Stellar Blade is the new PlayStation 5 exclusive that is about to hit the market. The developers, before releasing the full game, decided to give players the opportunity to try it with a demo. This has caused many to start asking, “Is Stellar Blade a soulslike?”.
In this article, therefore, after having also tried the demo and having given you our impressions in a previous article, we will try to answer this question so that you know what you are going to encounter.
Is Stellar Blade a Soulslike? Explained
Stellar Blade, as we have already said, is a new PlayStation 5 exclusive that will arrive on the market on April 26th. Since its first announcement during a recent State of Play, Stellar Blade has been able to arouse the interest of many players who can’t wait to try the game in its entirety. However, the release of a demo in recent days has made many wonder whether Stellar Blade was a soulslike or not.
From the videos and trailers that had been available up to that point, we had been able to see how Stellar Blade was characterized by very adrenaline-filled gameplay, very much in the style of classic hack ‘n’ slash like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, but with a nod to games like Nier Automata and Metal Gear Rising. The demo, however, highlighted the presence of some gameplay features that can be traced back to the soulslike genre.
In fact, in Stellar Blade, there will be camps where you can rest and regain both health and objects lost/used during your adventure. You can purchase items that serve to make combat easier, you can upgrade yourself by choosing which skills to spend your points on; and, in the main camps, there is also the possibility of upgrading the weapons of both EVE and your trusty robot, who make use of fast travel to move quickly between the various camps on the map.
Furthermore, as if that wasn’t enough, once you use these camps, many of the enemies you defeat will respawn, as is a prerogative of the soulslike genre. And we cannot fail to mention that there are also some game mechanics related to combat, such as the parry and the staggering of enemies, which are very similar to games belonging to this genre.
However, although there are game mechanics that have been borrowed from soulslikes, Stellar Blade is not a soulslike. We can describe it, if we really want, as a hack ‘n’ slash with some soulslike mechanics. In any case, to have an even more complete and exhaustive vision of what Stellar Blade will be, we just have to wait for the game to be released in its entirety. Until that moment, you can decide to dive into the demo thoroughly and start familiarizing yourself with the game system.