Video games have gotten miles better than they used to be back in the 80s or 90s. Of course, this makes sense, given the fact that games have only gotten more narrative-heavy over the years. The upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade falls into the same category: a narrative-heavy action game. It appears the game’s director put a lot of effort into making this game a well-written masterpiece.
While Stellar Blade has yet to launch, it is already surrounded by controversy about its protagonist’s design. People don’t care for its combat; they don’t care about its visuals, but they care a lot about how this character looks. Other than that, some people have also decided to compare it to one of the best-written games in recent history; the director says they are not very alike.
Stellar Blade director says his game is pretty different from Nier
Back in 2016, Square Enix launched a game called Nier Automata. It was developed by the honorable action game-making studio Platinum Games. And no doubt it showed—its incredible action, its combat mechanics, and its massive bosses—everything screamed platinum.
What was even better was its story, which was written by the legendary Yoko Taro. He was also the director of Nier Automata. When the game launched, people could not stop talking about its incredible visuals and, more importantly, its story.
The game also became very popular for its unconventional ending, which players only got when they played it a number of times to completion. For all those reasons, this game remained the center of discussion for the longest time.
Now, years after its initial launch, gamers over the internet are comparing Nier Automata to Stellar Blade. Now there are a bunch of factors that are being compared. Most importantly, it’s the story and the character design. It is happening to such an extent that some are calling this Stellar Blade the Korean Nier.
This comparison got an amusing reaction from the director of Stellar Blade. Hyung-Tae Kim suggested that the game is very different from Stellar Blade; they have very different combat from Nier. He went on to say that they don’t mind paying homage to those great games that came before, but these games are very different.
“Nier was very important for inspiration when it came to developing our games. It’s a wonderful title that we’ve been inspired by, and the director, Yoko Taro, I’m also a big fan of his script. I’m a big fan of Yoko Taro. If you actually get to play Stellar Blade, you’ll see that the gameplay is not too similar. They’re pretty different. We pay homage to the games that we’ve played, but when you actually get to play you will see a few differences there. But to be called Korean Nier and to be influenced by such a title, it’s a great honor.”
It makes sense too, people comparing two characters from these games makes complete sense. They are pretty similar in many ways, as both of them represent a perfect above-average female form.
But as per fans, the combat between these two is not very similar; Nier’s combat is faster and more based on dodging incoming attacks, while Stellar Blade’s combat is more in line with Sekiro’s.
This game is inspired by a bunch of other games
Besides citing Nier Automata as one of the inspirations for his game, the director also names a number of other titles in the same category. He suggested that IPs like Sekiro, the manga series Battle Angel Alita, and Blade Runner too helped him shape Stellar Blade.
Fans will be able to judge the similarities between all the above-mentioned titles and Stellar Blade when the latter launches later this month.
