Yoko Taro, whose last major game was NieR: Automaton (he’s been working on smaller mobile projects since then), was self-critical but had some positive thoughts about Shift Up’s PlayStation 5 exclusive.

IGN Japan interviewed Taro and Kim Hyung-tae, director of Stellar Blade. The two developers discussed their own game. Taro praised Kim for being a fan of the South Korean developer’s work. Taro believes that he has been a fan of his colleague since the Magna Carta titles. Although Taro is older, he believes that Kim is on a higher level than him professionally. He thinks that Stellar Blade is such an excellent game that he considers it even better than NieR: Automata.

Taro later explained why he thinks so. He feels that Stellar Blade’s graphics represent a whole new generation in terms of quality, and told Kim that he was jealous because it shows that the South Korean developer has his own company and works with like-minded people. Still, Kim believes that NieR: Automata is the better game, because the more people talk about it, the more he feels that Stellar Blade can’t compete with it. Although Kim is confident in his illustration skills, he feels that they cannot compete with Taro’s writing because he does not consider himself a storyteller. He’s been creating visuals all his life, and he’s using the game to make up for his lack of narrative.

Stellar Blade received its demo on PlayStation 5 on March 29, and the demo can still be downloaded from the PlayStation Store. The developers recently said to treat the demo with caution (because some people have already spent more than 50 hours on it), even though it has about twice the player count of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Nevertheless, the release of the game is not too far away: it will be released on April 26th for PlayStation 5.

Source: VGC, IGN