With video games like Pragmata, 007 First Mild, Beast of Reincarnation, and Onimusha: Approach of the Sword, I’ve spent a lot of 2026 fascinated with what makes an excellent motion recreation. Is it in regards to the problem of performing extraordinary feats on the display screen? Is it about preventing, and successful, excruciating battles towards enemies that really feel mathematically not possible to beat? Is it nearly energy fantasy?
There’s advantage in tough video games that push us to grasp combos and boss fights, however in recent times, these kinds of video games have turn into hegemonic. That is why developer S-Sport’s Phantom Blade Zero shocked me. Not like lots of its contemporaries, Phantom Blade Zero just isn’t extra excited by requiring gamers to attain the martial prowess of kung-fu masters with their controllers than it’s in celebrating martial arts as a spectacle. Sadly, the sport pushes this need too far for its personal good.
A story as outdated as time
On the middle of Phantom Blade Zero, out Oct. 29 for PlayStation 5 and Home windows PC, there’s Soul, the somber and mysterious protagonist, whose most important aim is to discover a method to survive earlier than his magically inserted synthetic coronary heart stops working. He has solely 66 days to perform this aim. The protagonist is a legendary swordmaster and a former member of the Order, a company that’s influential within the Wilun. Like many different warriors, he makes use of and manipulates Sha-Chi, and has constantly fought the Maskwalkers.
That every one sounds cool, proper? Did I perceive what all these phrases meant after I began taking part in the sport? Nope! Did I really feel overwhelmed? Positive did!
The Order, Wilun, Sha-Chi, and Maskwalkers have been simply a number of the phrases I encountered within the first hours of the sport, with little context to offer them coloration or form. At first, I felt annoyed that I did not actually perceive what was taking place and why the cool-looking edgelord warrior (I imply, his title is “Soul!”) was doing no matter he was doing. However then I gave in, and simply let the sport information me.
You see, Phantom Blade Zero presents a story construction that I’ve seen in different Chinese language productions, from donghuas like Lord of Mysteries to novels like Mo Dao Zu Shi. As with these, in Phantom Blade Zero, there’s little to no exposition. Scenes aren’t created with the only goal of introducing ideas or character backstories, neither is dialogue structured to show us key phrases. Our understanding in regards to the world and characters is supposed to steadily develop because the story unfolds. To get pleasure from a narrative like Phantom Blade Zero‘s is to belief the method and resist the need to have each component completely defined beforehand.
Though Phantom Blade Zero does begin specializing in Soul’s journey of survival, the story expands to turn into a bigger and extra advanced story of world-changing conspiracies. Regardless of its epic proportions, although, the story solely had one or two moments that emotionally affected me. More often than not, I used to be struck extra by what was taking place to the common individuals residing in it world — just like the on a regular basis troopers making an attempt to outlive in an outpost who, in a while, you will need to kill, since they’ve became monsters.
Then again, studying extra about Soul’s story made the explanation behind his journey clear to me, however did not essentially make him extra fascinating. He is a personality chasing revenge and redemption, sure by his loyalty and honor, but cannot escape his personal two-dimensional id. But when there’s a silver lining to the blandness of Soul’s persona, it’s that it offers extra room for Phantom Blade Zero’s engaging worldbuilding to shine by means of.
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Picture: S-Sport by way of Polygon -
As I navigated the sport’s maps and accomplished the quests, I needed to management my very own nervousness every time a brand new time period was tossed at me with no rationalization, and as an alternative let every dialogue with NPCs, notes left by long-dead characters, and flashbacks weave a coherent story. Ultimately, I understood the charming mixture of conventional Chinese language fantasy components with steampunk that S-Sport created. Stunning maps the place nature and towers exhaling streams of scalding steam coexist.
Phantom Blade Zero‘s world is a spot the place you struggle warriors became cyborgs who’ve undergone procedures to enhance their abilities and their capacity to govern the magical vitality Sha-Chi. It’s a spot the place energy, honor, and treachery are intertwined. And finally, it’s a spot the place, whatever the diploma of widespread struggling, there are good individuals making an attempt to do good issues.
Throughout my time with Phantom Blade Zero, I did not expertise a mindblowing story. Nevertheless, by giving it the prospect to inform its story by itself phrases, I did discover a honest recreation with an enchanting, distinctive fiction. That’s all S-Sport wanted because the backdrop for the primary attraction.
A real martial arts recreation
Phantom Blade Zero is aiming for the celebrities in terms of being an motion recreation. When the sport was revealed, S-Sport founder Soulframe Liang defined that the group needed to make a recreation about “the smooth, breathtaking strikes in kung fu motion pictures again within the Nineteen Nineties.” To realize that, S-Sport made the choice to stability unrestrained assault sequences from hack-and-slash motion video games by including stamina-dependent robust assaults and defensive strikes.
Throughout fight, you intertwine regular and heavy assaults, as solely the latter price stamina (which is represented in Soul’s Sha-Chi bar). All weapons have combos that contain utilizing a sequence of heavy assaults, forcing you to make use of stamina and slowing down the tempo a bit. To defend your self, you may dodge assaults, however parrying is your finest defensive method, because it depletes enemies’ Sha-Chi bars. You can too use a weapon’s particular assault or distinctive strikes of one among your geared up secondary weapons.
The Sha-Chi bar creates an fascinating rhythm in battle, however finally ends up being contradictory to the thought of “smooth, breathtaking” motion. In follow, it additionally feels fairly ineffective on account of an vital mechanic within the recreation: weapon swapping. You’ll be able to equip two totally different main weapons and you’ll swap them in the course of the struggle. You’ll be able to’t swap them at on a regular basis, as there is a quick cooldown (which you’ll be able to cut back even additional with abilities), however if you do, you get better your whole Sha-Chi bar.
In addition to, as you progress within the marketing campaign and discover the maps, you will see that particular gadgets that enhance Soul’s Sha-Chi along with talismans that additionally enhance the bar’s recharge price. After the primary ten hours, I completely stopped taking note of my stamina, focusing as an alternative on overwhelming enemies with a number of assaults. The presence of Phantom Blade Zero‘s stamina bar feels nearly as if S-Sport added it merely to verify off an merchandise from the record of design components which have turn into a part of the style in recent times.
Managing all a lot of these weapons and assaults alongside parrying and dodging would possibly look like an excessive amount of to deal with, however on the finish of the day, it just about boils all the way down to always urgent the identical 4 buttons, with slight variations. The gameplay loop in Phantom Blade Zero is satisfying, however in sensible phrases, it’s fairly repetitive. There are not any advanced combos of instructions required to unleash a robust combo, and all of the cool-looking finishers are triggered by urgent a single button. Fight would turn into repetitive, frankly, if not for the attractive preventing strikes that unfold everytime you press the precise button, and for the pace at which all the pieces occurs.
From easy sequences with the sword to trendy strikes the place Soul stretches out an arm and a leg to hit two enemies concurrently (love that one), the fight in Phantom Blade Zero is a feast for anybody who enjoys choreographed fights. S-Sport’s effort to make a top-tier Wuxia recreation is obvious: actor Donnie Yen, identified for his work in motion pictures like Ip Man, is a part of the venture as a artistic advisor and performs one of many recreation’s characters, whereas Kenji Tanigaki, who directed this yr’s finest motion film, The Livid, additionally labored on the sport. I grew up watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Jet Li’s Hero, studying to like the contrasting struggle scenes the place the sound of heavy metallic weapons contrasted feather-light actions of the fighter’s our bodies. That is precisely the type of expertise that S-Sport achieved in Phantom Blade Zero.
Soul’s physique strikes as if it has a script, a pre-determined sequence of steps to comply with not just for the sake of efficiency however for expressing magnificence too. He rapidly slashes enemies with double swords, or rotates within the air whereas holding their arms to organize for a last blow. The 30 totally different main weapons and 25 secondary ones, starting from lengthy spears to a dragon head that releases a stream of water, provide a variety of sequences to execute, creating new scenes that make preventing recent, as if I used to be watching a brand new film each time I examined out a special weapon. The straightforward normal-attack-plus-heavy-attack combos are reworked into a visible spectacle of martial arts — one which unfolds so rapidly and seamlessly that I used to be at all times left desirous to struggle the subsequent enemy to see extra of these strikes.
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Picture: S-Sport by way of Polygon -
Picture: S-Sport by way of Polygon -
Picture: S-Sport by way of Polygon
Phantom Blade Zero completely captures the that means of martial arts by chasing extra the inventive side of the preventing types and visible poetry of the fantastical battles staged in Wuxia motion pictures. Many latest motion video games, like Ninja Gaiden 4 and Onimusha: Approach of the Sword, attempt to translate the motion portrayed on the display screen to the controllers in-hand, changing into video games with excessive ability ceilings that require tough and complicated combos of buttons, in addition to fast reflexes to dodge and parry lengthy sequences of assaults. Phantom Blade Zero is on the alternative facet of the spectrum, the place easy instructions are prioritized in an effort to enable gamers to get pleasure from what is going on on the display screen.
Let me assist create the present
S-Sport’s ambition with Phantom Blade Zero‘s fight has led it to strive making it accessible to everybody, which is admirable, however on the similar time, it didn’t stability encounters to nonetheless really feel difficult. Whereas I by no means felt bored with preventing enemies, I not often discovered myself ready the place I used to be about to cry for assist, as I did with some bosses in Onimusha.
Phantom Blade Zero is much from a simple recreation, although. Its boss fights particularly might be laborious and actually irritating, particularly the early ones, earlier than you get a full grasp on its controls and are nonetheless working with a restricted gear package. I keep in mind preventing Jing Ye, the Outlaw, who appeared like a daily bandit however kicked my ass, making me bleed with a couple of strikes of his defend. I needed to take a couple of minutes earlier than giving that struggle one other strive. Screw you, Jing Ye.
Though S-Sport designed robust and punitive bosses, it additionally made positive to supply sufficient instruments to assist gamers face them — so many who it undermined the sport’s most vital fights. In Phantom Blade Zero, there are 4 problem choices, however it would not take a lot to reduce the problem of a struggle with out altering the settings. As you discover its varied maps, full facet quests, and open chests, you’ll discover talismans that may both shield you from particular traits of sure bosses or outright exploit their weaknesses. On the similar time, the sheer size of Phantom Blade’s weapons record makes it a incontrovertible fact that a couple of are merely stronger than the remainder. I by no means discovered an excellent purpose to cease utilizing the Scarlet Wraithblade, which creates a area of lilies that drains enemies’ HP and Sha-Chi, regardless that I bought it within the first space.
Even the sport’s battle system permits room to cut back fights to easy instructions, because of some clearly telegraphed indicators of when you need to defend an assault. You’ll be able to both parry or dodge enemies’ common assaults, however they are going to typically carry out particular assaults marked by purple and blue flashes. The previous signifies that your solely possibility is to dodge, whereas the second indicators that the assault ought to be parried. Touchdown the precise defensive transfer on the proper time rewards you with not solely a cool animation but additionally with the elimination of a substantial chunk of the enemy’s Sha-Chi bar or a chance to slide behind the enemy.
Whereas I perceive how these visible cues make the sport extra accessible, in addition they situation gamers to attend for them and reply accordingly. They make sure that the spectacles proceed, and that the movement of the fights by no means ceases. On the similar time, this technique shuts down the facility fantasy I’ve when preventing epic enemies. On a couple of event, I discovered myself simply avoiding their assaults, leaving fields of lilies beneath them, and ready for the colourful flashes to point out up so I might rating a simple kill. Boss fights find yourself feeling extra like a staged play, one the place I’ve a job to play of simply urgent a button as an alternative of being actively appearing to make the present occur. Add talismans that may enhance elemental protection to as much as 60% or the parry and dodge home windows, and a weapon that always reduces enemies’ stamina to this questionably inflexible battle design, and you’ve got the recipe for a irritating expertise the place what was already a simple struggle turns into a bland sequence of directions.
There are few joys like watching an excellent Wuxia film play out on display screen — an expertise that S-Sport recreated in Phantom Blade Zero by making each assault and dodge appear like the kung-fu movies of outdated. Even so, as dazzling as Phantom Blade Zero’s aesthetics are, it finally lacks placing belief within the participant to behave out these talents, minimizing the energetic nature of the sport. S-Sport exhibits that motion video games can focus extra on the humanities, and fewer within the martial facet of preventing sequences. It does, nonetheless, neglect an vital side of Wuxia motion pictures. The concept is to persuade the viewers that these aren’t really actors held within the air by wires, however reasonably that they’re god-like beings doing not possible feats. For many of Phantom Blade Zero, I believed in its extraordinary story — till the wires began to interrupt, breaking the spell with them.