Stellar Blade

1. Summary

Stellar Blade's reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and the praise starts with the combat: a parry-and-dodge system with Sekiro's rhythm and the combos and flash of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, which comes up in 29% of all reviews. Players also praise the visuals and animation, the soundtrack, boss fights that get better as the game goes on, a large wardrobe of outfits earned by playing rather than bought, and a PC port that runs well on mid-range hardware and handhelds. A recurring joke is that people came for Eve's looks and stayed for the gameplay.

Most complaints are about what surrounds the combat. The two big open areas are both deserts and feel empty. Traversal and platforming are floaty and unreliable. Side quests are mostly fetch jobs, cutscenes often can't be skipped, and collecting everything takes three playthroughs. The combat has critics of its own, who describe animation lock, input delay and messy group fights. The story divides people: critics call it predictable and heavily borrowed from NieR: Automata, while more reviews call it good or interesting, and a few say the lore and endings moved them. Many thumbs-up reviews come with a list of cons, and advice to buy it on sale comes from both sides.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Parry-driven combat that feels great once it clicksHigh

Combat, parrying or dodging comes up in 29% of all reviews. Players describe chaining perfect parries and "blink" and "repulse" dodges into Beta and Burst skills and flashy finishers, some call a fight "a dance", and one sums the game up as "Sekiro and Nier: Automata had a baby". Many say the system only opens up after the first few hours, once the skill tree fills in, and that it rewards learning attack patterns instead of mashing. The praise centers on one-on-one fights; the same players often add that the system breaks down against groups or feels delayed (see the frustrations below). Hundred-hour veterans still praise the skill ceiling, and a few do no-hit or no-sword challenge runs.

Visuals, animation and art directionHigh

About 20% of reviews praise the graphics, animation or art. Players single out the character models and hair physics, elaborate finishing animations, grotesque creature and boss designs, and big set pieces such as the orbital elevator and the final areas. Some are surprised that a UE4 game looks better than recent UE5 releases. The complaint that comes with it is environment variety: several prefer the linear zones to the two sand-colored open maps, and a few call some textures low-resolution or the world "kitbashed".

The soundtrack, from boss themes to camp musicHigh

The music comes up in 18% of reviews. Players praise the NieR-style vocal tracks, the camp music you can pick on a disc player, boss themes (Raven's, Tachy's, Hypertube, Democrawler) and area tracks like Silent Street and Flooded Commercial Sector. Some call it one of the best soundtracks they have heard, and some say they listen to it outside the game. A minority find the short vocal loops in the open areas grating over long stretches and mute them, and a few think upbeat tracks clash with bleak scenes.

Boss fights, especially late and optional onesHigh

Bosses come up in 12% of reviews, often as a highlight. Raven, the final bosses and the Nikke collaboration's optional Scarlet fight get particular praise, and players like the Boss Challenge mode for replaying fights at set difficulties. The caveats sit in other sections: a few bosses are reused, and the difficulty jump at the very end catches some players off guard.

Over 100 outfits, all earned by playingHigh

The outfits come up in 11% of reviews, mostly as a reward system: exploration, side quests and New Game+ keep turning up new suits, hairstyles, glasses and earrings, and reviewers point out that there are no microtransactions or battle pass in a genre full of both. NG+ adds new variants, which gives completionists a reason to replay but is also why a full collection takes three runs (see the frustrations).

A well-optimized PC portMedium

Performance comes up in 9% of reviews. Players report high frame rates on mid-range GPUs, smooth play on Steam Deck and other handhelds, good Linux and Proton support, ultrawide support and modern upscalers, and they often compare it favorably with recent ports that ran badly. A minority had stutter, VRAM limits or crashes instead, covered below.

Replay value: New Game+, multiple endings and boss challengesMedium

Many reviewers mention replaying it, pointing to NG+ with new skills, gear and outfit variants, three endings including a secret one, and Boss Challenge mode. Some 100%-completion players logged 80 to 150 hours.

Extras that add charmLow

Smaller but recurring praise goes to the deep photo mode, a fishing minigame people liked more than they expected, soda-can collectibles with a pickup animation, strong DualSense haptics, accessibility options (story mode, auto-QTE, easy fishing, colorblind modes), open mod support, and a demo whose save carries over.

Where players are split

The story and charactersHigh

Story, plot or writing comes up in 30% of reviews, and praise turns up more often than criticism, although much of the praise is mild: the story is good, or interesting. Critics call the main plot predictable ("A lot of the big twists are the exact beats you've seen before", one writes), find Eve a blank protagonist with no real arc, and complain that big reveals arrive as exposition dumps or are hidden in notes. Fans found the world and lore intriguing, especially those who did the side stories (Enya and Su, Kaya, Lily's affinity arc) and saw the secret ending, and a few say it made them cry. Some fans call it just good enough to support the gameplay, and a few mention that the developers have said the story will get more attention in the sequel.

NieR homage or NieR copy?Medium

NieR comes up in 9.5% of reviews. For many it is praise: the closest thing to a NieR sequel, with better combat and shared composers. For others it is the main charge: the same premise, twists, desert areas and music style, but shallower. Reviews that mention NieR are negative more often than reviews overall.

Difficulty: too easy, too spongy, then a wallMedium

Players disagree on the difficulty, and many describe an uneven curve. Normal can feel easy once skills and the late-game transformation mode are unlocked. Hard mode (later made available from the start) is often described as balanced for NG+, which turns bosses into HP sponges on a first run. The last few bosses are a sharp spike, and some players on story mode hit a wall there too. Souls veterans often call it approachable, players new to the genre call it punishing, and a few say it was a good first "soulslike" for them.

Is it worth full price?Medium

Price comes up in 4% of all reviews but in 14% of negative ones. Supporters say it is a complete package with no microtransactions, worth full price. Critics point to a 30-hour game with padding, a year-old console release priced like a new one, and thin DLC. Advice to buy it on sale comes from both camps.

Collaboration DLCLow

The Nikke DLC is generally liked for its minigames and the Scarlet boss fight. NieR fans like the NieR DLC for the 2B and A2 outfits and the music swap, while some call it "a paid skin pack", overpriced for what is mostly cosmetics.

What frustrates players

Two empty, look-alike desert open areasHigh

19% of negative reviews mention the open areas, about as many as mention platforming. The Wasteland and the Great Desert are both vast, sandy and sparse, and one reviewer suggests calling the game "Desert Blade". Related gripes: enemies with long aggro ranges that cancel your sprint and block every interaction until you fight; fast travel only from some camps and never directly between regions; no map at all in the linear zones, which hurts when side quests send you back; and loot that is mostly crafting materials. Some players say the linear levels are where the game shines and wish there were more of them.

Floaty platforming, traversal and busywork puzzlesHigh

Platforming and movement come up in 18% of negative reviews, and positive reviews raise them too. Eve sometimes won't grab ropes, ledges or ladders, and double jumps sometimes fail to reset. She has a wide turning circle, carries momentum after a jump, and climbs things on her own. Fall damage and instant deaths are inconsistent, and swimming feels sluggish. Laser corridors, conveyor-belt sequences and a triple pole jump near the start are named as trouble spots, and a few players say they died more often to platforming than to enemies. Puzzles that make you slowly push crates or carts, or type in door codes, are called padding.

Combat that sometimes feels sluggish or unfairHigh

Criticism of the combat itself centers on animation lock, inputs that don't register or come out late, combos you can't cancel into a parry or dodge, and a parry that has to be pressed early, which some tie to frame rate or frame generation. Group fights make it worse: enemies attack together, stunlock you, and the lock-on jumps to the wrong target. One reviewer found the most efficient strategy was to "kite enemies until they disengage" and then backstab them. Negative reviews written in the first 10 hours bring up the combat more than anything else, usually to complain about how it feels, and several of them mention a refund. Keyboard and mouse players add awkward default bindings.

Fetch-quest side contentMedium

Side quests appear in 11% of negative reviews. Players describe most bulletin-board jobs as finding a corpse and reporting back or killing a set number of enemies, with rewards of gold or materials they no longer need. The exceptions (character arcs in Xion, quests that open new areas) are good enough that people feel they have to do them all anyway.

Unskippable cutscenes and slow dialogue, even on replaysMedium

Cutscenes come up in 10% of negative reviews. Many can't be skipped or paused on a first run, and some still can't in NG+. Dialogue before shops and certain fights has a delay before you can skip it, and a death can mean watching the same pre-boss scene again. Players replaying for the other endings feel this most.

Flat English voice acting and dialogueMedium

Voice acting gets about as much praise as criticism overall, and the criticism is aimed at the English dub, with several reviews singling out Adam as wooden or annoying. Companions who state the obvious grate on some players; one quotes "I believe this is rain". Dozens of reviews recommend switching to Korean or Japanese audio, and a few defend Eve's English performance.

One save slot, a point of no return, and three runs to see everythingMedium

Players who aim for 100% complain that there is no manual save or chapter select. A point of no return locks you out of side content and missables. Each run can reach only some endings, and outfit variants are spread across NG+ and NG++, so a full collection means three or four playthroughs. This comes up more among players past 50 hours (15% of their negative reviews).

Stutter, crashes and bugs for a minorityMedium

The port is mostly praised, but 9% of negative reviews report problems: traversal stutter and VRAM pressure on 8 GB cards, crashes on area loads or fast travel, a "fatal error" at launch, audio crackle, frame-generation problems on some setups, and occasional soft locks (quest items that don't drop, a blocked train-station exit, the crane keycard hunt). The fixes that circulate (limiting FPS, toggling windowed mode, Resizable BAR) suggest the problems depend on the machine.

Denuvo, PSN prompts and an unannounced patchLow

A smaller group objects to Denuvo DRM (activation lockouts when switching Proton versions, suspected stutter) and to the PlayStation account prompt. A handful say a roughly 4 GB patch in August 2026 arrived with no patch notes and broke their mods.

Hand-holding and yellow paintLow

Some players dislike the painted ledges, companions who give away puzzle solutions immediately, and hints that can't be turned off.

One weapon and thin buildsLow

Some players want more weapons or deeper builds. You keep a single sword all game, the gear and exospine slots are mostly flat stat boosts, and late skill points go unspent.

No FOV sliderLow

A few players report motion sickness and ask for a field-of-view option.

3. The player conversation

A large share of reviews are casual one-liners, memes and jokes, and 80 reviews use some version of "came for" one thing and "stayed for" another, usually Eve's looks and then the gameplay. The longer reviews are more mixed than the 94% positive rate suggests: many thumbs-up reviews come with long lists of cons, and some thumbs-down reviews open by praising the combat and music. Few people call it a bad game. The disagreement is between people who think the combat carries everything and people for whom the padding, traversal and writing outweigh it.

What people complain about changes with time played. Negative reviews written in the first 10 hours bring up how the combat feels more than anything else, along with input delay and crashes. Players in the 10 to 50 hour range write most of the negative reviews and cite the desert open areas, platforming, the NieR comparison, price and side quests. Negative reviews past 50 hours still raise the combat and story, and add the three-run structure, save limits, hard mode's balance and the late difficulty spike.

Weekly sentiment barely moved. Launch week in June 2025 was 93.8% positive. The week of November 24, 2025 brought 1,703 reviews at 98.2% positive, mostly short Steam Awards nomination posts, and it makes up about 17% of the reviews. Through 2026 the game-focused weekly rating mostly stayed around 90 to 95% positive, with renewed interest when the sequel was revealed in mid-2026.

4. What the developers could do

1. Make combat inputs more responsive and group fights fairer. Animation lock, a parry that has to be pressed early, un-cancellable combos and chaotic multi-enemy fights with an unreliable lock-on are the main complaints about the combat, and combat feel is what negative reviews in the first 10 hours raise most.
2. Make the open areas less empty and easier to get around. 19% of negative reviews mention the open areas, criticizing the two look-alike deserts, aggro that stops sprinting, limited fast travel between camps and regions, and the lack of maps in linear zones.
3. Make traversal reliable and cut the busywork puzzles. Missed ledge and rope grabs, double jumps that don't reset, inconsistent fall damage, sluggish swimming and slow crate-pushing puzzles frustrate players, and a few say platforming killed them more often than enemies did.
4. Let players skip and pause every cutscene, and speed up dialogue on replays. Unskippable scenes and slow dialogue skips come up in 10% of negative reviews and hurt most on the NG+ runs that the ending and outfit structure requires.
5. Add save slots or a chapter select for endings and missables. Completionists ask not to replay the whole game three times to see every ending and collect outfit variants locked behind a point of no return.
6. Give side quests more substance and better rewards. Players praise the few character-driven quests but call most bulletin-board jobs fetch errands that pay out in materials they no longer need.
7. Fix stutter and crashes, and communicate patches. A minority reports VRAM stutter, load-time crashes and soft locks, and players criticized an unannounced 4 GB patch that shipped without notes and broke mods.
8. Revisit the price and the value of the NieR DLC. 14% of negative reviews cite price, and positive reviews also advise waiting for a sale.