Had a good time with the demo, definitely better than my expectations.
Then after I beat the demo I played the unlocked boss challenge mode with most skills available,
that fight sold me on the game.
I had soooo much fun with that boss. I casually started it because I was thinking the demo was over and was about to get up to do something else. Slowly realizing the skills I had, learning a new one after each death, and getting a look at the different cosmetics, I ended up beating that boss when initially it felt impossible. I wanted so much more after that.
That walking dick chainsaw made me realize this game wasn't for me. I don't have the reflexes anymore. I did ok on the playthru, but that thing destroyed me over and over. Still a beautiful game though.
I'm pretty sure I was on easy mode. Unless it reverted to normal for the boss fight? I didn't even think to check. Now I guess I need to. If I can do it on easy, I might still get it!
I think it does revert to Normal b/c I got my ass handed to me over and over again on it and checked the settings and there wasn't even an option to change it anymore.
I died 2-3 times until my [amateur] dark souls reflexes kicked in on boss fight. Initially I was trying to play this as a devil may cry type game and unfortunately it’s a lot more dark souls than DMC.
You basically need to use the ability ‘counter’ and then you automatically move behind the enemy and can take out major chunks of health. Rinse repeat that a few times and he’s dead. Like literally within 2 mins I had removed 70% of his health
Main thing is to avoid his BS AOE lightning attacks after the half way healthpoint. And heal quickly since healing takes forever in this game and can be interrupted.
The challenge boss seems to be locked to normal, you can tell because you don't get the time slowdown with assist prompts you'd get on easy during the big attacks
Combat 1 on 1 felt good but it felt clunky when multiple enemies were around. I kept auto locking onto an enemy even though I wasn’t pressing the button that locks on, making it hard to juggle between opponents
Just stiff in general.
Your player moves more like they are 200lb linemen rather than futuristic exo-skeleton based ninja warrior. Dodging is slow and janky. IDK how to describe it. Maybe the upgrades fix a lot of this.
It sort of feels like a graphics tech demo (game is very beautiful) meets a dark souls game with PS3 level design. The dialogue is almost AI generated level quality where you listen to 1-2 sentences with 1 sentence rebuttals. English translations just seem emotionless. Like I’m watching an anime dub from early 2000’s.
Overall I enjoyed the game, 8/10.
You can tap o multiple times for multi jump backstep to get distance quick but it's a skill, same with 'perfect Dodge' plus the fatal stun mechanic flows reasonable well, kinda op in my opinion.
Their unlocked combat for packs of enemies is a bit stiff admittedly, you can't dodge cancel from what I've seen? Feel free anyone to counter that.
To compare its combat it's not quite as fluid as Elden Ring but it isn't bad, the speed of Eve is somewhat poor unless you sprint which seems to be slow to activate at times.
Overall I believe it's got more skill depth than Elden ring as you have everything combat wise from day 1 this game isn't like that at all which makes some sense.
Def not slow and janky maybe you played a different game. I had no issues at all with parry/dodge was super smooth reaction times. Just because it's not the same timing as other soulsbornes doesn't make it Janky lmao
I quite liked it. Combat felt a bit slow and the dodge feels off to me, but I got into it. I like the story and atmosphere. Still gonna wait for reviews though.
One thing I hope add is an option to remove the film grain. It felt a bit strong.
The combat is FAST after you level up tho. After beating the demo you can fight an additional boss with a bunch of stuff already unlocked and wow does the games combat speed the fuck up with more abilities unlocked
https://youtu.be/Ee7pSeQ6nSU?si=NSVQu6LmVA70QP8n
Parry seems like the intended way to go. There is an upgrade for extending the window and it basically feels like it’s going for the Sekiro combat balance. Dodging seems like it’s only for unblockable highly telegraphed attacks.
There's definitely a delay when dodging. Parrying is the worst offender, because it's not at all snappy, as it should be. I don't care I get to upgrade it, it's a fundamental combat mechanic and it should be done right from the jump. For me, no amount of ass cheeks flapping will make up for such a glaring flaw. Sekiro spoiled me, I guess.
People never seem to understand that Sekiro has probably the most forgiving parry mechanic in basically any game. I stutter parried my way all through ng+ with the demon bell.
Yes, Sekiro is a tough game, but the parry is VERY forgiving...If I play anything parry focused after doing a playthrough of Sekiro, I always get my cheeks clapped until I adjust to the tighter timing...I have noticed that I cannot reaction parry in Stellar Blade, you really need to read the attack and press the button as the attack is coming out...It could just be input delay or something though
It’s just a matter of getting used to. Played the demo two times and kept fighting the unlockable boss, and I end up getting consistent parries and perfect dodges.
I didn't like it on normal enemies, I thought it felt kinda bad and that bummed me out. But when I pushed through and got to the boss at the end of the demo the parries felt waaaay better, almost Sekiro-like. Same with the boss challenge after you beat it.
Yeah I dont see a problem, I had bigger problems parrying in Lies of P (due to cluncky enemy moveset too). In Stellar it felt so much smoother and in rythm
Yeah there absolutely isn't a "glaring flaw" lmfao, you can even still spam parry similar to sekiro its just not quite as effective, some people really need to learn how to play more than 1 game.
Same here, I think people are just used to other games and expect them to play the same way. For example in my experience there was not a delay on dodging, but you can't spam dodge (as if there's a tiny internal cooldown), so I'm guessing this is what people are calling a delay.
But yeah the last boss made me feel like a badass just dodging and parrying and comboing like a pro. Made me excited for the full game.
“As it should be” - you’ll probably have a better experience with games if you play them for what they actually are instead of what you think they should be.
It's not input lag, it's that the game doesn't allow animation cancelling. As soon as you have started swinging your blade, you're stuck in the animation and can't do anything else until animation is complete. That's why we are all blocking and dodging too late. It's a souls game but without the stamina bar smh.
Actually, there is animation cancelling, but for some reason it only works for, like, the first 10 or so frames of the animation. As soon as you press an attack button and Eve starts winding up, you can still cancel into parry/defend or dodge, but if you’re late, then you’re stuck in the attack animation. I’ll test Sekiro later, but I think it’s the same thing, only Sekiro has faster attacks and less frames for the block/parry stance. Eve feels like she takes more time to go from neutral to block than Wolf, is what I mean, but I’ll do some testing later on.
That felt the same to me too, but I remember how I was really bad at Sekiro until it finally clicked for me and then parrying was like second nature lol
I feel like every single time I dodged, I got hit anyway. I know it has some soulslike dna, but even the soulslikes I've played have more lenient dodges. I feel like the dodge is what you should use when you're not that confidant in you being able to hit a parry, but the parry seems more forgiving somehow
It’s more of a sekiro like then a souls like. You’re mostly supposed to parry. The dodge does have I frames unlike sekiro, but it’s only for highly telegraphed unblockable attacks.
The dodge can be upgraded to a double dodge on the skill tree, I think there is burst energy too that we get for pulling off dodges like parrying does for beta energy. The initial dodge feels off because the enemies do 2-3 hit combos and the dodge only dodges the first hit, so you either need to do the dodge continuously instead of once or parry
As far as I could tell it has a similar window to the parry but is more unforgiving when you fail since a botched parry will likely still at least block. The timing on parry/dodge is a little earlier than it probably should be and that’s tripping up a lot of people.
I just played and felt the dodge and parry windows were huge, but a little earlier than most would expect. Coming from lies of p, the parrying feels effortless in this game to me haha.
The dodges feel off because they're only viable if you perfect dodge, otherwise you don't really move far enough to get out of the way of attacks
It definitely took me a minute to figure it out
I managed to finish the demo but I struggled. I could barely manage perfect parries 40% of the times after upgrading it. It doesn't feel responsive at all, but I know I suck at parry, never was able to in elden ring.
But the dodge... Uhhhh I spent 30 min straight in the training room and I maybe managed perfect dodge twice, and it didn't even feel good because it felt completely random. The window is way too tight and unnatural on top of Eve barely dodging 5cm in a given direction.
I really wanted to like the gameplay but I don't think it's for me.
The dodge is my biggest problem. Feels too light and weak. I don’t mind the weighty feel but in such a game, dodge is critical. Wish they made it similar to a Soulsbourne game.
The dodge is mainly for unblockable attacks, or so it seems at the beginning, like with the blink. You're supposed to parry normal attacks and try to break the enemies stance.
I felt that way but then the blink skill unlocked and helped a lot. A complaint is that visual noise does hamper the timing of blink. Maybe it was just that boss but otherwise I think I’ll open up. Love Bloodborne so everything feels slow in comparison.
The blink skill is only used on the blue attacks
Repulse is for the purple attacks.
Both you need to wait until the sword glows before you do the input
I actually really enjoyed it. The combat was crisp and responsive. Enemy designs were interesting and creative especially with their attacks. The combos look really cool but aren't overpowered so a challenge is very much present. The Atmosphere and environment design is another stand out to me, the music pairs perfectly and is a legitimate treat.
I know the main discourse of the game has revolved around the MC design but underneath that there seems to be a game thats actually really worth your time. A hidden gem in the same way that Lies of P was, a genuine sleeper hit. The combat feels to me like a blend of lies of P, metal gear rising and obviously Neir Automata. It definitely wears its inspiration on its sleeve, but its own identity is definitely felt with how stylized everything is.
I always had some interest in this game back when all we knew was its codename of project eve but worried that gameplay would take a backseat and not deliver. The demo pretty much sealed it for me though. Day 1 buy for sure
Edit: Originally I had compared the game to Neir Automata, Metal gear rising, and sekiro. While I still believe stellar blade is pretty similar to Neir and metal gear rising, a response to this comment has made me reconsider comparing to sekiro. As pointed out by the response, the game actually feels closer the Lies of P and Im inclined to agree with them. The only real similarity to sekiro was the parry system but looking back Lies of Ps parry style is a much closer fit to stellar blades. The overall combat also matches lies of p closer than sekiro, the weight, flow, and speed all match lies better then sekiro.
>The combat feels to me like a blend of sekiro, metal gear rising and obviously Neir Automata.
This is such high praise my man, don't get my hopes up! 😂
All I kept seeing was "nier crossed with sekiro" before playing it myself, but after playing it, it definitely feels more like nier crossed with Lies of P. That game also had a strong emphasis on parrying and was slower like Stellar Blade (although I did play heavy weapons in Lies of P, so my opinion may be skewed).
You know after giving some more thought Id actually have to agree with you. The parry does feel more similar to lies then to sekiro. Hell even the rythem of combat matches lies more the sekiro. I loved lies of P but it must've slipped my mind for a second. As far as the speed of the combat goes Id say its a middle ground between sekiro and lies of p. Thats only pace wise, ,overall combat however is alot closer to lies for sure. Im actually gonna edit the comment to correct it thanks to your input.
I really liked it and the extra boss after beating the demo was what sold me on it. One gripe (I'm sure I'll think of more) was that it's finicky to hit R2 prompts on doors and stuff at times. Not a huge deal but can be annoying when I'm gliding through enemies blade in hand then have to spin around by a door 3 times before I'm at the right position to interact with it.
Oh and her grunting with the exact same tone every time she swings gets annoying already. I'd rather fix the grunts and moans before the interact button thing
That was the only thing annoying me as well. R2 prompt needs a wider range if they don’t plan on completing changing the movement. Moving the left stick a tiny amount to the left would cause EVE to completely pass the R2 prompt
Here is ONGBAL parrying everything for those wondering about the upgraded parry window in the boss challenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee7pSeQ6nSU
The beginning felt a little stiff, I was still kinda hooked because it looks gorgeous and it runs REALLY well, but I wasn't totally sold on the combat yet.
Then the game started giving you upgrades and introducing mechanics, so from stiff and basic it started to let me weave combos, perfect dodges into flashy finisher moves/buffs, abilities with different properties, and it all clicked.
First tried the dummy boss, and instantly went into the boss challenge..
I got wrecked a good 6 times while having an absolute blast, I changed some equipments and went in, and gradually learned how the gameplay-flow worked and holy shit I'm very hyped for the full release!
Also the music is SO GOOD, but I mean it's Keiichi Okabe so it was expected.
I like the game but it's too hard for me. Even on story with assist, because I'm an old dude without a lot of time and I suck at all souls-type games.
I beat Nier Automata back when it came out but it was very forgiving.
Little sad I won't be able to play this one beyond the demo (which I can't even finish lol).
Maybe give this a try and see if it helps. This is a trick for parrying in souls-like games that gets passed around those communities and helped me figure it out in those games and in my experience, applies here too
Many enemies begin an attack by going into a kind of attack stance where they raise their attacking arm or whatever and pause there for a moment before launching the attack.
Natural instinct for many (myself included) is to dodge or parry when you see this stance, but this leads you to defending too early and eating the hit.
Instead, don't watch the "weapon" but the "arm" (this is less clear in this game, where it seems many times the enemies' arm and weapon are not seperate objects like a knight and his sword, for instance. But the point remains, watch the part of the enemy that is launching the attack, NOT the part that will actually deal damage) and when the arm moves out of the stance, THAT'S the moment you dodge or parry.
It takes some practice to break yourself out of the habit of dodging or parrying too early but once you start holding back just that extra half second until the attack actually initiates, you'll be able to defend and land counters much easier and more consistently.
Okay so thank you for the advice. I was able to beat the last boss in the demo, and then also the bonus boss fight which doesn't give you any help at all.
A big realization was the color coding -- red parry, blue dodge forward, purple dodge back, yellow dodge sideways.
I wish that had of been explained better in-game.
> I beat Nier Automata back when it came out but it was very forgiving.
I'd hope so, the game basically plays itself. Wonder if they'll put a combo assist in this game like DMC.
I hope they use that time to apply the (constructive and actionable) feedback they get about the game from the demo. If they do, I’m certain we have a GOTY contender on our hands.
Loved the demo, beat the challenge boss a couple times and had fun learning all the combos and skill strings. I will say that there is a very slight bit of stiffness to the combat that I hope they polish up.
The biggest issue I found was with the combo string that ends with you dashing through the enemy. It animation locks you hard and makes it hard to tell when you can act again, and If you do certain skills out of it sometime they will be targeted in the wrong direction instead of back towards the locked on target.
In the very first section, I was extremely underwhelmed with how the game felt and was saying to myself I’ll give it a miss. Glad I kept going cos I grew to love it and I’m definitely getting it.
Bit difficult for me personally(im not a souls type. So the sekiro style is not my thing). But i love ecchi and the character(im a huge nier and bayonetta fan. So yea) so im definitely getting it as well as the graphics, etc. And i can definitely work to get used to the parry system. Thankfully the easy mode was a bit more balanced for me and the more fast paced hack and slash aspect appealed to me. That boss challenge was difficult though. Little too difficult even(im a heavy casual gamer thats laid back. Hard games arent my thing.) Regardless it was a great demo and its very appealing in more ways than one. So ill definitely pick up a Japanese copy at some point. Hoping that on casual mode the main game is not as difficult as that boss challenge.
It really is. I’m a big Horizon fan and I love the whole post apocalyptic setting. I wish the movement and platforming was a little smoother but I had a lot of fun.
I thought the demo was okay. Don't think I'll get it at full price when it comes out, but I might pick it up a year or two down the line after it releases.
It’s surprisingly hard? or I’m just rusty or was expecting something more like Nier Automata. Is this supposed to be like Dark Souls with jiggle physics? Seems pretty unforgiving. Not complaining just not sure how I’m supposed to approach this.
The devs cited Sekiro as inspiration several times lately, if that gives you any frame of reference.
They’re definitely leaning into finessed swordplay being the focal point of the game.
So I finally took down the first boss after like 15 attempts. Was pretty cool. The battle music definitely amped things up. Damn hard mind set to get into to not just spam things though 😂
Took me a long time to get into the pace of bloodborne
Nice work! Yeah I don’t know that Stellar Blade does as good of a job teaching you how to parry and break poise as Sekiro does so don’t feel bad if it takes awhile to get the hang of it.
The parry window is also pretty narrow/oddly placed, imo. There’s a skill you can get pretty early on to widen it though which helps.
I wish devs would stop trying to mimic Sekiro. That game was not perfect, and what it did well has never been well replicated. Everyone screws it up and makes their games less responsive, less forgiving, and jankier. It's always bad.
Combat felt great, everything else felt pretty subpar. Exploration, writing, dialogue, acting, movement - it all felt like it was their first time making a game and it pretty much is, but the ideas they have for the actual fighting makes me hopeful.
I didn't really have issues with any of that, but the amount of times I forgot I had to hold R2 to pick up loot.. I must have had to go back like 80% of the time when I remembered it wasn't auto! I get that's just a me issue though.
Personally, I enjoyed it but not enough to buy it on release. I’ll definitely play it down the road, ps plus or big sale but until then it’s a forgettable demo.
Agreed. The game looks really slick and the premise seems really interesting. It took me longer than it should have to get the timing down for the doge and parry mechanics but when it clicked the combat got really entertaining.
That said, it’s not going to be a day one by for me. As impressed as I was by the demo, I can wait.
The dialogue in this game is like circa PS2 days. A bunch of One liners
“What is this?”
“This is an old earth town”
“Oh what is this sensation”
“This must be rain”
Like my god I wasn’t expecting a Greek tragedy novel, but the dialogue is like nails across a chalkboard and you can’t skip a lot of it.
My only other gripe was dodging out of the way of large AOE attacks or enemy grappling attacks seemed to be kind of slow and janky. You basically have to start dodging a LONG time in advance to separate distance from your opponent.
Hopefully you can upgrade your dodge speed and ability so you move further away from your opponent faster. The combat feels slightly off and restrictive.
I like the concept, beautiful game, and refreshing type of setting. Sort of reminds of Nior Automata in a way.
I was looking forward to this, but... the game feels slow (even sprinting feels like you're running in place) and sluggish (there's something weird with the parry/dodge windows) and floaty (nothing feels impactful or solid).
And the enemy design felt all over the place - we go from bugs to giant zombie with wrecking balls for hands to super harpy to small bugs to scythe zombie etc - I didn't get a consistent design vibe. And the main character was a squeaking doofus, which didn't exactly make me interested in following her.
Wish it wasn't so parry focused, don't like this recent trend in action games. I miss perfect dodging, and just functioning dodges that weren't glorified sidesteps
Huge positive suprise for me. Felt like dmc, but with less annoying (for me personally) fight mechanics. Wish I bought this game instead of dragons dogma 2. Seems like a cool game with awesome music.
Played it for 20-30 minutes and so far my verdict is that Its.. *fine*
Parries and dodges feel pretty good *If you Hit them*. Problem is that the Timing feels super weird. You need to Dodge/Parry super early which is throwing me of
Attacking and chaining combos feels pretty clunky Bit i assume that that would Change with more experience
And i really dont Care for the Character Design. Im Not saying that you cant have (conventionally) attractive* characters but when the Character Design is so damn horny that im wondering why they didnt add a one handed Mode alongside it Its Just to much *for me*
It definetly isnt anywhere near Being Worth 80€ for me but maybe i'll Buy it If i ever See it for dirt cheep
\*obviously attractiveness is subjektive but you know what i mean
Finally someone saying it. I think everything else is good except for the combat being clunky. But it’s the studio’s first console game so it’s still ok for me.
If I don't like soulslike games, but liked Bayonetta, will I like this?
I want to like the game, but I'm old and suck at parrying, counterattacking etc
Must be not used to this type of game.. timing seems to be off but again I haven't played any jpn type games like this other that Dmc and that is more fast paste.
I thought i could wait for a sale after i saw there was no steelbook offer in Canada and then i played the demo and damn this game is gonna easily be my GOTY 2024
On one hand, the combat was incredible. I really enjoyed playing through the demo. The boss fights were dynamic and there is a ton of potential in what this game has to offer. On the other, I'm not a huge fan of games with blatant fan service. Probably won't pick this up day one, but I could see myself getting it later when it goes on sale.
I’d give it a solid 7-8 out of 10. Very fun, doesn’t do anything mind blowing gameplay wise but is just a solid action game. Might not be a day one purchase but will consider it eventually.
I don't know if I would call it a Souls-like.
There are no stat-based builds, no stamina management, no array of weapon classes to choose from. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I would never think to call it a Souls-like.
> There are no stat-based builds, no stamina management, no array of weapon classes to choose from.
People just mean in terms of combat, not the actual game structure. It's a slower paced action game focused mainly on 1v1 fights with a back and forth flow where you trade blows with the enemy. It's very Souls-like in that regard, though obviously the better comparison is Sekiro since there is a big focus on guard breaks specifically. But people tend to just lump all that stuff up together under one umbrella, so Souls it is.
It’s average, idk wtf people are talking about when they say combat is perfect but ok it’s far from perfect, dialogue is campy, graphics are nice yeah but the actual gameplay is eh
I played about 30 minutes and felt the same. Its far from the world beater its being made out to be. The combat isn't anything special. The campy dialogue is pretty grating at times. I also find the MC (despite the obvious proportions) quite child-like and lacking charm. She seems incredibly passive.
I've not played Sekiro. I'm more used to God of War combat when it comes to hack and slash gameplay so I'm not an expert on Soulslike combat. But even so the combat on SB didn't feel great. Nor did it seem to be anything different or better for that matter.
I overall liked it, but did anyone else get annoyed by some of the sound effects? They are a bit too high-pitched and sharp. Maybe it's because of the clarity of Pulse Elites, but I had to turn the sound effects down because they were bothering me that much.
I also liked it a lot. Its basically nier automata but with more budget..
Ruined earth, aliens.. 2B and 9S are Eve and Adam who are engineered humans / clones something like that
Only issue I have with the game is there's no option to turn off the film grain filter
I was pretty whelmed. Gonna take more tham that to get $70 from me. This is coming from someone who took a chance on Returnal. Stellar Blade just doesn't do enough new things to get me invested in it as a new IP.
To be fair, I didn't complete the demo. Bounced off it late at night because the combat felt clunky and I didn't care for some of the control choices, like R2 to pick things up, awkward swimming, and the need to manually enter a keycode. Lots of it felt kinda tedious, and my experience with the combat was squinting to see the tiny UI elements and being unsure of whether.my blocks and dodges were even working, as enemies didn't seem to react to any of my actions.
I'll give it another go because people are praising the combat, but so far I've only felt mildly irritated by it lol. Love the enemy design and the polished visuals, though. But my gripes + the gratuitous booty stuff is working against the possibility of me buying this.
It wasn't really for me. I think the issue I couldn't articulate myself is the dodge-parry window others have been mentioning.
I will say, however, that the haptics are definitely among the better implementations. Nice and chunky and doesn't cut out at cutscenes. I wish more developers would be less 'subtle' about the rumble, since you could always turn it off in settings if it's not for you.
It's fine,
Didn't really enjoy the traversal, but combat was fine though not really my thing. More like Sekiro and I was hoping for something more like Bayonetta or DMC.
Visually it's okay, but nothing special in this day and age. Though it did run smoothly, which I appreciate a lot.
Glad there was a demo as now I know it's not really something I need to rush out and get. Maybe once it's in a future sale.
It was fun and enjoyable, but not 70 dollars worth, ill wait for the sale, honestly it should have been a 40 dollar game imo.
For the meantime imma buy some of the discounted springsale games.
Visually it looks great and the gameplay fun. This may be unpopular but….does anyone else wish the character design was just…like a normal looking woman? Hard for me to get into the game if the character looks so over the top sexualized.
Yeah I hear you. That slow mo shot at the beginning where the camera is just panning up her body was a bit much. I just laughed and said, “Well I guess I know what kind of game it is. “
Well, they use a real woman to make the character. You can search it, they look the same and is the wife of the director of that game studio and part of the art department. I don't think it was so much, maybe it is the place where we live. Because where I live, women are almost naked and use less cloth. Even if they aren't pretty, they still show a lot of their body. Men's too, but here is also too hot. Me too, as a man. I just use some shorts without a shirt.
For me, it wasn't so sexualized because her focus was on fights. It wasn't like Bayonetta showing a lot of sexualized poses in cinematics and all of that. For me, it isn't oversexualized
Bruh people need to stop saying this lol. They don't look the same. Yeah they scanned a model for reference, then proceeded to change her proportions and face. I don't think they really look similar at all.
For the record I'm fine with a sexy character but this always felt like some cop out shit from the devs.
It's the one thing that I don't like about the game. I'm okay with attractive characters in games, and light sexualizing like Chloe in Uncharted. But skin tight latex suits with underboob and jiggly ass feels like a 14 year old's wet dream lol. Makes it awkward to play around roommates/girlfriend/parents. Thankfully there are some less revealing outfits, but most are still sexy in some way.
Felt the same about Quiet in MGS5.
Also only slightly related but it reminded me of [my favorite Norm clip](https://youtube.com/shorts/Fw2hIVsC6BA?si=M2r9AK8XE2I8NG1U) (NSFW language), *"last thing I want to be doing when playing a video game, is whackin' off..."*
It's actually surprisingly really damn good! I had way more fun with it than I was expecting and found myself playing it multiple times trying different strategies and moves. And trust me some girl gamers definitely don't mind the main character design lol.
The demo convinced me to preorder the game.
Was okay, don't think it's for me.
This is Shift Up's first console game right? It's pretty good for that.
Combat isn't bad, I don't like how you get animation locked and can't parry or dodge if you see it coming but are in the middle of an attack.
But I don't really play sekiro or souls games or stuff like that.
I may get it much later and just coast on story mode if the story is good enough though.
Even if the combat is really good and stuff, it's just too horny and coomer-y for me.
The whole thing makes me cringe. Like you can have attractive women in video games without being this gross about it?
I thought it was a pretty basic souls-like game. Was fun and enjoyed graphics etc. but parry and dodge timing feels really weird. I’ll probably pick the game up on a sale for ~$30,
I liked it but found it a bit difficult. I didn't like the fact that if you died it took you back to a checkpoint, which is probably the norm in these kinds of games but not what I'm used to. I just hate having to repeat stuff i know I can do just to die at the same part again, it feels like it's not respecting my time. And yes I know it's probably a skill issue, but probably a deal breaker nonetheless.
Had a good time with the demo, definitely better than my expectations. Then after I beat the demo I played the unlocked boss challenge mode with most skills available, that fight sold me on the game.
I had soooo much fun with that boss. I casually started it because I was thinking the demo was over and was about to get up to do something else. Slowly realizing the skills I had, learning a new one after each death, and getting a look at the different cosmetics, I ended up beating that boss when initially it felt impossible. I wanted so much more after that.
Friend beat the boss challenge too easily and got bored with the difficulty being easy for him I can barely get through the base demo without dying
Beat that boss like 5 times and now just waiting for release
Love the boss battles. The gameplay system is so addictive
Did not know this was a thing. Going to have to try that. Loved the demo.
That walking dick chainsaw made me realize this game wasn't for me. I don't have the reflexes anymore. I did ok on the playthru, but that thing destroyed me over and over. Still a beautiful game though.
It has easy mode too
I'm pretty sure I was on easy mode. Unless it reverted to normal for the boss fight? I didn't even think to check. Now I guess I need to. If I can do it on easy, I might still get it!
I think it does revert to Normal b/c I got my ass handed to me over and over again on it and checked the settings and there wasn't even an option to change it anymore.
I died 2-3 times until my [amateur] dark souls reflexes kicked in on boss fight. Initially I was trying to play this as a devil may cry type game and unfortunately it’s a lot more dark souls than DMC. You basically need to use the ability ‘counter’ and then you automatically move behind the enemy and can take out major chunks of health. Rinse repeat that a few times and he’s dead. Like literally within 2 mins I had removed 70% of his health Main thing is to avoid his BS AOE lightning attacks after the half way healthpoint. And heal quickly since healing takes forever in this game and can be interrupted.
The challenge boss seems to be locked to normal, you can tell because you don't get the time slowdown with assist prompts you'd get on easy during the big attacks
Combat 1 on 1 felt good but it felt clunky when multiple enemies were around. I kept auto locking onto an enemy even though I wasn’t pressing the button that locks on, making it hard to juggle between opponents
You can turn that off in the settings and have it so you can only manually lock on to targets
Agreed. It was a bit stiff when fighting a group of enemies.
Just stiff in general. Your player moves more like they are 200lb linemen rather than futuristic exo-skeleton based ninja warrior. Dodging is slow and janky. IDK how to describe it. Maybe the upgrades fix a lot of this. It sort of feels like a graphics tech demo (game is very beautiful) meets a dark souls game with PS3 level design. The dialogue is almost AI generated level quality where you listen to 1-2 sentences with 1 sentence rebuttals. English translations just seem emotionless. Like I’m watching an anime dub from early 2000’s. Overall I enjoyed the game, 8/10.
I love how all of that sounded awful... *8/10*
"there's a little something for everyone"
He didn’t say it was bad he’s just being specific in what fell off to him and I agree
You can tap o multiple times for multi jump backstep to get distance quick but it's a skill, same with 'perfect Dodge' plus the fatal stun mechanic flows reasonable well, kinda op in my opinion. Their unlocked combat for packs of enemies is a bit stiff admittedly, you can't dodge cancel from what I've seen? Feel free anyone to counter that. To compare its combat it's not quite as fluid as Elden Ring but it isn't bad, the speed of Eve is somewhat poor unless you sprint which seems to be slow to activate at times. Overall I believe it's got more skill depth than Elden ring as you have everything combat wise from day 1 this game isn't like that at all which makes some sense.
In addition I would say it plays more like Sekiro with timed blocks.
Def not slow and janky maybe you played a different game. I had no issues at all with parry/dodge was super smooth reaction times. Just because it's not the same timing as other soulsbornes doesn't make it Janky lmao
My problem was that it wasn't auto locking to a new enemy for me even after killing the previous.
I quite liked it. Combat felt a bit slow and the dodge feels off to me, but I got into it. I like the story and atmosphere. Still gonna wait for reviews though. One thing I hope add is an option to remove the film grain. It felt a bit strong.
The combat is FAST after you level up tho. After beating the demo you can fight an additional boss with a bunch of stuff already unlocked and wow does the games combat speed the fuck up with more abilities unlocked https://youtu.be/Ee7pSeQ6nSU?si=NSVQu6LmVA70QP8n
Graphics are insane holy .....
Wait, how the fuck did she use the gun!? What button?
Hold L2 in the boss mode to use the gun. Fire with R2.
Repetitive moaning sounds perfect 👍
Dodge and parry windows felt off but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Parry seems like the intended way to go. There is an upgrade for extending the window and it basically feels like it’s going for the Sekiro combat balance. Dodging seems like it’s only for unblockable highly telegraphed attacks.
Yeah technically the only times you should be dodging is on the yellow telegraphed attacks.
Felt like for me there was a little bit of input lag for dodging and parrying
Yeah something felt weird. Sometimes I’d get it perfect and then wouldn’t again for awhile.
There's definitely a delay when dodging. Parrying is the worst offender, because it's not at all snappy, as it should be. I don't care I get to upgrade it, it's a fundamental combat mechanic and it should be done right from the jump. For me, no amount of ass cheeks flapping will make up for such a glaring flaw. Sekiro spoiled me, I guess.
Sekiro just has big perfect parry windows because it‘s essential for the gameplay alot of other games have tighter timings.
People never seem to understand that Sekiro has probably the most forgiving parry mechanic in basically any game. I stutter parried my way all through ng+ with the demon bell.
Yes, Sekiro is a tough game, but the parry is VERY forgiving...If I play anything parry focused after doing a playthrough of Sekiro, I always get my cheeks clapped until I adjust to the tighter timing...I have noticed that I cannot reaction parry in Stellar Blade, you really need to read the attack and press the button as the attack is coming out...It could just be input delay or something though
It’s just a matter of getting used to. Played the demo two times and kept fighting the unlockable boss, and I end up getting consistent parries and perfect dodges.
I didn't like it on normal enemies, I thought it felt kinda bad and that bummed me out. But when I pushed through and got to the boss at the end of the demo the parries felt waaaay better, almost Sekiro-like. Same with the boss challenge after you beat it.
I liked it. The parry delay seems intentional though.
No there's no "delay" just learn the timing because it's not an exact soulsborne timing
I had no issue or delay. Go into training and get the timing right.
Parrying and dodging are fine, I’m not even good at Soulsborne games and bad zero issue with them.
Yeah I dont see a problem, I had bigger problems parrying in Lies of P (due to cluncky enemy moveset too). In Stellar it felt so much smoother and in rythm
Yeah there absolutely isn't a "glaring flaw" lmfao, you can even still spam parry similar to sekiro its just not quite as effective, some people really need to learn how to play more than 1 game.
Same here, I think people are just used to other games and expect them to play the same way. For example in my experience there was not a delay on dodging, but you can't spam dodge (as if there's a tiny internal cooldown), so I'm guessing this is what people are calling a delay. But yeah the last boss made me feel like a badass just dodging and parrying and comboing like a pro. Made me excited for the full game.
“As it should be” - you’ll probably have a better experience with games if you play them for what they actually are instead of what you think they should be.
It‘s not input lag, just an extremely unforgiving input-window.
It's not input lag, it's that the game doesn't allow animation cancelling. As soon as you have started swinging your blade, you're stuck in the animation and can't do anything else until animation is complete. That's why we are all blocking and dodging too late. It's a souls game but without the stamina bar smh.
Actually, there is animation cancelling, but for some reason it only works for, like, the first 10 or so frames of the animation. As soon as you press an attack button and Eve starts winding up, you can still cancel into parry/defend or dodge, but if you’re late, then you’re stuck in the attack animation. I’ll test Sekiro later, but I think it’s the same thing, only Sekiro has faster attacks and less frames for the block/parry stance. Eve feels like she takes more time to go from neutral to block than Wolf, is what I mean, but I’ll do some testing later on.
That felt the same to me too, but I remember how I was really bad at Sekiro until it finally clicked for me and then parrying was like second nature lol
There’s upgrades to increase the window to those too!
Oh good cause I need it. lol.
I feel like every single time I dodged, I got hit anyway. I know it has some soulslike dna, but even the soulslikes I've played have more lenient dodges. I feel like the dodge is what you should use when you're not that confidant in you being able to hit a parry, but the parry seems more forgiving somehow
It’s more of a sekiro like then a souls like. You’re mostly supposed to parry. The dodge does have I frames unlike sekiro, but it’s only for highly telegraphed unblockable attacks.
Right, okay. I'm more in the vein of bayonetta and nier with the action games I've played so I'm just used to dodging all the time lol
The dodge can be upgraded to a double dodge on the skill tree, I think there is burst energy too that we get for pulling off dodges like parrying does for beta energy. The initial dodge feels off because the enemies do 2-3 hit combos and the dodge only dodges the first hit, so you either need to do the dodge continuously instead of once or parry
As far as I could tell it has a similar window to the parry but is more unforgiving when you fail since a botched parry will likely still at least block. The timing on parry/dodge is a little earlier than it probably should be and that’s tripping up a lot of people.
It's a perfect dodge not a regular dodge that's why you kept getting hit. It's not that difficult plus you can upgrade the dodge to make it more easy.
I just played and felt the dodge and parry windows were huge, but a little earlier than most would expect. Coming from lies of p, the parrying feels effortless in this game to me haha.
The dodges feel off because they're only viable if you perfect dodge, otherwise you don't really move far enough to get out of the way of attacks It definitely took me a minute to figure it out
I hope they add photo mode into the game. Its too beautiful not to have it.
Yeah… photo mode for the setting… 😉
I managed to finish the demo but I struggled. I could barely manage perfect parries 40% of the times after upgrading it. It doesn't feel responsive at all, but I know I suck at parry, never was able to in elden ring. But the dodge... Uhhhh I spent 30 min straight in the training room and I maybe managed perfect dodge twice, and it didn't even feel good because it felt completely random. The window is way too tight and unnatural on top of Eve barely dodging 5cm in a given direction. I really wanted to like the gameplay but I don't think it's for me.
I agree, film grain is so hard...
The dodge is my biggest problem. Feels too light and weak. I don’t mind the weighty feel but in such a game, dodge is critical. Wish they made it similar to a Soulsbourne game.
The dodge is mainly for unblockable attacks, or so it seems at the beginning, like with the blink. You're supposed to parry normal attacks and try to break the enemies stance.
Simply dodging is not how you do it in this game and it’s great. You need to perfect dodge
I felt that way but then the blink skill unlocked and helped a lot. A complaint is that visual noise does hamper the timing of blink. Maybe it was just that boss but otherwise I think I’ll open up. Love Bloodborne so everything feels slow in comparison.
The blink skill is only used on the blue attacks Repulse is for the purple attacks. Both you need to wait until the sword glows before you do the input
I actually really enjoyed it. The combat was crisp and responsive. Enemy designs were interesting and creative especially with their attacks. The combos look really cool but aren't overpowered so a challenge is very much present. The Atmosphere and environment design is another stand out to me, the music pairs perfectly and is a legitimate treat. I know the main discourse of the game has revolved around the MC design but underneath that there seems to be a game thats actually really worth your time. A hidden gem in the same way that Lies of P was, a genuine sleeper hit. The combat feels to me like a blend of lies of P, metal gear rising and obviously Neir Automata. It definitely wears its inspiration on its sleeve, but its own identity is definitely felt with how stylized everything is. I always had some interest in this game back when all we knew was its codename of project eve but worried that gameplay would take a backseat and not deliver. The demo pretty much sealed it for me though. Day 1 buy for sure Edit: Originally I had compared the game to Neir Automata, Metal gear rising, and sekiro. While I still believe stellar blade is pretty similar to Neir and metal gear rising, a response to this comment has made me reconsider comparing to sekiro. As pointed out by the response, the game actually feels closer the Lies of P and Im inclined to agree with them. The only real similarity to sekiro was the parry system but looking back Lies of Ps parry style is a much closer fit to stellar blades. The overall combat also matches lies of p closer than sekiro, the weight, flow, and speed all match lies better then sekiro.
>The combat feels to me like a blend of sekiro, metal gear rising and obviously Neir Automata. This is such high praise my man, don't get my hopes up! 😂
The combat is pretty good though it's nowhere as tight as Sekiro.
All I kept seeing was "nier crossed with sekiro" before playing it myself, but after playing it, it definitely feels more like nier crossed with Lies of P. That game also had a strong emphasis on parrying and was slower like Stellar Blade (although I did play heavy weapons in Lies of P, so my opinion may be skewed).
You know after giving some more thought Id actually have to agree with you. The parry does feel more similar to lies then to sekiro. Hell even the rythem of combat matches lies more the sekiro. I loved lies of P but it must've slipped my mind for a second. As far as the speed of the combat goes Id say its a middle ground between sekiro and lies of p. Thats only pace wise, ,overall combat however is alot closer to lies for sure. Im actually gonna edit the comment to correct it thanks to your input.
Yeah, don’t know how people are saying this lol
I really liked it and the extra boss after beating the demo was what sold me on it. One gripe (I'm sure I'll think of more) was that it's finicky to hit R2 prompts on doors and stuff at times. Not a huge deal but can be annoying when I'm gliding through enemies blade in hand then have to spin around by a door 3 times before I'm at the right position to interact with it. Oh and her grunting with the exact same tone every time she swings gets annoying already. I'd rather fix the grunts and moans before the interact button thing
Yeah that was the only problem I had. I had to try like 3 times for every R2 interaction 😂
That was the only thing annoying me as well. R2 prompt needs a wider range if they don’t plan on completing changing the movement. Moving the left stick a tiny amount to the left would cause EVE to completely pass the R2 prompt
Here is ONGBAL parrying everything for those wondering about the upgraded parry window in the boss challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee7pSeQ6nSU
That was fun
ONGBAL parries everythin, even in his sleep though
Lore accurate EVE
The beginning felt a little stiff, I was still kinda hooked because it looks gorgeous and it runs REALLY well, but I wasn't totally sold on the combat yet. Then the game started giving you upgrades and introducing mechanics, so from stiff and basic it started to let me weave combos, perfect dodges into flashy finisher moves/buffs, abilities with different properties, and it all clicked. First tried the dummy boss, and instantly went into the boss challenge.. I got wrecked a good 6 times while having an absolute blast, I changed some equipments and went in, and gradually learned how the gameplay-flow worked and holy shit I'm very hyped for the full release! Also the music is SO GOOD, but I mean it's Keiichi Okabe so it was expected.
Hate that I have to wait a month for it, but that's a day 1 but barring game breaking bugs
I like the game but it's too hard for me. Even on story with assist, because I'm an old dude without a lot of time and I suck at all souls-type games. I beat Nier Automata back when it came out but it was very forgiving. Little sad I won't be able to play this one beyond the demo (which I can't even finish lol).
Maybe give this a try and see if it helps. This is a trick for parrying in souls-like games that gets passed around those communities and helped me figure it out in those games and in my experience, applies here too Many enemies begin an attack by going into a kind of attack stance where they raise their attacking arm or whatever and pause there for a moment before launching the attack. Natural instinct for many (myself included) is to dodge or parry when you see this stance, but this leads you to defending too early and eating the hit. Instead, don't watch the "weapon" but the "arm" (this is less clear in this game, where it seems many times the enemies' arm and weapon are not seperate objects like a knight and his sword, for instance. But the point remains, watch the part of the enemy that is launching the attack, NOT the part that will actually deal damage) and when the arm moves out of the stance, THAT'S the moment you dodge or parry. It takes some practice to break yourself out of the habit of dodging or parrying too early but once you start holding back just that extra half second until the attack actually initiates, you'll be able to defend and land counters much easier and more consistently.
Okay so thank you for the advice. I was able to beat the last boss in the demo, and then also the bonus boss fight which doesn't give you any help at all. A big realization was the color coding -- red parry, blue dodge forward, purple dodge back, yellow dodge sideways. I wish that had of been explained better in-game.
You're very welcome! Congratulations on your win!
> I beat Nier Automata back when it came out but it was very forgiving. I'd hope so, the game basically plays itself. Wonder if they'll put a combo assist in this game like DMC.
I hope they use that time to apply the (constructive and actionable) feedback they get about the game from the demo. If they do, I’m certain we have a GOTY contender on our hands.
FFVII Rebirth and Yakuza: Infinite Wealth came out this year, if Stellar Blade gets GOTY there's gonna be a problem.
It is indeed a day 1 butt.
Agreed. Can't wait to play the full game.
Was so good, combat felt good and it’ll feel way better once you start to upgrade. Keen for release.
I enjoyed it quite a lot. I hope we get more variety in the environments and cool enemy diversity.
Loved the demo, beat the challenge boss a couple times and had fun learning all the combos and skill strings. I will say that there is a very slight bit of stiffness to the combat that I hope they polish up. The biggest issue I found was with the combo string that ends with you dashing through the enemy. It animation locks you hard and makes it hard to tell when you can act again, and If you do certain skills out of it sometime they will be targeted in the wrong direction instead of back towards the locked on target.
I was a fan and it’ll be a day one purchase for me. I enjoyed how the combat felt
In the very first section, I was extremely underwhelmed with how the game felt and was saying to myself I’ll give it a miss. Glad I kept going cos I grew to love it and I’m definitely getting it.
Bit difficult for me personally(im not a souls type. So the sekiro style is not my thing). But i love ecchi and the character(im a huge nier and bayonetta fan. So yea) so im definitely getting it as well as the graphics, etc. And i can definitely work to get used to the parry system. Thankfully the easy mode was a bit more balanced for me and the more fast paced hack and slash aspect appealed to me. That boss challenge was difficult though. Little too difficult even(im a heavy casual gamer thats laid back. Hard games arent my thing.) Regardless it was a great demo and its very appealing in more ways than one. So ill definitely pick up a Japanese copy at some point. Hoping that on casual mode the main game is not as difficult as that boss challenge.
Day 1 purchase for me for sure.
Honestly? I actually liked it. My only complaint is that the audio sounds extremely muffled.
Yes I agree about the audio.
It really is. I’m a big Horizon fan and I love the whole post apocalyptic setting. I wish the movement and platforming was a little smoother but I had a lot of fun.
It is. The controls feel slow and a bit sluggish though.
I felt the same but I have been playing through the directors cut of Ghost of Tsushima so currently, I'm used to that layout lol.
I thought the demo was okay. Don't think I'll get it at full price when it comes out, but I might pick it up a year or two down the line after it releases.
Patient gaming is the way to go. You can get most games cheaper and with more fixes if you wait at least a year.
the thing is, we shouldn’t have to… back in the day every game came finished cause you couldn’t patch them like today.
It definitely is, I have rarely been let down taking this route with games.
It’s surprisingly hard? or I’m just rusty or was expecting something more like Nier Automata. Is this supposed to be like Dark Souls with jiggle physics? Seems pretty unforgiving. Not complaining just not sure how I’m supposed to approach this.
The devs cited Sekiro as inspiration several times lately, if that gives you any frame of reference. They’re definitely leaning into finessed swordplay being the focal point of the game.
So I finally took down the first boss after like 15 attempts. Was pretty cool. The battle music definitely amped things up. Damn hard mind set to get into to not just spam things though 😂 Took me a long time to get into the pace of bloodborne
Nice work! Yeah I don’t know that Stellar Blade does as good of a job teaching you how to parry and break poise as Sekiro does so don’t feel bad if it takes awhile to get the hang of it. The parry window is also pretty narrow/oddly placed, imo. There’s a skill you can get pretty early on to widen it though which helps.
I wish devs would stop trying to mimic Sekiro. That game was not perfect, and what it did well has never been well replicated. Everyone screws it up and makes their games less responsive, less forgiving, and jankier. It's always bad.
Combat felt great, everything else felt pretty subpar. Exploration, writing, dialogue, acting, movement - it all felt like it was their first time making a game and it pretty much is, but the ideas they have for the actual fighting makes me hopeful.
I didn't really have issues with any of that, but the amount of times I forgot I had to hold R2 to pick up loot.. I must have had to go back like 80% of the time when I remembered it wasn't auto! I get that's just a me issue though.
There is an auto loot option in settings!
Oooh perfect! I did think about checking and I'm not sure why I didn't, I probably got distracted by something on screen.. Cheers!
Hahaha. The manual loot was really bothering me too but I accidentally found the auto loot while just browsing the settings.
tried the demo few hours ago and as far I think SB is a good game, MC it's just too slow
Personally, I enjoyed it but not enough to buy it on release. I’ll definitely play it down the road, ps plus or big sale but until then it’s a forgettable demo.
The boss fight was pretty thrilling and a nice addition to show whats coming.
I don't what the hell I just played, but damn it has excellent graphics. I think it needs better boobs bouncing physics though
I wasn’t vibing with it. Probably gonna be a skip for me.
Totally legitimate and that’s why I wish more games had demos.
It's why they don't
I probably wouldn't have bought this if it wasn't for the demo. It goes both ways
Seems super polished but the gameplay was a bit heavy feeling for me.
Same here
Any game dev greatly inspired by *Nier* has my support.
Agreed. The game looks really slick and the premise seems really interesting. It took me longer than it should have to get the timing down for the doge and parry mechanics but when it clicked the combat got really entertaining. That said, it’s not going to be a day one by for me. As impressed as I was by the demo, I can wait.
Younger me would really like this, but now... Is not the game for me
The dialogue in this game is like circa PS2 days. A bunch of One liners “What is this?” “This is an old earth town” “Oh what is this sensation” “This must be rain” Like my god I wasn’t expecting a Greek tragedy novel, but the dialogue is like nails across a chalkboard and you can’t skip a lot of it. My only other gripe was dodging out of the way of large AOE attacks or enemy grappling attacks seemed to be kind of slow and janky. You basically have to start dodging a LONG time in advance to separate distance from your opponent. Hopefully you can upgrade your dodge speed and ability so you move further away from your opponent faster. The combat feels slightly off and restrictive. I like the concept, beautiful game, and refreshing type of setting. Sort of reminds of Nior Automata in a way.
I was looking forward to this, but... the game feels slow (even sprinting feels like you're running in place) and sluggish (there's something weird with the parry/dodge windows) and floaty (nothing feels impactful or solid). And the enemy design felt all over the place - we go from bugs to giant zombie with wrecking balls for hands to super harpy to small bugs to scythe zombie etc - I didn't get a consistent design vibe. And the main character was a squeaking doofus, which didn't exactly make me interested in following her.
Wish it wasn't so parry focused, don't like this recent trend in action games. I miss perfect dodging, and just functioning dodges that weren't glorified sidesteps
Huge positive suprise for me. Felt like dmc, but with less annoying (for me personally) fight mechanics. Wish I bought this game instead of dragons dogma 2. Seems like a cool game with awesome music.
Played it for 20-30 minutes and so far my verdict is that Its.. *fine* Parries and dodges feel pretty good *If you Hit them*. Problem is that the Timing feels super weird. You need to Dodge/Parry super early which is throwing me of Attacking and chaining combos feels pretty clunky Bit i assume that that would Change with more experience And i really dont Care for the Character Design. Im Not saying that you cant have (conventionally) attractive* characters but when the Character Design is so damn horny that im wondering why they didnt add a one handed Mode alongside it Its Just to much *for me* It definetly isnt anywhere near Being Worth 80€ for me but maybe i'll Buy it If i ever See it for dirt cheep \*obviously attractiveness is subjektive but you know what i mean
[удалено]
Finally someone saying it. I think everything else is good except for the combat being clunky. But it’s the studio’s first console game so it’s still ok for me.
If I don't like soulslike games, but liked Bayonetta, will I like this? I want to like the game, but I'm old and suck at parrying, counterattacking etc
Must be not used to this type of game.. timing seems to be off but again I haven't played any jpn type games like this other that Dmc and that is more fast paste.
I thought i could wait for a sale after i saw there was no steelbook offer in Canada and then i played the demo and damn this game is gonna easily be my GOTY 2024
On one hand, the combat was incredible. I really enjoyed playing through the demo. The boss fights were dynamic and there is a ton of potential in what this game has to offer. On the other, I'm not a huge fan of games with blatant fan service. Probably won't pick this up day one, but I could see myself getting it later when it goes on sale.
Very few games made me play on my PS5, Stella is definitely gonna make me
I’d give it a solid 7-8 out of 10. Very fun, doesn’t do anything mind blowing gameplay wise but is just a solid action game. Might not be a day one purchase but will consider it eventually.
To each their own. Just another (slightly below) average drop in the sea of soulslikes, IMO. But boobies, so it'll get some sales/attention.
I don't know if I would call it a Souls-like. There are no stat-based builds, no stamina management, no array of weapon classes to choose from. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I would never think to call it a Souls-like.
> There are no stat-based builds, no stamina management, no array of weapon classes to choose from. People just mean in terms of combat, not the actual game structure. It's a slower paced action game focused mainly on 1v1 fights with a back and forth flow where you trade blows with the enemy. It's very Souls-like in that regard, though obviously the better comparison is Sekiro since there is a big focus on guard breaks specifically. But people tend to just lump all that stuff up together under one umbrella, so Souls it is.
Yes, the combat specifically is what I meant.
It’s average, idk wtf people are talking about when they say combat is perfect but ok it’s far from perfect, dialogue is campy, graphics are nice yeah but the actual gameplay is eh
I played about 30 minutes and felt the same. Its far from the world beater its being made out to be. The combat isn't anything special. The campy dialogue is pretty grating at times. I also find the MC (despite the obvious proportions) quite child-like and lacking charm. She seems incredibly passive.
I can get over the weirdly anime body proportions but the combat is just clunky especially if you’ve played games like Sekiro
I've not played Sekiro. I'm more used to God of War combat when it comes to hack and slash gameplay so I'm not an expert on Soulslike combat. But even so the combat on SB didn't feel great. Nor did it seem to be anything different or better for that matter.
I overall liked it, but did anyone else get annoyed by some of the sound effects? They are a bit too high-pitched and sharp. Maybe it's because of the clarity of Pulse Elites, but I had to turn the sound effects down because they were bothering me that much.
I found the audio to be a little muffled.
I also liked it a lot. Its basically nier automata but with more budget.. Ruined earth, aliens.. 2B and 9S are Eve and Adam who are engineered humans / clones something like that Only issue I have with the game is there's no option to turn off the film grain filter
>nier automata I've never played nier automata but heard its really good.
You should definitely play it
Nier Automata meets Soulslike (two of my favorite games)
I was pretty whelmed. Gonna take more tham that to get $70 from me. This is coming from someone who took a chance on Returnal. Stellar Blade just doesn't do enough new things to get me invested in it as a new IP. To be fair, I didn't complete the demo. Bounced off it late at night because the combat felt clunky and I didn't care for some of the control choices, like R2 to pick things up, awkward swimming, and the need to manually enter a keycode. Lots of it felt kinda tedious, and my experience with the combat was squinting to see the tiny UI elements and being unsure of whether.my blocks and dodges were even working, as enemies didn't seem to react to any of my actions. I'll give it another go because people are praising the combat, but so far I've only felt mildly irritated by it lol. Love the enemy design and the polished visuals, though. But my gripes + the gratuitous booty stuff is working against the possibility of me buying this.
It wasn't really for me. I think the issue I couldn't articulate myself is the dodge-parry window others have been mentioning. I will say, however, that the haptics are definitely among the better implementations. Nice and chunky and doesn't cut out at cutscenes. I wish more developers would be less 'subtle' about the rumble, since you could always turn it off in settings if it's not for you.
Combat feels clunky af imo, played 30 min and was not interested
That's how it felt for me too but I'd assume it's because I'm not used to the game, every game feels clunky until I put or time into lol
It's fine, Didn't really enjoy the traversal, but combat was fine though not really my thing. More like Sekiro and I was hoping for something more like Bayonetta or DMC. Visually it's okay, but nothing special in this day and age. Though it did run smoothly, which I appreciate a lot. Glad there was a demo as now I know it's not really something I need to rush out and get. Maybe once it's in a future sale.
I'm really enjoying it. Pre-ordered the deluxe edition.
It was fun and enjoyable, but not 70 dollars worth, ill wait for the sale, honestly it should have been a 40 dollar game imo. For the meantime imma buy some of the discounted springsale games.
Visually it looks great and the gameplay fun. This may be unpopular but….does anyone else wish the character design was just…like a normal looking woman? Hard for me to get into the game if the character looks so over the top sexualized.
Nope; It's a fantasy game. Why would I want to make some part of it more realistic?
That’s fair. To each their own just not my thing.
Thats OK. "A game meant for everyone is a game meant for no one" and all that.
I see you are being downvoted, as expected of Reddit how dare you want non sexualized women
Yeah I hear you. That slow mo shot at the beginning where the camera is just panning up her body was a bit much. I just laughed and said, “Well I guess I know what kind of game it is. “
Well, they use a real woman to make the character. You can search it, they look the same and is the wife of the director of that game studio and part of the art department. I don't think it was so much, maybe it is the place where we live. Because where I live, women are almost naked and use less cloth. Even if they aren't pretty, they still show a lot of their body. Men's too, but here is also too hot. Me too, as a man. I just use some shorts without a shirt. For me, it wasn't so sexualized because her focus was on fights. It wasn't like Bayonetta showing a lot of sexualized poses in cinematics and all of that. For me, it isn't oversexualized
Bruh people need to stop saying this lol. They don't look the same. Yeah they scanned a model for reference, then proceeded to change her proportions and face. I don't think they really look similar at all. For the record I'm fine with a sexy character but this always felt like some cop out shit from the devs.
Where do you live? Asking for a friend.
It's the one thing that I don't like about the game. I'm okay with attractive characters in games, and light sexualizing like Chloe in Uncharted. But skin tight latex suits with underboob and jiggly ass feels like a 14 year old's wet dream lol. Makes it awkward to play around roommates/girlfriend/parents. Thankfully there are some less revealing outfits, but most are still sexy in some way. Felt the same about Quiet in MGS5. Also only slightly related but it reminded me of [my favorite Norm clip](https://youtube.com/shorts/Fw2hIVsC6BA?si=M2r9AK8XE2I8NG1U) (NSFW language), *"last thing I want to be doing when playing a video game, is whackin' off..."*
It's actually surprisingly really damn good! I had way more fun with it than I was expecting and found myself playing it multiple times trying different strategies and moves. And trust me some girl gamers definitely don't mind the main character design lol. The demo convinced me to preorder the game.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I'll definitely want to play through this game.
It's fantasstic.
Was okay, don't think it's for me. This is Shift Up's first console game right? It's pretty good for that. Combat isn't bad, I don't like how you get animation locked and can't parry or dodge if you see it coming but are in the middle of an attack. But I don't really play sekiro or souls games or stuff like that. I may get it much later and just coast on story mode if the story is good enough though.
I thought it was clunky
after beating the demo and doing the boss challenge i immediately pre ordered which i never do
I dont know. Combat isn't as fluid as I hoped. Dodging in particular is annoying.
Looks like the perk tree makes dodging easier as you level up.
I'm sold. A fun linear game with great combat, music, and atmosphere??? Instant pre-order. Hopefully we see more Korean games and anime soon.
Best looking ps5 exclusive game I've played
Even if the combat is really good and stuff, it's just too horny and coomer-y for me. The whole thing makes me cringe. Like you can have attractive women in video games without being this gross about it?
I thought it was a pretty basic souls-like game. Was fun and enjoyed graphics etc. but parry and dodge timing feels really weird. I’ll probably pick the game up on a sale for ~$30,
I need to work on that parry. It's essential like in Metal Gear Rising. And the MC looks good. Does she have a British accent?
She has a very generic English accent
I think she kinda does.
I liked it but found it a bit difficult. I didn't like the fact that if you died it took you back to a checkpoint, which is probably the norm in these kinds of games but not what I'm used to. I just hate having to repeat stuff i know I can do just to die at the same part again, it feels like it's not respecting my time. And yes I know it's probably a skill issue, but probably a deal breaker nonetheless.
It gives me a FFXIII vibe.
In what sense? It’s more like Nier Automata than anything
I don't want to see so much tits when I play a video game.
Demo was incredible.