When was the Stellar Blade release date? Beginning life as Project EVE, the road to the Stellar Blade release date has been long. Fortunately, thanks in part to Sony’s backing, Shift Up’s action-adventure game has arrived as a serious contender for a slot in your PS5’s SSD.
Landing with a solid Metacritc score of 82, Stellar Blade has proven itself worthy of a spot on our best PS5 games list. From our own extensive, 30-hour playthrough, we can soundly say that Shift Up has excelled at bringing together a combat system inspired by the best Soulslike games and Devil May Cry, and a vibrant world that’s an audiovisual feast for the senses.
Stellar Blade release date
Stellar Blade was released on PS5 on Friday, April 26, 2024. It launched as a PS5 exclusive, which is unsurprising considering Shift Up had the backing of Sony for the lion’s share of the game’s development.
Stellar Blade’s final launch date follows the game’s previous delay from 2023. Shift Up expected the game to land that year after announcing the game’s final title – Stellar Blade was initially unveiled with the working title ‘Project EVE’ in 2019. It’s been a considerable wait for the game, but when you see the scope of its story and gameplay below you’ll forgive Shift Up for having made you wait just a little longer.
Stellar Blade story
Stellar Blade follows Eve, an ‘Angel’ from the Colony in her bitter struggle to defeat the scourge of humanity – the Naytiba. After a rocky landing on Eidos 7, Eve and her remaining comrades fight their way across the region, before being attacked by an Alpha Naytiba – one of the hardest bosses you’ll come across on your journey.
After being saved by Adam, Eve works her way out of Eidos 7, before heading over to Xion, the last city on Earth. When Eve and her comrades land on the planet they cross paths with the Elder of Xion, Orcal, who tasks Eve with collecting enough Alpha Naytiba cores to craft a key that will lead her to the Elder Naytiba – the root of the issue.
To fulfill her mission to save Earth, Eve develops a close relationship with the key figureheads of Xion and focuses on rebuilding the city. You also have some agency over your decisions in the sense that you can opt to not help the city’s denizens. We’d highly advise you take the time to do so, as Stellar Blade’s side content is a huge part of what makes it so great.
Stellar Blade gameplay
Pulling together reactive combat elements from the best Soulslike games like Sekiro, the rhythmic combat as seen in God of War, and good ol’ Devil May Cry-style hack ‘n’ slash, Stellar Blade will have you dodge and parry attacks, master enemy timings, and utilize flashy abilities in your fight for humanity.
A variety of Beta and Burst skills can be unlocked as you progress, though the latter will only become available much later on. Initially, Stellar Blade offers you access to three of its five skill trees – Attack, Beta, and Survival. The Attack tree allows you to unlock new combos and upgrade existing ones, the Beta tree juices up your Beta skills, and the Survival tree – we’d argue the most important tree to invest into early – offers up ways to help make sure you don’t die to bosses a trillion times.
Outside of combat, Stellar Blade has its fair share of minigames – including fishing – which Eve can partake in. Side questing is crucial for accruing SP – the currency required to upgrade your skills – while also unlocking new gear and other goodies for Eve. These side missions will also introduce you to some of Stellar Blade’s best characters, so don’t sleep on those.
With the introduction of New Game+, Eve now has over 70 unlockable costumes to collect – some far more appropriate for fighting Naytiba than others. There are also plenty of canned drinks scattered about the world, which act as the game’s collectibles. Finding them all will yield Eve’s most risque outfit – do what you will with that information.
That’s everything we know about the Stellar Blade release date and what it entails from our extensive playthrough of Shift Up’s triple-A debut. If you decide to buy the Deluxe Edition of the game, read up on where and when you can get access to your bonus goodies in-game. Now that Stellar Blade’s out, check out what other new PS5 games are arriving on Sony’s latest and greatest console soon.