Upcoming action game Stellar Blade clearly takes more than a few cues from Square Enix’s Nier: Automata; something creative director Hyung-Tae Kim has admitted to. However, Nier creator Yoko Taro has not only argued Stellar Blade is a “very different game,” but also that it’s better than Nier: Automata.
IGN Japan was able to get Kim and Taro in the same room for a recent interview about their respective works, where the former reiterated how Nier: Automata‘s various elements helped inspire Stellar Blade. When he asked if Taro approved, Taro had nothing but good things to say about Kim and his work: “Stellar Blade is a really amazing game. I’d say that it’s much better than Nier: Automata.”
He went on to praise Stellar Blade‘s graphics and character designs, highlighting the cute shopkeeper in particular, and complimented Kim’s art style as being really appealing to a Japanese audience. Plus, while Taro understands the comparisons being made between his and Kim’s games, he pointed out how “if you actually play [Stellar Blade], you’ll instantly realize that it’s a very different game.” He’s not wrong. Anyone who’s tried out the Stellar Blade demo on PlayStation 5 will know its combat is nothing like Nier: Automata‘s, and is more akin to a FromSoftware game like Elden Ring or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Kim also took time to mention how Nier: Automata wasn’t the only source of inspiration, as he had drawn from “many other things as well, mainly manga, anime, and games from the 1980s and 90s,” including Neon Genesis Evangelion. It turns out that helped inspire Nier: Automata as well, with Taro even describing his game as “just a retelling of Evangelion, so there’s not much originality to it.”
I’d recommend checking out the full interview, if only to read Kim and Taro’s mutual flattery. It’s clear they have a lot of respect for one another, and while Taro’s comments could be read as jokingly self-deprecating, Kim has a lot of admiration for his fellow game creator. At one point, he called Nier: Automata “an inviolable holy grace,” and described Taro’s games as “way too unique to be imitated.”
Whether Stellar Blade will reach the same highs as Nier: Automata is another question entirely, but the way Taro talked about it makes it sound like it could be a smash hit in Japan. If it gets especially popular, maybe protagonist Eve will start making cameos in other games like 2B has? Stellar Blade launches as a PS5 exclusive on April 26.
