Stellar Blade has more in common with Lies of P than Nier Automata

Stellar Blade, which initially started development under the codename "Project Eve," has slowly but surely garnered the attention of a lot of players, not only due to its fantastic character designs, but also its flashy, and over-the-top combat system. Much like its inspiration — Nier: Automata — Stellar Blade is going to be quite heavy on the narrative front.

However, it also seems to be equally focused on delivering a "stellar" (no pun intended) combat experience, at least that's what I gathered from having played the recently released demo for more than 15 hours. While the demo is quite short, it's enough to give players a good insight into the game's basic combat mechanics.

Another thing I realized while playing the demo, especially the "Boss Challenge" mode, is that Stellar Blade is more akin to Neowiz Games' Lies of P than its immediate inspiration, Nier: Automata or even Sekiro.

Disclaimer: This article is purely subjective and solely reflects the author's opinions.

As I started getting to grips with Stellar Blade's combat system, I felt a sense of familiarity, something I did not expect given I haven't played any character action game since 2021's Bayonetta 3. Most of my time is usually spent playing souls-likes (predominantly Elden Ring) and recently, I've been spending unhealthy amounts of time playing Dragon's Dogma 2.

As such, the "sense of familiarity" was somewhat puzzling to me. However, once I reached the Boss Challenge mode, I finally realized why I was getting a sense of deja vu while playing Stellar Blade's demo. Last year, I played and reviewed Lies of P, a game that in many regards is a pinnacle of souls-like experiences, despite some glaring flaws.

Despite having finished it multiple times and getting