Stellar Blade Story Is Weak Admits Shift Up and Explains Why; Planned Story DLC Shifted to Sequel Due to Larger Than Expected Scope
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While Stellar Blade’s gameplay is some top-notch stuff, the same can’t really be said of the game’s story. As it turns out, it’s not because Shift Up intentionally made it to be not as serious, but due to development and time constraints.
If you’re unfamiliar with Stellar Blade’s story, it’s set in a time when humanity has been driven from Earth by creatures called the Naytiba. Gamers play as Eve, a member of the 7th Airborn Squad, who’s deployed to Earth to reclaim the planet, and is added by two survivors, Adam and Lily.
I mean, it’s not a bad story, but not very original and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
As it turns out, even Shift Up’s boss admits the game’s story was weak.
Stellar Blade Story Is Poor and Shift Up Explains Why
In an interview with Korean gaming site ThisIsGame, Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-hyung and Technical Director Lee Dong-gi was asked about a variety of topics, and this included the game’s story.
The developers were asked about the criticisms that Stellar Blade’s narrative was somewhat lacking, and if the studio has any plans to expand or reinforce the main story in the future.
Hyung-Tae Kim responded (via machine translation), “First of all, I sincerely thank everyone who has shown love for the PC version. I do believe the criticism about the story being weak is valid. The game’s core gameplay systems were completed relatively early, but what really held us back was the cutscenes. In an action game that carries its narrative, cutscenes play a crucial role in storytelling—because it’s hard to convey all of the story through action alone.”
Hyung-Tae Kim continued, “Initially, we had planned a lot of settings and cutscenes to build the narrative. For example, in the early stages of development, we even included detailed story elements like why the protagonist changes her outfit. However, as development progressed, the burden of producing cutscenes became too great. As a result, we had no choice but to cut back on cutscenes that supplemented the world-building and character narratives, excluding the main plot, for efficiency’s sake. That was the only way we could finish the game.”
“Another factor is that, in Korea, the development infrastructure and talent pool for narrative-driven games is still not fully established.”
Taking about the sequel, Kim mentioned that they believe this time around, they’ll be able to offer a deeper narrative, explaining “It’s true that there were shortcomings in the narrative, and we’re cautious about trying to patch that up hastily in Stellar Blade now, as it could conflict with the story that players have already accepted. However, if we are given the opportunity to develop a sequel, I believe we’ll be able to present it with a much richer and more complete narrative.”
In the same interview, the studio CEO was asked whether the story of how the initially planned story DLC had been turned into a full sequel was true, and whether it could really meet its targeted 2027 release.
Kim confirmed it, stating, “Did we officially announce that? That must’ve been a mistake by our IR team. Yes, it’s true. While preparing the DLC, the scope grew larger than expected, so we shifted our focus toward developing it as a full sequel. However, a lot has changed since then.”
However, temper expectations, as given the PC version just got released, they’re still in the R&D phase. “Because all of our resources were focused on the PC version, I can’t say that much progress has been made on the sequel yet. Right now, we’re in a phase of deep R&D, asking ourselves, “How can we present a vision for the next generation?”
Kim added, “To be honest, we’ve only just wrapped up the PC release following the PlayStation version—so now is when we can finally start proper R&D. Releasing it in 2027 would be fantastic, but with only three years left, all I can say is that we’ll try our best. What I can promise, though, is that it will be a great game.”
Given Kim’s statement and the fact that Stellar Blade 2 is still in the R&D phase, it’s not surprising to see its planned 2027 release date get pushed back. Don’t expect any story DLC as well given it is part of the sequel now, though perhaps we’ll get more content drops like the NieR and NIKKE crossovers in the future? I wouldn’t count those out since they’re smaller pieces of content compared to story DLC.
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Nobody played this for the plot… They played for the TNA and combat.
I actually think they have a decent shell and would love to see more world building and narrative. I dont think I’m alone in this at all. More story and stakes would make the heroine more compelling. Its why other thirst trap games like BG3 work well. Not all men are purely T&A and like the women to have more to them to make us interested.