As we wrote in our original Stellar Blade PS5 review, the story is a bit rubbish.
Don’t get us wrong, we enjoyed the vibes and some of the beats, but it all felt a bit trite and lost its way over the course of the release’s running time. Fortunately, games with lousy stories can still be fun, as it’s the moment-to-moment action that will encourage you to reach the credits.
In an interview with Korean website This Is Game, Shift Up’s boss Kim Hyung-tae admitted that the plot is “weak”, and provided some context as to why.
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“The game’s core gameplay system was completed relatively early, but the thing that held us back the most was the cutscenes,” he started.
“In an action game, cutscenes play a very important role in storytelling. It is difficult to convey the entire story with action alone.”
Hyung-tae admitted that originally the team had many different cinematics planned, but it eventually had to scale back its ambition, which adversely affected the plot.
“The cost of producing cutscenes became too much, and eventually, for the sake of efficiency, we had no choice but to reduce cutscenes that supplemented the world view or character narratives outside of the main plot,” he continued.