Stellar Blade Is Shallow And Deceptive | Review
Vložit
- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Stellar Blade Is Shallow And Deceptive | Review. I'll admit I bought into this game's marketing hook line and sinker. Like everyone else I was interested and excited to see a new game come out with bold sexual appeal, graphic violence, and interesting combat. I am a hardcore Team Ninja fan and I miss the 2000s era action game of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden like everyone else. Stellar Blade is definitely teased and aimed at this audience with its marketing and demo.
Because there is a law that every game that is made these days needs to be influenced by Dark Souls, I wasn't naive enough to think that Stellar Blade would be pure uncut character action. I knew from playing the demo that it would have that slower more 1 versus 1 feel and pace like the souls series and I was open minded to this possibility. I do enjoy souls games especially Elden Ring.
Day 1 I bought Stellar Blade and starting playing and after a few hours it became very clear to me that I had been played by this game -- rather than the other way around. Everyone is so wrapped up around the controversy of this game's visuals and the various culture wars that somehow have attached themselves to it that sadly no one has actually bothered to review the game itself. On top of that the people who do review games -- like game journalists -- are the exact market this game is targeted towards. What Stellar Blade does is takes the skin of a real action game and then guts out everything that is inside of what makes a game good. The section immediately after the demo ends is literally a swimming section ha. Honestly I do think Stellar Blade is the case of a small and limited action with a few interesting (but unfinished) boss fights that then got mixed in with a giant sludge of empty gamification and then passed on as a full release. And none of it is accidental. Let's not forget that at that core Shift Up are Gacha games makers, not classic arcade devs like the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta teams. They are more than comfortable treating game design as casino inspired mental manipulation rather than as an art form.
I won't spoil all my thoughts about the game in the vid description but I think after the initial hype wave and culture war boost this game has received has moved on (which it always does, like Bayonetta 3) players will calm down and see that Stellar Blade is more of a brilliant act of marketing than it is game design.
Incredible thumbnail made by the master @boghogSTG
Patreon
/ electricunderground
[$2 tier = Monthly Game Review Vote, Name in Credits, Exclusive Monthly Podcast]
[$5 tier = Double Monthly Game Review Vote, By Name Shout-out, Name in Credits, Exclusive Monthly Podcast]
Website: theelectricundergr.wixsite.co...
STG Revision 2020 Discord:
/ discord
00:00 Modern Game Design Is a Scam of Empty Engagement And Gamified Mechanics
07:53 Filler Engagement and Pretend Challenge is the New Monetization Model - Sawdust Instead of Meat.
15:15 The Misleading Marketing of Stellar Blade - This Is Not a Genuine Action Game (Or Even a Souls-Like)
17:52 Stellar Blade’s Combat Mechanics Are Heavily Restricted, Prescribed, and Shallow
25:17 The Enemy Design is Passive and Uniform. They Don’t Trap or Challenge the Player
28:15 The Boss Fights Are the Best Part of the Game and Start Fun, But Are So Static They Don’t Have Longevity.
32:00 There was a Potentially Fun Game Here if Stellar Blade Developed Its Combat More and Didn’t Crush the Player Under Bloat and Intentionally Padded Content.
33:32 Don’t Put the Meow On a Pedestal Fellas, Wait for a Significant Sale at Least
#stellarblade, #stellarbladereview, #sekiro - Hry
I'm starting to feel like soulslikes have become *so* popular as a genre, that it made people forget how DMC plays like.
Dark Souls has no mini games. Your third Person action games (bayonetta) is the influence here.
@@thefebo8987 What mini games? lmao
One thing I remember more from Bayo than anything is very engaging combat.
@@wub9044 you played bayonetta 3 ? It has so much non combat down time
@@thefebo8987 No, and okay, but what does that have to do with my main issue tho?
The one I brought up in the first comment.
Soulslike? This is more of a bootleg Sekiro-like with Nier aesthetics and blatant fanservice... Either way, soulslike or Sekiro-like, I'm so sick and tired of From's sh*tty influence in the industry. Why arent more studios looking at Nioh for example, which is a million times better than any From game (combat-wise)? Or Sifu, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma, or DMC...
"Whether or not women should be sexy in games" is such a fake debate. There's no answer, because not all games are the same. In some games yes, in some games no. In order to be healthy, the industry must maintain variety. I feel like the discussion only exists so that people can make content about it.
Ding ding ding ding
Tell him what he's won jerry
Well our contestant has one
1.nivody giving hi truthful comment attention cause they are too busy battling the "culture war"
2.being accused of being a troll and or sjw cuck
3.accusing others calling them Incels.....when that wasn't what he said in the first place
Don’t you come at kingsfield, she’s not slow, she’s *methodical*.
Ha no shade meant towards kingsfield at all :-) It's just a really funny example because of how slow the attack animations are.
Is Kings Field worth playing as a Dark Souls simp?
@@A-Dubs398 If you really want to play one, play Shadow Tower Abyss or Kings Field 4, but maybe just watch a play through. Its cool to see where a lot of Souls concepts originated, but they are very slow and clunky (most of them predate the idea of dual analog first person controls) and can be hard to go back to after playing modern games. Just know that if you do decide to play them.
@@TheCrewExpendable I even thought Demon Souls was lowkey bad, but Dark Souls OG improved and made everything a million times better from Demon Souls. But Demon Souls was cool to play just to see where things originated. King's Field sounds like that, but x10.
@@A-Dubs398definitely. I started with the series. Played and loved them way before the Souls games. Best and 1st 3d dungeon crawlers. I highly recommend them. If you think souls games can be challenging, prepare to be tested. Start with King's Field IV: The Ancient City (PS2) and work back from there. Also don't forget the true OG souls series that From made alongside King's Field. It's called Shadow Tower (PS1/PS2). Shadow Tower is my personal favorite. I also recommend Arx Fatalis (XB). Peace and happy dungeon crawling.
This is the best review of GOW: Ragnarok on the internet.
Ragnarok is the entire reason I hold off on these $70 games now. I felt absolutely bored to tears and robbed by the end of Ragnarok, I didnt buy a rated M video game to watch a movie and have my hand held
at least that game lets you juggle nearly every enemy, even if they're high level
Except Gow Ragnarok combat is nothing at all like stellar blade and isn't prescriptive
Was literally just gonna come comment this same thing. The ramifications of that game alone have been disastrous to gaming. As soon as he said ""All the game cares about is including as many mechanics on paper as it can, and then is incredibly strict about making sure none of them interact.", I could tell the review worked for GoW:R just as much as Stellar Blade.
As someone who liked GoW Ragnarok, it's issues do pop up extraordinarily on give me God of war mode and hard modes. Animation > physics/damage etc. Sifu as well. Still think it goes hard though but it's like a popcorn blockbuster and it's development cycle did have negative effects on Sony's output. Recycle the first entries gameplay with more setpieces and nothing else
Mark you always mention the "Fundamentals" can't you make a video explaining this interesting concept?
I think wasting player's time is a problem in most if not all modern games. I would rather have shorter games packed with gameplay but they can't charge me 60/70 dollars for that so they will never do that.
I would pay 70 bucks for a 20 minute game if it's really good and replayable like an arcade game.
Agreed, I've gotten 20+ hours out of even half decent shmups (20-30mins a run) and have barely made it to hour 5 of a 50+ hour RPG before burning out. I'm at the point where I'd gladly pay for a high quality, highly replayable game whatever price that it needs for it to be properly supported. I don't think game length should define our perception of game value.
Gameplay density
Unfortunately, replay value is something modern gamers don't value anymore. Most people buy a game, play it once, and then never play it again. We didn't have that luxury in the 90s. 🤣
@@G-Self the Way of the Samurai franchise is one that focus on replayability, but a playthrough usually lasts for 1 or 2 hours. It will never go mainstream, gamers want the bloated 80 hours games.
Complexity: a few ways to use many things.
Depth: many ways to use a few things.
the word you're looking for is "breadth"
Nailed it.
Depth is when few principles give rise to many things. But if "few things" are the few principles, then yes, we are on the same page :)
If there are many ways to solve a puzzle, usually cheap one included, then it kills the depth of the puzzle. So that contradicts your definition of depth. EDIT: Ah, I think I have misunderstood it. The analogy is then this: "few things" are the core principles and they can be used in many ways. Yeah, it is then isomorph to my definition.
Dante in DMC5 is hailed as the deepest combat character of all time largely due to him being able to use 7+ weapons at once
"Videogame equivalent of the mouse monitoring software at your job" lmao
It really feels that way doesn't it. Glad you liked that analogy ha.
I wish it had just committed to the DMC combat. God I love DMC and I want more of it. Nothing really scratches the action itch like that series.
Another fun thing: if you don't buy the L1+circle -skill you can use dodge while blockung.
Why am I learning this now that’s genius. Never use it anyway. Thanks xD
The funny thing about King's Field is despite how simple and slow is looks you still have to be more aware of your positioning than a number of modern action games because you don't have some catch-all counter or dodge button.
I didn't mean any shade towards kingsfield at all . I just thought it would be a really funny example because of how insanely slow the attack animations are ha. I do understand though that it's doing something entirely different from traditional character action.
@@TheElectricUnderground Oh don't worry, I didn't interpret it as shade at all.
Yeah the super slow player and enemy attacks does mean that at least King's Field has actual footsies (which you can see in Mark's clip)! A 30 year old game has a more in-depth spacing game than a lot of modern games.
@@Emarrel imagine defending that garbage, clunky af franchise lol
Hey @TheElectricUnderground are you aware of lost soul aside? If you are what are your thoughts on it?
But also, Chun-Li is still a fun character to play as, and proves a creator of a game can get obsessed over the perfection of their favorite character, and that character can still be playable, competitive, and fun to play as. 😉
I think the game is alright on balance, but I'll draw a mini list of things I expect Mark not to like...
* Unskippable cutscenes/walking sections/gimmick segments - the former is very rare in games, the latter even affects combat if the drone flies away to signpost some story elements but the latter is surprisingly moderate (so far) given what its comtemporaries do.
* A lack of cancel options and weird input quirks - the game didn't think L3 + R3 was enough, but also has some odd input lag, doesn't buffer guard out of a fall and has some of the weakest air combat interactions.
* Lots of filler in the way of combat to the point that it out Astral Chain's Astral Chain - massive map, unneeded barriers to unlocking moves - EXP is tied to so so quests and collectables (I think some of this could be good with the right execution).
* Dry Simon Says combat where you follow colours at prescribed times to break out of situations multiple mostly indistinct parry types with amounts of context sensitivity that would make Matthewmatosis mad.
* Tons of indistinct combo strings which barely serve a purpose especially when you get into the sport of using stats - some are reversible but others aren't. Stealth can delete a number of encounters without even trying.
* One save file with no manual save or boss select - could be fine if the game was significantly shorter or didn't save left and right when you may not want it to, the game doesn't even commit to proper soulslike checkpoints.
Ha excellent list Gogeta! Yeah you know my tastes and values (in terms of game design) really well.
Damn you nailed it!
4:40
Hey this is extremely misleading and blatantly false, the wakeup move *ISN'T AN UNLOCKABLE* , its unlocked by default when you start, the game even tells you mid combat when you start
The guy made a lot of falsehoods here. The cutscene-walking-cutscene part is also such a lie. The game has very small cutscenes. There are no huge cutscenes watching ton of stuff like a movie.
That scene is just a half minute cutscene where Eve walks in that room and then a small few seconds cutscene where she removes the item that she needs from that room. It doesn't even feel like a cutscene at all.
This is so deceptive.
@@SIPEROTH agreed. blatantly dishonest and greatly exaggerated troll review. trying to get engagement like that will end up in him losing what few subscribers a shmup/action game dedicated channel already usually has.
@@SIPEROTH half a minute too long
Yep, dude just lies to get views and over half the garbage he spews here isnt true in the least
There are mad chud gamers ITT who are mad that their culture war game has trash gameplay
I think we're at the point where we need to question if the influence of FromSoft has been an overall positive for gaming. Like you pointed out, mechanics that we would have taken for granted 20 years ago are now being drip fed to give a false sense of progression. Even something as simple as being able to dodge without draining stamina is being treated as some incredible innovation now.
I still think it has. If these games weren't following the soulslike trend they'd be following some other one. At least the Souls games changed the framing of difficulty in games to something more positive than it was at the time. Punishing difficulty and harsh skill curves in singleplayer games are probably gonna take a lot longer to stop being called "archaic", though.
I still think it's good because I remember all 2010s every game being easy as piss on the highest difficulty. At least sometimes I turn the difficulty from very hard or extreme to just hard nowadays.
I think Sekiro has done more damage than anything. Why does every fucking game need a parry as a core mechanic
@@Stigmaphobia777 Honestly, I'd rather go back to the days when there was a clear line between games for the hardcore crowd and ones for the general mainstream. There's no such thing as niche anymore. Everyone's going for this hybrid approach, and it's leading to titles that are confused and lacking in mechanical cohesion.
I agree firehaps and this is such a great topic for a follow up video. I'm seriously making a note of this cuz it's such an interesting subject. I think at this point (though I'll think about it more for the vid) that Fromsoft has been an overall positive influence in most respects. However, there are some drawbacks absolutely and one of them is that we're losing a lot of the foundations of melee combat design in favor of Fromsoft's Boss Fight focused mechanical design. I touched on this a bit in the review but where Fromsoft really shine is of course the boss fights of their games. Their boss fights are genuinely really well made (for the most part). But what the fromsoft style of combat REALLY struggles with is engaging multiple enemy combat or mook combat. This is where traditional character action games like DMC, NG, and Bayo are strong. So I think if this limitation was more widely recognized that would really help avoid situations like Stellar Blade where the dev is just mixing and matching mechanics without knowing how they should fit together into an overall picture.
There are certainly some improvements to be made if Shift Up ever does a sequel. Which hopefully they do.
This game is better than 90% of the "modern" games out there.
You’re right, this boring terrible game is better than most of the other boring terrible games.
My left testicle is better then 90% of modern games, doesn’t make it good.
In King's Field, I suggest using more flanking and crossovers (sliding across their front in the opposite direction they're turning). You'd be surprised how often that works and doesn't require any magic. It's also not a good idea to get used to using low level spells to stunlock, as that tactic doesn't work in the sequels.
Very insightful analysis. Your criticisms brought to mind the original Nier and Killer is Dead. I'd love to hear your thoughts about those games in contrast to Stellar Blade.
Your review encapsulated every strife and positive I have had about this game up to this point. Stellar Blade might not be game of the year but this review was certainly 10/10!
I believe the sawdust is listed in Taco Bell's ingredients as cellulose btw.
Gross wtf
Ha yeah i love calling it Sawdust because of course it isn't literally sawdust but it's a really poetic way to describe the fact that they are cutting their meat with wood pulp or whatever they want to call it. I think cutting the meat with anything is outrageous but it's such a great analogy to what's going on with game design now where the meat of the content (boss fights, mechanics, enemy design, level design) is getting diluted and watered down by passive idol sections to fill out the inflated runtime.
Same as dog food. Cellulose or powdered cellulose. Crooks everywhere!
Watched this live. Great review once again!
imagine if wanted dead had SB's art direction and character designs, that could've helped its reception
Imagine if they hadn't blow all the budget on terrible Kraut karaoke. You should look more into the publisher. The combat is serviceable but everything else about the game is bad.
@@cartoonvideos5 I think they developers even said they had to put all the terrible side stuff in the game because one of the big funders wanted them to put terrible mini-games and side content in it rather than focus on the core game.
@TheCrewExpendable That doesn't surprise me in the least. I can bet you that the funder was European and the reason 110 industries was moved to Switzerland and added in all that unnecessary garbage and bad karaoke. They probably saw Yakuza and wanted to copy it, thinking they were gonna make Eurokuza 😂
tbh i think the wanted dead had way better art direction lol
Imagine if wanted dead had a budget.
The point about locking basic mechanics behind RPG progression reminded me of the Yakuza games because they do mostly the same thing: unlock these abilities so the combat doesn't feel like garbage. I forget if the earlier Yakuza games had you do this, but in Judgment you even need to unlock quickstep canceling (being able to cancel out of combo strings), a basic key component to making the flow of gameplay not feel like walking through molasses.
Maybe they do this in games to help get played acclimated with the basics first before the more complex moves become available ?
@@Gnasheress sounds good but in reality there's too many damn moves to unlock
I enjoyed the game overall, but yeah... the "RPG system" is one of by biggest gripes of this game. It's just there to gimp the player early on & elongated the time in the game. Doesn't help it was marketed as a character action game when it's a precision combat game that isn't very precise until you grind out skills.
I tried my hardest to chain combo, attack cancel, juggle, you name it... but like Final Fantasy XVI it felt like the game was actively fighting against me. Each battle was just a waiting game of either turtle or parry with attack patterns that become easy to memorise when you are grinding SP from the same enemy, over & over again.
I found the major story linear levels were the highlights over the larger open environments because I did enjoy the exploration along with the mini bosses & bosses, but man do I wish this was more like a character action game like Nier since crowd control sucks here. I also found the dollar store Dead Space moments a momentum killer because this game doesn't feel like a shooter in the first place & shoving in those survival horror-esque moments just felt rushed.
As for the censorship thing... I personally hate the toned down blood & all the pro-censorschip people fighting with the people who care a little too much about the costumes.
17:57 - 18:33
I had a similar critique when it came to the game's presentation during the 2021 showcase trailer.
It was at odds with wanting to look all actiony during the cutscenes like sliding down the tunnel or the cool kill finishers, but had this slow and grounded combat that I felt it should've leaned _more_ into Bayo's over the top action, to better fit the impressions of what the cutscenes were going for.
02:49
Is there a genuine design explaination why his bag has neon lights on?
Lol, I've been enjoying the game a lot actually, but I knew you were gonna be reviewing this and I have said to myself on multiple occasions while playing 'Oh, Mark is gonna HATE this" for some aspects of it lmao.
I'm glad my tastes and values are clear enough that you started the pushing blocks section and knew somewhere in the world I was playing that section and completely annoyed by it ha. It's one thing to have a few sections like this but the game just cannot find any rhythm until literally the bosses at the end. When I had to do the 2nd gun only section ... why shift up why? Also did you notice that the boss before the gun sections, the Katana looking girl, only has 1 attack pattern? Literally just repeats the same pattern over and over.
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of flaws, for me it’s mostly QOL things that bother me the most, but I still have had fun with it. Totally understand it not hitting for everyone though. It’s nowhere near a GOTY or any of these outlandish claims I’ve seen lol. But I don’t regret my purchase.
@@TheElectricUnderground The first girl has 1 attack pattern and the 2nd has two, but yes it holds.
Btw, I don't fully agree with you, but as I watched the video more and more, I agreed more and more with you, hence why my original comment is so long.
@@TheElectricUnderground I like deep gameplay and had fun with stellar blade but i also went for all side things etc. That helped the pace of the story and it also had some main bosses getting reused with different patterns or phases. That was actually fun and a creative way to reuse the bosses. The biggest problem i had with the combat is eve having too much CC and that the stun or more so knockdowns and the long endlag on most action/reactions messed the flow of the combat up but other than that i found it to be step up from the usual "soul's like" combat. I can see the points you bringing up but i guess these things are not that important to me if i enjoy the core gameplay for the most part.
I like this game, its probably the first action game ive been able to play, I really suck at these, its a 7.5/10.
You did a great job of listing alot of the flaws, because there really are alot of annoying stuff with the game.
The stuff i did like was the sexuality "not patched", I like the stages that feel like the cat game Stray. Its almost like it kind of ripped that off but its still a cool setting. The music is a solid 8/10, it kind of sounds like alot of genres and anime like demon slayer. The jumping platforms XD, oh my gosh those were a pain lol. I like the combat for the most part, the jumping to try to dodge is really annoying. I dont like the point of no return in games, just 1 save is something I dont understand... Also, u accidently just gave tips on how to conquer this game, and for that thank you lmao.
Excellent video. I'm done with games that can't even get fundamentals down properly. Enemy magnetization, lack of hitstun, lack of spacing, and purely reactionary combat have infected almost everything now. Even though it had a lot of manufactured outrage around it, I'm having a ton of fun with Dragon's Dogma 2 since it still has action fundamentals and actually lets me have fun and experiment with stuff.
Btw Mark, have you ever played Zone of the Enders 2? One of my favorite action games of all time easily, up there with RE4, NG2, God Hand, etc.
Thank you. Mainstream modern game design is so fucking bad.
This review’s description of the game reminds me of how I felt playing God of War (2018). I was surprised that I was so bored that I quit playing entirely.
The original God of War trilogy had real puzzles; ones that actually taxed your mind
Yep exactly and there is an overlap here where I think Stellar Blade is directly inspired by God of War 2018 in terms of game design. Very much so. Because as much as it looks like Bayo and Japanese Character action visual design wise, it's actual gameplay design is much more western. I think it's intentional as well. Overall I think Shift Up are really pleased with how this all shook out, really the only people left holding the bag are the action game players (as usual ha).
I'm having fun with Stellar Blade so far. It reminds me more of old god of war than the 2018 soft reboot (which I hate):
Some examples: playable action set pieces, QTE's, style over emotions, a jump button, puzzle variety (not difficulty)
God of was 2018 is boring
@@aldoushuxleysghost FUCK! I LOVE the original God of War games! I think I need to continue my playthrough of Ascension sometime because that game's combat system is some of the best in the entire series and is more engaging than whatever the new ones are with that shit 3rd person shooter camera ruining a hack and slash game
It feels like they tried to copy a bunch of great Japanese games(dmc5, Nier, sekiro and so on) mechanic and design together without using much thought.
oh my weeb~!
@@jhp9803 Stellar blade is literally a weeb game tbh, anime girl with jiggle physics. It's like the game is telling you to go outside.
@@ohpeep3723 bc of your thinking that it is a weeb game, You are a weeb.
All weeb is saying japan culture is great and Korean culture is sucks
great japanese games? and copy? you are weeb for sure.
Dmc5, nier and sekiro are real games. Stellar blade is just another form of gatcha
i hate the muliple endings.And this game has dumb story,makes no sense.It swing from sci-fi to mythical...wtf?
I dislike all the monsters,everything is loosely connected.
I think you nailed it with your remarks on the demo and the vertical slice of what the devs want you to think you're getting. I kinda knew it was gonna happen because it happened with Nier Automata's demo and then game. I'm a fan of this game and am having a great time playing it. But, yeah, I always think about other things like "why is this area here" and "can we remove that part?" Then I start to think about other things that can be cut, eventually trimming down to not even having a game at all. (Make it an idle game as it's simplest form. I don't want this btw. Just where it always leads for me.) It's a weird loop I go through wondering if I'm wasting time playing games. I think sometimes I am because I should take that money and invest to make "PASSIVE INCOME"... so that I don't have to worry about buying games. Another endless thought cycle. To get to the point, I don't disagree with your thoughts on the game. I think the overall sense of padding is what I'm struggling with in newer games. I'm truly waiting for a boss rush or bloody palace mode. Older me right now mostly wants dense gameplay in my action games. Cheers Mark. Cheers All...
I've actually enjoyed my time with Stellar blade it's pretty fun
We all have different tastes and preferences I'm not on a crusade against the game or anything, just speaking my honest thoughts about it ha. What I am curious about though is that even though you have a more positive impression of the game than I do, did you connect with my critiques or at least some of them? I would have to imagine most fans of the game would still agree with a lot of the points, but it's hard to know of course.
@@TheElectricUndergroundFirst of all I am also one of the people who enjoyed this game, from world building, visuals, combat (especially the boss fights) and music.
It's a pretty solid game.
Now to your critiques:
I see and agree with some points that are a bit questionable 'design choice'-wise.
Like the password inputs or the 'Dead Space' like passages with the guns.
You also mentioned the problem with the cancel animations.
I had just once an issue where it annoyed me and that was against the yellow lurkers in the Great desert.
When they die they have like a final grab attack and i was 'stuck' midair during my triple thrust beta animation, so i have to eat the move every time. '^^
But other than that i haven't had any problems, maybe cause i got used to EVEs 'behaviour'.
I also noticed that the combat was rather designed for 1v1, so it was always a problem when facing multiple enemies. Due to no real poise on EVE you could get 'combo staggered' to death.
But this no poise situation also counts for the enemies or better said bosses.
Betas, Burst and Tachy mode are too busted in the game. You could beta stagger some bosses into oblivion.
To the general presentation of your review:
I don't know what your background is (like if you are working in the gaming industry), cause some points are very technical (cancel animation etc) and if this way is your general style (sorry first vid i've seen), but i don't like this bashing style (maybe i am too sensitive).
But why not a 'what could've been done better?' style rather than 'this is shit - that is pathetic'.
But again I don't know if it's your general style or what your background is.
And I don't know if one could take into account that this is 'shift ups' first triple AAA attempt.
My two cents
Cheers
It's a solid game! But it has 0 caloric value.
Yeah, hopefully a sequel will be in the works at some point.
@@DjavoJAll of this word salad to say nothing, typical coombrain defending garbage gameplay because it makes his monkey brain hornee
I just wanted to take a moment to say, I don't usually agree with most of what you're saying (not relation to this video in particular) but I really appreciate your takes in general. Your appreciation of games as games and nothing else than games I really like. The way you treat them as an artform on the grounds of not so much the music or the movies or the books inside the games (which of course i'm sure you also appreciate) but mostly the game inside the game. Your devotion to mechanics is commendable, and even if my favorite games tend to be a bit more heavy on story than most shumps, I appreciate your videos.
I'm impressed at all the time travellers in the comments disagreeing with the video before it's even premiered
He stated his opinion in the title already, no?
@@Rihcterwilkeryou still didn't hear the reasoning behind it .
@@Rihcterwilker It an argument to be supported. If you dismiss the argument out of principle (lol what principle), gotta question if it isn't just because you are sex starved and mentally underdeveloped
Thing is I'd guess these people don't care for the reason, they disagree with the conclusion and are not interested in having a conversation @@DiegoXRA
Most of them are probably astroturfers.
Thanks for the review 👍
I'm Korean but I could not dig into the demo. I'm Vergil main in DMC5 and every action game will get compared to my boy. This video verbalizes all the weaknesses i felt from the combat but didn't have the analytical acumen to identify them. And if dudes are playing this to stare at a CGI cutie, they should do some reevaluations of their priorities. Tekken 8 is already tons of work as it is.
Hell yes my Korean Vergil playing brother. Yes this is a funny trend I'm noticing in the feedback of my review where the character action players, like yourself, really vibe with what I'm talking about but viewers that are more in tune with western games like God of War and western game design are a bit more confused or mad ha.
Also , I play your aforementioned games
Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, NieR Automata, Chaos Legion, Castlevania, Bayonetta, ...
I miss games like those.
Now its disappointing that souls-borne combat seems to be the standard.
At least we still have those amazing experiences to return to. Personally, I have given up on modern gaming. I don't care about the releases of anyone other than Fromsoftware.
Mark, what do you consider the deepest 3d 1-player action games? (anyone can put their lists too if they feel like it)
Here’s my list (random order):
- Bayonetta 1
- Devil May Cry 4
- Kingdom Hearts 2
- Resident Evil 4
- God Hand
- Ninja Gaiden Black
@@hcsnake bayo 1 and KH2 are two of my favorite games (I hope Mark plays Kh2 someday, it would be very interesting to see his opinion on the game), Dmc4 I played a bit (not enough, one day I'll get into the series), god hand I should try to beat it (amazing game, even if I only beat the first few levels), Re4 I'll have to get into it, and ninja Gaiden black I barely played it on game pass a lot of years ago (didn't beat the first boss)
@@mikelpelaezYeah same, seeing him play and talk about kh2 would be pretty interesting, always fun to have a fresh perspective on your old favourites.
As for dmc4, the game has some structural and pacing issues, but combat-wise I still think it’s my favorite dmc game, especially when it comes to Nero (with Dante I prefer his dmc3 version, but the one in 4 isn’t bad too).
Soulstice is worth looking into as well. came out around 2022.
Had fun with Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 and its forms of "magic" with the different Weapons and Spells. And i want to bring up Clash: Artifacts of Chaos as well. Somewhat God Hand in terms of gameplay, where you can find and assign different Special Attacks and Fighting Stances with their own full unique animation to customize your combat style with.
I'm a big fan of Devil May Cry 1, while 3 is technically "deeper" 1 has far better enemies and more consistent bosses.
“The game only picks up the last few hours” that sums up modern single player games in a whole nutshell.
Hate how modern games do not respect your time
All praise Id software for making the DOOM games not follow this line of thinking. They are just perfect in terms of pacing and respecting the players time
@@shawklan27 For Doom Eternal, I would say except for some of its platforming parts, and the inclusion of the slowing slime thing
Doom eternal, doom eternal, this game that everyone and their dog seem to be praising, I played for one hour and stopped, I thought that games like the modern Wolfenstein games were way better, and for stellar blade, I enjoyed it and didn't play it only one hand, as people like to parrot that saying over and over again, different strokes for different folks
Good day/evening
@@babaduk7679 Wolfenstein is a pretty straight forward shooter that most FPS fall under.
Doom Eternal is a fast paced shooter which encourages weapon swapping and gives a much different playstyle to most FPS games. Probably just not your style.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here slightly. Although I think you sort of make the counterpoint with NG+
If you make the scenes unskippable in the initial playthrough, you effectively stop people from going, "lul i finished the game in 1.5 hours" or some such and that being the focus of reviews and reviewbombs.
I won't play it, cuz i dont pay launch games, or console games, but that's my 2c. however on ng+ it should all be skippable and no forced walking scenes.
yeah same with those passcodes and stuff. it all seems to be designed to make the game perceive to take a long time for a playthrough. ;/
This gonna be good :P
I can prob already tell he's annoyed by a couple of things I also noticed:
* After Sekiro every game needs to have a fucking parry mechanic embedded deep into its combat system. It's like they now want parrying to be the main method of expression in a combat game instead of this optional thing that it always was prior to Sekiro. Except here it's not just one parry counter system, it's like they implemented 4 of them in a very convoluted way, and they are all dependent on some 'simon says' color flash telling you which counter you need to do now. It's like your regular attacks barely do dick all damage and you need to solely rely on doing these various counters every time to build up burst and beta so you can exchange them for attacks that actually do dmg. It's like you're constantly taking turns with an enemy, like it's a turn based game.
* The heavy amount of input latency in a game that is so dependent on parrying at the right time. Even though the game is running at 60fps and I am using a VRR display and have HDCP disabled, there is no way this is regular input latency for a 60Hz game. I think there's no question that PS2 60fps games were at least half as laggy as a game like this, there's just no way they're even in the same ballpark. Compare DMC3 on the PS2 to this game from an input latency perspective and it's like DMC3 PS2 is running at like 120fps from a latency perspective vs. this game. I don't know if UE4 is to blame or the PS5 but there's something seriously wrong with a lot of modern games when it comes to latency, no way should a 60fps game be this LAGGY or inconsistent when it comes to frame timing, ESPECIALLY in a game that forces you to time your counters so precisely. How did gaming ever regress so badly when your average PS2 action game running at 60fps would have HALF the latency of any action game made in the year 2024?
* Only one weapon, only four fundamental special moves (I guess 4 extra ones if you count the burst modifier button introduced later in the game). Compare it to say DMC3 or Ninja Gaiden where pretty early on you already get your second weapon and then your third and so on, all with their own attacks and unlockable skills, etc.
* This game really didn't need open world sandbox areas. At all. Nobody asked for fetch quests/side quests or 'find the Ubisoft watchtower to activate the bonfires in this area'. Or fishing. It feels like they threw this in to justify the $70 pricetag.
Even Re4 Remake has to have a parry mechanic. It is indeed infuriating.
Yeah the new God of War games also have the color coded counters and it's just like why? Why have multiple different ones if the color just tells the player what button combination they have to press anyway?
The reason games have regressed this badly is most gamers are now casuals who have zero interest in actually learning a game's mechanics at a deep level, most developers are college graduates who are essentially being pushed through their schools' education programs because the bar keeps getting lower and lower, and AAA gaming has become such big business at this point that high level design principles are all about cost effectiveness, player manipulation and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Welcome to the video game dystopia. The future is hell, the 80s and 90s were better.
@@crawlingamongthestars3736100% agree..we are DOOMED..and not the id soft way 😢
Great summary my dude! I also really like you brought up the input lag because that was another thing I noticed and was going to talk about but it felt like the review was already massive ha. yeah the input lag of this game is extremely noticeable and it's shame that as much as digital foundry go on about the graphics and framerate, they never seem to dig into the input lag of the game with their performance analysis. You know I might do an input lag video where I take a bunch of PS5 action games and compare their input lag cuz it's really noticeable in stellar blade. That would be a good way to show it in comparison to other games. Problem is that it's really hard to prove how laggy a game like this is because of input buffers ... hmm I'll have to think about how to approach that.
To each their own. While I don't share your hatred for the game, I respect your opinion.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.
That is a mature response, thank you for being a gentleman.
Most responses on here are mostly from butthurt crybabies.
Rather annoying. 👍
LOVE this game
I was surprised to agree with pretty much all you said. Surprised because I quite enjoyed it (well the combat). Maybe it’s coming off the back of Dragon’s Dogma 2 that doesn’t just disrespect your time it really sets out to abuse it.
Apparently the devs patched the game recently and rebalanced Eve's powers and Bosses AIs to make it more dynamic and challenging, might be worth revisiting, idk.
Wow, I feel the rage in the first few seconds already.... Bracing myself for the rest....
What are your thoughts on Monster Hunter games or their copycats such as Dragon's Dogma, God Eater or Horizon? I haven't seen a video like that in your channel and given how much you like action games I'm curious about your thoughts on them.
Bump, with only a small annotation to distinguish between MH pre gen 5 and post gen 5.
He dislikes RPGs and finds Dark Souls games to be mediocre. Combine those 2 elements and it's MH.
@@user-wx8mi1pd6g fair. He could still find interest in looking at the different ways weapons shape the combat for example. Also, given how MH games *are* the combat, unlike other RPGs that have other things going for them, and how MH has stuff like the Charge Blade, which I don't *think* has anything that offers a similar experience in Souls related games, an analysis could be in order.
@@user-wx8mi1pd6g Monster Hunter plays nothing like a Souls game beyond being an action game with a stamina bar, but he definitely wouldn't like it due to the grinding.
@@luischavesdev Yeah its definitely more complex in enemy behavior and weapons but personally I would enjoy it much more as a linear boss rush game with complex puzzles to figure the monsters out, capcom, wouldn't do it ever tho.
You have what some would call a hot take. While I don't agree with you on some points, for the most part it is always interesting to learn from. I don't have a ps5, but when it comes out on pc,hopefully I can get it and understand more of your grievance with stellar blade.
You can stack 3 attack speed upgrade gear to make her faster.
But since you only got 6 bar beta charge energy in end game so maybe you didnt find those upgrade.
Ironically one of the most fun action games I've played. The formula is pretty old school but the gameplay is solid af and the pacing isnt bad
I really struggle to see how it could stand up well in any context compared to strong action games or even souls games, but if you enjoyed it my tastes aren't going to line up with everyone else's. I do wonder though after the initial play through how well you think the game will hold up over time because like I talked about in the review the boss fights are all static (the patterns don't randomize much or at all mostly) and it's pretty easy to learn how to no hit no damage the few bosses the game has and there are no ranks or performance metrics so once you beat raven once that's kinda it. You could go for an entire no death run of the game (which i did with Wanted Dead) but then you run into the problem of all the constant padding making the game much longer than it needs to be. Imagine having to repeat the mid section of the game like 20 times ha. That's one thing that's really important to me with the game I review, not just the initial play through but how long will the game sustain over time. Anyway even though we don't agree I appreciate your comment is chill in tone ha.
@@TheElectricUndergroundyou gave a shit overblown nitpicky review that I bet you'd never bash a Zelda game for. Wastes time with puzzles? Man shut up
@TheElectricUnderground
Souls repeats the same bosses over and over as well... just because they are unnecessary hard because they spam everything with less then a second to hit widow to react to.
Doesn't make it better.
I don't have time to grind my whole week away to get good at a game.
Because the game makes it impossible to beat
@@TheElectricUnderground Because it does those things well enough. The padding is an issue and I'm not sure if Shift Up's older games had the same problem (I'm gonna guess you have no idea of their development history if your knowledge of them begins and ends with Nikke, a game with shit advertising but really good writing which somehow this game lacks) but generally the combat is fine and the fact that enemies have ungodly high stagger values is something that post DS1 Souls games also share. It also generally gives you more angles to approach things. It doesn't do one or two things incredibly well like Sekiro's parry system but it does many things well enough. Generally I don't mind having a ton of options since it lets you have multiple angles of approach.
Old school is the best school, Battletoads has two buttons and NO SKILLZ TREES.
I m liking the first few hours of ps2 era level design and simple and concise battle system..but yes..forget ninja gaiden or nier automata...sometimes it reminds me a bit of ff XVI...i m waiting to pass any judgment before reaching the open world-esque sections...after watching ur review ha! 😂😅
I love how the average CZcams viewer's assessment of a video is "does my social media hive mind agree with it? If yes, it's a good video. If no, it's bad."
Nobody is giving this game a real review. Most reviews (from both sides) read like "yes, yes, it's a kind of fun mindless hack and slash game which I enjoyed, now let's get to the real meat of the review: how bad people who politically disagree with me are."
if you keep psychologizing like that
you will start asking for hormone blockers in the future
@@Senumunu I mean he speaking straight facts. If your T levels is too low to handle the truth, take supplements.
@@Senumunu "You disagree with me? You must be a [person i don't like]"
I'm honestly disappointed in my own political sphere for falling for this and hogwarts. Mediocre games marketed by manufactured controversy.
@@HighKnighter honestly anyone who mentions hormones when talking about videogames is really obviously deeply insecure. I feel bad for them and I don't mean this an insult.
@@HighKnighter my T levels and IQ points are high enough to understand that psychologizing motivations is the tool of histrionic women. not a state you are going to reach any time soon.
You are the only game reviewer who actually talks about game design. Every other review is just "how many buzzwords can i shove into my surface level analysis until it's long enough that i get paid?"
With a title like that i don’t think he played the game because this game is beautiful above and under the skin its actually amazing all around so i definitely think if the title and video is aligned then he is full of shit
I'm glad you appreciate that my dude! Yes this game has been such a battle ground of internet warfare that people seem to have forgotten the review the actual game design as some point ha. Also yeah these buzzwords are getting really silly. "Flowstate Combat" that could mean anything.
@@zerooskil7161 ( I'm playing the smallest casual violin, for casual tears) 😂.
To be fair, if you haven't dismissed 90% of mainstream reviewers already, that's your problem. These people have been worthless shills for almost two decades. There are independent or niche reviewers like Mark for various genres, you just have to find them. I do appreciate Mark's work, but hyping him up as "the only game reviewer who actually talks about game design" is a self-report.
It’s unbelievable. Mark’s montage of elevators and box pushing just saved me $70. What is everyone else even talking about!?! It’s bad out there if this what’s being hailed as a “gamer’s game”. What are people playing!?
Remember, I am saying cynically.
Spectacle Fighters are now old antique from the past.
GoW became souls-like combat, Nioh & Sifu have more deepness but no one can deny that they were heavily inspired by Souls-like/Sekiro. Ninja Gaiden 3 was 10 years ago. Metal Gear Rising : Revengence was 10 year ago. Only Bayonetta goes on but it`s on Nintendo exclusive, Which is not considered as "mature" because Nintendo exclusive titles are supposed to be "family-friendly".
The new normal is Souls-like parry-heavy action with "RPG stuffs" and GAMERS LOVE THEM. WE DESERVE THIS.
P.S.
In perspective of Korean gamer, I am mixed up. I was skeptical from the begging and get "I told ya" moment. But also... It is rare that korean game devs make a "package" game(we call "single campaign foucsed" title as a "package") now days. Because MMORPG and Network-based competitive games are normal to us since 2000s. Usually PC "package" games were there till mid-2000s, but honestly they were not that good enough to overwhelm other PC games and Console games from foreign nations.
Some of devs challenged a console games. Like Kingdom Under Fire(Xbox) Magna Carta2(Xbox360, Which is involving Kim hyeong-tae, director of Stellar blade, as a key artist). THAT IS IT.
And in that circumstance, Even if your statements are all correct(and I believe so), It is quiet big shift in South korean game industry. Dave the diver, Lies of P, Stellar blade... all things are told "not unique", but it is a baby step for MMORPG & Mobile service addicted industry. I don`t know where devs would go, but I *want* to encourage them -- though They are not my cup of tea.
I am just playing Wanted : Dead with combat overhaul patch.
At the moment the big studios indeed aren't giving a lot of love to the genre, but they *are* still being made or leaving their mark for inspiration.
Soulstice from 2022 is much closer to stuff like Bayonetta, DMC, Darksiders etc. (and a hint of GOW, mainly in views and vistas). There's the upcoming Genokids. And also Yasuke: A Lost Descendant, Enenra, and a game that mixes skate/hoverboarding with combat inspired from this genre, called Gori: Cuddly Carnage.
Loved Soulstice and am spreading word on the others (plus stuff like Blud, Cookie Cutter, My Familiair, Resistor and more) where I can.
Want to mention Clash: Artifacts of Chaos too. More in line with something like Sifu, God Hand and Absolver in terms of combat rather than DMC, but nonetheless very much worth looking into.
@@jurtheorc8117 Yeap, I played soulstice a bit, too(I didn't paly to the end though. I should roll up my backlog). And onechanbara origin was solid enough so I wonder how tam soft make a sequel at this point. But as you said, most of Spectacle fighters are made by small studios for a niche audiences, nowdays.
I even miss free-flow combat experiences because titles of melee-combat action genre nowdays are so similar, homogeneous.
@@nepu47 Wish you a lot of fun on Soulstice when time and opportunity allows, and same with the other games that are YEARNING FOR THINE GLORIOUS RETURN :P
(Very much recommend to get the grappling hook movefor the Tearing Penance --the whip weapon-- in Soulstice as soon as you can. If spellcasting and flying enemies give you trouble: the Merciful Blades, those being the punch daggers, are your friend. Good for interrupting casting/wind-up animations as well as keeping you in the air.)
Not the most interested in Onechanbara, but positive statements on such games from other directions/branches is good stuff.
Thank you for replying!
I like the term "package game".
I love Souls games, including Sekiro, but even someone like me really, REALLY wants a new action game WITHOUT parries and invincible dodges, and to have very few high-risk moves with armor/invincibility.
Armor/Invincibility/Parries seriously de-emphasize fundamentals and quick thinking.
These modern action games feel more like Rhythm games in disguise.
It's always weird when I check in on AAA gaming. All those tropes and the psychological tricks they use to keep you placated while playing just ring so hollow to me just like you were discussing. Didn't know about some of the terms, I'll have to check out that site shown in the screenshots with the definitions. Looks like a fun read on the side at work.
Honestly I'm loving my time with stellarblade. It's fun and entertaining. It has it's flaws but it's actually a great game.
For those of u concerned with the costumes, just don't wear what offends u. The game gives u the option to choose.
The story is okay, the characters are decent. Even eve with her stoic interactions suit her very well. Honestly I have zero complaints about this game. To each their own.
At this point I have to wonder if any modern AAA game actually understands why games were fun in the first place. Seems like most of them are now designed to waste the player's time as interactive movies.
Instead of spouting typical baseless nonsense, how about you play something else? The highest rated game of the year so far is a JRPG that is gameplay first with a fantastic narrative to boot. Play FF7 Rebirth and you'll love gaming again. Better than any GTA.
Have you tried Furi? It's just a series of boss fights, it has the reactive combat you complain about but it just feels right, everything remains interesting til the end.
Fantastic game!
he knows of it, but not a fan but I think he would respect it more than this game because it sticks to the boss rush idea (except for the walking sections). which what Sekiro, and all its clones should have done but instead they padded their games w/ pointlessness inbetween. if you can run past all the enemies is it a true action game
@@westonstaufenberg7278 sekiro has a boss rush mode though
Completely off topic, please review Mullet Madjack if it's of interest to you (it might just), it just came out and it looks very cool!
I was expecting this review
That Punch Out comparison is good.
I have to give you a lot of credit.
We have COMPLETELY opposite impressions of this game and I’d say I disagree with you on most of your takes. However, everything I disagree with is pure opinion. As someone who loves both the Soulsborne games and character-action games (a la DMC, Bayonetta, Hi-Fi Rush) that revolve around high-octane spectacle fights and finding fighting game strings that keep you offensive, this scratched a powerful skill itch I was missing in recent games like FFXVI. Add that to the amazing music and the dystopian scifi meets eldritch horror world setting, and I’m very content. I’m also a fan of this teams various artists and their other projects as individuals (pre Shift-Up they’ve made some seriously fun and impressive games in the industry)
There are definitely objective game design choices that I completely agree with you on. Hints on the passcodes turns a fun memory game into redundant fetch quests (thankfully they aren’t all this way). The game isn’t always super easy, but if you go for completion the power-scaling gets a bit weird and you become OP until the final few stages (though that balances in hard mode a bit). And there are a LOT of exposition dumps, almost over explaining topics that hit the first time (a criminal offense to me as a Soulsborne affiçionado. I always prefer show over tell)
I can’t agree with you on most points, but I respect you speaking your own truth to your experience. And I appreciate you 1000% for speaking on this game as a video-game, and not just talking about the low hanging fruit topics like everyone else has been. Truly, I’d rather hear an earnestly negative take I don’t agree with over a phoned-in positive take. It doesn’t change my love for the game in any way and I want healthy discord like this to push games forward.
Not every game has to be dmc, at least it's not trying to be new god of war where wolverine will be cursed with that.( I personally still enjoyed, but it's gonna get oversaturated and boring)
@sodathejunker for other character action games, the following ones may prove interesting:
- Soulstice (2022)
- Genokids (upcoming)
- Yasuke: A Lost Descendant (upcoming)
- Enenra (upcoming)
- Gori: Cuddly Carnage (upcoming)
- The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (don't remember what year that one released. 2D rather than 3D, but VERY fast-paced.)
- No Straight Roads (2020. Quite short and simple, very boss-centric, but FULL of style, character and love for music.)
Honorary mention of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos too, which is described by some as a Soulslike but while having elements of it, such as the bonfire checkpoints, health flasks and world with many looping shortcuts, is more like a 3D fighter/brawler, with different fighting stances and special attacks with full unique animation movesets to find, customize and switch between.
Has a very unique world too, with inhabitants that some have said look like they came from The Dark Crystal or would fit quite well in there. Beautiful, colorful, and the main protagonist looks gnarly as all get-out.
Genuinely amazing music and good writing too.
(it's a prequel to the Zeno Clash series of first-person brawler games, from around... 2008 and 2011, if i remember correctly. Gives more to see in the world, but it's Zeno Clash 2 that shows and tells the most of the world of all three games so far. Mainly through a side quest of finding special cubes and something to do with a scribe called Word.)
Want to quickly mention Cookie Cutter and Blud too. Neither Character Action nor Soulslike, though both do have bloody combat and i can vouch for Cookie Cutter feeling smooth to play and being quite over-the-top.
Both are beautifully 2D hand-drawn animated and have a lot to see in their world.
Has to be said that CC specifically is still being developed. It's a solid and fairly complete game as it is, cliffhanger end notwithstanding, but the lead dev wants to develop and substantially support it for as long as he can if other support allows for it. From difficulty options and seemingly an optional battle arena too, to new weapons, questlines, areas, characters and bosses.
Hope these all have sounded interesting to you, and that you may check them out and spread word on them!
I love King's Field. I wish more games existed today that played and sounded just like it.
Have you tried Dread Delusion. It's a bit like if King's Field was open world. It's out of early access on PC soon and it's amazing.
@micshazam842 Oh, yes I heard about that game just yesterday for the first time. It was compared to Morrowwind though, which definitely feels very different to Kings Field. It's funny though, things are coming full circle. I only discovered The Elder Scrolls games in the first place because I thought they kinda looked like Kings Field
@@SwordsmanOrion I've played only a handful hours of Dread Delusion, then decided to wait until it was out of early access. It definitely has elements of a game in the style of Morrowind. But exploring that strange, low poly world felt very PS1 From Soft to me. There's not a lot of talking in the game. It's exploration and combat, with some occasional dialogue as there are some guilds and NPCs.
So not really a game quite like King's Field, but I'd say it scratched a similar itch for me somehow.
This is kinda what turned me off to this game. It looked so shallow across the board.
I'd be curious to know the logic behind praising a game like Wanted Dead which has several of the negative things you mentioned in this video such as unskippable sections that drag down gameplay i.e. minigames which have to be completed, a poorly written story that doesn't even have a proper conclusion, and an RPG system that locks several basic abilities behind it to give the illusion of depth. It's just kind of strange since both games seem to be very flawed but your Wanted Dead review is very generous while this one seems to be overly negative.
The developers updated the game to not lock redundant skills behind points like easier parry timing in Wanted: Dead. But yea, it doesn't change the fact that the game is mostly a steaming crap and he praised it. Extreme bias.
If I had to guess it's because while Wanted Dead has a ton of flaws, to the point where the game kinda sucks, it at least does a couple things really well which gives the core combat much greater depth than this game. This game seems to take every popular mechanic in modern action games and does them at a surface level of quality. Wanted Dead at least has a good challenge, requires risk vs reward to succeed, and is great at forcing the player to take on many enemies at once (something that no modern games do well anymore, unlike games like mgs rising and Ninja gaiden during the 360 era).
Even tho Stellar Blade does many things better than Wanted Dead it doesn't do any one thing exceptionally well and has absolutely no real depth to the combat.
@@mgxzazfbyjuchrisclarkvpz236putting challenge above fun factor and self expression thru gameplay is honestly really dumb.
Why is challenge and difficulty constantly being upheld on this pedestal of good game design?
Stellar Blade has plenty of depth in its combat & playing the game particularly flawlessly actually takes ALOT of dedication.
Also there are plenty of interesting enemy encounters & fun boss fights. Idk why just having pure and simple fun is so wrong and cringe to you guys lmao.
@@Gnasheress Wanted: Dead is a Japanese game and about as anime as it gets. Mark also dunks on Euroshmups while praising Japanese style shmup design. This has nothing to do with racism.
It also has nothing to do with Eve's appearance. You'll see that Mark's previous video on Stellar Blade was very positive about its visual style. He's been a proponent of sexually appealing character design since forever which should be obvious from his thumbnail choices really.
Challenge also results in fun and player expression. Fun is a result of feeling accomplishment from overcoming the challenges presented by the game while self expression comes from how you choose to tackle said challenges. Fun and self expression without any sort of difficulty behind it will ultimately be shallow and for naught. You're right in that Mark does tend to prize difficulty a little too much but no challenge at all is the bane of good game design.
@@Gnasheress Stellar blade bosses were boring too. I honestly think this review was overly positive towards SB, when its just pure turd. But what you can expect from developers of nike, a mobile game that is shallow even for a mobile game. Maybe this game is good for a people that are even struggling to fight out of a paper bag.
> no air parry
its so over
>no Okizeme reversal into super
it was rigged from the start
Finally, a review of substance on this game! Despite any shortcomings, everyday I'm becoming more and more thankful for the Ninja Gaiden master collection--on a sidenote, there is a youtube channel called Combat Overview that deep dives into the combat mechanics of action games. Worth a look.
Its just a game that would came and went 20 years ago, with fairly good reception. But it speaks to the state of things now how propped up by both lovers and haters this was.
The game feels very ps2/ps3 era triple-A in how it's full of set pieces and gimmicks. All it's missing is a forced turret sequence and it's like it escaped from 2007 through a time machine.
Except how the two open zones make you feel like you're playing a PS4 AAA game. And there are visible soulslike influences - successful or not. So it's really a bit of a hodgepodge of things, depending where you are in the campaign.
>Calls Stellar Blade shallow and deceptive
>Praises a turd like Wanted: Dead
Ha ha thanks for the laugh. I needed that.
The ninja scroll scene 😭
I only have time to commit 5-9 hours max for a game anyway. Both physical time, and mental energy/interest. The last modern action game I've enjoyed was uncharted 4 lol for this reason. Beyond that, I'm all about arcade/sports/retro gaming
How to make the combat better: Dont use lock-on, turn of auto lock-on, turn off camera auto rotation. Combat is deeper then you think. Theres a lot options to ramp up attack speed. Not all combos are shown in the skill tree, there are more in the manual section (menu). You can use rush to cancel out of recovery animations. I have fun experimenting with the system but yes, there not enough enemies. I hope hard mode will have more.
This is no critique of the review. Love your channel.👍👍👍
just an FYI.
THE GAME IS 6 STORY MISSIONS LONG.
Yeah. This confused the hell out of me when I finished the game yesterday. Feels like you could beat the main story in 4-5 hours. Bloated with side missions to disguise the fact.
@@moriarty2666 the story doesn’t need to be all that great to make a game good if your that type of person that cares about how good a story is I suggest find a game that has a good story
@@edwardjones1482 where did I ever say that stellar blade doesn't have a good story?
one thing that confuse me was
some people comparing this game to Nier automata
which is weird cuz that game more like a hack N slash bullet hell game
this is far more slow something like dark souls
but if anything its more like Ninja Gaiden 3
were the battle works the best in one VS one combat
I think it was mainly the story themes and music that were compared to Nier. The gameplay is nothing like it.
I'm pretty sure the nier comparison happend since the sb director said nier was the main inspiration for the game and was happy that pepole were referring to it as the korean nier
Funnily enough, I felt the same way about the modern action game design for FF16, where I was mostly playing it for the combat and was blown away by the prologue in terms of the story and gameplay. However, the game then felt padded and I eventually lost interest in it due to the game design, which was structured like an mmo with fetch quests and with a combat system that I got bored of pretty early on.
The boss fights were a huge spectacle and were cool, but I remember feeling bored with the stuff outside of that. I never thought that that type of game design was becoming a trend though
FF16 too much spectacle, not enough substance. Not even the soundtrack was good, super generic, epic-like tracks blasting every chance it has. One of the bland soundtracks in the FF franchise and that is the last thing you want to have attached as an FF entry. An MMO disguised as a single player. I had a hunch that would be the case as soon as the FFXIV dev was behind FFXVI.
Not trying to downplay your arguments, I haven't played Stellar Blade beyond the demo but I love the pettiness of shit like 'stand around timer' and 'Spyro gameplay' lmao
Ok. But what did you think of FF7 Rebirth?
He hated it.
@@ZEHAHAHA9697 as it should be. FF7 Rebirth has the same thing going on like Stellar Blade. Only salvageable thing is the soundtrack. But FF7 Rebirth makes you suffer, not 40 hours, but 70 hours for only main story.
Remakes suck and FF7 is no exception.
Just play the original.
@@JF-vz1juOG FF7 has terribad gameplay tho and was a huge step down from 6 and even moreso 5. Rebirth's biggest issue is the over abundance of mandatory non-combat (i.e. minigame shit) segments being shoved up your ass before they let you fight shit. Rebirth took Remake's already solid combat foundation and improved on it (Perfect guard/parry, KH style team attacks, more varied enemy designs and gimmicks, etc.).
I hope part 3 adds actual jumping and i frames on the universal dodge to make it more actiony like KH2FM (undisputed king of ARPGs). We'll see.
You a fool for the Ninja Scroll's pic!😂
I know it was a joke, but I'm gonna be that guy for a moment and say Spyro does have fun and engaging puzzles lol
"All the game cares about is including as many mechanics on paper as it can, and then is incredibly strict about making sure none of them interact."
Ah, the "God of War: Ragnarok" approach. Everything I hate about modern action games in one sentence.
I first noticed this trend in GoW: Ragnarok, but I'm sure the rot started much earlier, but Ragnarok is where it became crystal clear what the modern template looked like. A million different systems with 0 overlapping interactions, and then a full game of prescribed gameplay to force usage of each mechanic in an isolated manner.
You're exactly the reviewer modern gaming needs right now and I hope this review blows up and people start seeing behind the curtain of modern gaming.
This type of review was out 20 years ago
Things have only doubled down and gotten worse
God of War Ragnarok has plenty of cancels and even dodge offset. The moves interact together fine. Have you played it?
Right? The combat in it is much better than the vast majority of games. The problem with that game is that the devs treat the player like we're all fucking idiots by having companions tell us where to go and how to solve every puzzle. That ruined what otherwise would've been an amazing game. Very sad and definitely one of the worst trends in "modern" gaming! They won't let us struggle to figure ANYTHING out on our own.
God of Four was already unacceptably poor. I can't believe any of you gave the second game a chance if you actually had standards
Stellar Blade was my first game in awhile where I didn't really feel the burden of the game padding out the game time with useless stuff. I bought FF7 Rebirth recently and was very excited for it but have barely gone into the third open world area. I've been waiting for this game since they revealed it as Project: Eve 5 years and even if they didn't make Eve as attractive as they did I still would've bought the game since it was the action-adventure and sci-fi theme that interested me. The game isn't perfect, not all of the boss fights are super interesting, but it doesn't make me appreciate the game any less. I thought the puzzle boxes were fun and rewarded me for exploring the area by allowing me to unlock more outfits or upgrade my gear to become stronger. I think the story is pretty intersting, the writing isn't the best and the english voice acting is not the greatest. Nier: Automata and Sekiro are some of my favorite games ever. I don't think this game is as good as them, but it is still fun and unique in its own way. There are definitely a few things I can think of that could improve the game, but they weren't a large enough deal to take away from my experience from the game. The game gives you 2 options for difficulty (a story and an action mode, an easier and a harder one respectively), while I played on the harder difficulty I could still experience the story and appreciate the combat and boss fights. The 12 expospines and a large variety of gear options allow players to vary their builds depending on their skills and playstyle. I think the developers deserve praise because they did put a lot of work into this game and it payed off. I think the game review industry needs to understand that not every game is made for everyone, and that they shouldn't let some random people on the internet to decide for them to buy a game. Sure they can still help but it shouldn't always be the deciding factor, let the players decide for themselves. Sorry for the essay but I don't think Stellar Blade deserves the hate it has been getting.
well said
Finally, a criticism of Stellar Blade that isn't "too sexual, waaah" or "they made it minutely less sexualised, reee, the wokies have won"
Aside from the culture war shit, I always thought SB looked pretty mid as an action game after playing the demo. Annoying mob visibility, really trash parry/block responses (combat moves are hella basic), reliance on meter attacks to make a difference, idk how it lasted this long, Id rather buy on sale or find a used copy.
I am done with modern gaming forcing us to think games with terrible design are 10/10 masterpieces to force 70 dollars out of you, FF7 Rebirth was the last straw of this nonsense.
If you'd rate the game out of 10 how would you rate it? Believe it or not thats how i somewhat gauge other people's opinions on games lol.
thank you, saved me 70$
I personally love the game, but everyone has different taste I guess
Everytime Mark switches to the voice modulator, my brain instantly thinks I'm watching a Tim Rogers video lol
lol so I’m stupid. What the purpose of the voice modulator?
At 30:01, is that a mod in the Bayo 1 footage? If it is, what's the mod?
I got 100% platinum NG+ if they announce stellar blade sequel tomorrow I’ll buy 🤷🏻♂️ I’ll give you the view cause I like hearing others opinions
Watched a buddy buy this game and nearly fell asleep after watching for an hour or two. The amount of timewasting filler was absolutely insane!! Its a shame too, I was excited for this game and everyone is really hyping it up. I was expecting Lies of P with sexy protag not more $70 modern slop.
thats what obviously happens when your not playing the game smh
I started playing sunset overdrive again, and i do enjoy it, but definitely feel like they shoulda made more dedicated levels rather than leaning on open world too much. Point is, we need maximized design for the most fun gameplay, and open worlds can hinder that because they are oftentimes too vast for their own good. Its still wayyyy better than infamous and other games like it. (I wish i could love infamous series more because nostalgia)
if the world must be open, the traversal better be excellent or it has diminished replay value right away. every once in a while, i load up Spider-Man 2 on the dolphin emulator just to swing around for an hour or two. the web-swinging, wall running and everything inbetween traversal wise was so fast and so good. and they haven't done it better since. the difference between that game and the new marvels one is like manual vs automatic cars, is just so much more engaging to shift gears
Must admit I bought DOA scarlet and was mortified to find out after the fact that this one has had the breast softening cream removed 😅
Im having a blast with the game, to each their own I suppose.
Walking around empty deserts and listening to dumb npc’s is what you’re having a blast with?
Thank you for the honest review. Another game where literally everything but the core gameplay experience was talked about in reviews and fake "controversies". I felt about this game exactly the same way I feel about any current Western "action" game. Shallow and BORING! ah well, I've been itching for another playthrough of God Hand. man I love that game. Cheers!
The first 25 seconds of this video are exactly how I've felt since the first time I played Uncharted 2.
Dont You put that evil on Nikke, Bobby!
The opening line alone really is the truth. But I hate how this is "modern". A lot of practises are regressive bullshit.
I like it because it has some exploration in it. The game says to go left, go right instead. It’s not as much as dragon’s dogma or baldur’s gate 3, but there is some chance to forget the next objective marker for a moment and see what’s out there.
I think the fast paced part of it is supposed to be the timing for the blocks, perfect parries and various dodges. Oh and the locked boxes where you SOMETIMES have to input the button prompts in a randomized order. It does get kind of repetitive though.