The current port of the previously-PlayStation-exclusive Stellar Blade to Steam has been just about a common optimistic for all concerned events. Extra folks get to expertise a reasonably kickin’ motion sport, and the port was additionally very properly optimized for PC, one thing I sincerely want we noticed extra of.
Extra to the purpose, Stellar Blade is a really explicit sort of motion sport, the likes of which you won’t see in each entry within the style. Eve’s adventures did fairly properly for themselves when the sport first launched on PS5, and that’s as a result of folks typically get pleasure from a decent mixture of character-action fight, mild Souls components, and… different issues, let’s say.
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The one actual draw back to enjoying an exemplary sport like Stellar Blade is that it tends to boost and alter your requirements for such issues, to the purpose that different video games with out overt similarities won’t hit fairly proper.
Fortunately, pretty much as good as it’s, Stellar Blade will not be in a vacuum. There are many different motion video games to get pleasure from with comparable levels of punchy fight and cheap ranges of problem.
9
Lies Of P
Good Guarding And Fabulous Hair
Some elements of Stellar Blade’s gameplay are likened to the Souls video games, notably the final problem degree of fight and the very fact you get your heals again at checkpoints.
If you happen to’re trying to lean extra into that gameplay fashion following Stellar Blade, a Soulslike is the apparent subsequent step, however which one? If I needed to decide a great place to begin, it’d most likely be Lies of P.
Lies of P is an motion Soulslike the place you play as a puppet lad with a downright fabulous head of hair and an superior metallic arm. It’s extra overtly Souls than Stellar Blade, as you drop your forex whenever you die and enemies respawn whenever you relaxation, however the fight does have an analogous stream to it.
Particularly, the core tenet in a struggle is ideal blocking quite than dodging, and as you struggle and block, you construct up a meter that can be utilized for particular weapon assaults, not in contrast to Eve’s Beta Gauge.
In case you need to bridge the hole between Stellar Blade and Soulslikes, Lies of P is an on-call carpenter. Or whoever you rent to construct bridges.
8
Satan Could Cry 5
A Fashionable Motion Basic
When folks attempt to rapidly compartmentalize Stellar Blade’s general gameplay vibe, the reason you most likely hear rather a lot is, “it’s like a Souls sport with Satan Could Cry fight.” Contemplating the direct name-drop there, it shouldn’t come as a shock {that a} Satan Could Cry sport would make a great follow-up.
Any of them are good decisions (besides 2, don’t play 2), however if you’d like one thing with an analogous diploma of manufacturing, go for Satan Could Cry 5. What Satan Could Cry 5 lacks in Stellar Blade’s open world and Souls-bordering depth, it makes up for by doubling down on its core fight.
Satan Could Cry is, in spite of everything, one of many quintessential character-action video games, encouraging prolonged, high-flying combo strings with flashy strikes and weaponry. Whereas it’s a linear sport, it crams quite a lot of selection into its motion with a number of playable characters and a slew of unlockable expertise and tips.
In case your favourite a part of Stellar Blade is getting right into a stream state and banging out combos rapid-fire, Satan Could Cry 5 has loads of that. Heck, the soundtrack will get higher the higher your combos get, and it’s already a reasonably nice soundtrack.
7
Bayonetta
Fight In Heels By no means Seemed So Simple
If somebody requested you to call a sport the place you play as a feminine protagonist in a skintight go well with with mad fight expertise in heels, you’d most likely say Stellar Blade in case you performed it lately. If it wasn’t Stellar Blade, although, there’s actually just one different sport that matches that admittedly very particular description: Bayonetta.
Bayonetta is a character-action sport much like Satan Could Cry, and thus additionally much like Stellar Blade’s combo-centric punch-ups. The distinction in comparison with these two video games is that Bayonetta is a bit more fast-paced, high-flying, and high-impact.
There’s loads of dodging, in addition to countering in case you’re into that, however greater than the rest, it’s about turning the artwork of fight into a correct spectacle.
A lot of Bayonetta’s combo strings end in sweeping, launching assaults, and infrequently finish with one among her signature Depraved Weaves, whereby a large furry fist flies out of a portal and hits an enemy like a freight practice.
If you happen to’re extra into the fight of Stellar Blade than the problem of exploration, Bayonetta’s acquired a complete smorgasbord of dopamine hits on faucet.
6
NieR: Automata
A Frequent Comparability
Again when Stellar Blade was first introduced, many swiftly drew comparisons to NieR: Automata for his or her considerably comparable motion gameplay and oddly-dressed android-centric premise.
You may’t deny there are some similarities, nevertheless it’s not a foul factor. What’s unsuitable with having two glorious motion video games about android ladies swinging big swords round? I can’t consider a draw back.
Stellar Blade and NieR: Automata share an analogous slightly-open world format, whereby you may freely discover, traverse ruined cities, and infrequently decide up quests from NPCs.
In comparison with Stellar Blade’s fight, Automata’s is extra about dodging than blocking, with Platinum reusing components of its excellent dodge mechanics pioneered in Bayonetta. It’s additionally not as punishing as a sport, although you do nonetheless lose all of your stuff in case you die twice in a row with out making it again to the place you ate it.
Gameplay apart, Stellar Blade and NieR: Automata have some similarities in tone and elegance. Each our protagonists, Eve and 2B, have equally stoic tendencies, and are each in approach over their heads in a post-apocalyptic, planet-spanning conflict towards a seemingly indomitable opponent.
5
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
We All Dwell In A Parry World
One of many main parts of Stellar Blade’s core fight loop is powerful parrying. It’s not nearly blocking assaults, it’s about fending them off and countering.
Parrying is commonly thought of a significant part of any sport that considers itself a Soulslike, and out of all of the Soulslikes, the one which did the very best job with parrying was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Not like in the primary Darkish Souls video games, the place dodge rolling does many of the be just right for you, Sekiro lives and dies by the parry.
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Video games like Sekiro and Sifu have parrying and counter mechanics that strike the proper steadiness between leisure and talent.
With a view to do any lasting harm, you want to get proper up in your opponent’s face and ship constant assaults, and the one strategy to sustain the strain is studying enemy tells to know which of your a number of kinds of parries to make use of.
Whereas Stellar Blade’s fight isn’t precisely simple, it’s positively extra forgiving than Sekiro’s parrying marathon. If you would like extra of that sort of gameplay after enjoying Stellar Blade, although, Sekiro is the place you’ll discover it, assured.
Extra Machines, Extra Swordplay
Talking of parrying, there’s multiple strategy to get pleasure from parrying in an motion sport. The best way video games like Sekiro and Stellar Blade do it, whereby it’s only one step in an elaborate sword-to-sword dance is nice, however one other approach I personally get pleasure from parrying is with a totally one-sided beatdown.
Or, within the case of the parrying mechanics in Steel Gear Rising: Revengeance, a slashdown. Parrying is a giant a part of Revengeance’s fight equation, although it really works somewhat in a different way in comparison with most comparable video games.
You could sort of faucet your stick and guard button in the other way of an incoming assault to influence it, after which that leads right into a full parry. It’s acquired a little bit of a studying curve to it, however hey, so does Stellar Blade’s parry.
What’s extra, everytime you pull off a profitable parry in Revengeance, you get to enter Raiden’s Blade Mode and freely chop your opponents up into tons of of little giblet bits. It by no means stops being enjoyable to see simply what number of elements you may chop a dude into, and the sport even retains observe of your slicing file for you.
3
Black Fantasy: Wukong
A Related Variety Of Variety-Of-Soulslike
Maybe you’re not trying to get into the complete Soulslike scene, however you’re additionally craving extra than simply straight-up motion fight.
It could be somewhat laborious to seek out one other sport that meets Stellar Blade’s explicit middleground of kind-of-a-Soulslike-but-not-really, however there may be positively one candidate, and a reasonably good one at that. For the same taste of motion gameplay with a tough tinge, strive Black Fantasy: Wukong.
Black Fantasy: Wukong’s gameplay truly bears a shocking diploma of similarity to Stellar Blade’s. The maps are equally massive and encourage exploration, fight is predicated closely round parrying and secondary talents, and there are quite a lot of little upgrades and skills you may be taught to show issues in your favor.
The apparent distinction in Black Fantasy is that you just’re enjoying a humanoid monkey man and battling towards bizarrely-proportioned beasties straight out of Chinese language delusion.
Although, I suppose there’s not likely that a lot distinction between bizarre mythological beasties and peculiar organic beasties like Stellar Blade’s Naytiba if you concentrate on it.
2
Lollipop Chainsaw
You Know What You’re Right here For
There’s no cause to sugarcoat this, so let’s simply put it on the desk: a statistically significant slice of people that have performed Stellar Blade did so, no less than partially as a result of Eve is a beautiful character in a decent outfit.
There’s no disgrace in it, everyone knows what we’re about. If you happen to’re nonetheless hankering for motion video games with a level of posteriors current, you would possibly simply get pleasure from Lollipop Chainsaw.
Lollipop Chainsaw, initially launched in 2012 and remastered for contemporary platforms in 2024, is a delightfully ridiculous romp created by infamous auteur sport designer Goichi Suda.
On this sport, you play as Juliet, a highschool cheerleader who moonlights as an exterminator of the undead along with her bedazzled chainsaw. It’s a sport that doesn’t take itself critically within the slightest, admittedly in opposition to Stellar Blade’s tone, however the fight has comparable levels of influence and punchiness to compete.
Moreover, you may unlock a wide range of outfits for Juliet to put on throughout gameplay utilizing tokens earned from consecutive zombie beheadings. The sport is aware of what you’re right here for, and my proof for that’s that there’s an achievement for attempting to angle the digital camera up Juliet’s skirt.
1
God Of Conflict (2018)
One Axe Does It All
One thing you see in varied motion video games is a big arsenal of weaponry in your protagonist to make use of. Stellar Blade is an exception to this, as the one weapon you employ is Eve’s Blade, supplemented by varied upgrades and items of supplemental tools.
Suppose you favor to construct your playstyle round a single, constant weapon, then the 2018 God of Conflict is basically accommodating of that.
For the overwhelming majority of God of Conflict, your lone weapon is Kratos’ Leviathan Axe. Regardless of this being his main armament, although, he’s not restricted in any respect in fight purposes; you simply be taught to make use of it in numerous methods, like with Eve’s Blade.
With totally different upgrades, axe builds, and tools setups, your playstyle can shift subtly based mostly in your wants and most well-liked playstyle.
It’s additionally price noting that Kratos wears quite a lot of totally different outfits on this sport as he obtains new armor units. There’s practically as many because the outfits Eve wears, and most of them present the identical quantity of pores and skin, if no more! Meals for thought.
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