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Yoko Taro 100% thought stellar Blade was a better game because Eve has a bigger and higher res ass then 2b

2 men arguing about the other ones game being better is the most Japanese thing I've ever heard

Every time he’d be making a serious point and footage of the main character in a little bunny suit popped up, I completely lost it. 😂

this video is more like an indirect comparison rather than a review

“I love your game more!” “No I love your game more!”

It feels like the voice actors were directed by someone who didn’t speak English as a primary language.

Voice actor here. I've done work on Chinese games that were localised to English. Nothing AAA, so nothing on the scale of Nier Automata or Stellar Blade, but some respectable indie/AAs. I've seen a lot of people wondering how the voice over could come out like this and I posted a big reply to another comment, but thought I'd stick it up as a full one for anyone who's interested. This is a ginormous wall of text, so, tl;dr: The process of recording video game voice over has *so* many factors and steps that it's very easy for one of those things to not pass muster, and bring everything else down. When you combine that with the extra complications of localisation, *and* take into account that humans are *extremely* sensitive to whether or not something looks or feels 'real', it gets even harder. Even a team trying their best could have easily let this happen, and in short, it doesn't surprise me one bit. - First of all, I'm 99% sure that this isn't a case of 'bad acting'. Eve's voice actor is Rebecca Hanssen, who also plays Alfira in Baldur's Gate 3. Loads of people *love* Alfira, and I've not heard anyone say that shes badly acted. There's so many reasons why the voice acting could have come out the way it did, and I might even use BG3 as an example a couple more times because it provides a very interesting counterpoint to Stellar Blade in certain ways. So in my tl;dr I mentioned that we as humans are *super* sensitive to whether something feels real or not. It's why a lot of people hate watching dubbed live action, or get put off by sloppy lip syncing in music videos or whatever. I'm no character designer, but there's a whole art to good character design that feels believable (not necessarily realistic) and like we can empathise with it. Adding voice to that thing is a whole 'nother ball game. If it isn't quite right, uncanny valley sets in and something doesn't hit properly. While this is ultimately subjective, I'd argue that in Stellar Blade's case, the character models definitely sit in the uncanny valley zone, and would be harder to connect with even if they had the best voice acting in the world. What can make this harder is a disconnect between voice actor and character model; the voice actors here almost certainly didn't do the mo-cap for the character they were playing, and as such the physicality of their voice might not line up with the character. So the voice actors are already in an uphill battle trying to bring life to uncanny models that they have no input in the physicality of and might also change drastically from when they record. Speaking of-changes. While voice over usually happens pretty late in a game's process, it can happen much earlier for games where the cast is mo-capped, but even in the former scenario you could have details changing that greatly affect the efficacy of the voice over. Everything from the lighting or music in a given quest to subtle animation tweaks to major environmental changes could have a huge impact on the tone, and it could potentially make the voice acting feel like it clashes as a result. Sometimes, like in the case of Baldur's Gate 3, the voice over will be re-recorded to account for this (like with Karlach's role in the game being expanded or Wyll being entirely rewritten)-but that's an example of a game with mo-capped voice over that happened relatively early in the game design process, with a team that literally worked on the game for years. Then, you take into account that the game's original language isn't English. So someone has to translate and localise the game (which are two different things). In my experience (which may not be applicable to AAA but interesting nonetheless) it's not usually a 'localisation company' that does everything. Usually, the translated script is still done by the game studio, either internally or with one company/contractor, and then a separate media/post-production company handles the English voice over. While indie studios, solo devs, and even smaller AA studios might hire casting/performance directors and actors directly, the vast majority of game studios (if not all in the AAA space) hire a whole other company to handle the voice over. Even Larian, the studio with perhaps the most acclaimed voice acting work in gaming history, doesn't have a voice or casting director on staff. In the case of a game that's being translated to English, there are two options. First, it's a media company based in the country making the game, and they handle all the voice over (with a few directors highly proficient in English for the translated voice over). The second is that it's a company based in an English-speaking country that only handles the English voice over, and might not even have anyone on the team proficient in the game's native language. These companies usually have rosters of voice actors that they work with regularly that they audition for new roles, or certain agencies that they usually work with. Either way, these companies are totally dependent on the game studio to give them well-translated, thorough, and useful information and scripts-and that's a total wild card. Even the best intentioned game studio might have no clue what actors and directors need, and even the most thorough game studio can't justify spending the time and money to give context and direction notes for the thousands upon thousands of lines of dialogue in the game. So while these directors might have had the overall idea very well explained to them, they might, for example, have no clue what all the side quests are, or what the area the characters are in will look like (or even be). For Stellar Blade, it looks like a UK-based company handled the English voice over (judging by Rebecca Hanssen's role announcement on Twitter/X). So for all we know, it was a case of that company getting handed a dodgy script, and the voice actor/director working with what they had. Regarding scripts, now you get into formatting. Have you ever seen a screenplay, or a theatre script? Video game scripts are nothing like that. The standard is basically a big ol' spreadsheet with all the lines dumped into it. These lines are in whatever order is easiest for the studio to keep track of to put into the game-so you might have the voice actor swinging from wildly different extremes or contexts line to line to line, or suddenly be referring to a new character they've never heard of before. Nowadays, a lot of voice over is also done from home studios-AAA games are still done in big studios but for localised games it'd be a toss up, and I'm not LA-based so I wouldn't know the intricacies. Regardless, you have the voice actor and the directors in their respective studios, each hour of the voice actor's time is costing the studio at minimum 300 pounds per hour (union standard rates for a game of this scale in the UK, about $380 US), that number only gets higher as the talent gets more experienced, the company has a budget they need to stay within, and they have *a LOT* of lines to get through. So what do the directors and the voice actors do? They make sure the actor has the character's 'vibe' on lock and then they go down that spreadsheet, banging out line after line after line. And they do that for each voice actor one at a time. Well executed, this works just fine. If you've had reeeeally good casting and directing and input from the studio, you'll get context for everything, voice actors that pick up cues from the script easily, directors who know when to ask for retakes and how to imagine everything sounding put together, etc. When done poorly, or when there's even one weak link in that chain, you get... Well. Stellar Blade. We're also spoiled these days. The standard for voice over is way higher than it used to be. Take, for example, BG3 again. BG3 has incredible voice work-but it also had directors who worked with the studio directly, knew the context intimately, and were giving the actors tons of direction, while said actors also did the mo-cap for their characters, with character models and facial models based on them, and learned tons about the game and its context organically from the high level of communication with the team. They also worked with the team loads because BG3 went through lots of changes and even entire character rewrites. Not only is this abnormal and absolutely above and beyond, even then, the actors didn't have the full picture of how things worked on the 'game' level-in a stream of Devora Wilde (Lae'zel's VA) playing the game, she said something like 'oh *that's* when I say that line!' for Lae'zel's very first piece of dialogue in the tutorial mission on the Nautiloid. But it worked great. The internet absolutely adores these characters, from the award-winningly acted origin characters like Astarion (Neil Newbon), to the memorable side characters that people went to insane game-breaking lengths to save, like Alfira (Rebecca Hanssen, aka, Eve from Stellar Blade). In short, I can very easily see how Stellar Blade happened. If a character is meant to seem 'cool' or 'aloof' or dare I say 'robotic', it's *super* understandable how the director and the actor just went with that 'vibe'. Especially if they're trying to mimic a specific other character and staying within a very small niche. Add in that they may not have had the complete picture of the context for every single line, and *then* add in that all this goes for almost every character in the game, and you get Stellar Blade.

I bought Stellar Blade on impulse, because something about it just vibed with me. It's like a mix of Nier Automata (setting/atmosphere/music), Sekiro, DMC (combat) and Final Fantasy 13 (this one is just a HIGHLY subjective feeling). And what a great game this turned out to be. Enjoying it immensely, and while I don't mind the English VO, switching the audio to Korean with English subtitles makes it even better!

Came for a stellar blade review, stayed for the nier automata glaze session.

Aww hearing those two gush about each other's games is super sweet

Yoko Taro is correct in that Stellar Blade is a better *video game* than NieR: Automata, speaking from a purely gameplay perspective. But at the same time Kim Hyung-Tae himself has said on record that he focused on that aspect because he himself knows that he's not in the same league of storyteller as Yoko Taro. Ultimately both creators worked on the things they know best, with NieR: Automata only getting combat as good as it did because Platinum was helping, and both creators ultimately know their own strengths and weaknesses and aren't afraid to admit it.

First thing when doing a game inspired by Nier: Automata: DON’T TRY TO BE NIER:AUTOMATA. N:A is such a unique and singular experience in its narrative and themes that it just can’t be replicated, especially when it’s directed and written by a mad genius as Yoko Taro.

Yoko Taro is probably the last person I'd ask if something is better or worse than Nier. Most creators will downplay their works and they also lack perspective to properly assess their own creation vs the works of others

Considering this is shiftup first non mobile game, im impressed

going back here after i finished the game after 65hrs doing 80% of all side quest and side content, i expected the story to be shit or crappy like this review said, but to my surprise it was pretty Decent and engaging enough for me to see what happpens next, Story is not as deep as Automata or Replicant but its still enjoyable, i actually like the characters, some are better than other but i like them maybe because i played the game in Full on Korean voiced that i felt their personality of the npcs, side characters especially Eve, and the Collectibles Helps with the world building , personally i liked most of the side quest especially Digger, Enya and Kaya's side quests that it gives Eve Personal growth, it may not have a Masterclass of Story-telling as Nier Automata, but what the game offers is pretty decent with a addictive combat system which is the games 10/10 aspect and so are the boss battles, for Shift Ups first Console game they did great, i can't wait for Stellar Blade 2, a 9/10 for me , never had this much fun on a PS exclusive since Returnal, omw to NG+ Hard Mode

Oh we finally found out where the hairdresser from Cyberpunk 2077 went missing. He was in Stellar Blade all along ! And he's a Maelstromer too !

I never expected this game to be even close to Automata, I'm just glad people is still working on PS2/Early PS3 era games. We need more games with random experimentation and gameplay, nice visuals and entertaining moments

honestly the fact that this studio is relatively new to making this kind of game it's kinda impressive that they built something this good, and hopefully they can improve with the next one.

So I think part of the characters not landing is the English voice actors- I switched back to Korean for the demo, and it vastly improved things (I don’t speak Korean, but I’m used to reading subs)

A trend I noticed after playing a few Korean RPGs is that the gameplay is always tight and dynamic, the graphics are always stylised and flashy and the story is basically dribble. It does the bare minimum to drive player action and not a single step beyond that. I kinda hoped this game would buck that trend but I guess they went with the 'if it ain't broke' philosophy.

Haven't even finished watching, but here's a like for the Nier: Automata praise. One of those few games that's so much more than visuals and gameplay. It's something that's very difficult to emulate.

How is nobody exclaiming the necessity to play this game in Korean with English subs?! English dub is near game-wrecking, while Korean voice actors are excellent.

Didn't know this was a comparison video

7:28 My man, calling Eve 'flat' is a very bold statement...

Nier Automata: deeper narrative Stellar Blade: better combat system

A lot of people here seem to miss the point of this video by saying “he’s comparing it too much to Nier”, but Skill Up’s actual issue with Stellar Blade is that it borrows too much from Nier to be its own thing. He’s less so making comparisons and moreso making the point that the game comes off as derivative of another work rather than as it’s own genuine project. I feel like a lot of the people making this complaint about the video have never played Nier Automata, and thus are incapable of seeing the stark similarities and just how far Stellar Blade goes into trying to capture Nier’s formula.

I can tell how much you love what you do. Makes for a very authentic and trustworthy channel. I’m excited for this game. Thrilled for the studio that made it 🎉 and for their future endeavors.

NieR: Automata: Actual android feels like a human. Stellar Blade: Actual human feels like an android.

The love and understanding of Yoko Taro's work is part of why I love this channel. Good to hear this is still fun.

Loving the game

Coming back to this video after having finished the game, idk what he’s talking about when he says the characters lack personality or emotion. In the beginning they’re pretty flat, sure, but in the middle and last hours, there is plenty of emotion and personality from all characters. And I think the plot is great. I completed the game and got The best ending due to filling the “Lily” bar in the top right corner of the screen and when I found out there are multiple endings and your choice matters, well that just made this game a 10/10 for me. I personally think Skillup is being too critical because he played Nier and is attached to it. Edit: I never played Nier, so any similarities or references go right over my head, and leave me unbiased. I think Stellar Blade is great in its own right. That might be because I haven’t played Nier, and don’t know just how many similarities there are, but idc. I love the game for what it is and it is amazing.

* Play it in korean with subtitles

Your Neir Automata review is what brought me to your channel way back when. That game holds a special place in my heart and hearing your reverence for it is awesome. Great review.

Your Nier Automata review was one of the first vids I watched on your channel way back when. I gave that game a chance and it's an experience I'll always remember. Stoked to play Stellar Blade this weekend even though I don't expect the experience to be as resonant

Thanks for the review. Very informative, as usual. I did play and like N:A, but the combat in that game always bothered me. So I will definitely play this once it's on PC.

So basically they have nailed the gameplay and have to improve on the characterwork and storytelling with its own identity if there's gonna be a sequel? Sounds like a good first outing to me, which I'm eager to try out for myself.

Stellar blade: the Nier Automata review. By skill up

I just finished Stellar Blade and i have to say the story and characters definitely pick up half way through and especially at the end. Also, I feel this video could have been a lot better if you spent less time talking about how SB is too much like Nier Automata but at the same time not enough loke Nier Automata. I have the game. I finished all endings and i know how excellent NA is. This review is supposed to be about the strengths and weaknesses of this game. Not how it doesn't live up to its big sister in your eyes. It has a lot of similarities of course aince its inspired by it vut it does plenty of ita own things and i wish you spent waaaay more tome talking about that instead of taking so long praising a game that already has more than enough praise.

I really resonate with what you said about the story superficially going for an Automata type vibe. But not really wanting to go to the dark vulnerable amazing places, that game’s story goes to because it takes risks. One reason I really ended up liking Lies of P was because I could tell how much From Software games had inspired it. But the story went in it’s completely unique direction basically from the start

English voice acting seems to be a big issue when it comes to expression in these types of games, which is why I tend to play games like this in the language that they were made in a.k.a. Korean or Japanese. It’s probably more expressive.

For Shift Up's first console game ever, and only their second game in the industry, I'd say they did a phenomenal job in every area of what makes a game enjoyable

Stellar Blade is so much better than Nier in terms of gameplay, combat, bosses. that all i care about.

The first half of this review just sounded like a very powerful recommendation to play the game with Korean voices.

They all went to the Peter Dinklage school of voice acting

the strange thing is that SHIFT UP has made some really great stories and effective emotional scenes in their mobile game NIKKE. The voice acting NIKKE is pretty great across the board as well. It's even more disappointing knowing that they have the skill to do much better. With how similar aspects of Stellar Blade are in terms of story to both NIKKE and Automata, I cant help feel like this should have been, or maybe at some point was, a tie in to NIKKE that was changed to a new IP at some point.

Oh, man, I would love to watch a spoiler-full video in which Skillup talks about all the similarities it has with Nier Automata. I love Nier Automata and will definitely buy Stellar Blade, but not at full price. It looks like a game I don't mind waiting for a sale.

Wow, that makes so much sense that he was inspired by Nier. I left a comment on another video saying how the opening sequence and tutorial had major Nier Automata vibes; being the lone survivor of your unit during an offensive push, meeting your sidekick, and especially the music. Neir Automata is the holy grail of hand held gaming though, wonder if Stellar Blade will compete on the Steam Deck.

Too be fair in the interview the man did said he not a story teller, make me wonder for the sequels they should try to get some of nikke writers to do the story for the next game since they havs some pretty amazing story telling in it.

No mention of the vertical hitbox tracking for EVE that allows one to also jump low attacks? I would've thought that rare enough for this genre to note here. Thanks for the great insight as always.

This review just reinforces why I continue to come to your channel for the best, most in-depth, well-considered game reviews in the entire industry. There simply isn't anyone else who is able to identify, name and expound upon the peculiarities inherent in each title, explaining so precisely what it is about each element that adds or subtracts from the game's overall impact. Every time I watch one of your reviews, I always keep thinking in the back of my mind, "This man was born to make video game reviews." It seems to come so naturally to you and it makes watching every one of your reviews an absolute joy.. even for games that I likely have no intention of playing. While I still look forward to playing Stellar Blade, your review tempered my expectations enough that I think I may consider waiting for it to come out on PC. I think the modding community could really do some great stuff with this game so I think it may pay off to experience it for the 1st time later down the road when they (hopefully) decide to port it over to PC. Keep up the great work @Skill Up! You rock.

This game is my 2024 GOTY

Ralph, I really want you to do more reviews. I understand you got other people to do them, but I miss the days we heard more from you. The others are amazing, but having them in the channel shouldn't mean we get less from you but more from your channel. You're great man!

Seems like a good game, but since I don't have PS5, I'll just have to compensate with Nier Automata and Bright Memory Infinite. lol.

I’m 12 minutes into this video and Ralph hasn’t said hardly anything positive, and yet he recommends this game. This is gonna be some insane whiplash.

Stellar Blade: “notice me, unnie!” Nier: “I have! Now go out there and be great” Stellar Blade: “….no but really, NOTICE MEEEEEE”

Awe man, always love your reviews as your writing is objectively good. Just wish you could’ve let Stellar Blade have its flowers and review SB for itself. I get there’s many similarities, but I don’t see that as an affront to Nier as much as I see it as a homage to it. At the end of the day, this is Shiftups first major console release, and it’s released in a very solid state which is sadly more than a lot of other games can say nowadays.

It says something when "Nier Automata" is said more times than "stellar blade" on a stellar blade review

The music of this game is brilliant. The best video game music since 2012 when Mass Effect 3 was published. If this music gets published separately, it is a must buy.

I played this game today FOR EIGHT HOURS today, it's so unbelievably fun! The boss fights are just pure eye candy

Man, this was a rough one. I’m a big fan of the channel and even watch the reviews of games I have no interest in, this one included. But I feel like you didn’t review the game as much on its own merits as you did compare it to Nier.

what audio languages are available for this game? I'm kinda curious if the feel of the game changes with different audio

i love both games, i have to agree with your review. stellar blade is very impressive for shift up's development experience

The bunny suit is wild. Respect for not giving a fuck

If it was in the game’s origin language do you think that could change the bland tone a bit?

Thanks for this excellent review to set my expectations properly. As someone that's loved N Automata, and played through various routes. I was already fully seeing how much of a Nier Automata copy it already was visually, but after watching the lengthy story trailer they released a month or 2 ago it was noticible that even the story was beat for beat Nier Automata as well. I've played the demo, my biggest gripe with it was fixed on day 1 (noticeable input lag) - but yeah it's a shame to hear my suspicions were correct on just how much it copies Automata but worse, I`ll probably will have my annoyances with a SB playthrough just like you did. I'll get this in the bargin bin, and hopefully on PC as well. For now i've got way too many to play (finishing Infinite wealth, then going Baldurs gate 3, Persona 5 Royal ; all of these are 100 hr games)

Spot on observations, Really enjoying Stellar Blade, never been great at the parry combat style games but feel much more in control with SB's combat, so much so I can ignore the negative things you highlighted. Definitely looking forward to seeing what their next game produces as a first foray into the AAA space they have done some impressive work

So far from what I played, the game is Stellar. Even though the game is getting good reviews, it's also facing a lot of nitpicking.

Now that I think about that, cover 2B eyes was a very clever move. Our brains just fill the gap without expensive animations.

Oh well. Would be cool to see Yoko Taro work with them in the future on a Nier sequel perhaps. Their gameplay and tech, coupled with Taro's unique character writing, story and design would make for some truly powerful combo. 7 years later, Automata is still one of a kind, aside from it's predecessor and it's remake at least.

It's a shame to hear so many issues with Stellar Blade's story when Shift Up's other game, Nikke has a pretty good story. I was surprised actually that Nikke's story was so good for a game that looked like "that." The characters in Nikke are so vibrant and full of personality too. Oh well.

Leeeets goooo. My friends are going to have to hell dive alone for a few days.

This review was way too focused on the nier automa comparison. I played both games and overall I didn't feel this way.

Huge fan of the channel and Takes. I disagree here. I feel that Stellar Blade IS a better game than Nier Automata. Should I prove to be proved wrong, boy would t that be wonderful. Fundamentally the gamer needs to be anchored to the experience unfolding, that can be a huge multiplier for whatever experiences unfold. Eve has a 2x Multiplier for 2B, 2B is roughly an 8c multiplier. For the evocation being explored the Eve multiplier can *not be understated. I’ll try 😅 again after I finish SB. Keep up the good work. 🎉

i noticed the english va were very off in the demo, but the korean voices fixed that for me, do you think that’s the case for the full game?

I find the story weird, in comparison to the fact I think Nikke has a pretty great story for the most. And the actual VA work is pretty outstanding and sells the more visual novel style.

I’m genuinely surprised the story and the voice acting isn’t great, Nikke has some INCREDIBLE writing that has made me emotional and experience sadness as well as laughed at some of the characters hilarious personalities

Hopefully they can collaborate in the future and create a game with the deep story and world building of Nier with the graphics and gameplay of Stellar Blade.

This is the most honest review out, so far of this game. It’s what I had feared, the story and world are not nearly as deep as i had hoped when playing the demo 😞

Imagine if shift up and Yoko Taro made a game together.

I liked seeing Ralph's outfit changes throughout the review

27:35 And yet I say, "Why not both?" I feel like we should make it clear that Yoko Taro is no game developer. He is a damn good story teller, but _Nier: Automata_ was made by PlatinumGames. His work without them resulted in the _much_ rougher Drakengard series. I don't see why this couldn't act as the prefect showcase for why Yoko Taro should work with Shift Up for whatever he decides to do next.

Nier: Automata at some point turns the camera back at the player and starts to ask questions to you directly. Stellar Blade stops short of getting to any profound moment like that and is happy sitting in a more narrative, story centered place as if it played to the A ending in Nier: Automata and stopped there. Which is fine and good but is far less memorable than what Yoko Taro did to us. That said Stellar Blade’s back half had me hollering in my chair even if I was t invested in the plot, a few characters were still enjoyable and endearing to me and that last run of boss fights and set pieces were INCREDIBLE from water treatment to the end. I think Shift Up’s next title will be extremely good with what they’re starting with here. This is also my first time hearing the English voice acting and oh boy. It was better in Korean, even if the writing wasn’t great it was acted a little better.

Wish there were timestamps in Australia

I'm a few minutes in and all I'm thinking is, "Did Skill Up misname his video? It says he recommends but so far he's done absolutely nothing but tear it apart.". Very curious to see what makes him come around, but so far it sounds like it's an awful game from his perspective.

Hey man. As much as I am excited for this game, just have to say that your review of NieR Automata is what made me jump and try PC/console gaming. I never realized it until recently, but that game changed my life. It's one of those games I wish I can re-experience all over again. Thanks for what you do. Will probably pick this game up on sale.

Considering that Stellar Blade is ShiftUp's first 3D console game, it's amazing how good the combat plays and feels. After all of this feedback, the Korean developers will likely get even better at making 3D action games, and that is exciting!

so the takeaway is Nier for better narrative, stellar blade for better combat , got it

You know we're in the wrong timeline when someone is praising a game for not crashing or stuttering

I really hope after this game Hyun Take Kim makes a spiritual successor to Magna Carta, since he designed the character models for that game series too.

The voice acting examples sound like something out of Deadly Premonition

“by far” and “far and away” are two separate phrases

I can agree with most reviews you have done in the past. But this review leans too heavy on comparing it to Neir. Or you personally wanted it to be Neir, not too sure.

i muted the music and play only with the skinsuit for that soulslike feel and it's been great lol

I read that a lot inspiration also came from Battle Angel Alita and especially the world design and overall setting feels really similar. Also Stellar Blades Combat System totally scratches that Sekiro itch for me and it feels just so satisfying

i have been waiting for this review!

Everytime you mentioned Shift Up I kept thinking they tried to copy your channel name but change it slightly. Seems poignant for this review.

Superb review, Ralph at his absolute best.

Honestly I would have linked your review to nier automata in this video. It’s some of the best work you’ve done and it deserves those views

I love the game. Sure, story is weak. Some characters are too. But I personally don't play games like that for the story or character arcs. Nier was fine, but has zero replayability for me. The gameplay was so weak, repetitive and boring, I can't get myself to play it more than 15 minutes after the final credits roll. Stellar Blade on the other hand is in my book a beautifull looking Bayonetta. I love Bayonetta, don't get me wrong. But the graphics looks like sh.. thanks to Nintendo's laziness in hardware releases. So Stellar Blade is exactly what I wished for.