Stellar Blade PC Demo Sees Very Positive Reception on Steam; 26K+ Concurrent Player Peak

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
noisypixel.net

Stellar Blade PC Demo Sees Very Positive Reception On Steam; 26K+ Concurrent Player Peak

Stellar Blade’s PC demo hits 91% positive Steam reviews and 26K+ peak players ahead of its June 11, 2025 launch. Full release includes visual upgrades and DLC.
noisypixel.net noisypixel.net

The recently launched Stellar Blade demo on PC via Steam by developer Shift Up has been seeing notable success in the two days it has been live.

The Steam demo has already garnered over 2,000 user reviews, with 91% of them being positive, resulting in a highly favorable reception from the outset
 
PC gamers love Soulslikes. Stellar Blade will do well on PC. It will probably sell more on PC than PS5 because the Chinese market will be all over this game
 
Wait, this game is a souls like? Looked more like a character action game to me.
 
It's a very bootiful game.

GDqetCBXIAAPJv2.jpg:large


hq720.jpg
 
Last edited:
Unknown Soldier said:
PC gamers love Soulslikes.
Click to expand...
TintoConCasera said:
Wait, this game is a souls like? Looked more like a character action game to me.
Click to expand...
Stellar Blade isn't a soulslike or a hack & slash.

It's an action adventure with some combos, parry, etc. but not a lot and doesn't focus on it and doesn't have a specially technical or deep combat. It only has hard difficulty if you choose it in the related menu option, and doesn't force you to go deep with its combat possibilities (which are deeper than what they seem).

It also has some light RPG elements like talking with NPCs, quests, upgradeable stats etc. but again, it isn't the focus and you can pretty much ignore most of it if you decide so.

They made their own take on the action adventure taking many elements from many places and created their own identity and personality. It isn't a Dark Souls, Nier or Bayonetta. It is its own thing.
 
Last edited:
yurinka said:
Stellar Blade isn't a soulslike or a hack & slash.

It's an action adventure with some combos, parry, etc. but not a lot and doesn't focus on it and doesn't have a specially technical or deep combat. And it only has hard difficulty if you choose it in the related menu option.
Click to expand...
Thank god... and also thank you for the clarification.

I guess people nowadays see a sword and default to think the game's a soulslike.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Wait, this game is a souls like? Looked more like a character action game to me.
Click to expand...

Not soulslike despite some nods. Also not a character action game. I was just calling it more like nier crossed with gow. It's got the combat focus of gow, but less direction and more openess like nier. Atmosphere reproduces nier.
 
Looking forward to the thread on here about all the mods. 😂
 
Last edited:
The game has consistently been sitting around Clair Obscur on the global top sellers list since preorders opened (so around the middle/lower half of the top 10). After the demo it's been sitting below only Nightreign and now the Deck. Launch numbers may very well be surprising.
 
Last edited:
TintoConCasera said:
Thank god... and also thank you for the clarification.

I guess people nowadays see a sword and default to think the game's a soulslike.
Click to expand...
Every game is Soulslike now. Can't wait for people to call Metroid Prime 4 a Soulslike next.

Not sure how they think Stellar Blade is one because no stamina bar...and unlike a typical Soulslike, Stellar Blade is actually fun and doesn't require you to MMO mob farm for stat increases.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Thank god... and also thank you for the clarification.

I guess people nowadays see a sword and default to think the game's a soulslike.
Click to expand...
Yes.

As an example, this game has a ton of respawn places, you don't lose your loot, there's teleport points, doesn't have laberynthic maps, short stamina bar, etc.

Regarding its stats and skill, they get unlocked/improved pretty quickly and as you play the game, no grind needed.
 
Last edited:
yurinka said:
Stellar Blade isn't a soulslike or a hack & slash.

It's an action adventure with some combos, parry, etc. but not a lot and doesn't focus on it and doesn't have a specially technical or deep combat. It only has hard difficulty if you choose it in the related menu option, and doesn't force you to go deep with its combat possibilities (which are deeper than what they seem).

It also has some light RPG elements like talking with NPCs, quests, upgradeable stats etc. but again, it isn't the focus and you can pretty much ignore most of it if you decide so.

They made their own take on the action adventure taking many elements from many places and created their own identity and personality. It isn't a Dark Souls, Nier or Bayonetta. It is its own thing.
Click to expand...
I have the Platinum on PS5 and it's a Sekiro-like (parry focused) in combat, which is part of Soulslike genre

The rest of it does have a very Nier Automata feeling
 
Last edited:
MagiusNecros said:
Every game is Soulslike now. Can't wait for people to call Metroid Prime 4 a Soulslike next.

Not sure how they think Stellar Blade is one because no stamina bar...and unlike a typical Soulslike, Stellar Blade is actually fun and doesn't require you to MMO mob farm for stat increases.
Click to expand...

Souls might be the closest gameplay reference for most people, plus it has a bonfire. The first level evokes souls, too. Not surprised so many jump to that even if it's misleading.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Many games focus on parries while having nothing at all to do with the souls sub-genre.
Click to expand...
I have bad news for you, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is also a Soulslike in combat despite being turn-based because it's also focused on parrying and dodging

Furthermore, COE33 has a bunch of other Soulslike elements like campfires which respawn enemies and flasks which offer a limited number of heals which recharge at campfires
 
Unknown Soldier said:
I have bad news for you, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is also a Soulslike in combat despite being turn-based because it's also focused on parrying and dodging
Click to expand...
bossbaby.jpg


I guess Paper Mario is a souls-like too! But wait, this game predates souls-likes... Does that mean Dark Souls is a paper-like?
 
Last edited:
TintoConCasera said:
bossbaby.jpg


I guess Paper Mario is a souls-like too! But wait, this game predates souls-likes... Does that mean Dark Souls is a paper-like?
Click to expand...
Everything got it's idea from something else somewhere

But there are a lot of Paper Mario ideas in COE33 too

The mechanics of the turn-based system in COE33 are exactly the same as Final Fantasy X
 
I've played a few great games, including this one, with a lot of parry but I swear if there was never another one I would not mind. SF3 showed (some of) us that it's great for awhile but not in the long run.
 
poppabk said:
Parry is the new 'cover'. Similarly, it will become ubiquitous and unremarkable.
Click to expand...
Dodge, parry and block are fundamental defense tecnics from most melee combat disciplines. It will never become unremarkable cuz its a part of melee combat. Whats unremarkable is melee combat that dont include it.

Stellar Blade combat uses all of it, you can parry, can block and can dodge, and even dodge counter, but the combat mechanic was designed to reward more sucessfull parries.
 
Last edited:
Unknown Soldier said:
I have the Platinum on PS5 and it's a Sekiro-like (parry focused) in combat, which is part of Soulslike genre
Click to expand...
Lol, no.

Tons of other games had parries before Sekiro (now I remember Street Fighter III and the first Tekken games), or Kamiya's hack & slash games.

Stellar Blade isn't a parry focused game at all. There are a few enemy types, including a handful bosses, that almost force you to use parries to defeat them even if there are other ways to kill them. That's all, you can play most of the game without parrying.

Unknown Soldier said:
The rest of it does have a very Nier Automata feeling
Click to expand...
Other than both being postapocalyptical action adventures with hot anime waifus they are pretty different games in terms of subgenre and gameplay focus.
 
Last edited:
Aenima said:
Dodge, parry and block are fundamental defense tecnics from most melee combat disciplines. It will never become unremarkable cuz its a part of melee combat. Whats unremarkable is melee combat that dont include it.

Stellar Blade combat uses all of it, you can parry, can block and can dodge, and even dodge counter, but the combat mechanic was designed to reward more sucessfull parries.
Click to expand...
We are talking the current video gane parry mechanic that is prevalent. Having to hit parry at a specific instant in a defined repeated attack pattern, often multiple parries in sequence, and that opens the enemy up to a super powerful counter attack.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Thank god... and also thank you for the clarification.

I guess people nowadays see a sword and default to think the game's a soulslike.
Click to expand...
Well, there's also that when you rest, the enemies respawn (not bosses, obviously). But that's fairly common in other types of games as well these days.
 
Played the demo on my ROG Ally X and it looked great. Very polished. 900p at medium to low settings and getting a locked 60fps. Can probably do more fine tuning and get some better results but the game is highly playable. Will not get it at launch because I have it on PS5 amd haven't gotten around it yet bit if I like the game I'll probably double dip.
 
Last edited:
Souls-like has to include more than O to dodge and R3 to lock on the enemy. If we're to include only the obscure storytelling or the artistic element, suddenly no game is really souls-like.

As for the demo reception, I guess people are pleased with performance or the simple fact that game actually works as a game should, which is crazy rare nowadays it seems, plays smooth as well but IMO lacks a bit more depth, or perhaps later in game it's to be expected.
 
Souls games got their inspiration from real life. When you don´t dodge in the right moment, you´re screwed.

Aaanyway, I´m sure as soon as the first mods appear, we will have more traction
 
adamsapple said:
2JDJXIO.png






The characters already look like porcelain dolls... what other 'beautification' does it need, lol.

I swear the modding scene is just way too much sometimes.
Click to expand...
Dunno lmao, but imo she looks worse there. :goog_relieved:

There's others mods with more effort put into them, like this one that includes an outfit based on a character from ZZZ.

7-1748914065-706369246.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Stellar Blade - PC Demo out now
3 4 5 6 7
338
3K
analog_future replied
  • Featured
Stellar Blade PC |OT| Stellar Mods
3 4 5 6 7
315
3K
Gitaroo replied
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Launches on Steam with 145k Concurrent Players and 'Very Positive' Reviews (92% Positive)
4 5 6 7 8
366
5K
Conflict NZ replied
Stellar Blade debuts on Steam with over 192k CCU (best-performing single-player PlayStation Studios release)
News Platform  8 9 10 11 12
594
2K
GymWolf replied
Split Fiction Launches on Steam with Over 250k Concurrent Players and 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Reviews (95% Positive)
2
55
4K
poodaddy replied
Top Bottom