Stellar Blade - Lily is so gorgeous! Story was predictable, but good.

Stellar Blade is an action/adventure game developed by Shift Up and released in 2024. Yes, it's the same Shift Up that released NIKKE and other gacha games, but this time around it's a full-fledged premium single-player game, something that many successful gacha companies try once in a while.

I was skeptical at first because the only thing people seemed to talk about was the fanservice present in the game, but the first impression was incredible, even ignoring that. Fluid animations, a nice combat style, and a story that was interesting enough to keep me glued.

Of course, that was until I put the pieces together: cyborgs attacking Earth to recover it from alien invaders for humanity? The only survivor scouring the land and interacting with locals while retrieving pieces of information showing that things aren't "as expected"? All characters being beautiful to the point that it's unnatural? This is a NieR: Automata clone!

Her eyes, her face, Lily truly is the most beutiful character of Stellar Blade. Of course of course, these are subjective tastes, but still...

I was planning to just use Lily screenshots for the entire review, but I had to put some variety. Be thankful, I had so many good screenshots...

A good clone, but a clone nonetheless. The story is dumbed down compared to the philosophical level delivered in NieR, which makes it very easy to follow and become attached to the characters you meet. Eve is hot, no questions asked here, but she's not really the character I think is the most beautiful, a place that is easily monopolized by Lily.

I remember her from the NIKKE collab and, honestly, didn't think much about it because of the different style, but in Stellar Blade, she's pretty in an incredible way. There's something in her eyes that simply makes me lose my reasoning; I could stare at them and never get bored. Not sure what kind of magical sauce they used, but she's basically perfect.

Mother Sphere assuming this form was surprising, but at the same time I'm not exactly sure what happened in the end because surely she won't give up that easily?

Raven was a tragic character, she was betrayed by everyone and took a destructive side to her life. Who can possibly blame her after learning about that all alone?

It does help that she's the only one showing emotions in the story. Eve is basically a robot even in personality, and Adam is not much different from her, so keeping the mood light is all dropped on Lily's shoulders, and she does an amazing job at that with smiles, laughs, or even emotional outbursts.

The story follows the standard patterns of these games. First, learn from the locals and empathize with them, find information that puts in doubt the leadership Eve has been working for, then experience the revelation of the truth and the resolution. The story sports three different endings; the first two show the two sides of the conflict (Humans and Mother Sphere), while the third one delivers the happy ending that everyone was hoping for (especially for Lily!).

The new form of Eve after merging with Adam. It's not as bad as I expected her to be? Still looking good to be honest.

There's plenty of costumes to go around in Stellar Blade, many are quite interesting like this miniskirt santa Eve. She looks great, but watching her fight like this...

Nothing really surprised me during the 20 hours of gameplay, but I was never bored during the run either. Be it the action-paced combat that always required me to think and use either the guns or the sword to win, or be it Eve's amazing acrobatic moves showing her incredible curves (the camera was clearly rigged to show it more here), there was no time to be bored.

Overall, I can safely say that I suggest you go and buy this game, as it's an experience that I think everyone should have. I sincerely hope that they produce more games like this in the future. It proved that Shift Up is able to make a full-priced game too and deliver quality content.