Summary
Stellar Bladeis an action-packed game filled with plenty of opportunities to explore. Much like one of its spiritual predecessors,Star Wars Jedi: Survivor,Stellar Bladeconsists of several open-world areas where players can find a multitude of collectibles, crafting materials, and side quests. From the game’s earliest stages, it becomes abundantly clear thatStellar Bladeintends for its players to venture off the beaten path in search of valuable rewards, including Data Bank entries that help flesh out the game’s world. Unfortunately, these explorable areas aren’t always the easiest to navigate thanks to one regrettable feature.
As players begin exploringStellar Blade’s starting zone on Eidos 7, they may quickly begin to notice something: there is no map for the region. At first, this might come across as one ofStellar Blade’s more refreshing features, considering what a mapless zone is capable of accomplishing for exploration and discovery. However, as the game progresses, players will gain access to more of these mapless areas, most of which they will be encouraged to return to at a later time to complete side quests or retrieve valuable collectibles they might not have been able to acquire during their first visit. Furthermore, the lack of a map for these regions results in the game employing an overwhelming number of other, more controversial tactics to help guide players.
The Pros and Cons of Stellar Blade’s Mapless Zones
Stellar Blade’s Mapless Zones Encourage Exploration and Increase the Reward of Discovery
Some ofStellar Blade’s zones may be mapless, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Anytime anexplorable region in a game doesn’t include a map, it essentially hands a massive amount of agency over to the player by allowing them to be the solely responsible party for where they go and where they end up. That’s precisely how each ofStellar Blade’s mapless zones comes across, as players are in charge of their own journey, rather than being subjected to a bunch of “chores” in the form of map icons.
Certain areas inStellar Bladeencourage exploration by foregoing a map. Instead of being directed to an area by a map or compass icon, players are directed to an area by their own curiosity, just as they are inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s open world, thoughTotKdoes include a map. Furthermore, this type of self-governed exploration simultaneously increases the value of any rewards players find along the way, so there are indeed some benefits to a zone or open world excluding a map.
Stellar Blade’s Mapless Zones Require Excessive Signposting and Make Backtracking a Pain
On the other hand,Stellar Blade’s mapless regions have led to some unfortunate shortcomings. Firstly,Stellar Bladedoesn’t shy away from signposting. Interestingly enough, althoughFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s yellow paintgarnered plenty of controversy, the internet has been fairly silent aboutStellar Blade’s. Even so,Stellar Blade’s yellow signposting can feel a bit excessive at times, and it is even more prominent in areas that don’t have a map.
This is primarily because players need some form of guidance since a map isn’t there to help.
Additionally, these mapless zones inStellar Bladedon’t help backtracking at all. Many times throughoutStellar Blade’s story, players will be encouraged to travel back to areas they’ve already visited, whether it be to complete a side quest or to collect items they might have missed due to not having the traversal feature necessary to reach them. Without a map, players are all but required to travel through each area from start to finish again, hoping they eventually land in the area they’re meant to go to.
Not all ofStellar Blade’s zones are mapless, but the ones that are without a map make for quite the double-edged sword. While not having a map certainly encourages and rewards exploration, it results in excessive signposting and painful backtracking.
Stellar Blade
WHERE TO PLAY
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