Stellar Blade Difficulty Designed to Be 'Challenging' Yet Approachable (2024)

Still need to properly play the demo, got to the first rest stop and haven't touched it again

I will be playing it on story mode

Hard mode will probably be a trophy and thus part of the platinum, meaning I'll have to suffer through it lol

When Demon's Souls came it was fun. Than Dark Souls, OK. But now is every "souls-like" gameplay boring. I'll play it (if ever) when it comes to PS Plus monthly games. And of course on Story Mode.

And there's nothing wrong with that

Id never play an easy mode lol. Besides the demo had a really nice mix of not too difficult mobs that you could really mess around with all your moves like in action games such as bayo and dmc. With the bosses providing slightly slower more methodical game play which is the only thing that really reminds me of dark souls

I wish you could toggle the whole "enemies respawn when you rest" thing. I find that very annoying and tedious

Good to hear a developer embracing multiple difficulty modes and allowing people to enjoy the game their way.

Can’t go wrong with either mode. I’ll more than likely probably stick with normal mode but I won’t shy away to story mode if I ever get stuck or so.

Story mode it is for me. I want to enjoy the game not throw a controller threw the TV

@ATaco Implying that we've been getting less and less games that have only one difficulty mode. Please stop making stuff up.

@Nepp67
This was more aimed towards FromSoft and people that complain about easy modes in games, as if they are ever a detriment to one's own personal enjoyment.

So it's a game with options u say who knew those existed 🤔 😂

Strange. For me, really only gripe I had with the demo was it's slow stilted pace in combat.

It already felt slowed down in standard mode. Like watching the action game moves set in 70% motion speed. For me, that alongside what felt like a pretty noticeable input delay, gave the illusion of a lower framerate than it was actually running at.

@ATaco If the devs want you to enjoy the game with a one difficulty in mind let them and play a different game. Not every game needs to be for everybody.

I'm generally a fan of Souls games and arpg's in general, but I have to say, I found the boss mode particularly tricky! Not helped by the fact it introduced new mechanics without telling you, like a gun, and a sekiro style dodge/counter that become basically essential.

Oh this game is very approachable

@pyrrhic_victory like how bravely default had JRPG encounter rates as a slider. I actually really like the idea lol!

@Nepp67
Uh...ok? Thanks for the input.

A history about a distant distopic future, the humans are cyborgs or living in space, Eve is android who fight for the space humans, whow thats not a plagiarism of nier automata?

@Judal27 There will be a day where you value more your time over the virtual achievement of completing another video game

Hm, so action assist is like FFXVI’s Timely Focus ring? That would be really useful.

@Johnion I feel like that hit me a while ago cause I've kinda stopped caring about platinum trophies. But I care more about being entertained and easy modes are not entertaining

My hype for this game really faded when I heard it was yet another souls like and not more of a hack and slash. Souls like feels like the 9th Gen version of that "open world sandbox" was for 8th.

Nice. FromSoft can't do that or people will realize the combat actually isn't good. 😂

@NEStalgia Maybe you should give the demo a try. The combat is actually a mix of HacknSlash and a Souls, well that's even if you consider Sekiro a Souls in the first place but anyway as a result of the mix it is much easier than a souls but much more challenging than the average HacknSlash.

I've downloaded the demo and will be giving it a go this week.

@MrMagic Thanks! That doesn't sound as bad as people have made it seem. I'll have to give it a try.

My issue with Bayonetta (I played halfway through the first) was that from what I recall, and maybe I did something wrong, but the easy mode essentially made the game play itself and trivialised it to being pointless. Like those rune things in FF16 where it does all the combos for you and auto dodges etc? Absolute rubbish.

A bit like in the Mario games where if you get stuck it offers an excessive god mode that renders it pointless too.

I much prefer the idea of slowing enemies and widening parry windows in games instead, so essentially you are still “playing it” and getting effectively the genuine gameplay experience but adapted to your slower reactions.

Is that mode in the demo to test before buying? Have to admit I only watched YouTubers playing it so far, and they were getting rekt, so that really put me off (I’m nearly 50 and can’t do this anymore).

Really enjoyed the demo, played throough it and the boss challenge several times. Day one.

And I'm an old git similar to your age, @SgtTruth

Found the Parry here quite nice to perform, the only other Soulslikes that I've played where I almost mastered it where Wo Long and Bloodborne.
Every other one I usually roll around like a demented drunk (which is still an option in Stellar Blade of course).
Played demo and pre-ordered, I thought it was a great game and a fine distillation of the Souls genre.

Story mode for me. Unpopular opinion but Souls games are ruined by their difficulty. I’m middle aged with a family, I don’t have time to die 8 times in a row on a game, I just wanted to have fun in the limited time available. It’s the devs prerogative to make games to whatever difficulty they want of course, but unless a game has an easy mode then it’s not for me.

The demo was surprisingly challenging for me, even after I switched down to story mode. The parry is quite essential to perform, from what I experienced, and I stink at parrying. I prefer to dodge roll, and even the dodge roll is hard to nail in the demo.

In story mode it does give you some prompts for when to execute a parry or special dodge move, but it was still quite quick and frantic and the prompts only show every once and a while. It was a little like the Arkham style prompts, except they don’t appear with every attack so it’s tough to get into any kind of rhythm with the combat if you try to rely on the prompts. You just have to ‘git gud’ from what I could tell.

Yeah it does play like dark souls but like nier automata and other games.word up son

I really really dislike the term 'souls like'.
I could be reading an article about a new promising sounding game but as soon as 'souls like' is mentioned, I lose all interest.

I was definitely hoping it was gonna be more DMC5 and not having to rest to get health back and re spawning enemies and all that. Abit disappointed when I played the demo

I’m very here for this and I wish some other devs would take note, despite what some on these comments are saying. Blocking access to those with a mental or physical disability who can’t react as quickly as the game demands regardless of how much the story appeals to them feels counterintuitive. Surely you want those sales, surely those who want hard mode can just ignore easier options, not so easy the other way round.

@Fishface45 I also enjoy Story Mode. I like to play games to unwind and de-stress.