Stellar Blade director says half-second ‘input lag’ when parrying and dodging is deliberate

The director of Stellar Blade has explained that what players are describing as input lag during certain moves is a deliberate choice.

In an interview with 4Gamer, Kim Hyung-tae was asked about the game’s demo, and the subject of input lag was brought up.

Kim was asked why there appears to be a delay between pressing a button for performing a perfect parry or dodge, and the actual move being performed.

He explained that it was a design choice to keep the animation smooth, and said there’s no actual input lag becuse the skill is activated the moment the button is pressed, even if the animation takes a while to play.

“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,” he said (as translated by Automaton). “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 shows players feel the delayed animations make the game harder to play, the studio may make changes in the future.

This may have already been partly addressed in the game’s day one patch which, according to the game’s official X account, fixes “the input time for basic attacks, as well as the timing of blocking and parrying to be more responsive”.

VGC’s Stellar Blade review says the game offers “both the perfect entry point into the Souls-like genre and a refreshing refinement of the well-worn character action formula”.

“For those who wished that God of War Ragnarok offered a bit more challenge or that Bayonetta had a bit more weight to its combat, this slick sci-fi slasher is the perfect tonic,” we wrote.