Stellar Blade - PlayStation 5

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING. IT'S WORTH IT AND IT WILL CLEAR ALL QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS YOU MAY HAVE!!!!!Game is phenomenal 10/10 . Gameplay, Combat, combos, quick-time action moves, finishers, blood, gore, details, enemy variety, boss variety, boss battles, atmosphere, story, charecters, voice acting, spectacle and scale are all top notch/satisfying/epic. Simply put game is simply amazing. I am shocked this is Shift Up's FIRST CONSOLE GAME EVER! They are now in my rader and easily in my favorite game studios moving forward. Will be looking out for many more games from this studios for sure!!!Now moving on to the drama/internet meltdown. What internet claims: Game is falsely advertised, Game is censored, Baited and switched for more sales, boycott game as to not support censorship.In short all these stupid claims can be easily debunked by focusing on what actually happened.First: Game is falsely advertised: This claims comes from one of the tweet that Shift Up posted on X (Formally Twitter) stating: "Game will be uncensored for all countries, including Japan." People believed they ment the outfits while they were actually referring to blood and gore. Litreally everyone who is a veteran video gamer would know that Japan wants their censored or gore/blood toned all the way down. Happened with The last of us, and now recently happened with Dead Space Remake. Happens often with many other games. Hell there is litreally an article about a Motive Studio (Creators of Dead Space Remake) staff member complaining about: "why is Stellar Blade getting a uncensored release, while Dead Space Remake needed to be censored for the release in Japan." Google it. Clearly stating and implying about blood and gore. I just dont know how can people mistake this and make it all about outfits.Second: Game is censored; This is the most laughable actually. Censorship litreally means to cut/remove/delete/hide something entirely. Clearly this is not the case with Stellar Blade. If that were the case; none of the outfits would show any skin whatsoever Eve would be covered completely. Only like 3 outfits were modified/censored from which 1 actually looks better now. This really comes under design choice but, nonetheless this was stupid and was implemented cuz of Sony/Playstation North America breathing down Shift Up's necks. If you wanna blame anyone blame them not the developers who are just following orders. Game as a whole is by no means is censored, calling it that is down right idiotic. There are million more revealing outfits which shows way more skin/TnA than those 2 outfits.Thirdly: Baited and Switch for more sales: This simply means that they showed one thing for people to buy it and when people did bought it they got something entirely different. You can already tell how stupid this sounds. Again this not at the case with Steller Blade. Hell I just got off playing SB like half an hour ago and I was served in a hot platter. God it's everything I wanted and more. Waiting from 2019/when this game was first revealed to now; indeed was worth every moment of waiting. Altering 2 outfits cuz Sony/Playstation breathing down their necks (for god knows what stupid reason) is not bait and switch for more sales. Not sure how the points I am making not already self-explanatory. For god sake if anyone did some research on Shift Up they would know that these are South Korean Developers and in South Korea mobile gaming is what dominants the market. Surprisingly console/and its games holds little to no importance over there. So let me ask you this if they wanted to make a killing out of a game, shouldn't they not just release a half baked mobile game as that is litreally the most logical thing to do if the creators are looking to make tons of money? Stellar blade is litreally a passion project. If you have played it; you can easily tell it's made with utmost love, care, dedication, and most of all their valuable time from 2019 or even before that. Roughly 6 years into making/producing and finally releasing this game. So yea the question/claim about baited and switch should simply not exist.Lastly: Boycott the game/Do not support censorship: People who are claiming this doesn't understand the gravity of it. You can maybe boycott Sony/Playstation and blame them, although I think thats too far of a stretch too as these are litreally slim to minor changes which should not effect anyone's experience whatsoever. The changes are litreally to 2 outfits it dosen't alter the whole game in any way, shape or form. Again if you wanna blame someone blame Sony/Playstation not Shift Up. The developers deserve every ounce of love and support they can get. These guys poured it their all into this game and it SHOWS!!! and for that they righty deserve our utmost respect. So go ahead and buy it asap if you were waiting like me/or just were very eagerly looking forward to playing this. Trust me it delivers BIG TIME!!!Oh also the claim about blood and gore being toned down; I am not even sure if this is ture. I just putted the controller down about 30 mins ago and let me tell you gore, blood, cutting enemies in half, chopping off limbs, boss fights ending in cutting the bosses in the most dope/action/interactive way possible like God of War 2018 and Ragnarök for example, yea litreally chopping up the bosses, and the bosses shaking from agony taking their very last breath as the pool of blood gushes out from them as they fall is such a dark yet beautiful detail. And yea everything is litreally present in vivid detail. This is the lastest version 1.002 I am talking about which is claimed to be "cEnSoReD" lol.There you have it. I coverd everything. So buy this game without any worry and just have the time of your life. You are not doing anything wrong whatsoever. I am surprised that the situation became this big for no reason. Support Shift Up and Stellar Blade we definitely need more of this and more games from Shift Up in the future!!!

Pros:Fun combat that is expanded upon as the game progresses.Excellent graphics, consistenting of solid animations, an extensive, often vibrant color pallette, highly detailed areas to explore and intricate, memorable character designs.An amazing soundtrack, covering a number of genres with music evoking a surprisingly wide range of emotions.Several unlockable outfits for Eve, the game's protagonist, and even ones for her support characters.Lots of side missions and collectibles.Fast travel that's actually fast.A fun fishing minigame.Cons:Dialogue could be better. The voice actors and actresses are good, but the stuff written for them at times feel unnatural and forced. Character personalities at times seem to be all over the place. One character in particular goes from mostly serious to suddenly jokey and playful. Out of nowhere with no real build up. It was jarring and pulled me.out briefly. Thankfully, you don't necessarily play an action game for the story.Eve makes weird movements during talking scenes with other characters at times. She kind of moves her head in a robotic, unnatural way. You'll know what I mean when you see it. It took me out of the game each time it happened. Minor stuff but I had to note it.This last complaint is more of a personal annoyance with a company that seems to love annoying its paying costumers lately, but if you're reading this review you most likely know or at least have heard about the alterations made to Stellar Blade AFTER it went gold(i.e. ready for discs to be printed). Certain risqué costumes were made to look a little less so, and blood splatter was toned down to be less anime-like(and also not get on the main character).The game is rated M.These changes don't ruin the game, its still one of my favorites this year and maybe even all time, but it goes against the developer Shift Up's promise before launch. They had previously stated that the game would not be censored in any way. This clearly went against that messaging, which many gamers including myself, had found to be a refreshing change to the usual status quo of "Ignore ESRB ratings and still try to play parent to the people who pay our salaries".Once again, the game is rated M.Shift Up, and to a bigger extent publisher Sony, who is fast becoming known for being anti-gamer these days, let down their fans with this move.This situation puts a bad mark on an otherwise very solid game, and it just wasn't necessary. The phrase "JUST LET THEM COOK, SONY" comes to mind, same as it does when it comes to Helldivers 2 and the fiasco there.Ok, with all that said, I very much enjoy the game. I have been playing it since it dropped, taking my time before finishing and getting one of apparently at least three endings. Many of the outfits left are still cool, some also still somewhat risqué, which just further drives home that censoring ANY of them was just not necessary.The blood effects are toned down but still sell the visceral nature of combat. The original, more gratuitous style would have been interesting too. A simple toggle could have given us both. I hope for the eventual sequel or their next game they consider something like that.Would I recommend this game?Absolutely. As annoyed as I am by Sony's actions, the game is very fun to play.I would recommend it, but I would also recommend writing directly to Sony Japan as well as Shift Up. Send them letters and show them you truly don't ever want games censored any more.Thanks for reading all this. Hope you enjoy this game if you buy it!