Action-packed and bursting with vivacity, Stellar Blade was one of the strongest titles released in 2024 for the PlayStation 5. The acclaimed action-adventure game is finally available on the PC, and apart from being a visual feast in more ways than one, it is a technically impressive PC port that harnesses the technology of modern graphics processors but still caters to older machines with modest specs.
Stellar Blade’s eye-catching shapely protagonist Eve, with her skimpy costumes, showy acrobatics as well as unrealistic jiggle physics, is likely the main draw for gamers of certain demographics.
But the real star of the game is the fluid and dynamic combat with a myriad of chained combos and plenty of skill branches to tweak, making Stellar Blade’s nightmarish monsters known as naytibas a thrill to beat, especially the grotesque and powerful bosses.
For a more in-depth review of the gameplay and combat, check out our full review of the PlayStation 5 version of the game here.
Stellar Blade for the PC supports a number of enhancements on supporting Nvidia graphics cards that up the notch in the game’s eye candy.
You’re in luck if your graphics card is new enough to work with Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling 4 (DLSS 4) resolution scaling and frame generation, its Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA) image enhancement, and its Reflex latency reduction features.
If you have an AMD graphics card instead, Stellar Blade supports similar features through AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3), which promise to boost image quality while still making the game run smoothly.
Best of all, framerates are unlocked, which means the game can run at as high an FPS (frames per second) as your gaming rig can manage.
For those with ultrawide 21:9 and super ultrawide 32:9 monitors, Stellar Blade supports these resolutions too, so you can take in even more of the action.
I played the PC version on my rig decked with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM and AMD Radeon 7900 XTX graphics card coupled with a 4K OLED monitor – updated but not extreme – and Stellar Blade runs flawlessly and looks simply spectacular.
I was playing at around a steady 160fps although there were times that it dropped to 30fps during hectic battles. The combat is even more fluid and visually spectacular than on the PS3 console, which makes beating the monstrous boss naytibas even more pleasurable.
There are a lot more fine details and textures for the eyes to appreciate when playing Stellar Blade on the PC in 4K, including realistic lighting effects, reflections and even dust motes.
Thankfully, Stellar Blade does not require a top-of-the-line PC rig to run it, and the recommended specs are actually very achievable for running at medium graphics settings for machines with more modest specs:
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 processor or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Processor
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 75GB available space
This is for playing on 1440p resolution, with the graphics quality set to Medium. To get to a smooth 60 fps, you should have a solid state drive.
Now that Stellar Blade is out on Steam, you can also play it on the portable Steam Deck. Thankfully, signing in to the PlayStation Network to play on a PC is entirely optional, which makes it much easier to launch the game on the Steam Deck.
As all Steam Deck owners know, having to constantly login online and sign in to launchers is a real deterrent for playing games on the go, especially when you only want to play offline.
Stellar Blade plays beautifully on my Steam Deck, averaging at around 40 to 60 fps at the default Steam Deck graphics setting, which is great to play on the go for long commutes. Personally, though, I feel that Stellar Blade’s spectacular action and graphics are best enjoyed on a larger screen.
The PC version includes a much-awaited feature in the game right out of the box – a photo mode which was not included in the initial PlayStation release but was added as an update at the end of last year. This means that plenty of NSFW (not safe for work) images of Eve have been flooding game forums and social media fan sites.
Apart from the predictably voyeuristic aspect of the Photo mode, I found it fun to have Eve posing with cutesy expressions to contrast with the grim and desolate landscapes while also exploring her much expanded wardrobe. Best of all, the rest of the crew, Adam and Lily, will happily participate in the selfie by striking a pose behind Eve too.
Stellar Blade for the PC is available on Steam and Epic Games for S$79.90. The Complete Edition is also available for S$109.90, which features additional costumes and characters from Nier: Automata as well as the newly released Goddess of Victory: Nikke downloadable content (DLC).
Nikke DLC on the PlayStation 5
If you’re on the PlayStation 5, don’t feel left out since there is a new DLC to play. The Stellar Blade Nikke DLC is a crossover with another Shift Up title, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, which is a third-person shooter.
Featuring characters from Goddess of Victory: Nikke, namely Scarlet, a sword-wielding character, and Volt, the robotic dog, the DLC doesn’t offer anything significant, just some extra light-hearted fun stuff for Eve to do and collect.
Scarlet will offer fetch quests as well as shooting minigames to complete in exchange for new outfits and cosmetic items for Eve.
The minigames come in the form of a series of arcade-style shooting challenges. Often, Eve has to shoot at waves of enemies while dodging behind cover, with the objective of ultimately defeating a boss naytiba, or protect Lily from naytiba hordes while she tinkers with a device. Completing these minigames rewards Eve with bone wrenches that can be used to purchase outfits from Volt.
For those who enjoy the fishing minigame in Stellar Blade, the Nikke DLC also offers six new fishes to reel in for Eve’s fishy collection.
In addition, Scarlet is also featured in the Boss Challenges, and beating her will unlock an additional outfit, hairstyle and music record to play at camps.
The Nikke DLC is available for the PlayStation 5 at S$13.14 and the PC on Steam for S$12.90, and will probably be a cool addition for fans of both games.
I found the shooting minigames repetitive and definitely not as fun as Stellar Blade’s regular combat. That said, having new outfits, cosmetic options and new fish to catch is a bonus, as well as just an excuse just to spend more time in the world of Stellar Blade.
If you don’t think the Nikke DLC is worth it, fret not! The recent updates of the game on PlayStation adds even more free content, including new costumes for Eve, as well as Chinese and Japanese voiceovers as well as synced facial animations.
There are also music records to collect that can be played at camps. Together with the new selfie mode, there are also photo challenges that involve taking selfies with cat, butterfly and fish murals scattered around the maps.
If you haven’t revisited the game for a while, now’s a good time to get the updates and play more! For more details of the free updates, check out the PlayStation blog.
