Stellar Blade was the most Nier: Automata game since Nier: Automata, so it was very sweet to see Nier master Yoko Taro become one of its biggest fans. Taro openly argued that Stellar Blade was "much better" than his own open-world-ish action RPG starring a cool lady with a big sword, and with sequel Stellar Blade: Blood Rain now officially on the way, he's back for more.
In a recent (machine translated) Twitter post sharing a Famitsu story covering Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, Taro reasons, "I really feel like I have to buy this one, too."
A reply from Shift Up head and Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim (again, machine translated from Japanese) wishes Taro a belated happy birthday and preemptively thanks him for his purchase. (Taro's birthday is June 6. He is now 56 years old.)
In response, Taro congratulates Kim on the Blood Rain announcement.
Kim and Taro previously spent quite some time gassing up each others' games, with Nier: Automata serving as a guiding star for Stellar Blade, and Stellar Blade wowing Taro with its art and animations. "I was surprised by the quality of Korean games when I saw it," he said in an old interview from IGN Japan.
Stellar Blade ended up getting a solid Nier: Automata DLC, which was all but written in the sky.
Earlier this year, Taro argued that game devs saying "outright that they copied" Nier: Automata is a "form of respect" and he has absolutely no problem with it, though he joked that he's not sure publisher Square Enix would see it the same way. Either way, he's clearly happy to see the journey of titular automaton 2B influence so many creators.
I enjoyed both games, but I'd personally put Nier: Automata a cut above Stellar Blade. Both have the same core strengths – music and combat – but I'd say Nier: Automata has a more interesting world and incomparably more compelling cast to go with it.
This is why I was excited to see Stellar Blade getting a sequel with Blood Rain. It was the first game of its kind for Shift Up, a studio better known for the rail shooter-y gacha game Goddess of Victory: Nikke, and it was a solid foundation to build on. If the studio can preserve or improve its music and combat styles while beefing up the game world around them, I might find myself agreeing with Taro when Blood Rain rolls around.
