Stellar Blade

Stellar Blade (Korean: 스텔라 블레이드) is a third-person action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by SHIFT UP Corporation and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was originally released exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on April 26, 2024, followed by a Windows version that released on June 11, 2025, via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth of the near future, the game follows EVE, a member of the 7th Airborne Squad sent from the off-world Colony, as she embarks on a mission to save humanity from a mysterious and powerful threat known as the Naytiba. Throughout her journey, EVE is joined by her squadmates, Adam and Lily Artemis II, as she battles to reclaim Earth from the malevolent force.

First teased in 2019 under the working title Project EVE, the game was initially announced for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. By 2021, it was announced to be a PlayStation 5 exclusive, set to be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. On September 13, 2022, it was officially revealed under its final title, Stellar Blade. The game marks SHIFT UP's first AAA release. A DLC crossover with NieR:Automata launched on November 20, 2024, while a collaboration with Goddess of Victory: NIKKE released on June 11, 2025, coinciding with the game’s PC release. In May 2025, a sequel was announced to be in development.

Story[]

In a war to save humanity from the Naytibas, EVE is sent to Earth from the Colony and embarks on a mission to eliminate the Elder Naytiba and reclaim the Earth, accompanied by her companions Adam and Lily. As her journey progresses, however, EVE uncovers hidden truths that turn everything she thought she knew about her mission upside down.

Missions[]

Stellar Blade has a total of 15 main missions, 35 side missions, and 30 requests, with the addition of 5 special missions as part of the Goddess of Victory: NIKKE DLC.

Endings[]

Stellar Blade has a total of 3 endings that are obtainable upon completing specific conditions throughout the game’s story.

Characters[]

Name	Description	Voice
EVE	EVE is a member of the 7th Airborne Squad as part of the Eve Defense Force and the main playable protagonist of Stellar Blade.	[KR] Yoon Eun-seo [EN] Rebecca Hanssen
Adam	Adam is a survivor whom the protagonist EVE encounters. He leads EVE to Xion, the last surviving human city on Earth.	[KR] Jeong Jae-heon [EN] Nezar Alderazi
Lily Artemis II	Lily Artemis II an engineer from the 5th Airborne Squad sent to Earth on an earlier expedition, Lily is separated from her unit during its descent to the planet’s surface.	[KR] Park Ri-Na [EN] Rosie Jones
Tachy	Tachy is the leader of the 7th Airborne Squad. Tachy is a decorated soldier, renowned for her tactical acumen, combat and survival skills.	[KR] Cheon Ji-Sun [EN] Alexandra Constantinidi
Orcal	Orcal is the elder of Xion and serves as its overseer. He is one of the few people in Xion that Adam is close with.	[KR] Seal Young-Beam [EN] Stephen Schreiber
Kaya	Kaya is a shop owner based in Xion. EVE first meets her while picking up Adam's order of a Propulsion Control Board for the Tetrapod.	[KR] Jung Hye-Wan [EN] Holly Earl
Su	Su is a Sentinel and bar owner currently based in Xion.	[KR] Kim Hye-Sung [EN] Adam Sims
Enya	Enya is an android that sings in Xion's bar "The Last Gulp".	[KR] Lee Dae-Un [EN] Meaghan Martin
D1G-g2r	D1G-g2r (pronounced as “Digger”) is a drone that suddenly gained AI sentience. It runs a shop in the Wasteland's Scrap Yard before moving to Xion.	[KR] Park Nah-Sik [EN] Akie Kotabe
Raven	Raven is an Andro-Eidos and Alpha Naytiba as an antagonist in Stellar Blade.	[KR] Kang Si-Hyun [EN] Díana Bermudez

Event Characters[]

These characters are crossover characters from other games.

Name	Description	Voice
Emil (NieR Replicant, NieR:Automata)	A strange creature that looks like a floating skeleton. He used to be a handsome young boy who lived in a manor. His sells wares to the player. While he has high magical power deep inside him, he has lost a significant portion of his memory from a distant past.	[JP] Mai Kadowaki [EN] N/A
Volt (Goddess of Victory: NIKKE)	A robot raised by Liter in Nikke. the volt leads Eve and brings it to the Scarlet. Afterwards, it is placed in the location of the Nikke DLC mini game, and serves as a merchant who sells Nikke attire next to the Scarlet.	[KR] N/A [EN] N/A
Scarlet (Goddess of Victory: NIKKE)	Scarlet is a Nikke, a female super-soldier developed by the Central Government to combat the Raptures. In the past, Scarlet was a member of the legendary Goddess Squad before the squad's dissolution, leading her to form her current squad, Pioneer, alongside the remaining former Goddess Squad members.	[KR] Jang Ye-na [EN] Ratana

Gameplay[]

Downloadable Content[]

The first, and initially only, downloadable content for Stellar Blade, titled Stellar Blade x NieR:Automata, was released on November 20, 2024, and includes new quests, items, NieR:Automata collaboration costumes, and a short story.

It was announced during PlayStation's 2025 State of Play that Stellar Blade would be getting a second DLC in June of the same year, in collaboration with Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, which includes several costumes based on NIKKE characters, a NIKKE-based shooting minigame, and a short story that unlocks a fight with NIKKE’s Scarlet in the base game’s Boss Challenge mode.

Trophies and Achievements[]

There are a total of 45 trophies/achievements in Stellar Blade, with 43 in the base game and 2 in New Game +:

Base Game[]

New Game+[]

Development[]

To date:

[April 3rd, 2019] SHIFT UP holds their first CRANK IN SHOWCASE at their new "Second EVE Studio", in Seocho-dong, Seoul.
- The reveal trailer is released and more details on Project EVE are given including a Q/A.
- This was the first announcement of the project, as well as the debut of the titular character currently dubbed "EVE 06".

[November 26th, 2020] Prototype Version BATTLE REPORT is released.
- A gameplay showcase featuring complete working footage from a boss battle released for GStar2020. This was the first showing of the character currently dubbed "EVE 07".
- SHIFT UP opens a newer portal dedicated to the game on their official website alongside the original. This now serves as the project's official website.
[August 21st, 2021] An official Twitter page is launched.
[September 9th, 2021] Project EVE First Trailer is released.
- An official "First Trailer" released via PlayStation Showcase, featuring a brand new soundtrack, new gameplay and new cinematic footage.
[September 13th, 2022] Project EVE is now officially titled Stellar Blade.
- Stellar Blade Story Trailer is released via PlayStation's 2022 State of Play, featuring new gameplay and outfits, new songs, new cinematic footage and three previously unseen characters: a comrade of Eve's named Lily, a masked survivor named Adam and an elder named Orcal who appears to be at least partially cybernetic.
- A short description of game by director Kim Hyung Tae is posted on PlayStation Blog.
- The official website for the game is updated with the new title and content.
- A new official twitter page is attached to the site in place of the previous one.
[January 31st, 2024] Stellar Blade receives its official release date of April 26th, 2024.
- New Gameplay Overview is released via PlayStation's 2024 State of Play, featuring new gameplay mechanics, narrative points, cinematic footage and music.
- Eve's face has undergone a slight makeover.
- Official cover art is released.

Release[]

Demo[]

Stellar Blade’s demo was released worldwide on March 29, 2024, roughly a month before the game’s full release. The demo consists of the game’s prologue and the first part of the Eidos 7 location, up until the Abaddon boss fight. The demo also includes a sample of the Boss Challenge mode, consisting of a fight with the Stalker in Matrix 11.

Editions[]

Standard Edition[]

The Standard Edition of Stellar Blade was released on April 26, 2024, and consists solely of the base game, including New Game+ and Boss Challenge mode.

Digital Deluxe Edition[]

Stellar Blade’s Digital Deluxe Edition was released alongside the Standard Edition, and comes with the full base game, as well as bonuses like extra skill points, in-game currency, and exclusive cosmetics for EVE, Adam, Lily, and the Drone.

Complete Edition[]

The Complete Edition of Stellar Blade was released on June 11, 2025, and includes the full base game with both the Stellar Blade x NieR:Automata and Stellar Blade x Goddess of Victory: NIKKE DLCs and the contents of the Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as a CD-Key that unlocks the Racer’s High costume for Scarlet in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE.

Reception[]

Official Notes[]

PlayStation.Blog excerpt[]

The following is an excerpt from a PlayStation.Blog post made on September 13th, 2022, featuring a short synopsis of the game by project director Kim Hyung Tae:

"This is our second encounter since the PlayStation Showcase back in September 2021. I am beyond ecstatic to reveal the official name for our game, previously called Project Eve, and share new trailer unveiling new characters and their roles in this story.
And I present to you the official title that encompasses Eve’s stylish action and her long and winding adventure…
The meaning of Stellar Blade The title is a combination of “Stellar,” which signifies stars in Latin, and “Blade,” which defines Eve’s existence.
Where the point of that blade will lead you to, that’s entirely up to you.
Mankind’s last remaining city on Earth, Xion Eve and her comrades land on the surface to reclaim the extinct Earth and cross paths with a survivor named Adam. Eve is then led by Adam to the last surviving city, Xion, where she meets the elder of the town Orcal and is told many stories. In order to serve her mission to save Earth, Eve develops close relationships with the key members of Xion and contributes to rebuilding the city.
On a mission to save Earth from the NA:tive, Eve is also faced with helping out the citizens of Xion. Whether you will help the survivors or not, depends purely on your decision as the player.
Action-packed battles against fierce bosses Stellar Blade introduces action combat that require deflecting and evading the NA:tives’ attack at a precise timing that will also connect to combos and unique skills. Throughout the game, you will arm yourself with unique Beta Skills and intense Burst Skills, which I promise will be pleasing to the eye.
Brace yourselves… Bosses’ strengths are on a completely different level compared to the common NA:tives, offering a challenging and strategic combat encounter.
All these actions will allow you to further immerse yourself into the story and understand Eve’s emotions.
Get ready to embark on a journey with our powerful protagonist, Eve!

Thank you for your continued support and interest." ^[1]

Crank in Showcase[]

The following is an excerpt from Ruli Web's coverage of SHIFT UP's 2019 CRANK IN SHOWCASE, which featured SHIFT UP project leads speaking on their upcoming titles, Project NIKKE and Project EVE:

"The introduction of Project Eve was directly conducted by CEO Kim Hyung-sik. Eve was revealed at this event after the last GDC 2019 Epic Games event with a teaser trailer being made.
Project Eve is the story of a human race destroyed by native invaders, escaping to an orbital colony, and fighting to retake Earth. In the teaser trailer, the other colleagues failed to reach Earth, and the main character successfully landed alone and set out to retake it.
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CEO Kim Hyung-tae emphasized that it is a game with an end and an ending, and will show explosive extreme 19-gold action mainly in single-player, allowing anyone to directly play SSS-level cool play.
Project EVE is a console platform project that contains the goal of SHIFT UP's global AAA title development. As a single-player-oriented action game, it meets the action and graphic quality required for AAA-level titles, and plans to publish it to current-generation stationary consoles such as PS4 and XBOX ONE and PC (STEAM).
The Project Eve development team includes early members at the time of 'Blade and Soul' development, such as SHIFT UP CEO Kim Hyung-tae, program manager Lee Dong-gi, Wonhwa Lee, FX manager Lee Chang-min, and producer Joo-hwan Lee with console game development experience.
In addition, the Second Eve Studio, created for development, has the largest 3D scanning system in Korea, and high-quality modeling can be produced by scanning real models and clothes. In addition, a facial capture system was built to implement various facial expressions with data as a 3D model. In addition, a performance scan facility was built in-house.
For the production of monsters, rough sketches and actual sculptural models are made into a real thing, and then 3D scan is applied to modeling. The monster modeling in the teaser trailer was made that way.
CEO Kim Hyung-tae said, “A good game starts with a good plan, but I have seen cases where it is not implemented properly due to insufficient resource support, or a planner who has already anticipated resources and brings a plan that has been saved. We wanted to create a resource environment that was good enough to prevent that from happening.” said.

He also said, 'I want to hire good developers for this. And through that, we want to give all gamers a game they will enjoy and love. I hope you will be interested and watch it.' and concluded the presentation." ^[2]