Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade, the action game that has had a very particular focus on a very particular part of the protagonist’s anatomy, is probably going to be a lot of fun outside of that discourse. And now players can check it out for themselves, for free, very soon.
There will be an upcoming free demo of Stellar Blade, which was just announced by game director Hyung Tae Kim via the PlayStation Blog. That demo will release on March 29 at 7 AM PDT on PS5. Here’s what he says about the content of the demo:
“The demo takes place from the very beginning of the game when Eve, a member of the 7th Airborne Squad is sent to Earth on a mission to reclaim the planet from the Naytiba, up to the first boss fight. This first stage will include the tutorial phase to help you familiarize yourself with basic combat features as you explore post-war Eidos 7, a human city now infested by the Naytiba, giving you an early grasp of gameplay mechanics that will serve you throughout the game’s story.”
He also says there is a “surprise” for players who have completed the first stage of the game. More notably, progress in the demo will be carried over to the game’s April 26 release a month from now, which will pick up on the final checkpoint you get from the demo. But you need to make sure you keep that PS5 save data around if you do end up uninstalling the demo after playing.
Stellar Blade Demo
Stellar Blade has picked a pretty great time to launch in April, as it should prove to probably be the highest profile release that month, with the next-biggest one being Hellblade 2 on Xbox in later May. April will also see the launch of Sea of Thieves on PS5 for the first time on April 30, but I’m guessing those two won’t exactly be competitors.
The game has been the focus of much internet conversion over its jiggle-physics-based protagonist, and has been used as a sticking point in the culture war over how female characters in games should or should not look. The design does seem to be a throwback to an earlier age, to be sure. But past that, the game itself looks extremely fun and frenetic, and there should be a good deal of confidence here to give players access to a free demo, as that’s something we just don’t see with all that many games in this day and age.
I will certainly be playing. See you on Friday.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
