Ahead of its launch, I wrotea rather scathing pieceon howStellar Bladerips inspiration fromNier: Automatawithout ever truly understanding what made Yoko Taro’s masterpiece such a seminal piece of art. It has a post-apocalyptic setting, sad music, a drone companion, along with a female android protagonist, but Stellar Blade offers none of the same substance.
It tries desperately to stand alongside Nier: Automata and falls short at every turn. It looks nicer in the traditional sense, plays better with its Souls-esque combat, and also presents a heroine that is infinitely more sexualised by the camera and every single available outfit. But even when combined, few of these factors match up to what came before.
Meanwhile, a certain subset of gamers has chosen to praise Eve as some form of anti-woke deity, which looked incredibly silly when reviews were released for Stellar Blade and most critics thought it was pretty good.
Yet no matter how I try to perceive Stellar Blade, it will never escape from the shadow of Nier because its attempt to imitate the Square Enix RPG is so utterly shameless. It knows exactly what it is doing, but I can’t for the life of me figure out if I’m taking its creatively bankrupt comparison too seriouslywhen even director Yoko Taro has emerged to praise the things Stellar Blade is doing. Am I crazy? Have I refused to move on from a game that came out more than half a decade ago? It sure looks like it.
After this initial nugget of praise from Taro, I expected the two properties to never cross paths again, because comparing them so directly would be a death sentence. But against all odds, this week’s State of Play saw Shift Up announce an official collaboration with Nier: Automata that will see new outfits, cosmetics, and other content added to the game.
Seconds after Stellar Blade appeared on-screen, I turned to a friend and muttered to them about how much better it could have been were it more confident in its identity instead of pulling from Nier: Automata at every opportunity. The photo mode was a neat addition and shining an additional light on the music was yet another thing fans had been asking for. After that though, like some sort of sick, twisted joke, Eve appeared on-screen wearing 2B’s outfit.
I recognised the signature font and melancholic music before Eve appeared in this new attire and found myself perplexed with a side order of disappointment. Dressing her up as 2B with a drone by her side only serves to highlight how blatant the inspiration really is, and seconds later, she stares out across an abandoned landscape that isn’t nearly as compelling as anything Automata puts forward. It’s an odd idea for a collaboration, and feels more like Shift Up and Square Enix are meeting the shallow demand of seeing Eve in yet another sexy outfit rather than consider the narrative ramifications.
However, there is still so much we don’t know about this collaboration. Shift Up confirmed it is coming later this year and will obviously include a 2B costume, but there is a chance it will be something more substantial. Perhaps it will even subvert expectations and explore a story that actively acknowledges the obvious similarities. Stellar Blade’s narrative can be light and generic, but it still manages to present some likeable characters and creative world design. That’s one of the big reasons why it popped off so much upon its reveal - it was something new.
But in actuality, it was threadbare in places and could have gone so much further because it tries and fails to capture the greatness of its inspiration. A direct collaboration with that exact forebear is something that nobody expected to happen, but here we are. And hopefully, with it releasing later this year instead of being a randomly dropped update, hints at a substantial addition that wants to tell its own interwoven story that questions its deeper themes. Or it will be the exact sort of soulless fan service I don’t want it to be. Either outcome is possible.
No matter what the future holds, my intrigue has peaked. I admire Stellar Blade in spite of its flagrant bastardisation of Nier: Automata, and believe it can rise above the copycat comparisons if the upcoming collaboration is more than an overpriced pack of optional skins. It exists in a bizarre fictional world where crossing over with another isn’t out of the question, and you’re able to even tell a compelling, non-canon story with the right approach. But, that will take more than a few risqué outfits.
Stellar Blade
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Stellar Blade is an action-driven game from Shift Up, originally revealed as Project Eve. It follows the aforementioned Eve as she battles the alien Naytiba invaders, in a bid to reclaim the Earth for humanity.
