Stellar Blade 2 Leak Reveals Major Upgrade From First Game
Stellar Blade 2 is going to look even better because of this.
Stellar Blade is one of 2024's best games and biggest success stories. For South Korean developer Shift Up, it was a debut on console after previously shipping three mobile games since its inception in 2013. And it's been such a successful debut the expectation is Shift Up is here to stay in the console space. The other expectation is that Stellar Blade 2 is in the pipeline. To this end, it looks like the sequel will have a major upgrade from the first game.
At the moment of writing this, there is a job listing up for Shift Up that asks applicants to have experience with Unreal Engine 5, confirming the studio's next game -- presumably Stellar Blade 2 -- is going to be made on Unreal Engine 5. If this is the case, it represents a major upgrade from the first game, which was made on the increasingly dated Unreal Engine 4. The engine upgrade will be most noticeable when it comes to graphical fidelity, and character modeling/animation in particular.
For what it is worth, it is not very surprising to see Shift Up make the switch to Unreal Engine 5 now that it has run its course with Unreal Engine 4, but it is good to get soft confirmation that this is happening.
Stellar Blade is available via the PS5 and the PS5 only. If Stellar Blade 2 is in the works, it will certainly be a PS6 game. For more coverage on the series, click here.
"For one reason or another, a lot of people are going to miss out on playing Stellar Blade," reads the opening of our review of the first game. "That may happen either because they've been dissuaded by talks how the main character, EVE, is presented in the game, or it could be because the game's a PlayStation exclusive which inherently limits its reach. Whatever the reasoning is, it's a shame that Stellar Blade may not end up maximizing its reach, because beneath the fans ervice and comparisons to NieR Automata and the Bayonetta games, Stellar Blade boasts some surprisingly involved combat systems and fantastic creature designs all in a relatively compact experience."
H/T, Tech 4 Gamers.