upgrade, or megaman zero 1 where you had to unlock each individual saber slash.
@@alaintouloucanon5467 Right, 2 sp. That could be possibly used on oh I don’t know, ANY OF THE ACTUALLY FUN AND USEFUL COMBOS OR BETA ATTACKS? Note: I just realised how weird it it for me saying this when I haven’t even played the game yet, and how little validity I have when making this comment. Just wanted to say summin.
Stellar Blade is a good introduction to a franchise, but there is still room for improvement. we also have to remember that many new franchises started off clunky, but improved over time.
Yeah, what they really need to work on is the platforming. They make you do so much of it....but damn it's so annoying when she either doesn't grab the edge of something or you just off for no reason.
For a first game in general, it truly shows the potential for Shift Up as a developer. I can see them being the next big legendary game developer and whatever ideas they have to beyond just Stellar Blade (I be down for seeing Shift Up make a fighting game as an example).
I mean, yall are thinking she's talking about her butt, but Suzi quite literally strokes her bangs while saying it. I'm sure she likes her... physics designs too, but at that moment, she was clearly talking about the jet black bangs lol
@@Dorraj That was what I was hinting at first, but only after I commented did I realize I made it seen like she was talking about Eve's "assets" , which is not what I originally was pointing out. I did not mean to be rude in that regard.
I actually think the hodge podge nature of Eidos 7 is intentional within the lore. It's said that it was the first city designed by Mother Sphere, which seems to me like the AI wanted to represent different cultures of humanity in the city, so that's why there are so many things from seemingly random sources and languages
Yeah it felt extremely intentional design wise. So I was surprised when she didn’t say there was a lore reason for it cuz that seems like a very clear choice (also cool to see the trans statue in there, it’s like they knew about the trans Eve memes). Maybe if the actual human village was “similar” in having aspects of all humanity and culture combining, as a more cohesive parallel to the hodge podge AI version, it would have shown as more intentional and interesting
I was really surprised hearing her go so hard on the "random" aesthetic and story. It's esoteric yes and eclectic but found it absolutely engaging through BOTH my playthroughs... eh. I dunno. I'd say just give it a shot if this turned you away
This is great. Love how you're explaining the refinement of the game mechanics. Cutting right thru the crap, & getting to the core qualities. That's What I love to see.
Eve picking up a random can of soda has to be a meme format by now. I’m waiting on someone editing “Booty Sweat” from Tropic Thunder in her hand. Edit: 19:40 That entire interaction sounded like a bit from Always Sunny, I’m dead 😂
This was probably the best Stellar Blade review I've watched (and I've watched many). Great analysis of the combat mechanics, the art direction and the story elements. Thank you!
18:08 I have a nitpick here: there ARE regular dudes with faces in the city. They just literally look normal and aren't all that interesting. The ones with the robotic heads being mentioned are the Sentinels and certain Scavengers specifically. They're basically this game's version of the Shinra Security Forces from FFVII, as you never see their face
@@Epistolary8yeah it’s so key to some of the bosses if you weren’t previously made aware of its importance you were gonna struggle to deal with those attacks
The weird thing about Stellar Blade's writing is that, in my opinion, it's actually good in the data entries. In the data entries, you'll find so many different types of stories: (SPOILERS) - Survivors' notes depicting their final moments; how they all feel abandoned by Mothersphere and her angels. - Warriors sacrificing themselves in a desperate struggle against the Naytibas, waiting for angels that'll never come. - A full blown mystery around Xion, and a secret rebellion that's slowly building up to expose the horrors of it all. - How every single person is numbered in their memories, as if Mothersphere doesn't care about the individuals and only sees them as a bunch of 1s and 0s; fueling a mystery that it's not this cyber-god, but rather an AI built to replace humanity. - A freaking love (or horror?) story depicted in a play. I was actually engaged in the story through the data-points. The main story, however, touches on seemingly NONE of these things. The one time it did, it felt like one big exposition dump rather than a slow unraveling. It's such a shame because the data entries show that Stellar Blade has all the right pieces to make a great story, but they just aren't connected.
It definitely has very strong world building and lore. The plot is still solid but nothing to write home about. But I assume most people don’t even pay much attention to all the memory sticks, documents and data logs which is a shame
My problem with reading those notes from dead bodies is that they felt very, very repetitive and added nothing to what was going on other than they died to something or felt abandoned.
IMO, Stellar Blade's story really needed two things to shine. Firstly, it needed a lot more character development for and between the three main characters. I feel like Eve basically didn't change or develop at all as a character until the revelations at the end of Abyss Levoire (about 3/4 through the game), which is way too long to go without any real development. She also doesn't really have any chemistry with Adam, not necessarily because it couldn't exist but because he wasn't developed either. Without spoiling endgame story beats, I think that the development that happened right before the final boss fight really needed to happen much earlier: around 1/3 to 1/2 through the story, probably either leading up to, during, or right after the Tachy fight. It's a really important story beat that completely recontextualized Adam's character, and it would have been an amazing thing to then build on for the rest of the game. Instead, leaving it as a revelation that happens minutes before the finale means that Adam can't really be developed all that well because this revelation is so central to his character, so he can't really reveal his true feelings about things until the other characters know it. In another, better written version of the story, this revelation set at a much earlier point would practically force all the characters to develop and either grow closer or further from each other, which would have made the story feel a lot more personal. As it stands, Eve is definitely the protagonist and the story is definitely about her and her reaction to the truths she unearths, but it never really felt like she was the driving force behind the plot: she was more led from point to point than the one striding towards them. Putting that revelation much earlier in the plot would have forced her to make a choice and that in turn would have forced her to take a more active role in leading her own story. The second thing the story really needed was a much greater tying of the main story + cutscenes to the background lore. As JLHoskins said, the data entries are all really good and they set up a really interesting world (one that is, IMO, not actually THAT similar in tone to Nier: Automata) but almost nothing in the main story ties back to it. There are multiple side quests involving the secret rebellion in Xion that all hint towards some kind of horrible truth that lies beneath the surface of the city, but it doesn't go anywhere. At the end of the game (spoiler!) the city actually does get attacked and a bunch of non-named NPCs die, but it isn't a result of anything from the backstory, it's the result of an entirely separate character attacking the city for their own purposes and has nothing to do with any Xion secret resistance fighters or any horrible secrets Xion's leaders are keeping. As it stands, the main story feels like it's almost completely disconnected from the backstory until the last 3-5 hours of the game. Even if the main story was really good, it still wouldn't feel right to have the main story and the background story feel so completely disconnected. I'm going to put this fault on the side quests: there really needed to be major plot revelations that acted as the rewards for completing side quest chains. With these two changes I think Stellar Blade would have been a much, much better story. I still don't know if it would have been like an A+ Final Fantasy-tier story, but it would have at least been a good one. I think the director of Stellar Blade was also the writer and that he stated that one of his regrets is that he didn't do a great job with the plot and character writing. I really hope that if they make a sequel, that he delegates the main plot writing to the people responsible for creating the backstory. Overall I think he did a pretty good job directing Stellar Blade when it comes to purely game design and world design elements, but he really dropped the ball on the story and characters and I hope he takes the criticisms well and improves for the sequel.
The parrying is awesome, ive never ever ever liked a parry so much in my life until i played this game , i was like WOAH that was SICK , I never seen a cool ass way to parry
First off, That Title Though..Second, The Fact that the Hair Stylist is a Defected Maelstrom Gang Member from Night City is crazy. This world is all over the place, but cant deny that it is quite the interesting concept.
Stellar Blade wasn't made by a first part Sony studio- the studio that made it has only made a mobile game previously. Sony published the game but they didn't develop it.
I'm willing to bet that the NFT cans were part of some higher ups at Sony pushing NFTs. When the NFT bubble popped, on account of them being a stupid grift, the cans remained and the relation to NFTs became nothing but a blurb in some text.
@@mineralwater6736 Elements of an abandoned premise surviving in some form in a game? Do you know anything about game development? This shit happens all the time.
I know this isnt the right video to say this on, but i just wanted to say i love your survival horror retrospectives especially resident evil so much, you portray your nostalgia for these games so well you actually make me feel nostalgic for them even though ive never played the first 3 and im new to all the others, thankyou for that, never change ❤
This game’s outright refusal to explain its setting for the entirety of its runtime is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen. Like, it sort of clarifies the backstory of the world, but leaves what’s actually happening in the on-screen plot itself nearly completely unexplained. It also literally skips over how and when the two main characters met and started working together in-between fade-outs. Absolutely wild, it is.
Who would have thought that the only thing from the second Star Wars trilogy that entered normal people's slang would be a sentence from a horribly bad romance?
I'm currently watching a friend play Stellar Blade, so I'll watch the rest of this "Stellar" video later, Suzi. I'll say this though the art style and character designs are pretty cool.
@@felixcosty The energy from "beta males" holding the controllers, lol. I don't believe in all that alpha, Sega Genesis male stuff, but that's pretty funny.
The few moments where EVE as a character started to feel interesting to me was when she'd get really pissed of suddenly. Like Adam says something after Tachy dies and EVE is like "WHAT DID YOU SAY!? 😠" and it's like yeah girl show literally any emotion
Honestly for a 1st console game in a genre that the studio has never touched in its gatcha games, I think that Stella Blade being as damn good as it is, is a borderline miracle. It’s a legitimate shock that the game plays as well as it does running as flawlessly as it does, it’s really does put some “AAA” devs to shame. if they can tighten up the writing in a sequel (which I really do think it will get given the positive reception) then ShiftUp have a potential future classic series on their hands with this
Gunplay in this game is interesting, but I think it's main issue is that I don't think the damage output matches the ammo capacity. I would have to find a way to do some tests, but I'm not sure whether it scales off certain modifications, either, which further hurts their utility. What I will say is that, once you get some of the ammo capacity and damage upgrades, you can use them to bypass certain overworld encounters. The Stingers in particular can shred through multiple enemies in a volley or two, and I absolutely abused the 'charge beam' weapon to get past stationary enemy roadblocks without having to deal with them constantly spawning in more support. The Shotgun can put down some enemies with a few shots up close, making it good for picking off the last of a group that manages to rush you. Even the slug shots have enough range and can be chained together that you can pick off single enemies at times. The explosive shots are probably the only option that I can hardly ever find a good use for. Their damage output is middling, and their AOE isn't big enough to make it good at crowd control. Overall, I think that the gun needs a little more punch. Weak points don't pop up anywhere near often enough to make them relevant, and the limited ammo makes it unreliable to spec into it on anything other than the Story (Easy) difficulty. Even with max ammo upgrades on NG+ Difficulty never completely alleviate ammo concerns. I understand why: it's a swordfighting game first and foremost, and they can't have you invalidating the game by sniping everything, but I think they can do a better job integrating gunplay into the main flow of combat, like maybe having some flying enemies that die very easily to guns, but are hard to hit with the sword, or have some specific combos you can pull off with the sword/gun. It feels like they put a lot of thought into the gun, but I think they were just a little conservative with it.
Awesome review as always, you raised quite a few good points that I didnt see in other reviews. Also I really, really, really, was not expecting to see Hermaphroditus in this review.
Finally someone talking about the game and not the costume discourse. Having a bad story isnt really a dealbreaker for me since Bayo and DMC are my favorite hack and slash, both have meh stories, expecting SB to be the next Nier Automata is unfair for a studio that has only made 2 mobile gacha games. Although it is a little disappointing since the Nikke story is so good and I was expecting an emotional rollercoaster on that level when the game starts strong showing Tacky and the rest of the squad brutally killed. Nikke players that have gone through the tutorial or Nero's event story will understand what I mean about what Shift Up is capable of doing with delivering emotional storytelling. Anyway thank you for the review Suzi, been having a lot of fun with the game.
I don't mind weaker stories either if the action is stellar and having characters with huge or strong personalities helps. It keeps me engaged in their journey.
@@polluxen8515Depends on the game. DMC1 is unintentionally cheesy but in a good way. DMC2 is just boring all around. DMC3 and 4 don’t have deep narratives, but all the character moments are great. DMC5 however I will argue has the best story in the series, the character drama I felt was well done and the VAs did an amazing job. Bayonetta however I feel is more like DMC3. The stories have plenty of “fun” but are always the weakest aspect and really not the main reason why you should be playing them (I was genuinely baffled why with Bayo 3 some people suddenly cared about the story).
@@RicochetForce The problem is that you can have BOTH fantastic action and fantastic story. The Like a Dragon/Yakuza series does this really well. Nothing makes the action cooler than when what you're doing *actually matters* with characters and settings you care about.
I do really appreciate you talking so heavily about the story and that a lot of the people who wanted this game were hoping for a story as good as Nier or even better.
Weird expectation to have a story better than one written by one of the most experimental game directors built up over the course of several games spanning over a decade just because the Mc is a hot lady
@@Smolharuharu Feel like it's got less to do with the protagonist's looks, than with this being a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk story, that wears the Nier Automata influence on its sleeve.
@@Smolharuharu Well there being some kind of societal commentary and/or existential rumination on the meaning of things tend to come with the territory of cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic sci-fi and Nier Automata in particular is positively drenched in that stuff, so it's understandable people would kinda expect it from Stellar Blade by sheer association.
Great review! I love your look and your presentation. Also, an amazing level of detail with the full gameplay analysis. Pity about the game's writing, but I'll take it. Just like you, I enjoy inhabiting my characters as fully as possible. Thank you for being an inspiration.
The skill tree is less of an RPG element as it is a "power scaling" element within the game. There isn't very much Role-Playing within Stellar Blade, so..
I think the reason so many characters have masks in this game is because it’s cheaper to design and implement. There’s a lot of characters in modern games who have masks or cybernetics or are otherwise faceless (like the robots in Stray) characters in modern games.
Love you’re reviews. I hate it so so much when reviews don’t discuss the combat in detail in an action game. Combat is most of what we do and what we’re here for. Spend more than 5 seconds talking about it
FYI Shift Up isn't a "Sony Studio", Sony just took exclusive publishing rights to this game for the PS5. Shift Up is most known for the gacha game Nikke, and their first game Destiny Child, which both have nothing to do with Sony.
Sony didn’t just published the game Sony also help the development of the ip Sony has XDEV and XDEV is a development studio that is own by Sony Interactive Entertainment so Sony co develop the game alongside with the main studio that created the ip Shift Up
@@sakuragi1062 Giving money to a team is not "co developing" it's called publishing. XDev helped sure, but again, that does not, in any way, make Shift Up a "Sony Studio".
@@sakuragi1062 Apparently youtube doesn't like me replying to my own comments and deleted my previous, but this doesn't change my point in the slightest. Shift Up is still not a Sony Studio.
It's pretty impressive to see a game that had literally no art direction. Like holy shit, it's just a mish-mash of anything they could cobble together.
@@TheRoleplayer40k for me the art direction isn't very good besides eve and techy's designs those slap the rest are kinda meh I do think the combat looks interesting enough kinda slower ninja gaiden
Thank you for this review!! It's cool hearing your perspective on the game, focusing on many areas from gameplay to personal perspective. Also yea ur style is super cool like the protag's!
Just gonna drop this real quick. Shift Up has a few teams, we know this, one was making Project Eve and the other team was making Goddes of Victory Nikke... One character sticks out from Nikke, though she got her final design remodeled, both old and new design of the character *Neon* , from the Counters Squad, manufactured from Elysion, Fire element SR NIKKE Burst type I, firepower and gun maniac, one of the main protagonists-antagonists that go with you through the campaign early on the story and still is on the present even now. Her military like sailor uniform is similar to Project Eve's design before the final product with her green featuring dive outfit, except Neon has a beret with an Elysion insignia on the front, white outfit with plenty of live clear blue patternd and such, a lot more... modest looking... though she is basically 60% leg and massive butt than the upper body and is really hard to notice with how much cutscenes show her standing animation only so much while everyone else gets a clear front viee most of the time, since Neon is basically presenting at all times by default but its really somehow easy to miss since the uniform looks rather proper, she does has heels but that are also thigh-high high heels of the same color with an upper seam that makes it look like she has regular white thighs if not staring directly, also her butt us showing by default as a sign of being a little bit of a klutz as one bag she has is keeping her skirt from covering her properly... She has sexy tomboyish energy aimed directly and foolish around and taking/interacting with any form of firepower and weaponry that make immense firepower as well, though she takes her job seriously when she has to and make rash but proactive decisions every now and then. Aaanyhow, we can definitely almost replicate Neon from Nikke into the game for now. Stellar Blade already has Anis' hair style and close color pallet choice too. Luckily we get either Counter and Pilgrim inspired outfits when both games collab each other into each other's content. This game had references here snd there. Took weird joy in finding the soda cans and doing unexpected trials just to collect an undrinkable soda can lol. Fun game still
Getting everything in Stellar Blade, getting it's Platinum Trophy must have felt awesome, Hunter. I'm glad to hear that you point out everything good and bad. You're fair as always.
I’ve plenty of ridiculous jiggle physics for boobs over the years, but I’ve never seen this amount of jiggle applied to ass and thighs. This game is truly pioneering.
Don't know how they screw up the story and characters here when they did a great job in Nikke. The girls in that game are also robots, but they all have personalities and the story has a focus on the girls being more than just tools.
While Yoko Taro praised that Stellar Blade is a better game than Nier, Kim Hyung-tae disagreed and admitted to Yoko Taro at the interview that he is not good at writing and his game can't compare to Yoko Taro at all. They humbled each other in that interview.
@@anakrad.3966Yoko Taro has a history of saying pretty on their face silly things in interviews, he’s kind of a troll, as well as completely shitting on his own games in public statements.
I feel like the thing most emblematic of wasted potential for character drama was part of the example you used, where Lily gives Eve Tachy's powers. That sad expression Lily has, while also feeling like she has something in mind that she can't express. That ambiguity is very intriguing. You can make different arguments for what she's actually feeling at that moment. It's a shame the game didn't really explore that, though. Could've been an interesting to explore. Maybe she was thinking of her own friend that died before. The expression kind of gave me a feeling that Lily was a bit unhappy with how consumed with Tachy Eve was.
Games like this make you appreciate Bayonetta and NieR so much more. We need more action games but they have to come up with their own design philosophies to keep the genre fresh.
*slides out an alley* Psst, you there. You want solid and interesting action games, already out or having yet to release? Have a look at: - Soulstice - Clash: Artifacts of Chaos - No Straight Roads Upcoming ones: - Genokids - Gori: Cuddly Carnage - Yasuke: A Lost Descendant and a quick shout to Blud and Cookie Cutter, because I like them and they're beautifully animated. Clear lot of effort has gone into those and it's worth spreading word on them. All my recommendations aside, that's a good point on letting developers figure out their own journeys, identities, mistakes and successes alike for their games and careers. The best games in the genre weren't immediately made due to all people working on it already having the skill and exact knowledge of making it the best it can be. There's many individual and larger-scale experiences leading up to it, both as persons and as teams.
@@jurtheorc8117 Never heard of any of those, but I might have to check them out. There just isn't really anything being made on the level of Ninja Gaiden, DMC or Bayo. Even the latest GoW games were sanded down from their former glory. But yeah, if everything tries to be a Souls-like, the genre itself may begin to lose its meaning.
@@FirstPlace97 I'm glad these are sounding interesting to you! The irony here is that despite Soulstice's name, it's *not* a Soulslike. It's got elements from DMC and Bayonetta for the gameplay, seems to have a tone akin to Darksiders, and has some vista segments that would bring to mind God of War. Got some rough parts, like the middle part dragging on, a few annoying enemy types, and divisive mechanics, but it nonetheless has a lot of good to offer in basic gameplay, from around 20 enemy types that can have influences on one another, most bosses being very solid, and 7 different weapons with their own behaviours. (For example, double punch daggers for concentrated rapid damage to disrupt attack animations, a whip that has a grappling hook move and main utility for low-damage wide-reaching staggering hits, which doesn't work as well on armor which means you have to use the warhammer or big fist to knock away Shields or Armor respectively, etc.) And as a final example of the mixing of DMC and Bayonetta: There's a kind of "Style Meter" (called Unity) that doubles as a Magic Meter. When at the right treshold, you can perform a special combo and the final hit of the combo will perform a weapon-specific Finisher, that consumes a little bit of Unity, depending on which weapon you used for the last hit. Alternatively, you can just use it to go into its variant on the Devil Trigger. Which itself, too, has a Finisher. With a selection of four total to customize. Genokids is in a similar genre. It shares having a rock band as the main characters with No Straight Roads, though NSR is shorter, not as complex, and much more boss-centric. BUTTLOAD of style and love to music in No Straight Roads -- all bosses have around five versions of their boss themes. And Clash: Artifacts of Chaos may have a camera view like Norse GOW, but in gameplay it's much more like a 3D brawler or fighter. Somewhere in the vein of Sifu or God Hand, though not as hard. And the world is *awesome*. Inhabitants tend to look a bit like they could have been made by Stan Winston Studios and plonked down in The Dark Crystal. Hope these further clarifications on these games may raise your interest in them, and that they may simply all be interesting for you. If not to directly play, then at least for spreading word on them.
@@FirstPlace97The new God of War is not your traditional hack and slash game and probably not gonna capture the God Of War 3 top tier gore combat but the new God Of War has a different flavor that keeps you engaging with the new type of combat and the new setting
I respect your review and I'm glad you enjoyed the game. My girl can't get enough of this game she's put maybe 300 hours into it she's obsessed with Eve. We are Brasilian, I'll just say she's curvaceous and kind of resembles even some ways especially her top midsection and her backside, when she saw Eve the first time she literally started screaming with excitement. She's not one of those people that needs to identify with a character play a game but she was so excited to finally play a woman that resembled her body type. I'm all forgiving different options out there and quite often the industry neglects women that have these types of bodies. I will disagree that it's messy, although I understand why you feel the way you do about those aspects but I thought this game was incredibly tight and polished in did what it set out to do really well. I also disagree that it is a souls like it is really not but I also understand why you would say that. What is very much not a souls like.
Good lord, this game is like what 2000s Hollywood thought an action game looked like. And I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing? Fascinating. Hope it comes to PC eventually!
I Like how u could attack between Parries. If you got the timing down it felt so bad ass and dodging the last attack. Game has such amazing parts- with lack of direction
Love your reviews and passion for the games you play. Your Bayonetta reviews convinced me to pick them up and play and I really like the series. Are you going to review Bayo 3? I would like to hear your take. Thanks!
For games in the same genre as Bayonetta, DMC and Darksiders, i can heartily recommend Soulstice from 2022. And the upcoming Genokids. Both are very much worth looking into. Yasuke: A Lost Descendant and Gori: Cuddly Carnage appear to be in a similar gameplay direction.
I like many aspects of the game, but I don’t understand one thing, why doesn’t Eve have a real death animation? I’ve seen the screen fade away many times in the game when she was killed. But the character stood upright when she died, which is kind of weird because all the animations are so beautifully designed. I hope they will fix it in the near future and I will buy the game when it will be released for PC.
I wouldn't personally call it a Souls-like. A stamina bar that makes you more cautious about when to attack/dodge/sprint. Collecting of a resource that you loose upon death which you have a chance to recover where you previously died. Those two aspects is a major thing that makes a game a souls-like. Stellar Blade to me is more like DMC with some combat aspects from Sekiro.
Wow. Was not ready for a video to just start. Used to the custom intros. I ordered the physical copy because of all the discourse around owning your games, so I can't wait for it to arrive.
im loving the game but something i have notice and im quite sure about it is that a lot of design choices in this game came straight out of midjourney AI text to image, i have used that tool quite a lot and for example adam´s clothes are so similiar to what i have done in AI, same as the tech spaces covered in plants that look straight out of midjourney. Im still having fun with the game despite the tedious side quests
my only nitpick with the game is, that there should be like 2 additional main weapons, like ifrit from DMC1 something slow, but super close range and something like the Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo from Bayo 3 quick, long-range, but with low damage
For a first console game from the studio, they knocked it out of the park. The game mechanics and flow are arguably the most important element of a game. I hope they take the time to release a second game, allocating their new found budget to story, voice acting, and level design - now that they don’t really need to code in the gameplay loop.
So happy you are reviewing this game too. Definitely gonna be picking this up despite the flaws that you and others have touched upon. Thank you for this review. By the way also gonna try to pick a particular outfit to make her look like Ada Wong because yeah, knives do indeed work better for close encounters 😂
Even though the game is flawed its pretty good for the team that lives in a country that was very Mobile game obsessed. The devs themselves admitted they weren't confident at 1st because of this.
I lost it at: she looks like a korean mmo character, he looks like a resident evil character, and she looks like a final fantasy character.
The diversity in this game is amazing.
Lol lily does look like Rebecca chambers went to square Enix. Gotta give her at least that
This, I agree with this so hard
Huh.... So that is what looked weird on the trailers to me. A bit of clashing art style... Not necessarily bad but not often used
so true, i couldn't place it but this makes so much sense
You even have dudes that look like ladies
19:39 When the Dungeon Master makes an NPC with a really "deep and well written" backstory and refuses to move the game forward until the players listen to it
Lmao
i was in that exact situation today.
They’re doing a job none of you wanted to do. You can spend a few minutes letting him indulge themselves can’t you?
Let's be real here. While this game had Sony's triple A marketing and push for presentation, this is the first major console game of an Indy Gacha developer. They were in no way are triple A development studio. There last game is Nikke Goddess of Victory. That said, their first outing on console is a pretty damn good first console game.
"i can't believe there was no 2 decade long lore I cant fangirl over"
It's honestly really surprising that they got the hardest part of making a 3d action game right (the gameplay) while completely fucking up the thing that's standardized, coming in far below par for its peers (the art style and character design).
They were Indy yes, but Kim Hyung Tae and just about most of the crew who worked on Stellar Blade came from the Korean MMO 'Blade N Soul'. Plus Destiny Child was technically their first gacha game but it shut down. Indy but with a ton of experience making games from its dev pool
@@Jetsetlemming Art style design sure. But character designs are good. Not every character has to be designed crazy, cluttered and colorful. Unless you meant the characters are traditionally attractive and that makes it subpar. Eve, Lily and Enya's design are in no way far below any games that has been released post-Nier:Automata. You're just bullshitting lol
@@Jetsetlemming wait, you are saying the art and character design is bad in this game?
For some reason I find the in-game justification for the can collectibles just so endearing. Like it's not just an unexplained thing you pick up for a log book. Eve just likes collecting vintage cans because she thinks they're neat.
I feel this might be due to Eve's otherwise generic blandness. People cling to anything that gives her some character lol.
@@MarvinTobischI think the trait would be enjoyable on anyone. He didn’t say it makes the character good or even better. Just a cute trait. I think you’re looking deeper than this is
@@MarvinTobisch hey dude, if she wasn’t bland how else would the gooners fall in love with her?
I think any character just liking an object and collecting them for fun is a cute character trait, not just one that works on a bland character. More games need to add it.
@@BelBelle468what are your thoughts on collecting gatchapon in Shenmue or Ghostwire Tokyo?
@@BelBelle468 Agreed. My most recent experience in this was Kazuya from Tekken. His ending in Tekken 8 really threw me for loop. I never knew he was such a collector.
Like everything in life, there's always a butt
Ass usual
I usually don't like puns, but I *could* get behind that.
There's always a butt. There's always a tiddy. Constants and variables.
got a cool username, and a funny joke
Except this butt is godly
Suzi gets sick of sand? Good, good.... Your ascension to the dark side is nearing completion.
lolol
It's course and it gets everywhere
Coarse
It’s course, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Any particular reason why it's the "ascension" instead the usual "descent"?
@17:34
"They are a AAA Sony Studio"
Actually, this game was not made by a Sony 1st party studio.
Its a second party game, so it was made with funding directly from Sony, but developed at a 3rd party studio.
It’s a shame that there isn’t any poisonous swamps but at least Leon left his jacket for us to collect.😺
Yay!
SPOILER:
There is quick sand in the game that can kill Eve.
Is there already cross over fanfiction? 😂
This video helped me realize that Project Eve is Stellar Blade
Wait, how did you just realized it now?
@@pillarmenn1936Guess he missed the news.
@@tonypeppermint5329 so did I to be fair
IKR? Because I was like ....
How did I miss that?
I completely forgot the original name from the first trailer and I just figured nothing happened lmao
Oliver Good and Keita Inoue, the studio Monaca composers who did some music on this game, did *not* make original compositions for either NieR game. they only did a few arrangements for the Replicant remake.
Gestalt and Automata's original compositions was mostly between Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi, Kuniyuki Takahashi, and Kakeru Ishihama (I might be mispelling some of these)
basically, NieR's composers did not really make music for Stellar Blade. just different people from the same studio.
other games Oliver Good and Inoue actually made original compositions for include Soul Hackers 2 and Foamstars
From what i know keiichi okabe and monaca worked on stellar blade for about 40 percent of the songs
@@morriganrenfield8240 there was a tweet that said that but they corrected themselves after. look at vgmdb for actual proper credits.
idk why YT keeps deleting my response so I'll try one last time without tagging
There was a tweet that said that, but they corrected themselves after. search "VGMDB Stellar Blade" for actual proper credits
@@morriganrenfield8240 thats just wrong. People from his studio did, but he did not made music for this game
To people not understanding the survival tree, there are start up frames (~3-5) for the dodge and parry mechanic that can only be removed by investing points in those trees.
So when you upgrade those trees you go from getting smacked around by certain attacks to perfect parry'ing them immediately.
the problem is that it's a basic feature that shouldn't be locked behind a skill tree.
@@pixelpuppy what if you want a harder challenge ? You have the option of not getting those skills.
@@alaintouloucanon5467The problem is that even if you don’t want the option of parries having harder timing, you are forced to have stricter parries anyway. It’s like ghost of tsushima locking the perfect parry and perfect dodge behind an upgrade, or megaman zero 1 where you had to unlock each individual saber slash.
@@ragewireloki6213 it's not really an issue since they cost 2 sp you can get them before the first boss
@@alaintouloucanon5467 Right, 2 sp. That could be possibly used on oh I don’t know, ANY OF THE ACTUALLY FUN AND USEFUL COMBOS OR BETA ATTACKS?
Note: I just realised how weird it it for me saying this when I haven’t even played the game yet, and how little validity I have when making this comment. Just wanted to say summin.
Stellar Blade is a good introduction to a franchise, but there is still room for improvement.
we also have to remember that many new franchises started off clunky, but improved over time.
Yeah, what they really need to work on is the platforming. They make you do so much of it....but damn it's so annoying when she either doesn't grab the edge of something or you just off for no reason.
For a first game in general, it truly shows the potential for Shift Up as a developer. I can see them being the next big legendary game developer and whatever ideas they have to beyond just Stellar Blade (I be down for seeing Shift Up make a fighting game as an example).
Yeah it has some issues but for a first attempt it's pretty damn amazing.
To be blunt let them cook and you'll get something really good.
Shook my head at that dad joke in the title, but still laughed. Awesome vid!
I just caught on
And I'm Dad 🤦🏾😆😆
Errrm that would be a mom joke, you transphobe, yikes, grow up
You misspelled butt. 😂
"I thought the main character looked...pretty cool, for no particular reason"
Mhm, for no particular reason...indeed.
Her butt is like a giant green ball of a xmas tree
sus indeed.
Ass It should be
I mean, yall are thinking she's talking about her butt, but Suzi quite literally strokes her bangs while saying it. I'm sure she likes her... physics designs too, but at that moment, she was clearly talking about the jet black bangs lol
@@Dorraj That was what I was hinting at first, but only after I commented did I realize I made it seen like she was talking about Eve's "assets" , which is not what I originally was pointing out.
I did not mean to be rude in that regard.
I see what you did with the title 👀
It'd be very hard not to notice.
A 4 year old could see it, it’s not meant to be complex 😂
Hey, I missed it.
Same here.
So...she's calling it shit? What else is a "messy butt?" 😅
I actually think the hodge podge nature of Eidos 7 is intentional within the lore. It's said that it was the first city designed by Mother Sphere, which seems to me like the AI wanted to represent different cultures of humanity in the city, so that's why there are so many things from seemingly random sources and languages
Yeah it felt extremely intentional design wise. So I was surprised when she didn’t say there was a lore reason for it cuz that seems like a very clear choice (also cool to see the trans statue in there, it’s like they knew about the trans Eve memes).
Maybe if the actual human village was “similar” in having aspects of all humanity and culture combining, as a more cohesive parallel to the hodge podge AI version, it would have shown as more intentional and interesting
I was really surprised hearing her go so hard on the "random" aesthetic and story. It's esoteric yes and eclectic but found it absolutely engaging through BOTH my playthroughs... eh. I dunno. I'd say just give it a shot if this turned you away
This is great. Love how you're explaining the refinement of the game mechanics. Cutting right thru the crap, & getting to the core qualities. That's What I love to see.
Eve picking up a random can of soda has to be a meme format by now. I’m waiting on someone editing “Booty Sweat” from Tropic Thunder in her hand.
Edit: 19:40 That entire interaction sounded like a bit from Always Sunny, I’m dead 😂
hahahha somebody please make that in photoshop
Lol 😂
Personally I'm gunning for CERVEZA CRISTAL!
Ew…
There's a pretty good lore explanation why Eidos 7 looks the way it looks. It was designed by AI for "humanity"
This was probably the best Stellar Blade review I've watched (and I've watched many). Great analysis of the combat mechanics, the art direction and the story elements. Thank you!
18:08
I have a nitpick here: there ARE regular dudes with faces in the city. They just literally look normal and aren't all that interesting. The ones with the robotic heads being mentioned are the Sentinels and certain Scavengers specifically. They're basically this game's version of the Shinra Security Forces from FFVII, as you never see their face
tbh i thought they wanted to save money on facial animations so they used robots lol
Love your Kaine figure on your desk.
In the defence of stellar blade and lies of p having to unlock some dodges or counter. Sekiro did the same thing and no one complained about it.
This and Metal Gear Rising Revengeance had a "dodge" that had to be unlocked too
I don’t like Sekiro. 😂
Mikiri Counter SHOULD have been a default skill.
@@TheSphereHunter yikes
@@Epistolary8yeah it’s so key to some of the bosses if you weren’t previously made aware of its importance you were gonna struggle to deal with those attacks
The weird thing about Stellar Blade's writing is that, in my opinion, it's actually good in the data entries.
In the data entries, you'll find so many different types of stories: (SPOILERS)
- Survivors' notes depicting their final moments; how they all feel abandoned by Mothersphere and her angels.
- Warriors sacrificing themselves in a desperate struggle against the Naytibas, waiting for angels that'll never come.
- A full blown mystery around Xion, and a secret rebellion that's slowly building up to expose the horrors of it all.
- How every single person is numbered in their memories, as if Mothersphere doesn't care about the individuals and only sees them as a bunch of 1s and 0s; fueling a mystery that it's not this cyber-god, but rather an AI built to replace humanity.
- A freaking love (or horror?) story depicted in a play.
I was actually engaged in the story through the data-points. The main story, however, touches on seemingly NONE of these things. The one time it did, it felt like one big exposition dump rather than a slow unraveling. It's such a shame because the data entries show that Stellar Blade has all the right pieces to make a great story, but they just aren't connected.
Thats where all the real story and char are. I especially liked reading all of eves comments on quests and missions.
It definitely has very strong world building and lore. The plot is still solid but nothing to write home about.
But I assume most people don’t even pay much attention to all the memory sticks, documents and data logs which is a shame
My problem with reading those notes from dead bodies is that they felt very, very repetitive and added nothing to what was going on other than they died to something or felt abandoned.
@@Bloodhurl67 this only applies to the memory sticks, and even then just partially
IMO, Stellar Blade's story really needed two things to shine. Firstly, it needed a lot more character development for and between the three main characters. I feel like Eve basically didn't change or develop at all as a character until the revelations at the end of Abyss Levoire (about 3/4 through the game), which is way too long to go without any real development. She also doesn't really have any chemistry with Adam, not necessarily because it couldn't exist but because he wasn't developed either. Without spoiling endgame story beats, I think that the development that happened right before the final boss fight really needed to happen much earlier: around 1/3 to 1/2 through the story, probably either leading up to, during, or right after the Tachy fight. It's a really important story beat that completely recontextualized Adam's character, and it would have been an amazing thing to then build on for the rest of the game. Instead, leaving it as a revelation that happens minutes before the finale means that Adam can't really be developed all that well because this revelation is so central to his character, so he can't really reveal his true feelings about things until the other characters know it. In another, better written version of the story, this revelation set at a much earlier point would practically force all the characters to develop and either grow closer or further from each other, which would have made the story feel a lot more personal. As it stands, Eve is definitely the protagonist and the story is definitely about her and her reaction to the truths she unearths, but it never really felt like she was the driving force behind the plot: she was more led from point to point than the one striding towards them. Putting that revelation much earlier in the plot would have forced her to make a choice and that in turn would have forced her to take a more active role in leading her own story.
The second thing the story really needed was a much greater tying of the main story + cutscenes to the background lore. As JLHoskins said, the data entries are all really good and they set up a really interesting world (one that is, IMO, not actually THAT similar in tone to Nier: Automata) but almost nothing in the main story ties back to it. There are multiple side quests involving the secret rebellion in Xion that all hint towards some kind of horrible truth that lies beneath the surface of the city, but it doesn't go anywhere. At the end of the game (spoiler!) the city actually does get attacked and a bunch of non-named NPCs die, but it isn't a result of anything from the backstory, it's the result of an entirely separate character attacking the city for their own purposes and has nothing to do with any Xion secret resistance fighters or any horrible secrets Xion's leaders are keeping. As it stands, the main story feels like it's almost completely disconnected from the backstory until the last 3-5 hours of the game. Even if the main story was really good, it still wouldn't feel right to have the main story and the background story feel so completely disconnected. I'm going to put this fault on the side quests: there really needed to be major plot revelations that acted as the rewards for completing side quest chains.
With these two changes I think Stellar Blade would have been a much, much better story. I still don't know if it would have been like an A+ Final Fantasy-tier story, but it would have at least been a good one. I think the director of Stellar Blade was also the writer and that he stated that one of his regrets is that he didn't do a great job with the plot and character writing. I really hope that if they make a sequel, that he delegates the main plot writing to the people responsible for creating the backstory. Overall I think he did a pretty good job directing Stellar Blade when it comes to purely game design and world design elements, but he really dropped the ball on the story and characters and I hope he takes the criticisms well and improves for the sequel.
Glad you liked it, looking forward to playing myself soon.
The parrying is awesome, ive never ever ever liked a parry so much in my life until i played this game , i was like WOAH that was SICK , I never seen a cool ass way to parry
the Democrawler song was absolutely nuts
First off, That Title Though..Second, The Fact that the Hair Stylist is a Defected Maelstrom Gang Member from Night City is crazy. This world is all over the place, but cant deny that it is quite the interesting concept.
Stellar Blade wasn't made by a first part Sony studio- the studio that made it has only made a mobile game previously. Sony published the game but they didn't develop it.
I think Sony xdev helped in development
The point was, that it had a Playstation budget and backing
@jondoe7036money doesnt write a story, thats why the game looks and feels amazing {most of the time}
I'm willing to bet that the NFT cans were part of some higher ups at Sony pushing NFTs. When the NFT bubble popped, on account of them being a stupid grift, the cans remained and the relation to NFTs became nothing but a blurb in some text.
Perfectly believable
it's not that deep bro.
@@mineralwater6736 Elements of an abandoned premise surviving in some form in a game? Do you know anything about game development? This shit happens all the time.
@@rainbowkrampus dude the cans are not NFT’s man.
@@mineralwater6736 Bro, your brain is cooked.
I know this isnt the right video to say this on, but i just wanted to say i love your survival horror retrospectives especially resident evil so much, you portray your nostalgia for these games so well you actually make me feel nostalgic for them even though ive never played the first 3 and im new to all the others, thankyou for that, never change ❤
This game’s outright refusal to explain its setting for the entirety of its runtime is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen. Like, it sort of clarifies the backstory of the world, but leaves what’s actually happening in the on-screen plot itself nearly completely unexplained. It also literally skips over how and when the two main characters met and started working together in-between fade-outs. Absolutely wild, it is.
14:04 You don't like sand. It's coarse and rough iritating and it gets everywhere,
Nice.
best pick up line.
Who would have thought that the only thing from the second Star Wars trilogy that entered normal people's slang would be a sentence from a horribly bad romance?
@@Viewable11 im pretty sure "I have the high ground" has a more prominent placement in todays culture.
@@hittkid6312 You might be right. That one is used quite often, too. I never read it in TH-cam comments, though.
>Sees the title
*laughs in Beavis & Butthead*
Akhakhakhekhekhe
Eheheheheh - Butthead
Ehehehe..Butt...ehe he he... Head...uh huh hu..
I swear this has been all I have been doing. I must have made 10000 of those dad jokes by now 😂 and I can't stop 😂😂😂
Classic 👌👨🏻🎤
I'm currently watching a friend play Stellar Blade, so I'll watch the rest of this "Stellar" video later, Suzi.
I'll say this though the art style and character designs are pretty cool.
Eve getting powered up with beta energy is really funny ngl.
I am missing something why is beta energy funny?
Fitting
@@felixcosty The energy from "beta males" holding the controllers, lol. I don't believe in all that alpha, Sega Genesis male stuff, but that's pretty funny.
@@romeored901 i do
obviously some men get more women than others
@@MikeJensen-w2v this is hilarious
The few moments where EVE as a character started to feel interesting to me was when she'd get really pissed of suddenly. Like Adam says something after Tachy dies and EVE is like "WHAT DID YOU SAY!? 😠" and it's like yeah girl show literally any emotion
or when she told Su "UGH, STOP TALKING LIKE THAT"
like you tell him sis, get his ass up!
matter of fact, I think it would be interesting in the sequel if they really played on the idea of her being ill-tempered/short-fused
When the barber says, her hairstyle is dull.
I'm starting to think that Suzi likes black haired women.
But what lacking in culture person would dislike a goth GF? 😂
She got wiggly jiggly booteh now
liking black hair and bangs is not a choice, its a lifestyle.
Brunettes ftw
Who doesn’t haha they’re usually the most bad ass
My most trusted reviewer when it comes to butts
Signature hair style could just mean that's the way he cuts his clients' hair, not necessarily the way he styles his own hair.
Feels like a PS2 classic in a good and fun way that I love to see. Got the deluxe edition and thanks Suzi for the sweet video as usual!
It strangly reminds me of nanobreaker lol
Honestly for a 1st console game in a genre that the studio has never touched in its gatcha games, I think that Stella Blade being as damn good as it is, is a borderline miracle. It’s a legitimate shock that the game plays as well as it does running as flawlessly as it does, it’s really does put some “AAA” devs to shame.
if they can tighten up the writing in a sequel (which I really do think it will get given the positive reception) then ShiftUp have a potential future classic series on their hands with this
The can picking animation is very classic Zelda, i loved it
Gunplay in this game is interesting, but I think it's main issue is that I don't think the damage output matches the ammo capacity. I would have to find a way to do some tests, but I'm not sure whether it scales off certain modifications, either, which further hurts their utility.
What I will say is that, once you get some of the ammo capacity and damage upgrades, you can use them to bypass certain overworld encounters. The Stingers in particular can shred through multiple enemies in a volley or two, and I absolutely abused the 'charge beam' weapon to get past stationary enemy roadblocks without having to deal with them constantly spawning in more support. The Shotgun can put down some enemies with a few shots up close, making it good for picking off the last of a group that manages to rush you. Even the slug shots have enough range and can be chained together that you can pick off single enemies at times. The explosive shots are probably the only option that I can hardly ever find a good use for. Their damage output is middling, and their AOE isn't big enough to make it good at crowd control.
Overall, I think that the gun needs a little more punch. Weak points don't pop up anywhere near often enough to make them relevant, and the limited ammo makes it unreliable to spec into it on anything other than the Story (Easy) difficulty. Even with max ammo upgrades on NG+ Difficulty never completely alleviate ammo concerns. I understand why: it's a swordfighting game first and foremost, and they can't have you invalidating the game by sniping everything, but I think they can do a better job integrating gunplay into the main flow of combat, like maybe having some flying enemies that die very easily to guns, but are hard to hit with the sword, or have some specific combos you can pull off with the sword/gun.
It feels like they put a lot of thought into the gun, but I think they were just a little conservative with it.
"Everyone I know has a big butt." - Pee Wee Herman, 1985
Ah, a person of culture!
Where are they because “I like big butts and I cannot lie”
The way the drone becomes a gun and shoots reminds me a lot of Killer is Dead. I see Bayo and Neir, but I haven't seen anyone mention KiD
Awesome review as always, you raised quite a few good points that I didnt see in other reviews. Also I really, really, really, was not expecting to see Hermaphroditus in this review.
I really just enjoyed playing with double attack speed for an aggressive playstyle. It is SO satisfying once you get this playstyle right
Finally someone talking about the game and not the costume discourse.
Having a bad story isnt really a dealbreaker for me since Bayo and DMC are my favorite hack and slash, both have meh stories, expecting SB to be the next Nier Automata is unfair for a studio that has only made 2 mobile gacha games. Although it is a little disappointing since the Nikke story is so good and I was expecting an emotional rollercoaster on that level when the game starts strong showing Tacky and the rest of the squad brutally killed. Nikke players that have gone through the tutorial or Nero's event story will understand what I mean about what Shift Up is capable of doing with delivering emotional storytelling.
Anyway thank you for the review Suzi, been having a lot of fun with the game.
DMC mid on story?.....
Don't leave home on your own 🗑️🔥
I don't mind weaker stories either if the action is stellar and having characters with huge or strong personalities helps. It keeps me engaged in their journey.
@@polluxen8515Depends on the game. DMC1 is unintentionally cheesy but in a good way. DMC2 is just boring all around. DMC3 and 4 don’t have deep narratives, but all the character moments are great. DMC5 however I will argue has the best story in the series, the character drama I felt was well done and the VAs did an amazing job.
Bayonetta however I feel is more like DMC3. The stories have plenty of “fun” but are always the weakest aspect and really not the main reason why you should be playing them (I was genuinely baffled why with Bayo 3 some people suddenly cared about the story).
@@BloodRedFox2008 well said dude! I wasn't even trashing on it as I love DMC.
@@RicochetForce The problem is that you can have BOTH fantastic action and fantastic story. The Like a Dragon/Yakuza series does this really well. Nothing makes the action cooler than when what you're doing *actually matters* with characters and settings you care about.
I do really appreciate you talking so heavily about the story and that a lot of the people who wanted this game were hoping for a story as good as Nier or even better.
Weird expectation to have a story better than one written by one of the most experimental game directors built up over the course of several games spanning over a decade just because the Mc is a hot lady
@@Smolharuharu Feel like it's got less to do with the protagonist's looks, than with this being a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk story, that wears the Nier Automata influence on its sleeve.
@@jondoe7036 yeah but why would it be better written?
@@Smolharuharu Well there being some kind of societal commentary and/or existential rumination on the meaning of things tend to come with the territory of cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic sci-fi and Nier Automata in particular is positively drenched in that stuff, so it's understandable people would kinda expect it from Stellar Blade by sheer association.
Wow! I haven’t watched a sphere hunter vid in forever. Great video and still looking beautiful as ever. Keep up the amazing content.
I feel like hunter is the only one who actually reviewing the game itself instead of just staring at eve's ass like everyone else.
Great review! I love your look and your presentation. Also, an amazing level of detail with the full gameplay analysis. Pity about the game's writing, but I'll take it.
Just like you, I enjoy inhabiting my characters as fully as possible. Thank you for being an inspiration.
07:50 I couldn't agree more.
I LOATHE how everybody keeps trying to make everything a FUCKING RPG no matter what kind of game it really is.
The skill tree is less of an RPG element as it is a "power scaling" element within the game. There isn't very much Role-Playing within Stellar Blade, so..
Same, it's an action game just enjoy it for what it is, it does it well
I think the reason so many characters have masks in this game is because it’s cheaper to design and implement.
There’s a lot of characters in modern games who have masks or cybernetics or are otherwise faceless (like the robots in Stray) characters in modern games.
I love the soundtrack and the song Everglow and Tachy’s boss theme.
Love you’re reviews. I hate it so so much when reviews don’t discuss the combat in detail in an action game. Combat is most of what we do and what we’re here for. Spend more than 5 seconds talking about it
FYI Shift Up isn't a "Sony Studio", Sony just took exclusive publishing rights to this game for the PS5. Shift Up is most known for the gacha game Nikke, and their first game Destiny Child, which both have nothing to do with Sony.
Sony didn’t just published the game Sony also help the development of the ip Sony has XDEV and XDEV is a development studio that is own by Sony Interactive Entertainment so Sony co develop the game alongside with the main studio that created the ip Shift Up
@@sakuragi1062 Giving money to a team is not "co developing" it's called publishing. XDev helped sure, but again, that does not, in any way, make Shift Up a "Sony Studio".
@@sakuragi1062 Apparently youtube doesn't like me replying to my own comments and deleted my previous, but this doesn't change my point in the slightest. Shift Up is still not a Sony Studio.
guns ignore shields. Use the gun with the eagle eye exospine and it comes alive. Shotgun and explosive shells are massive bonuses in boss fights
It's pretty impressive to see a game that had literally no art direction. Like holy shit, it's just a mish-mash of anything they could cobble together.
That's what I'm saying the areas are super boring but I guess the focus is combat
It has great art direction, solid vibe for me
@@TheRoleplayer40k Great is a bit much. It's comparable to the consistency of Super Smash Bros.
@@TheRoleplayer40k for me the art direction isn't very good besides eve and techy's designs those slap the rest are kinda meh I do think the combat looks interesting enough kinda slower ninja gaiden
It's got stellar art direction. It blends themes of dystopian, cyberpunk core
Thank you for this review!! It's cool hearing your perspective on the game, focusing on many areas from gameplay to personal perspective. Also yea ur style is super cool like the protag's!
I wish I got to play as Tachy as she gives a much stronger character impression to me than Eve.
Just gonna drop this real quick.
Shift Up has a few teams, we know this, one was making Project Eve and the other team was making Goddes of Victory Nikke... One character sticks out from Nikke, though she got her final design remodeled, both old and new design of the character *Neon* , from the Counters Squad, manufactured from Elysion, Fire element SR NIKKE Burst type I, firepower and gun maniac, one of the main protagonists-antagonists that go with you through the campaign early on the story and still is on the present even now. Her military like sailor uniform is similar to Project Eve's design before the final product with her green featuring dive outfit, except Neon has a beret with an Elysion insignia on the front, white outfit with plenty of live clear blue patternd and such, a lot more... modest looking... though she is basically 60% leg and massive butt than the upper body and is really hard to notice with how much cutscenes show her standing animation only so much while everyone else gets a clear front viee most of the time, since Neon is basically presenting at all times by default but its really somehow easy to miss since the uniform looks rather proper, she does has heels but that are also thigh-high high heels of the same color with an upper seam that makes it look like she has regular white thighs if not staring directly, also her butt us showing by default as a sign of being a little bit of a klutz as one bag she has is keeping her skirt from covering her properly... She has sexy tomboyish energy aimed directly and foolish around and taking/interacting with any form of firepower and weaponry that make immense firepower as well, though she takes her job seriously when she has to and make rash but proactive decisions every now and then.
Aaanyhow, we can definitely almost replicate Neon from Nikke into the game for now. Stellar Blade already has Anis' hair style and close color pallet choice too. Luckily we get either Counter and Pilgrim inspired outfits when both games collab each other into each other's content.
This game had references here snd there. Took weird joy in finding the soda cans and doing unexpected trials just to collect an undrinkable soda can lol.
Fun game still
Finally, someone talking the actual gameplay of this game. I'm enjoying the game so far!
Getting everything in Stellar Blade, getting it's Platinum Trophy must have felt awesome, Hunter. I'm glad to hear that you point out everything good and bad. You're fair as always.
Barry (and Clyde) are not poorly written, they are men. That's how we are.
I really enjoyed this game. First title I played back to back to back in a long time.
I’ve plenty of ridiculous jiggle physics for boobs over the years, but I’ve never seen this amount of jiggle applied to ass and thighs. This game is truly pioneering.
Number one: AMAZING TITLE FOR THE VIDEO. And number two: I’m also fond of the word stellar so this game was a sure thing for me.
Don't know how they screw up the story and characters here when they did a great job in Nikke.
The girls in that game are also robots, but they all have personalities and the story has a focus on the girls being more than just tools.
Probably not the same writer(s)
From what I gathered, Stellar Blade was written by Kim Hyung-tae himself. Nikke was done by Yoo Hyung-seok
While Yoko Taro praised that Stellar Blade is a better game than Nier, Kim Hyung-tae disagreed and admitted to Yoko Taro at the interview that he is not good at writing and his game can't compare to Yoko Taro at all. They humbled each other in that interview.
@@anakrad.3966Yoko Taro has a history of saying pretty on their face silly things in interviews, he’s kind of a troll, as well as completely shitting on his own games in public statements.
In a review I read that the game does reveal the reason for the personality of Eve eventually.
I feel like the thing most emblematic of wasted potential for character drama was part of the example you used, where Lily gives Eve Tachy's powers. That sad expression Lily has, while also feeling like she has something in mind that she can't express. That ambiguity is very intriguing. You can make different arguments for what she's actually feeling at that moment.
It's a shame the game didn't really explore that, though. Could've been an interesting to explore. Maybe she was thinking of her own friend that died before. The expression kind of gave me a feeling that Lily was a bit unhappy with how consumed with Tachy Eve was.
Games like this make you appreciate Bayonetta and NieR so much more. We need more action games but they have to come up with their own design philosophies to keep the genre fresh.
*slides out an alley* Psst, you there.
You want solid and interesting action games, already out or having yet to release?
Have a look at:
- Soulstice
- Clash: Artifacts of Chaos
- No Straight Roads
Upcoming ones:
- Genokids
- Gori: Cuddly Carnage
- Yasuke: A Lost Descendant
and a quick shout to Blud and Cookie Cutter, because I like them and they're beautifully animated. Clear lot of effort has gone into those and it's worth spreading word on them.
All my recommendations aside, that's a good point on letting developers figure out their own journeys, identities, mistakes and successes alike for their games and careers. The best games in the genre weren't immediately made due to all people working on it already having the skill and exact knowledge of making it the best it can be.
There's many individual and larger-scale experiences leading up to it, both as persons and as teams.
@@jurtheorc8117 Never heard of any of those, but I might have to check them out. There just isn't really anything being made on the level of Ninja Gaiden, DMC or Bayo. Even the latest GoW games were sanded down from their former glory. But yeah, if everything tries to be a Souls-like, the genre itself may begin to lose its meaning.
@@FirstPlace97 I'm glad these are sounding interesting to you! The irony here is that despite Soulstice's name, it's *not* a Soulslike. It's got elements from DMC and Bayonetta for the gameplay, seems to have a tone akin to Darksiders, and has some vista segments that would bring to mind God of War.
Got some rough parts, like the middle part dragging on, a few annoying enemy types, and divisive mechanics, but it nonetheless has a lot of good to offer in basic gameplay, from around 20 enemy types that can have influences on one another, most bosses being very solid, and 7 different weapons with their own behaviours. (For example, double punch daggers for concentrated rapid damage to disrupt attack animations, a whip that has a grappling hook move and main utility for low-damage wide-reaching staggering hits, which doesn't work as well on armor which means you have to use the warhammer or big fist to knock away Shields or Armor respectively, etc.)
And as a final example of the mixing of DMC and Bayonetta:
There's a kind of "Style Meter" (called Unity) that doubles as a Magic Meter.
When at the right treshold, you can perform a special combo and the final hit of the combo will perform a weapon-specific Finisher, that consumes a little bit of Unity, depending on which weapon you used for the last hit.
Alternatively, you can just use it to go into its variant on the Devil Trigger. Which itself, too, has a Finisher. With a selection of four total to customize.
Genokids is in a similar genre. It shares having a rock band as the main characters with No Straight Roads, though NSR is shorter, not as complex, and much more boss-centric. BUTTLOAD of style and love to music in No Straight Roads -- all bosses have around five versions of their boss themes.
And Clash: Artifacts of Chaos may have a camera view like Norse GOW, but in gameplay it's much more like a 3D brawler or fighter. Somewhere in the vein of Sifu or God Hand, though not as hard. And the world is *awesome*.
Inhabitants tend to look a bit like they could have been made by Stan Winston Studios and plonked down in The Dark Crystal.
Hope these further clarifications on these games may raise your interest in them, and that they may simply all be interesting for you. If not to directly play, then at least for spreading word on them.
@@FirstPlace97The new God of War is not your traditional hack and slash game and probably not gonna capture the God Of War 3 top tier gore combat but the new God Of War has a different flavor that keeps you engaging with the new type of combat and the new setting
I respect your review and I'm glad you enjoyed the game. My girl can't get enough of this game she's put maybe 300 hours into it she's obsessed with Eve. We are Brasilian, I'll just say she's curvaceous and kind of resembles even some ways especially her top midsection and her backside, when she saw Eve the first time she literally started screaming with excitement. She's not one of those people that needs to identify with a character play a game but she was so excited to finally play a woman that resembled her body type. I'm all forgiving different options out there and quite often the industry neglects women that have these types of bodies.
I will disagree that it's messy, although I understand why you feel the way you do about those aspects but I thought this game was incredibly tight and polished in did what it set out to do really well.
I also disagree that it is a souls like it is really not but I also understand why you would say that. What is very much not a souls like.
I also love you're cosplay outfit there, my lady is sitting next to me too and she's going to try and copy it
Seems like a throwback videogame-ass video game from like 2010, with really pretty graphics.
AAA gaming was already really well polished by 2010 this gives more like, PS2 era gaming vibes.
That is a cool Kaine figure. Where’s it from?
That ending was a masterpiece
I swear I found myself laughing harder than I should have 😂😂😂
She just got me to laugh so hard.
Good lord, this game is like what 2000s Hollywood thought an action game looked like. And I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing? Fascinating. Hope it comes to PC eventually!
Another banger video. Thanks Suzi!
I Like how u could attack between Parries. If you got the timing down it felt so bad ass and dodging the last attack. Game has such amazing parts- with lack of direction
Love your reviews and passion for the games you play. Your Bayonetta reviews convinced me to pick them up and play and I really like the series. Are you going to review Bayo 3? I would like to hear your take. Thanks!
For games in the same genre as Bayonetta, DMC and Darksiders, i can heartily recommend Soulstice from 2022. And the upcoming Genokids. Both are very much worth looking into.
Yasuke: A Lost Descendant and Gori: Cuddly Carnage appear to be in a similar gameplay direction.
What do you think of the censored patch? Hope u make a video of it
The end of this video is how every introvert wants to end every conversation
I like many aspects of the game, but I don’t understand one thing, why doesn’t Eve have a real death animation? I’ve seen the screen fade away many times in the game when she was killed. But the character stood upright when she died, which is kind of weird because all the animations are so beautifully designed.
I hope they will fix it in the near future and I will buy the game when it will be released for PC.
I’m probably not the first one to point this out, but I think there’s a typo in your review titl…..OOOOOH
Unexpected critical nobody comment XD
I wouldn't personally call it a Souls-like. A stamina bar that makes you more cautious about when to attack/dodge/sprint. Collecting of a resource that you loose upon death which you have a chance to recover where you previously died. Those two aspects is a major thing that makes a game a souls-like. Stellar Blade to me is more like DMC with some combat aspects from Sekiro.
square, triangle, triangle, triangle is the coolest looking combo ive seen in a game.
"triangle, _triangle_ , triangle, _triangle_ ..." - Phelan Porteous
I think Tifa’s combos and unfettered fury cancels in Rebirth clear, personally.
Triangle, square, hold square, triangle
I just turned 27 today, and I hope to play and review this game when I get the chance.
Happy birthday!
Wow. Was not ready for a video to just start. Used to the custom intros. I ordered the physical copy because of all the discourse around owning your games, so I can't wait for it to arrive.
im loving the game but something i have notice and im quite sure about it is that a lot of design choices in this game came straight out of midjourney AI text to image, i have used that tool quite a lot and for example adam´s clothes are so similiar to what i have done in AI, same as the tech spaces covered in plants that look straight out of midjourney. Im still having fun with the game despite the tedious side quests
A well thought out, cheeky and humorous review! Great as always Suzi!
my only nitpick with the game is, that there should be like 2 additional main weapons, like ifrit from DMC1 something slow, but super close range and something like the Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo from Bayo 3 quick, long-range, but with low damage
Yoo 15:59 the hard r shop wtf lol
The review I was waiting for!! Way more hype for the game now and will be getting a copy when I am able to.
Looking at the gameplay it looks more like Ninja Garden than Dark Souls.
😂 Gaiden
It plays more like Sekiro or Jedi: Survivor
@@alexism9656 In terms of overall gameplay feel, it reminds me of Metal Gear Rising more than anything
For a first console game from the studio, they knocked it out of the park. The game mechanics and flow are arguably the most important element of a game. I hope they take the time to release a second game, allocating their new found budget to story, voice acting, and level design - now that they don’t really need to code in the gameplay loop.
So happy you are reviewing this game too. Definitely gonna be picking this up despite the flaws that you and others have touched upon. Thank you for this review.
By the way also gonna try to pick a particular outfit to make her look like Ada Wong because yeah, knives do indeed work better for close encounters 😂
Just started my 3rd play through now with 80+ hours in the game already. I'm amazed that I can still find places that I hadn't discovered before.
Even though the game is flawed its pretty good for the team that lives in a country that was very Mobile game obsessed. The devs themselves admitted they weren't confident at 1st because of this.
So how do you feel about Stellar blade and nier collab that’s coming up? Is anyone even surprised?
It's the potion seller reference for me, great video.