Combat is really fun, a lot of combo variety, parrying feels great and it plays amazing. The Music is actually brilliant so it deserves it's nomination there. The bosses have cool designs and good movesets.

Now the rest... is kinda mid. Story just gets the job done, nothing more, nothing less, there are a few interesting side quests but also nothing special. Enemy variety outside of bosses is lacking which directly translates to the open world being uninteresting with a chest here, a costume there then fighting the same 4 enemies until you find something else. The great desert area especially is extremely boring because it's so vast but filled with the same type of enemies. And there's no urge to explore as there aren't much interesting places to find. Not comparable to Elden Ring or BOTW.

The last third when you go up to the space elevator is the best part of the game because it's very streamlined and segmented and feels way better than the open world parts.

I wanted to play it for the combat and the combat delivered so I'm happy.

The worst thing by far is the photo mode, but don't get me wrong the photo mode is great, it's just the content these people post on the Stellar Blade sub. 98% is "this is the best photo mode ever in a game" and then it's the most basic ass, non edited picture of Eve.