You might recall this title but find that the name doesn’t match up. If so, you aren’t wrong — what was originally revealed as Project EVE has been given the official title of Stellar Blade. This game caught the eye of fans of stylish character-action titles in the same vein as the Bayonetta or Devil May Cry games, only with a very unique sci-fi-inspired setting. Only with the recent reveal of the official title has concrete information about Stellar Blade started to trickle out.
Thanks to a great showing at Sony’s September 2022 State of Play, Stellar Blade has captured the attention of many curious gamers. However, most of the game’s important details still either remain unknown or hidden in other sources. There’s no need for you to hack in and try to scrub all this data for yourself. Here’s everything you need to know about Stellar Blade.
Release date
Stellar Blade will arrive on April 26, 2024.
Platforms
Stellar Blade will be a PlayStation 5 console exclusive.
Trailers
The first trailer to drop after getting its official title was at the previously-mentioned State of Play.
We open on an old man who is heavily integrated with various machines, including most, if not all, of his brain. He speaks of a time when humanity was overcome by some force before we cut to the interior of a ship.
Here, we’re introduced to the city of the abandoned, Xion. We cut to our protagonist, Eve, activating some sort of generator or device that powers up a massive room where thousands of people are kept in “deep sleep” due to lack of energy.
Another cut shows us the enemy for the first time: a NA:tive. This is a disturbing beast with elongated limbs and a massive, long mouth with rows of vertical teeth and a blade in each hand. Another shown is more heavy, swinging two bulging fists. We see Eve fighting them, as well as robotic foes, with a blade, gun, and some type of ability.
After more gameplay, we come back to the old man asking if Eve can save them “this time.”
This leaves almost more questions than it answers, but the accompanying blog post adds a little more context to what we’ll be doing in Stellar Blade and why the name was chosen. The name is meant to combine the Latin meaning of stellar, “stars,” and blade to represent Eve’s reason for existing.
The blog explains that Eve and her team will come to Earth on a mission to take back the world after near extinction. You will have the choice to aid the people of Xion as well, though this is entirely up to you as a player.
The Gameplay Overview trailer didn’t give us many more story details, but it gave us a better look at the world and characters within it.
Gameplay
The trailer blitzes through a lot of gameplay, but it does get the point across of what type of game Stellar Blade is. It will combine melee and ranged attacks, as Eve mainly wields her sword to pull off combos but also has access to a gun. The pace seems very fast and perhaps somewhat Souls-like in some nature as well, with major emphasis put on dodging and parrying incoming attacks. The same blog explains that you will learn things called Beta and Burst Skills that will be “pleasing to the eye.”
Boss fights are also heavily emphasized as being far more difficult than your normal enemy encounters, though no more was said on the matter specifically.
Preorder
Stellar Blade preorders have gone live on the PlayStation store, with two versions to pick from. Here’s what’s included in each.
- Standard Edition – $70
- The base Stellar Blade game
- Planet Diving suit for EVE
- Classic Round glasses for EVE
- Ear Armor earrings for EVE
- Digital Deluxe Edition – $80
- Everything from the Standard Edition
- Stargazer suit for EVE
- Half-rim Glasses for EVE
- Quadruple Rectangle Earrings for EVE
- Stargazer Coat for Lily
- Stargazer Wear for Adam
- Stargazer Pack for the Drone
- 2,000 SP EXP
- 5,000 Gold
