Tom is an professional in all issues Fortnite or the most recent RPG launch, however might be spending an excessive amount of time on the most recent EA FC recreation.
Printed: October 9, 2026
Once I briefly performed Phantom Blade Zero at Summer time Sport Fest earlier this yr, the crew at S-Sport advised me that they’d solely proven content material from aspect quests as much as that time, and that they wished to maintain a lot of the story quests a shock for when the time was proper. As soon as it was revealed that my six-hour hands-on with the sport throughout a go to to Beijing could be proper from the beginning of the sport, giving me freedom to do no matter I wished within the first chapter, I could not wait to see what was in retailer.
A number of hours later, I used to be blown away by the type, cinematic aptitude, intricate design, and deep fight. I actually assume Phantom Blade Zero is shaping as much as be the following enormous motion recreation hit. A title on the extent of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which individuals will proceed to talk about for the following 5 years and past.
You play as Soul, previously one of the feared fighters within the area, as he fights to try to save the underworld of the Wulin. Nonetheless, he solely has sixty-six days to dwell, because of the mysterious witch-like character known as the Flesh Sculptor changing his coronary heart with a man-made one.
Fight is core to the sport’s type. S-Sport wished to deliver its imaginative and prescient of ‘kung-fu punk’ to actuality, combining the standard motion of the martial artwork with fashionable type. I spoke to Phantom Blade Zero’s Director, Soulframe, about how the thought of Kung-Fu Punk got here to be, and it is one thing he is had in thoughts for a very long time. “Once I was in undergrad faculty, I studied structure [at Yale], so I began the story with some conventional Chinese language Wuxia tradition blended with some pop cultures like cyberpunk. However we did not have the time period kung fu punk again then. We simply wished to make one thing cool, however I used to be in school at that second, so after my commencement, I got here again to China, after which tried to make one thing severe.”
How fluid the motion is is spectacular. Soul and his enemies soar, twist, and flip round throughout fights, creating a few of the most cinematic motion I’ve ever performed. You may’t see the sides of the animations, with every motion flowing into the following.
S-Sport has additionally managed to make sure that additional aptitude would not make the sport muddled, both. Even with the motion heightened, you continue to really feel in command of Soul, attacking and blocking on the proper time with out the kung-fu getting in the best way. Simply roaming the world, taking out the fodder enemies feels immensely satisfying.
“We wished to make everybody really feel prefer it’s actually in a kung-fu film. It is a playable kung fu film, and you aren’t taking part in a recreation by way of the gamepad. You’re really preventing the enemies,” Soulframe stated to me, and you’ll really feel that while you play. The cinematic type is on the centre of all the pieces, with out overwhelming you to the purpose that it would not really feel good.
I even visited S-Sport’s movement seize studio in Shanghai to see how they really created the motion, and also you virtually should see it to imagine it. Kung-fu consultants fly across the room, connected to wires, with duplicate weapons in hand. They leap and flip between assaults, meticulously creating what you will play within the recreation. How shut the motion you see in-game and what the movement seize crew enacts is wildly comparable. There’s been an actual intent from S-Sport to make sure that the martial arts facet of Phantom Blade Zero is genuine, and it is managed it. They even strapped some journalists into the rigging and had them flipping across the studio, seeing first-hand how they introduced the motion into the sport.
The construction of Phantom Blade Zero is a little bit exhausting to elucidate, too. Whereas it is not a soulslike, and S-Sport would not think about it to be one, it shares so much with the style that FromSoftware pioneered. There are bells to ring to avoid wasting your progress, a significant parrying facet to the fight, and managers galore, each alongside the principle path and hidden world wide.
And people bosses are unbelievable for essentially the most half. Throughout a number of phases, typically on drastically altering arenas, it’s good to use all the pieces you have realized to beat them. Bosses are typically important issue spikes as you progress, requiring you to make use of weapons you have discovered and abilities you have realized within the previous quests.
I do not need to destroy any of the bosses themselves, because the cinematic aptitude and scale are unbelievable, however they’re a few of the most spectacular issues I’ve seen in an motion recreation. The tempo of the fight is intense, placing lots of emphasis in your motion, parrying skill, and understanding of enemy actions.
Whether or not you are leaping between wood posts to keep away from balls of fireside, racing round a beautiful meadow, or splashing round within the mud, the fights really feel unbelievable, and so they look gorgeous. I confronted a boss with a weapon that brought about bleed, so I wanted to time my assaults rigorously, whereas the opposite wielded a series sickle that allowed them to assault from vary. No two boss fights appear to be the identical in Phantom Blade Zero; every of them boasts its personal theme, type, and core mechanic. You may virtually really feel S-Sport exhibiting off how cinematic they’ll make a single boss combat.
There was just one occasion the place I discovered that the steadiness between aesthetics felt a little bit bit off. One boss was a lot sooner than me, disappearing and reappearing round an enormous stage so often that I could not sustain. For essentially the most half, Phantom Blade Zero ensures you’re feeling in command of a combat, and it is all the way down to you the way it goes. With the combat in query, although, it felt like I used to be being dragged round by the sport, scrambling for a foothold.
The soundtrack solely serves to raise the majesty, scale, and tone of every boss combat. For instance, one occasion, which you have seen in trailers and State of Play showcases, is throughout three phases, every with its personal solely totally different rating. I spoke to the sport’s composer, Cashieng Bo, about that, and the way he ensured the music each stood out and labored within the particular person combat. “At first I advised myself, okay, so the melody wants to remain the identical, however the type, the music style needs to be utterly totally different. So, piano solo, classical quartet, however with the Chinese language flute on high of it so it nonetheless seems like a Chinese language recreation, and heavy metallic.”. Dealing with a boss with heavy metallic or elegant piano music taking part in, with a constant melody, is a singular and unbelievable expertise. I am unable to wait to see how the fights develop after the sport’s first chapter. I can solely think about how spectacular they’re going to be.
Phantom Blade Zero additionally does an important job of conserving the motion feeling recent. Boasting 30 totally different weapons, most of that are picked up from the bosses you defeat, there’s so much to study and experiment with. The weapons are fascinatingly distinctive, too; they are not simply larger or smaller variations of the identical sword. In a single combat, I used The Fanatic’s Damaged Blade, which has a particular skill known as Tipsy. In the event you activate it, you turn out to be drunk, which supplies you stronger flying sword assaults and computerized evasion, however restricts your motion and would not allow you to block usually.
It did not match with my playstyle; the dearth of blocking noticed my well being deplete too shortly, however it’s nice to see weapons which can be attention-grabbing but nonetheless make sense within the fantasy world. Plenty of them have equally distinctive traits too, providing you with execs and cons that it’s good to think about on a fight-by-fight foundation. Some will make sense and a few will not in each encounter, which forces you to experiment.
It was attention-grabbing to listen to Soulframe discuss in regards to the means of designing these weapons and ensuring they match on the planet. I visited his workplace in S-Sport’s Beijing base, the place tens of sword prototypes had been scattered on the ground. Swords with a secret second blade, huge scythes, wobbly swords, and extra had been among the many concepts that did and did not make it into the ultimate recreation.
After “creating an expertise and visible for kung fu punk,” S advised me, ” I had a brief assembly with our kung fu masters and stunt actors to ask how one can play with this weapon. What will likely be your unique means and conventional approach to play with it? So they may give us some pictures and actions, after which ranging from there, we’ve just about built-in pictures in our minds. In my thoughts, this factor may be expressed this manner in a standard means, after which I begin to assume, okay, what fantasy can I add to this weapon?” That steadiness of conventional kung-fu type with no matter fantasy the crew at S-Sport can think about is nice. It is genuine however unique in a means few video games are.
None of that originality could be efficient if Phantom Blade Zero wasn’t polished and cinematic. From the primary few moments, the sport is spectacular. The extent of element, care, and intention that is put into each cutscene, location, and motion is obvious. Engrossing the participant in all the pieces that is occurring is clearly the intention right here, and no facet has been forgotten. S-Sport has additionally ensured they don’t seem to be overwhelming everybody with lore, requiring information of Chinese language tales from a whole bunch of years in the past. “We simply need to make it cool and comprehensible to everybody,” Soulframe stated, which will likely be music to lots of gamers’ ears.
Whereas there’s a fairly apparent central path, exploration is a giant a part of what you will be doing. You will backtrack to make use of abilities and weapons you have discovered, combat bosses hidden in caves off the crushed path, and uncover whole areas you could by no means have discovered in any other case. Trying round a bit is fantastic for the world-building, and a side of the sport I did not count on exploration to be so central to the expertise.
Having solely performed the early hours of the sport, one thing Soulframe stated to me stood out. “Our world is unique and loopy. As you unfold the sport, you will note increasingly loopy stuff and unusual stuff occurring, till you all of the sudden see these enormous steam towers in entrance of you.” The primary 5 hours are spectacular, deep, and lots of enjoyable, so I can solely think about what’s going to occur later within the recreation. Creating an genuine but unique work is clearly vital to Soulframe and everybody else at S-Sport, and it looks like they’ve made one thing particular. Phantom Blade Zero is shaping as much as be an outstanding motion recreation – one we’ll be speaking about for a very long time to return.
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