GameCentral goes hands-on with one of the most anticipated action games of the year, which combines kung fu inspirations with epic Dark Souls style bosses.
Phantom Blade Zero is one of several Chinese action games to emerge over recent years, in the wake of Black Myth: Wukong’s success, but it’s received more attention than most others. Sony dedicated an entire State Of Play presentation to it in August, which is either a sign of the marketing budget at developer S-Game or confidence in the title’s prospects.
Pre-orders have already ‘far exceeded expectations’, according to director Soulframe Liang, and the millions of views on the game’s trailers suggests it’s going to be a major hit. However, it’s unclear if, like Black Myth: Wukong, the majority of its success will derive from China or if it will make a bigger splash on a worldwide scale.
We can’t answer that, but after going hands-on with the game for six hours, Phantom Blade Zero feels primed to hit hard with a particular kind of action game fan. If you’re more attuned to Devil May Cry over Dark Souls, but wish the boss fights had the scale and operatics of Hayao Miyazaki’s finest, you should put this on your radar immediately.
Phantom Blade Zero might seem like a new IP to Western audiences, but it’s technically the fifth game set within the same universe. All the prior titles were action role-players for mobile, starting with 2010’s Rainblood: Town Of Death and culminating with 2023’s Phantom Blade: Executioners. As such, this is developer S-Game’s first stab at a big budget console game, and serves as an introductory reboot to the Phantom Blade world at large.
What defines the series is the ‘kung-fu punk’ buzz phrase you may have heard a lot in Zero’s marketing. This refers to the combat’s inspiration from Chinese martial arts and the steampunk aesthetic imbued throughout the game’s world, but it also extends to the game’s debt to classic martial arts cinema.
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To hammer the point home, actor Donnie Yen – famed for his history in martial arts movies like the Ip Man series, and to Western audiences recently for John Wick: Chapter 4 – plays a motion capture role in the game and serves as a creative consultant.
What this means in practice is that, by and large, Phantom Blade Zero is all about slick flourishes. The protagonist, named Soul, can’t even climb up a wall without making a song and dance about it, as he leaps, bounds, and flicks off surfaces with zero chill. It feels overanimated at times, and while this did occasionally bother us when switching weapons in combat, due to its extended animation, it makes sense given what S-Game is shooting for.
Our hands-on session started from the beginning, which sets up the tone and combat. The thrust of the story starts after an opening showdown between Soul and his brother Zuo Shang, which leaves the former barely alive and his heart pierced. A mysterious healer, called the Flesh Sculptor, saves Soul by replacing his heart with an artificial one – albeit with one key caveat. It only gives Soul 66 days to live, so to keep himself alive, Soul ventures out to find another heart before his time runs out.
In terms of combat, Phantom Blade Zero does a good job of making flashy moves easy to pull off. There’s a standard split between light and heavy attacks, which you create combos with, while your defensive (and some offensive) manoeuvres revolve around the Sha-Chi gauge. This acts as a combined stamina, posture, and skill meter, which drains when you block attacks, if you maintain the guard stance, and when you use heavy Sha-Chi attacks.
At the outset, you might think Phantom Blade Zero’s combat feels button-mashy and simplistic – especially as the blocking window feels generous. However, you’re kept on your toes in various ways. A blue marker will signal an enemy attack that can be parried for extra damage, while red attacks can be countered with dodges. Additionally, if you switch between your two primary weapons on the fly (tied to a cooldown meter), you’ll instantly refill your Sha-Chi gauge, so you’re encouraged to flip between them to maintain the initiative.
Along with your primary arsenal, there are Phantom Edge weapons too – which range from axes, with a very satisfying wind-up screech, bows, and other tools. These deliver powerful blows which have limited uses, but that can be necessary for breaking enemy shields or striking from afar. They also have uses within levels through light Metroidvania elements, where, in one instance, we used the axe to break chains to open up a side quest.
Phantom Blade Zero’s combat is best utilised in its showstopper boss battles. These are flashy spectacles where you juggle blocks, waiting for deflective openings, while rinsing through an enemy’s Sha-Chi gauge to break their guard. They’re elevated by composer Caisheng Bro’s brilliant music, which blends traditional Chinese instruments with electronic dance beats, and, occasionally, bursts of metal to dizzying effect.
Beyond the opening, we were shown two boss battles from later in the game. The first, called Flame, The Lion Dance Grandmaster, spits flames through a giant lion mask, and during one phase, turns the gameplay into something close to a shoot ‘em up, as you bob between the tops of erected wooden beams and blast fireballs at one another. The other, called Bai Chilian, Lady Of The Twin Serpents, is a more traditional combat challenge where your main enemy is her speed, as she swoops from the sky and summons up giant snakes from the ground.
Both these battles are a promising sign of Phantom Blade Zero’s potential to surprise down the line, but through all the extravagant sights and sounds, we were also pleased by how camp the bosses are. One early foe, called The Hunt, is one twirling moustache away from becoming a pantomime villain, as he cackles into the wind and taunts Soul while swinging with his grappling hooks. In another fight, you’re going toe-to-toe with a drunken sword fanatic, who when beaten, gives Soul a sword that applies a ‘Tipsy’ effect for stronger attacks.
When the boss battles offer these highs, we did find ourselves less enamoured with the downtime between. The levels are structured like a Soulslike, with branching paths that loop back around and the equivalent of bonfires for easier fast travel. While there seems like plenty to do – with optional boss fights and side quests – we were always pining for the next major boss encounter. However, the level design might become more interesting beyond the opening two areas we saw.
Aside from the gameplay, the other enticing part of Phantom Blade Zero is its approach to difficulty. There are multiple difficulty levels, but the highest one doesn’t simply up the enemy damage output, it makes their behaviour more aggressive, and for the bosses, it unlocks new moves and makes them more reactive to your attacks.
If you want a bigger challenge, there’s even a 66 Days mode which you unlock after you beat the campaign. This turns the in-game countdown into an actual mechanic and, if you fail to beat the game within 66 days (each death costs you a day), you lose all your progress and have to start again.
In what’s already been a pretty great year for action games, Phantom Blade Zero has a strong shot at eclipsing them all. We do have concerns around whether the level design can live up to the grandiosity and inventiveness of its boss showdowns, but if it does deliver on consistency, this could catapult developer S-Game to the top of China’s new wave.
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