Stellar Blade on PS5 Pro: a simple but hugely effective upgrade

We’ve been poring over dozens of games updated for PS5 Pro, but the one that’s most caught my attention is Stellar Blade. This game impressed when it launched on PS5 in April this year, but its slick action and stunning locales were let down somewhat by inconsistent performance and poor image quality. On PS5 Pro, developers Shift Up has delivered a simple but extremely effective upgrade that solves both of these concerns.

Interestingly, this upgrade takes the form of two PS5 Pro specific graphics modes for the game, but the original performance, balanced and quality modes remain available. Pro max is the most straightforward of the new additions, essentially being the quality mode running uncapped – perfect for VRR displays. The pro mode is more interesting however, as it uses both a higher internal resolution and PSSR upscaling to realise a significant leap in image quality.

PSSR isn’t a magic bullet – we’ve seen that from some slightly problematic appearances in Silent Hill 2 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – but thankfully it works well in Stellar Blade. The Sony upscaler produces a temporally stable image without any of the pixel crawl or shimmering evident in the TAA modes – even the native 4K quality mode. Edges and surfaces alike are simply cleaner and more stable.

Comparing performance, balanced and pro modes and looking first at transparency, all three modes have their limitations, but the PSSR upscaling in the pro mode reduces artefacting and makes it easier to make out distant detail. That said, it also introduces artefacts in some scenarios, making the deliberate flicker of the sun more prominent and even making the sun’s flare flicker too. I don’t think this is intended behaviour.