PS5 sci-fi action game of Stellar Blade by dev Shift Up.....

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Today, 4-26-2024, is the debut of developer Shift Up's Stellar Blade exclusively on PS5 gaming platform with it's $69.99 usd pricetag. It's a mere 29.0+ gb d/l and has quite a dramatic FMV opening worthy of watching on a 4K big screen setup. The main character is quite easy on the eyes with her skin tight garb. An IGN game reviewer said that it takes about 25-30 hours to complete. Using the Unreal Engine 4, everything looks quite detailed including Eve and all the NPCs.

The PS5 demo of SB has the "skin costume" selectable after the initial FMV opening intro with no shielding against small fry and the first stage boss making it possible to play two different ways to forge through it for a different change of pace (aside from the default military-issued skin tight uniform).

What are your initial reactions/thoughts about this new-fangled sci-fi action game?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Steven]

The demo has 10 frames of input lag at 60Hz. Instant no-buy. The worst part is that this was apparently intentional, which means whoever made the game is quite clearly incompetent as a game designer.

[ryu]

Looked like a generic modern "content over gameplay" game from the get go to me.

The demo has 10 frames of input lag at 60Hz. Instant no-buy. The worst part is that this was apparently intentional, which means whoever made the game is quite clearly incompetent as a game designer.

And I guess I was right to ignore this one.

[Steven]

Looked like a generic modern "content over gameplay" game from the get go to me.

The demo has 10 frames of input lag at 60Hz. Instant no-buy. The worst part is that this was apparently intentional, which means whoever made the game is quite clearly incompetent as a game designer.

And I guess I was right to ignore this one.

The demo is probably still up if you want to check it out. It's uniquely awful and would make City Connection jealous. I was going to buy it just because it's only on PS5, a system that is horribly lacking in exclusive games, but after 30 minutes with the demo I'd had more than enough.

Apparently they said they fixed the lag with the day 1 patch, but I don't trust a developer who thought it was okay to intentionally put half a second of lag in the game. At least, that's what the dev said in some of the news articles. I don't think it's actually half a second and is closer to 160ms, but it's really really bad nonetheless.

Now I'd be interested if it was in the ~50ms range, so if they did indeed lower it to that level, I'd go for it, not because I am especially interested in the game, but because I'm tired of the PS5 being a glorified dust collector/Super PS4. It REALLY, DESPERATELY needs some exclusive games to justify its existence because right now the PS5 is little better than the fucking SuperGrafx (and the SuperGrafx is honestly way cooler than the PS5 ever will be). Won't be surprised if this game ends up on PC in a year anyway.

[Rastan78]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... eliberate/

It's a bit confusing but sounds like this is an incorrect usage of the term "input lag." In fighting games this is usually referred to as startup. You typically have startup frames, active frames (the period when the attack or parry can connect), and recovery frames (when the player is still vulnerable before returning to a neutral state after active frames are over).

If we are going to start conflating startup frames with input lag then every fighting game ever has intentional input lag added to almost every move. Other than some super moves it is very rare for anything to startup in 1 frame. In Street Fighter for example even the fastest light attacks will typically have and additional 3 frames startup before first active frames where slower heavy attacks could have 5-7 or more.

Now tbh it's hard to even tell from the article if they are referring to startup frames or if it really is more like input lag? Or if the person writing the article or the dev fully understand the difference?

BTW faster weapons in Elden Ring have like 10 or 11 frames startup as well on parry.

[evil_ash_xero]

Shift Up said they tightened up the delay, with the actual release, but I haven't seen a comparison vid on it yet. Like something that gets the actual milliseconds down.

[cfx]

This probably comes across as a shitpost, and it isn't meant to be...

I couldn't buy this anyway since I don't own a PS5 and don't want one, but after I learned about the excessive gore in the game it became of no interest whatsoever to me. I hate that in games and won't play anything that is like this. I also don't understand why this isn't rated CERO Z.

I'm not crazy about 3D action games anyway, but I actually wanted to like this, just because I wanted there to be something, anything, exclusive on PS5 that would interest me, and this at least had a chance unlike anything else on the console.

[Rastan78]

It's crazy and hard to believe we're almost 4 years into the PS5 and a lot of people are still waiting for a real reason to own one. Compare that to first 4 years of SNES from 1991 to 1995 for example. The development cycle of games has gotten way too long.

[Sima Tuna]

Too much bloat. Chasing production values and megatextures doesn't improve gameplay one whit.

[Steven]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... eliberate/

It's a bit confusing but sounds like this is an incorrect usage of the term "input lag." In fighting games this is usually referred to as startup. You typically have startup frames, active frames (the period when the attack or parry can connect), and recovery frames (when the player is still vulnerable before returning to a neutral state after active frames are over).

If we are going to start conflating startup frames with input lag then every fighting game ever has intentional input lag added to almost every move. Other than some super moves it is very rare for anything to startup in 1 frame. In Street Fighter for example even the fastest light attacks will typically have and additional 3 frames startup before first active frames where slower heavy attacks could have 5-7 or more.

Now tbh it's hard to even tell from the article if they are referring to startup frames or if it really is more like input lag? Or if the person writing the article or the dev fully understand the difference?

BTW faster weapons in Elden Ring have like 10 or 11 frames startup as well on parry.

It's actual input lag. When you press the attack button or whatever she stands there completely motionless for like 10 frames before the startup animation even begins. It's awful.

I have no interest in Elden Ring or whatever, but you just further convinced me to never play it.

I couldn't buy this anyway since I don't own a PS5 and don't want one, but after I learned about the excessive gore in the game it became of no interest whatsoever to me.

There are some people saying that the launch day patch actually turned the gore down, interestingly enough.

[cfx]

I couldn't buy this anyway since I don't own a PS5 and don't want one, but after I learned about the excessive gore in the game it became of no interest whatsoever to me.

There are some people saying that the launch day patch actually turned the gore down, interestingly enough.

There is an image floating around online; it looks like they reduced or elimiated how Eve gets covered with blood from some attack. The image I've seen is small and it's hard to tell much. I haven't seen any mention that they changed how you see detail for dismemberments and such though. That's the part where I don't understand how this isn't CERO Z. Maybe it was false information, but I had read that dismemberment or decapitation was an automatic CERO Z.

[Sumez]

I have no interest in Elden Ring or whatever, but you just further convinced me to never play it.

Games like Elden Ring are about timing and decision making, not quick reactions. Trust me, it's not laggy

[Steven]

I couldn't buy this anyway since I don't own a PS5 and don't want one, but after I learned about the excessive gore in the game it became of no interest whatsoever to me.

There are some people saying that the launch day patch actually turned the gore down, interestingly enough.

There is an image floating around online; it looks like they reduced or elimiated how Eve gets covered with blood from some attack. The image I've seen is small and it's hard to tell much. I haven't seen any mention that they changed how you see detail for dismemberments and such though. That's the part where I don't understand how this isn't CERO Z. Maybe it was false information, but I had read that dismemberment or decapitation was an automatic CERO Z.

CERO is extremely strict about violence, and I know there are some Japanese games that got censored in Japan, like MGS V Ground Zeroes, and Rise of the Ronin, which has both CERO D and CERO Z versions. Probably still too early to tell what's up with Stellar Blade, but eventually someone will figure it out.

I have no interest in Elden Ring or whatever, but you just further convinced me to never play it.

Games like Elden Ring are about timing and decision making, not quick reactions. Trust me, it's not laggy

I would consider any game that has 160ms without even a startup animation after you press the button to be laggy piece of shit, and if it's intentional, that makes it a badly designed laggy piece of shit.

[ryu]

Pretty sure the startup delay he mentioned is because of weapon animations, not before the animations start. Or have I got that wrong?

[Sumez]

Yeah, I don't understand why Elden Ring got involved, it's not the game that has 160 ms of lag before any startup animation happens. Every delay any souls/borne/elden game is directly linked to the animations. Every weapon type is a set of animations, and mastering the game is mastering that moveset. Someone has been filling Steven with misconceptions.

[Rastan78]

I brought up Street Fighter and Elden Ring as random examples of how just about every fighting and action game has startup animation frames before actions. Without that you can't balance timing and priority of heavy vs light attacks. I thought this was a simple concept lol

Where that article is confusing is it sounds like the dev is saying we added startup animation not lag. While the headline is "dev intentionally adds input lag." Not sure I trust anything unless I see actual numbers from a reliable source that can distinguish between input lag and startup frames.

[BryanM]

I'd go for it, not because I am especially interested in the game, but because I'm tired of the PS5 being a glorified dust collector/Super PS4.

This kind of weird nonsensical consumer behavior always amuses me. Spending 80 buckeroos to do something that's this massive chore or obligation, when you could spend 0 buckeroos and five minutes playing HoloCure instead.

Or not.

[Steven]

I'd go for it, not because I am especially interested in the game, but because I'm tired of the PS5 being a glorified dust collector/Super PS4.

This kind of weird nonsensical consumer behavior always amuses me. Spending 80 buckeroos to do something that's this massive chore or obligation, when you could spend 0 buckeroos and five minutes playing HoloCure instead.

Or not.

It makes perfect sense; it's a tech demo for PS5, a system that lacks its own identity and hardware-pushing exclusive games. I know very well what all of my other game systems can do, but the PS5 is a mystery and I want to see what it is capable of beyond just being a convenient BD player to watch Star Trek or playing the same Arcade Archives games that my PS4 can play in an identical manner.

[Sumez]

PS5 will go down in history as the only way to play Returnal XD

[Steven]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649240/Returnal/

[it290]

I got the game. It's pretty mid-tier, which honestly is roughly what I was expecting, and it scratches the itch I had for a fairly superficial, summer blockbuster type of character action game.

Good points:

-The combat is actually pretty fun and feels crisp and responsive, at least to me.
-Enemy design is reasonably cool and varied.
-It's sort of fun to just sit and mindlessly play, it's more loot centric than I'd expected (not in a looter game way though, more like Souls with extra collecty bits) and while I don't usually go in for that sort of thing I feel it works here.
-In the game, you get your hair cut by a fat guy with a metal face.


Bad points:

-In spite of being fun, the combat is not at all deep. There are a decent number of combos and moves you can pull off but the game rarely gives you a reason to use them aside from evasion. Same can be said for most ranged combat.
-It's really easy, at least up to the point I'm at in the game (3rd biome). I've 1-tried every boss so far and the parry/dodge windows are egregiously generous. Lies of P this is not.
-It's really easy EXCEPT the game loves to drop you into multiple-enemy ambush situations & also the follow radius is huge once you've aggro'd an enemy, meaning you often are facing multiple threats at once. Eve's crowd control options are decent so offense is not an issue here, but unlike say Bayonetta, the audio cues and telegraphs from enemies are not really easy to detect from behind so it's easy to get dogpiled this way.
-It's also pretty common to get stunlocked which kinda sucks.
-The music is mostly this bland droning lyrical pop stuff that is aping Nier Automata (same studio I believe), but not as good as Nier, and I don't even like Nier.
-Too much anime.