Stellar blade had launched in April of this year and had raving reviews mainly praising it’s in-depth aggressive and rewarding gameplay, people mainly focusing on the parry system they had implemented akin to Sekiro but just as satisfying. It was Developed by Shift Up who previously made Goddess of Victory, a third person shooter released in 2022 and a card game that was released for mobile platforms.
Shift Up has earned the respect of many gamers and members of the industry for the performance of Stellar Blade and the clear amount of work they put into the mechanics and environment detail.
It Came Out Of Nowhere
Stellar blade wasn’t on anyone’s radar until its release date, after which there were multiple articles and videos showcasing all the different kinds of boss battles, the special moves the main character could do, dodge mechanisms and of course the parry system. It sometimes seems like the most important thing a game needs to become successful is to have enjoyable gameplay since everyone never fails to mention the stuttering story.
It quickly became one of the highest rated games on Metacritic and had sold over 1 million copies on PS5. Now while one million copies sold may not seem like a lot but considering this is Shift up’s first console game and an exclusive it is still a considerable achievement.
Their Next Releases Might Be In Unreal Engine 5
According to the recent job postings from Shift Up, they are planning to produce their upcoming releases on Unreal Engine 5 meaning that the sequel and their upcoming IPs could look as visually stunning as Black Myth: Wukong or Hellblade 2.
Around June the company’s CFO had explained that new skins for Eve, the protagonist of the game will be available around October of this year and a “large collaboration” is being planned for the end of 2024, it was also stated that a PC release is being worked on and paid DLCs are being considered.
There is no doubt that a PC release for Stellar Blade would sky rocket Shift Up’s sales number due to how much it was praised for its console release and since a sequel is being planned it could be the start of a franchise for Shift Up, it could be considered a blueprint on how to make an impression on the games industry. The game is not without its flaws but its gameplay and performance more than make up for its miniscule shortcomings.
What This “Large Collaboration” Could Be
There is a lot of speculation on this “large Collaboration” with a lot of speculation of it being a collaboration with Yoko Taro’s “Nier” series which was a huge inspiration for Stellar Blade, to the point that they hired the same composer who did the music for Nier Automata meaning we could get a skin to what 2B wore, weapon skin for 2B’s katana and so much more. Alas, this is still a speculation, it could be something entirely different.
A Stellar Game But Stellar Expectations
This game truly did impress a lot of people with its impressive gameplay and satisfying visuals, while the story wasn’t up to par and at times blatantly obvious, it could not outweigh the pros of the game. A lot of people now are expecting something from Shift Up and considering the quality of work they delivered with Stellar Blade they can only go up from there.
The PC release will surely get a lot more eyes on the title much like how successful Hell Divers 2 was before Sony decided to almost nuke its entire playerbase in order to get more accounts or the multi million dollar loss that is Concord due to its abysmal marketing and the same accounts issue that Hell Divers 2 is faced with.
The sequel to Stellar Blade can address a lot of shortcomings such as the almost non-existent story, the serviceable voice acting and some unpolished mechanics like the use of Eve’s gun which always seemed forced instead of something the player would come to utilize in his or her own way. Addressing these small issues can truly make the sequel reach heights that only a handful of other games have done such as Hi-Fi Rush or Hades.
