GamesActionStellar BladeStellar Blade is basically a PS2 game, and I mean that as a complimentWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesActionStellar BladeStellar Blade is basically a PS2 game, and I mean that as a complimentWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Shift Up)
About 10 minutes into my first encounter with Stellar Blade, I had a sudden very strong sense of deja vu. I hadn’t played the game before, I hadn’t seen much footage at all, but while guiding Eve through those desolate post-apocalyptic streets, I had a distinct feeling I’d been here before, and not because I used to live in Hemel Hempstead. A few minutes later, while battling one of the first major enemies I’d encountered, it dawned on me: Stellar Blade is a PS2 game. Not literally, of course, but in terms of its look, feel and general vibe. Many years ago, I was a regular writer for Official PlayStation 2 Magazine and I reviewed alotof games on that wonderful machine – and something about Stellar Blade felt like returning to it. Then I went on Twitter and found that a lot of people were saying the same thing.
But why? Designer Kim Hyung Tae has talked about modern titles such as Sekiro and Nier as key reference points. So what is it about this game that’s taking us all back twenty years?
Hack and slash
(Image credit: Shift Up)
There’s an obvious overarching answer: Stellar Blade is essentially a hack and slash character action game and that sub-genre reached its absolute peak in the PlayStation 2 era. At the time, the machine’s powerful Emotion Engine CPU gave developers the ability to construct detailed explorable worlds and densely textured character models – however, the conventions of the modern open-world action role-playing game hadn’t yet been established. Instead, many studios were combining modern advances in 3D visuals with the gameplay traditions they already knew - namely the frenetic close-quarters combat of the 1980s and 1990s scrolling brawlers. Hence, the 3D hack and slash/character action genre.
Stellar Blade review(Image credit: Shift Up)Stellar Blade review: “A good action-RPG that I enjoyed a lot despite several issues”
Stellar Blade review
(Image credit: Shift Up)Stellar Blade review: “A good action-RPG that I enjoyed a lot despite several issues”
(Image credit: Shift Up)
Stellar Blade review: “A good action-RPG that I enjoyed a lot despite several issues”
There were titles which, like Stella Blade, brought in RPG elements, such as cult hits Drakengard and The Sword of Etheria. There were also a lot of games I played back then that almost no one will remember now - Nanobreaker, Swords of Destiny, Samurai Western – games that were flawed but interesting takes on the hack-and-slash recipe of melee combat, combos and boss battles, and which I have weirdly recalled while playing Stellar Blade.
(Image credit: Capcom)
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PS2-era nostalgia
(Image credit: Shift Up)
“Mostly though, what Stella Blade gives us is a wistful snapshot of the early 2000s as a time of creative, experimental and idiosyncratic hack-and-slash adventures.”
“Mostly though, what Stella Blade gives us is a wistful snapshot of the early 2000s as a time of creative, experimental and idiosyncratic hack-and-slash adventures.”
Beneath the visual comparisons, Stellar Blade’s combat system also has similarities with the hack and slash titles of the early 2000s. It’s a compact yet complex set of mechanics, mostly using two button inputs, but still rife with upgradeable movesets. In the heat of battle, the fluidity of movement, the chaining of combos, the explosive excess of visual hit markers all scream PS2 character action greats. As in Devil May Cry, the power of ranged weapons is somewhat scaled down so that they fit in more comfortably beside the mostly melee-based system – an awareness of offensive balance evolved from 1980s brawlers where weapons were usually only available as pick-ups with limited ammo. What Stellar Blade does however, is add texture to these old systems, taking a lot of inspiration from the games of Hidetaka Miyazaki, so parrying, dodging and memorizing are more important here than they ever were in the PS2 era (unless you were playing the likes of Way of the Samurai or Shinobi).
Mostly though, what Stella Blade gives us is a wistful snapshot of the early 2000s as a time of creative, experimental and idiosyncratic hack-and-slash adventures. It’s a game with combat and visual style at the forefront, and where narrative is merely a hurried set-up for high octane fight scenes and eye-popping architecture. I do miss those games. I miss weird Japanese brawlers such as Godhand and Warriors Orochi, and I miss the Western titles – Legacy of Kain, Primal, God of War – that took on the same focused, balletic energy. We’ve gained so much in the last two decades, but sometimes all those open worlds with their intricate and precise world-building, their deep lore and complicated characters can become exhausting. That’s why I felt such a pang of nostalgia in the first few minutes with Stellar Blade – I was back in the Official PlayStation Magazine games room, at the very start of my career in games journalism, loading up preview code, the game titles written in marker pen on gold DVDs, and you never knew what kinetic, mega stylized apocalyptic hellzone you would be chucked into – you just knew it would be fun.
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