Stellar Blade: Everything We Know About the Upcoming Sci-Fi ARPG
Mar. 10, 2024Stellar Blade: Everything We Know About the Upcoming Sci-Fi ARPG
Stellar Blade unfolds in a post-apocalyptic Earth, a desolate wasteland with little remaining human life in the not-too-distant future. Earth was once a bustling hub of civilization and progress, but now lies in ruins, a shadow of its former self after being overrun by alien invaders known as the Naytiba. These extraterrestrials forced the majority of humanity to flee Earth, who now live in colonies throughout outer space. You will play as the main protagonist EVE 07 (also known as Eve), a soldier of the Eve Defense Force. As a member of the elite squad, she has been tasked with an impossible feat: to reclaim Earth from the clutches of the Naytiba by defeating the elder Naytiba, the linchpins of the alien occupation, as well as quelling the rampant malfunctioning machines left behind by Humanity that scour the wastelands.
In her journey, she will encounter various companions, such as Lily, an engineer who can upgrade Eves equipment, or Adam, a gigachad survivor who becomes her guide, leading her to Xion: The last bastion of mankind on Earth. The city of Xion is a reminder of what was, what could have been and what was lost, standing as a contrast to the surrounding desolate desert wasteland, and providing a safe haven for the remnants of human society. This city will likely be the central hub, where Eve meets unique survivors that she can interact with.
Survivors of Earth appear to be heavily cybernetic, with strange cyborg mouth guards, masks, and bodies modified likely by necessity rather than choice. As a result of being “toughened out” by the wasteland, most of these survivors are extremely cautious of Eve at first, refusing to sell her merchandise and generally scorning her. However, as you progress in the game, survivors will eventually come to trust you as they recognize your genuine efforts to save humanity.
But, It’s not just the survivors in Xion who change with developments in the story; Eve will also be subject to significant changes. She starts off as a soldier, almost robotic in her demeanour and purpose, but through her experiences and interactions, she starts to exhibit a sort of “human” evolution, gaining expression and showcasing emotion. Again, this aspect seems to be reminiscent of the character development seen in characters like 2B from Nier.
The last thing to touch upon about this story is the seemingly large religious undertone in which everything takes place, with many allusions to Christianity. The most profound example we can see so far is the somewhat biblically accurate angel we can see hovering over one of the space colonies in the first trailer, destroying it and throwing Eve outside. The other more nuanced innuendos include the main characters being named Adam and Eve, the main city name being only 1 character off from Zion, the City of Holiness in the Bible, and Eve coming down to earth from space to help Adam. It’s all in all very interesting theology which was actually also present in Nier, so it will be exciting to see exactly how it all comes together in the upcoming story.
Apart from the clear inspiration in setting and overall atmosphere from Nier: Automata, Stellar Blade’s gameplay also takes a lot of inspiration from other modern classics in gaming. For example, the CEO of Shift Up has stated that God of War taught him that “ you can experience a vast world without being completely open-world”, a feature which has been brought into Stellar Blade, making it a Semi-Open world. Other inspirations that the CEO lists are Bayonetta, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, all of which being present in some form within the game.
The genre of Stellar Blade is being labelled as a Hack and Slash action adventure with some RPG elements. Given the nature of the game being a fast paced hack and slash, Shift Up is adding an option to adjust the difficulty level, so that both ninja gaiden pros and your average joe can find a challenge suited to their taste. We can expect approximately 25 hours of content in the main storyline, with an additional 50 hours available from the side content.
The general gameplay format is about what you would expect from what youve seen in the trailer; players can accept various quests throughout Xion and uncover the many hidden mysteries that the ruins of humanity holds outside of the city. There are request boards that ask the player to take on lighter jobs like “Find the Cat,” where players search for a cute black cat to earn 1000 gold, as well as more significant missions like survivors asking Eve to gather Hyper Cells, the vital energy cells sustaining the remnants of Xion.
You can also expect to be able to buy merchandise from vendors in the city. As mentioned before, the inhabitants of Xion may be initially wary of the player, refusing to sell their goods to them and generally expressing contempt, but will loosen up as you demonstrate their commitment to rebuilding the city and assisting its people. It’s possible that taking upon certain requests and making certain decisions will further impact your standing with these people, possibly unlocking even more merchandise or getting discounts etc.
Once you are outside the city completing requests or the main quest, there will be a complementary camping system to go along with the semi-open world exploration. These camps are remnants of the previous squad attempting to defeat the Naytibas, and allow Eve to create checkpoints throughout the world. Resting at them is not unlike a bonfire in Souls, replenishing Eve’s HP, and her supplies from her stock. In the camp you can also purchase items from vending machines, and upgrade various aspects of Eve’s combat capabilities.
In exploration, you can come across numerous remnants of man made structures, rabid malfunctioning robots, Naytibas, other survivors and possibly other landmark locations. Alongside your exploration will be some kind of scanner drone companion, which can uncover hidden areas in the environment and can help in solving puzzles throughout Earth. For traversal, there seems to be a little bit of platforming and parkour, including the ability to double jump, swing across poles, and use a sword as a skateboard, although this last one may just be specific to a certain fight sequence. We may see other forms of navigation later on, but for now we can assume the game will mostly be on foot.
A significant gameplay aspect of Stellar Blade is also its attention to character design, particularly regarding Eve. She is basically a style icon, with a pretty face and a body based off of a real Korean Supermodel, and a behind which apparently is said to have had “special attention” put on it when designing her model. To complement her stylish appearance, there are going to be around 30 different costumes for Eve alone, changing her appearance significantly, as well as confirmed outfits for Adam and Lily coming soon. These have no real connection to the narrative or gameplay, so you will be able to wear what you like the most without having to worry about armour stats and whatnot.
The combat system of Stellar Blade will be comparable to the likes of Devil May Cry, with a wide range of attack strategies and personalization. The game provides you with a choice of different combos and skills, allowing you to craft a unique fighting style that suits your own gameplay preferences.
To start, let’s go over what you can see in the interface. The combat interface includes four primary metres on the bottom left: Beta Energy Gauge (BE), Burst Gauge (BU), Health Points (HP), and an SH meter, which is possibly Shield. The BE Gauge is used for executing your 4 special skills you can see on the bottom right of the screen. As you can probably guess, you charge this meter by striking enemies with basic attacks, successful dodges, or parrying attacks by memorising enemy attack patterns or by unlocking the inner Ninja Gaiden pro within you. The BU Gauge is similarly charged from parrying enemy attacks and executing combos, which can be used to gain temporary buffs or execute unique moves, which are likely the “cutscene moves” we could see from time to time in the trailers.
On the left of all those Gauges and HP, you can also see two equippable item slots, where you can put useful combat gadgets or healing items. The small glimpse of the arsenal we saw included grenades such as shock grenades, pulse grenades and sonic grenades, as well as some healing item potions and unique gadgets, like a “biotic field generator”.
Moving on to skills, you can unlock and enhance skills through a skill tree, with different trees available to upgrade such as the Attack tree and the Beta tree. These trees have been said to cater to different playstyles—such as whether you favour speed, recovery, or defence—allowing you to build Eves combat capabilities to your own liking. The animations and attacks shown are usually a flurry of slashes as well as 360-degree attacks, a Vergil judgement cut move and in general a variation of slicing something fast. While the combat is primarily focused on blade-centric hack-and-slash action with these skills and your equipment, it also incorporates some third-person shooting, with different types of guns available in the game, like laser guns or just normal guns.
There will also be a Gear and equipment system that allows Eve to equip some kind of defensive items without changing her cosmetic appearance. There aren’t any concrete details on this yet, but we can see from the upgrade screen that there are upgrades for Attack Power, Tumbler and adding a Gear slot, as well as upgrades for Eves drone and Exospine, which is likely her main armour stat reducing damage from enemies.
Speaking of enemies, “Stellar Blade” features quite a grotesque array of adversaries. The Naytibas—monstrous, rabid creatures with fleshly designs— will be the main enemy force of the game. They have various designs from small dog-like monsters to massive biblically correct angels, and do not seem limited at all in shape or form, so we can expect a lot of variety. We also know there will be rampant malfunctioning robots, including rifle-wielding robots and large humanoid robots armed with sawblades. Even hostile survivors pose a threat, with some living in the wasteland outside of Xion attacking Eve during exploration.
To summarise, the overall combat of Stellar Blade seems like a relatively simple system, taking known formulas and executing them with extra style, making every move feel flashy and impactful.
With about 5 years of development, Shift Up are finally ready to release their first AAA game to the market, and as a PS5 exclusive nonetheless. What they have shown is impressive, promising something like a Nier: Automata 2 with its own unique spin on art style and gameplay direction. Its going to be interesting to see exactly how the game fully fleshes out its alien setting, biblically accurate angels, flashy Bayonetta style combat and the general core gameplay, because if done right, it has the potential to be one of the best PS5 exclusives Sony has put out. I will definitely be keeping up to date with it!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
