Stellar Blade
8.3/10Precise swordplay and spectacular monsters carry an uneven but hugely entertaining journey across a ruined Earth.
Stellar Blade makes a forceful first impression: a doomed landing, impossible creatures pouring through the wreckage, and a heroine whose sword answers every button press with a shower of sparks. The spectacle rarely lets up. Happily, there is a sharp action game underneath it.
Eve's best defence is not distance but timing. Perfect parries strip away an enemy's balance, dodges open brief counters, and special attacks spend energy earned by engaging with those systems. Early fights can feel stiff if you try to cancel every swing. Once the deliberate rhythm settles in, duels become wonderfully tense exchanges. The bosses are the highlight, especially those that mix readable sword patterns with attacks strange enough to make the ruined world feel genuinely alien.
The semi-open wasteland is less consistent. It contains memorable caves, broken highways, and plenty of useful upgrades, but also noticeboards full of errands that ask the saviour of humanity to locate another misplaced object. Movement outside combat lacks the same precision, making a few platforming sections more troublesome than the monsters guarding them.
Stellar Blade's story reaches for questions about memory, identity, and who gets to define a human. Some revelations land; others arrive in stiff conversations that the excellent music cannot entirely rescue. Eve is most convincing in quieter side missions, when she is allowed to observe rather than explain the plot.
None of these flaws erased the pleasure of returning to camp, changing a skill loadout, and taking another attempt at a seemingly impossible boss. The combat is simply too good, and the creature design too extravagant, to dismiss.
Verdict: Uneven in the spaces between battles, but thrilling whenever a blade is drawn. Stellar Blade earns its confidence one perfectly timed parry at a time.
Eve's best defence is not distance but timing. Perfect parries strip away an enemy's balance, dodges open brief counters, and special attacks spend energy earned by engaging with those systems. Early fights can feel stiff if you try to cancel every swing. Once the deliberate rhythm settles in, duels become wonderfully tense exchanges. The bosses are the highlight, especially those that mix readable sword patterns with attacks strange enough to make the ruined world feel genuinely alien.
The semi-open wasteland is less consistent. It contains memorable caves, broken highways, and plenty of useful upgrades, but also noticeboards full of errands that ask the saviour of humanity to locate another misplaced object. Movement outside combat lacks the same precision, making a few platforming sections more troublesome than the monsters guarding them.
Stellar Blade's story reaches for questions about memory, identity, and who gets to define a human. Some revelations land; others arrive in stiff conversations that the excellent music cannot entirely rescue. Eve is most convincing in quieter side missions, when she is allowed to observe rather than explain the plot.
None of these flaws erased the pleasure of returning to camp, changing a skill loadout, and taking another attempt at a seemingly impossible boss. The combat is simply too good, and the creature design too extravagant, to dismiss.
Verdict: Uneven in the spaces between battles, but thrilling whenever a blade is drawn. Stellar Blade earns its confidence one perfectly timed parry at a time.