Stellar Blade

• Genre: Action
• Time Played: 50 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right, could have trimmed the time a little if some areas weren't so unnecessarily large.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased with it.
• Why I played: Once it was released I kept hearing that it was like Nier and looked a bit into it myself and it just made me want to play more and more.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend Stellar Blade. It was a really good game.

Stellar Blade is definitely a Nier-like, or Near-Nier as my wife coined. Off the top of my head, I have only played one other game so directly and blatantly inspired by Nier, and that would be Ultra Age, which I loved, and I loved this. It might not be one of the games I love the most, but it's like the next tier. Just on the outside of that range where I would consider it one of my absolute favorites.

It comes up short in aspects I wish it was more like Nier, with some more variation in the game play that I really thought they were going to use, some more varied locations and boss fights that really feel different. It also feels like every area is just too big and there is too much and they go on just for the sake of it. They do have some gun-only sequences by maybe they didn't click with me much because they're kinda survival-horror style, which I don't do well. But hey, there is fishing.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like they make bad use of the space, and don't give you variety in exploration. The amount of side quests feels about right, and what they do, is very polished. I just felt like like each zone was bigger than necessary. I felt like I got plenty of time - more than necessary, to fight each different type of enemy in each different type of situation.

The combat is really good, so, it didn't really wear out it's welcome, but it did take awhile - like, half the game, before I really synergized with the combat. It could benefit from being just a touch more forgiving with the timing. In a game based around parries, and more or less perfect timing, the window for that perfect timing could be a little more open considering the dozens upon dozens of attack patterns there are in the game, and every enemy has several, bosses several more, and some will look very similar, so getting the timing down just perfect is quite the task. They could have telegraphed a little more, or gave you a little bit more breathing room. I would have been fine with that.

But it mostly clicked, and I had a really fun time with it.