The director of Stellar Blade explained that what players are calling input lag during certain moves is a deliberate design choice.
In an interview with 4Gamer, Kim Hyung-tae was asked about the game’s demo, and the topic of input lag came up.
Kim was asked why there seemed to be a delay between pressing a button for performing a perfect parry or dodge, and the actual move happening.
He explained that they intentionally added a delay to keep the animation smooth, and clarified that there’s no actual input lag because the skill activates the moment the button is pressed, even if the animation takes a moment to play out.
The Day One patch fixed the input time for basic attacks, as well as the timing of blocking and parrying to be more responsive.
Also, the chromatic aberration and grain noise effects can now be toggled on/off.😍#StellarBlade #PS5 #Dayone pic.twitter.com/sISg5Q1WmZ
— StellarBlade (@StellarBlade) April 25, 2024
“In Stellar Blade, there is about a 0.5-second delay between pressing the button and seeing the skill on-screen,” he said (translated by Automaton). “It’s a delay that can’t be reduced further.
“We decided not to trigger the character’s movement immediately upon button press, as we thought it wouldn’t match the game’s animation style.
“So, the skill itself activates right when you press the button, but the movement animation follows afterwards.” Kim also mentioned that if players find that the delayed animations make the game harder to play, the studio may make changes in the future.
This might have already been partly addressed in the game’s day one patch, which, according to the official X account for the game, improves “the input time for basic attacks, as well as the timing of blocking and parrying to be more responsive”.