Is it worth playing Stellar Blade in 2025?

Stellar Blade is the first console project developed by South Korea's Shift Up. The game was universally praised for all the right and wrong reasons. Sony Interactive Entertainment supported director Kim Hyung Tae's vision and released the title exclusively on the PlayStation 5 last year.

The game director spent nearly a decade working on this ambitious project, and the wait was worth it. After carefully studying how the general gaming community thinks and reacts, Kim knows what they wanted and delivered a great game worth revisiting in 2025 and beyond.

Disclaimer: Some aspects of this article reflect the writer's subjective views and opinions about the game.

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Stellar Blade is a much faster paced Soulslike adjacent experience

The gaming community immediately fell in love with Eve and the lore (Image via Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Kim Hyung Tae made a few controversial choices about Stellar Blade, and it was the kind of publicity that made a few gamers interested. Players walk in the shoes of Eve, a warrior sent from space to reclaim Earth from an ancient race of creatures known as the Naytiba. The premise of the game essentially paints Eve as the savior of the human race until she discovers the cold-hearted truth.

The Colony dispatches Eve and a few others as its final hope of saving Earth from the enemy. Unfortunately, their invasion is cut short after a surprise attack, leaving Eve as the lone survivor.

A human named Adam rescues Eve and then brings her to Xion, the last remnant of human civilization. Orcal, the leader of Xion, reveals what must be done to exterminate the Naytiba threat. This involves a tedious fetch quest to collect Hyper Cells from various bosses to create the Master Core.

Adam accompanies Eve in her mission to collect the Hyper Cells and makes new friends along the way, like Lily. Unfortunately, Eve has to kill an old friend of hers, Tachy, who survived the ambush but was transformed into an Alpha Neytiba carrying a Hyper Cell.

Throughout the journey, Adam and Eve uncover a recording from a member of the Colony known as Raven, who drops a major bombshell revealing the Neytibas were the original humans and are now advanced human-like androids. After the revelation, Eve is still determined to end the conflict between the warring factions.

The gaming community praised the daring character design and smooth gameplay in Stellar Blade and was pleased about the Soulslike genre's influence on the project.

The story is full of twists and turns. However, it is one of the weaker aspects of Stellar Blade since Shift Up was more focused on the gameplay. Having said that, the challenging combat compensates for the shortcomings of the narrative.

Players can allot their skill points to different skills and even have the freedom to restart from scratch by moving them to other categories. This is a clever way for Shift Up to accommodate players with different playstyles and to spice up the combat experience through a trial by fire and let the player decide how to proceed.

Aside from the challenging combat, some players were extremely excited to have a front-row seat to see the bold and daring character designs. Kim stated that he had no malicious intent while drawing these provocative looks; however, his goal was to show the world how powerful women can be, and it is up to individual interpretation if he succeeded or not.

Stellar Blade is one of the cleanest and flashiest current-generation games to grace the PlayStation 5 (Image via Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Many titles fail to satisfy the gaming community with disappointing enemy variants with similar weaknesses and whatnot. Shift Up included a healthy amount of enemies for players to slay with different attack patterns and challenge themselves even further. Kim wanted to give players a familiar experience but was bold enough to introduce something in a different setting.

Unlike other Soulslike games, Stellar Blade has a few difficulty options, but it can be quite challenging even on the easiest difficulty. Players must quickly learn the ropes to progress the storyline or take their time to get accustomed to the combat mechanics to be the best they can be.

The impressive visuals and gameplay are not the only aspects worth admiring; Keiichi Okabe composed a great score that can set the mood during a fight. Some fans were bothered that the score was snubbed in various award shows, but Okabe did not hold back and made something great for an equally great game.

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Conclusion

Stellar Blade is a breath of fresh air for the genre (Image via Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Shift Up took a gamble by leaping from the mobile gaming space to developing a triple-A game for one of the biggest names in the industry. Sony knew Kim's dream was a winner and supported it, as the company always had.

Stellar Blade can be viewed as a faster-paced Soulslike, and it is perfect for people interested in this futuristic vibe and combat system. The game is available on the PlayStation 5, and with a PC port coming this year, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replay it on a high-end gaming rig.