Stellar Blade

I know the subject has been done to death, and I was in two minds about whether to post that Push Square link in the first place - after all, in so doing, I'm only contributing to the furtherance of this preposterous discussion.

The game's out now; by all accounts, it's pretty good; and that should probably be the focus from this point onwards.

Thing is, the narrative surrounding Stellar Blade has been toxic from the get-go, and it only seems to be getting worse. Shift Up has profited enormously from the attention heaped upon Eve's hypersexualised design, but now the incels have turned around to bite the hand that feeds.

The game's director attended a launch event on Friday. Instead of being able to celebrate the culmination of all the hard work done by him and his team, he found himself being quizzed about the "CeNSorED oUTfitS" nonsense.

The Change.org petition has almost 32,000 signatures at the time of writing (and it's only going to attract more now that Push Square has sent additional traffic its way, something even IGN has thus far avoided doing).

As for Push Square itself... well, I've already beaten that drum to within an inch of its life, so I shan't say much more here. It just bums me out to see one of the most prominent PlayStation-centric sites on the internet prioritise clicks over editorial integrity.

That there's 32,000 people who sign it just bums me out. Even in global population of 8.1 billion that's too many incel weirdos for my liking.

One thing I'm very glad about is the difficulty isn't too much for me. Playing the demo I was just scrapping by boss encounters because I suck, but Story difficulty is just fine for me. Challenging enough that it's still engaging, but manageable enough that I actually have a chance against bosses.

You still have to use the skills and abilities so you can't just button bash, but you can make riskier decisions without being penalised by losing half a health bar. I'm sure people that can actually play games will enjoy Normal a lot more but I'm glad they accommodated me and my near corpse-like reaction times.

Sort of my feeling - as in, I'm fairly sure I'll enjoy it. After finishing Rise of the Ronin, when I was looking for something new, Dragon's Dogma was 10 quid cheaper so I got that. I could justify Stellar Blade now, but with DD, Fallen Order and a new run of Fallout 4 on the horizon I'd better at least give the demo a go before I decide to buy it. 

FlexibleFeline I haven't played the 'final' version of the game (insofar as any version is ever truly 'final' nowadays!), but I reckon the demo will give you a good feel for what to expect.

Let us know how you get on with it

JonFE Oh, sure - that wasn't a dig at Stellar Blade or anything, just an acknowledgement of the way in which patches are so prevalent nowadays.

Shift Up has already mooted the possibility of tinkering with the input delay further, if enough players ask them to, and apparently they're having "internal discussions" about the possibility of changing the 'censored' outfits.

Kudos aplenty to them for releasing such a technically-sound product. It's really quite an achievement, especially as this is their first foray into the console market. Bethesda could learn a thing or two

Whizzo Yeah, I remember DF reporting their film grain nitpick and was surprised to see a toggle option in settings when it launched. It bodes well with the support people should come to expect from this title, same as with NG+ being already available.

Ulythium No, not yet, but I just encountered the second main boss (name in spoiler) and he is kicking my arse!

I enjoyed it. I don't know if I 70 quid enjoyed it but no doubt my resolve will crumble sooner rather than later. Looks gorgeous, very familiar systems (that's a plus for a giffer like me), decent blend of combat and exploration (hopefully the latter expands post-demo / tutorial).

The combat was mostly satisfying but did feel a tad..sluggish? From what I can see in other posts that's been fixed now. I've got to say I didn't love the music as much as most seem to and the loop started to grate after a while. 

What else? I read it was easy, and it generally was, but the end of demo boss took me a good six or seven attempts with those lightning attacks screwing me over each time. Good sense of incremental progress though each time I fought him. 

I like it. 

I hope they don't bow to these fucking weirdos, because it will just empower the pathetic dickheads.

FlexibleFeline Just FYI, there's another part of the demo that unlocks after you beat that boss. It's worth checking out.

Oh really? Cheers. I saw a boss mode or something unlocked, didn't spot anything else. 

I agree. If the price is holding me back something is amiss. Though if I hadn't just bought DD I would probably have pulled the trigger straight after the demo...