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Stellar Blade is out today, and fans can finally play the full game to see what all the fuss is about. If you didn't get a chance to try the demo or just wanted to go in fresh, it is worth knowing that the half-second input delay when parrying or dodging is a feature, not a bug, as the game's director recently explained.
Speaking to Japanese outlet 4Gamer (translated by Automaton, thanks, VGC), Shift Up's Kim Hyung-tae was asked about the half-second or so of input lag present in the demo, the slight delay between the player inputting a command and the character onscreen executing the manoeuvre. He claims this was a deliberate design choice made to keep the animation smooth:
"In Stellar Blade, there is about a 0.5-second lag between the moment you press the button and the moment the skill is visible on-screen. It's a time lag that can't be reduced any further. We made it so that the character's movement does not get triggered immediately upon button press, as we felt this would not fit the game's style of animation. Thus, we made it so that the skill itself is activated the moment you press the button, but the animation of the movement follows afterwards."
Kim added that if feedback from players shows that the delayed animations make the game materially more difficult, it would consider making changes in the future. This already appears to have been addressed in some sense in the game's day one update.
Did you play the Stellar Blade demo? If you've had the chance to play the full game, did you notice any difference? Does it even matter at all? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source 4gamer.net, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 45
Honestly that’s probably why the demo felt so sluggish. I didn’t get the hype around the demo and it might of been because of this tbh.
After the laggy demo and now the censoring of the outfits in the day one patch I think I will pass.
Sucks when devs have to explain the ideology behind game design (and change it) because people want everything to be the same when game design also helps to tell the story of that specific world you are playing. Most garbage from the Helldivers subreddit come from that thought process.
I still haven't felt the input delay if I'm being honest
@Retron More and more people are providing proof that it wasn't censored.
@GymratAmarillo Input delay is generally a bad thing and makes things more difficult then needed. Yeah he needed to explain because most assumed it was a bug as Devs don't actually deliberately put input delay into an action game.
@Retron Nothing is censored.
@Nepp67 Put around an hour so far into the game and i must admit it does feel smoother then the demo so maybe they did alter it.
@DennisReynolds I had to check out the stellar blade sub reddit to see what the alleged censorship was never thought I’d see so many people go insane over a couple changes to a bunny swimsuit.
@Fartingale Sad ain't it? From the sounds of things its two different outfits anyway 😂
@DennisReynolds I just read that in Ezio from Assassin Creed voice for some reason. Thought you should know, sorry for wasting your time!
Ciao
@Fartingale pour one out for the PC mod community
he justified input delay as a purposeful choice? get out of here with that nonsense
Wow I thought I was going crazy when I played the demo 😅 I knew something was a little bit off with that parrying. Glad the main game is smoother. Can't wait for my copy to arrive! 😬 My hype level is already at fever pitch 🫠
To answer the question. This doesnt matter at all. Played for about an hour after the demo. Game is off to a great start. My only gripe is traversal takes some time getting used to.
@DennisReynolds
If true that’s great. Could you show were the outfit is the same as before the patch. Do you have a link or something? Would be much appreciated. All I see is more proof that NG+ outfits with this design are censored also.
For those concerned over the bunny suit, it has not been changed and the one shown on reddit and other sites is actually a different costume, you still get your cleavage bunny suit that people are crying over.
Personally with the demo, for me anyway, once I got onto the rhythm of parrying / dodging it all felt incredibly natural, and I’m not usually one who’s good at parrying in games (I’m more of a roll guy in Souls 😂), so I don’t see this being an issue.
In terms of censorship. As far as I know the only thing that has been censored is one piece of graffiti on a wall next to a shop sign which was a genuine accident… and even that I had to look up what it said actually meant… so again, I don’t think anyone needs to worry about mass censorship.
I really do want to play this, still on the fence about picking it up today due to the £70 price tag across board on the Sony store and physical copies… it’s just a little bit too much for me to shell out today. But we’ll see if I cave.
Update: I already caved, for those in the UK it’s £60 in Argos of all places.
Next game will have deliberate FPS drops.
Well, there it is...
Meanwhile parrying in code vein is a whole damn second
I definitely noticed the input lag in the demo, and found it made perfect parries much more difficult. Not ideal in a fast paced action game that demands precise timing.
Removed - inappropriate
The fact that the "censorship" of an outfit is what dominated discussion of the game upon its release, really made me not want to be part of the game's online community. It's an excellent game, from what I've played so far. Everyone fixating on how much of a video game character's ass you can see is...weird, to put it mildly.
While others are on the topic.
I’ve been noticing odd, bot like posts around the apparent “censorship”. Aside from the graffiti thing (absurd, but I get it), I wouldn’t let it dictate your decision on whether or not to buy the game.
I picked up my copy today and it’s miles ahead. Great game so far.
@exit @nyr2k2 If you think the arguments about censorship are about the content itself, then you missed the point.
It all may seem like a juvenile thing to argue about but it's about freedom of expression without "giving in" to some vocal minority.
Plus, much like the whole Tomb Raider debacle, the developer itself said "No censorship." Don't say it if you don't mean it!
On topic: Glad at least the Parry will still get pulled off at button press, even if the animation is slightly delayed. Seems like a "happy medium".
@GamingFan4Lyf I get that, fair call. I’m not a fan of censorship either. I also probably wouldn’t have made the claim to be uncensored globally, as that’s just not always possible.
Still, I would rather play Stellar Blade than most other mainstream titles.
@exit I think I am getting it for my birthday (which is today) and it will be a nice palate cleanser from the super long JRPGs and survival horror games I have been playing.
@GamingFan4Lyf Happy birthday mate! Hope you enjoy it.
@GamingFan4Lyf I have no doubt there are people who are upset about the possible change on "principle," but most of what I see on Reddit, Discord, and Twitter is just horny dudes bring pissed because they're missing out on 50 pixels of an ass cheek or whatever.
@nyr2k2 ...well the back of the character is the most seen part of a character in third-person action games...so.... 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Actually, that was one of the reasons Bayonetta's creator took so long to get her rear-end "right" (apparently it took months of designs).
I know what you are saying, though. I watched one rant about censorship for Stellar Blade and the level of detail with which they go through was...well...a lot.
I just wanted to see if the claims were true, not a pixel-by-pixel analysis of string placement around the torso on one outfit vs. another - I turned it off at that point.
Perhaps some of them should go into fashion design instead of zooming in on video game captures. 😅
@UltimateOtaku91 So updating the game won’t censor the costumes? Sounds good!
@Khayal is there going to be any news on the censorship forced in the day 1 patch? There really should be.
It's a feature, I swear! 😂
Imagine any other dev saying that. People would burn them at the stake.
@Tobiaku yes, updating the game will censor the costumes. Its been reported that the costumes in NG+ are also censored. Only way to get the OG is to not update.
https://shorturl.at/cWZ19
It does look censored, but I guess people will defend that anyways.
@Tobiaku it seems I was I wrong so don't install the patch, the version I was watching was the unpatched version and there's a lot of posts online saying the same as well but that now has been debunked.
@UltimateOtaku91 Alright, sounds like I will do my best to turn off updates for this game once I get it unless I really like some of the new game+ extra costumes.
Mad Ted, deliberate input lag in an action game to keep animations in sync...WTF...knew it felt dodgy in the demo...
Even though I play very snappy fighting games, where every frame of delay counts, I somehow never had an issue with this in the demo. Guess I just found a consistent rhythm early and it was fine.
That's odd, because Nier Automata (and probably Replicant) had such smooth dodge mechanics and timing was on point with R2 and the characters' animation appeared very fluid. So saying that it's an artistic choice to have a 1/2 second input is odd. But I am enjoying the game very much.
The only 2 things bothering me are the block with L1 and the animation when swimming up and down. When I go to block while walking, I immediately stop in my path, the block animation plays, and I have to return the stick to center, then move the stick in the same direction as before. Essentially, I can't block and walk at the same time. Kind of annoying.
Then, when I spam press dive and rise, the animation feels a bit janky and immediate, rather than fluid and dynamic (think of swimming in the Uncharted series and compare it to this one.)
Again, don't get me wrong. I do thoroughly enjoy the game and I look forward to, maybe, the developers continue to tweak the input lag.
@Lup Don't worry people tried to crucify them for it but the fact that Elden Ring has more input delay means they didn't have a leg to stand on. It makes me wonder how many people here who are claiming to have an issue with it also love Elden Ring.
I'm also definitely against censorship as well but I'm not stupid enough to ignore the fact ratings boards exist. Porn is actually illegal in South Korea so it stands to reason that their ratings board are probably a little stricter about this sort of thing and the same goes for gore in Japan. Did people with short attention spans already forgot the EA guy complaining just the other day about Dead Space Remake being banned in Japan.
@boostsensei It is a choice, one that fromsoftware makes all the time. For example Elden Ring has more input delay than Stellar Blade.
The "input delay" in Elden Ring is principally linked to your dexterity stat.
😂 Yeah it's deliberate! There was no possible way we could have made this game without an input delay. And the English dub was deliberately bad because we were sick of games with well written, good voice acting.
Some people seem to be really enjoying it so I still think I'll get it at some point. My interest has waned though so I'm thinking probably a year or so from now when it's around £30.
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