Key Preview Takeaways:
- There are a ton of boss fights, they usually’re improbable up to now.
- If you happen to like type, PBZ is oozing it.
- Framerate hitches on a beefy PC are a yellow flag this near launch.
I play so many sweaty motion video games that pit me towards insanely troublesome bosses and require essentially the most tight response instances conceivable that it really takes quite a bit to get me to concentrate lately. I’ll admit that once I first noticed the Phantom Blade Zero gameplay trailers, I didn’t instantly get the hype. In any case, this sword-wielding parry-happy motion sport exists in an period the place we get a minimum of a dozen of those a 12 months. It solely took about 5 minutes with developer S-GAME’s Phantom Blade Zero to see the way it units itself aside, although, with essentially the most clean and satisfying motion since Sekiro, a shocking variety of issues to do and secrets and techniques to seek out whereas exploring every stage, and a narrative that looks as if it’ll go tougher than I anticipated it to. After over six hours bum-rushing my approach by way of the primary leg of the journey, I left completely champing on the bit to play extra, and have now joined the ranks of those that depend this amongst their most anticipated video games of 2026.
The factor that instantly jumped out at me about this finely honed motion sport is simply how a lot it effortlessly oozes type. One cutscene has a personality performed by Donny Yen balancing a child on the sting of his blade whereas he fights off quite a few attackers, one boss encounter concerned me combating (and finally taking over the type of) a kind of superior dancing lions you see in Chinatown on Chinese language New Yr – even the primary jiffy have your character selecting which coronary heart he desires to obtain from a creepy ghost monster man simply to be sure you know that the sport you’re taking part in is steel as hell. It’s truthfully fairly exhausting to make your motion sport with a cool swordmaster protagonist combating off hordes of monsters stand other than all of the others given how frequent this trope is at this level, and but I don’t suppose there was any level in my time taking part in the place I went greater than half an hour with out working into one thing I hadn’t seen earlier than. It’s extremely spectacular stuff!
That’s all with out attending to the fight itself, which is with out query the star of the present right here. I don’t suppose there was even one second of Phantom Blade Zero the place I didn’t really feel like an entire badass. Among the many examples I encountered embody: driving atop a horse-drawn wagon whereas combating off armed pursuers and blocking their gunfire along with your sword, killing off enemies with completely brutal finishers after you’ve damaged their guard meter with repeated parries, and retaining two enemies at bay on both aspect of you by executing an absurdly cool double kick on the similar time.
This sport has an unimaginable knack for making you’re feeling such as you’re the one particular person on this planet who might have pulled one thing like that off, and numerous that’s in how clean the parry mechanics and assault combos are. I stunned myself by how typically I used to be capable of do loopy issues like parry three thrown daggers in fast succession, then observe it up with a collection of assaults that despatched me flipping by way of the air and spinning gracefully as I smacked round enemies prefer it was nothing, despite the fact that most had been no slouches themselves. I’m a little bit of a snob in relation to motion video games, so if the parry home windows aren’t excellent, or the assaults don’t really feel fairly satisfying in some imperceptible approach, I are likely to turn into disenchanted actually rapidly. However Phantom Blade Zero will get so a lot of these tiny particulars excellent, making it extremely exhausting to place down.
Instruments of the Commerce
And if the core methods by which the fight feels satisfying are what pulled me in, then the truth that I used to be capable of expertise it another time from a brand new framing because of the bevy of melee weapons was what held my curiosity. I don’t know what number of weapons this factor has or if all of them are as distinctive as what I received my fingers on on this part of the journey, however nearly each weapon of destruction I attempted out felt extraordinarily bespoke. I received one large, two-handed blade by defeating an elective secret boss that carried me to victory by way of a ton of encounters because of its means to deal an insane quantity of harm, whereas one other boss who was a drunken combating grasp awarded me along with his drunken combating type after his defeat, which allowed me to bob and weave like a champ, transferring unpredictably as I guided my blade telekinetically in entrance of me, even capable of ship it flying on the enemy as a ranged weapon. The variations between these sorts of weapons had been so stark that it took a ton of time to regulate to every one, studying the combos obtainable to me alongside the professionals and cons of utilizing each as I went, and that went an extremely great distance to assist maintain my consideration as I sliced by way of the a centesimal minion enemy in half an hour.
There’s additionally a shocking quantity to improve as you grasp your kung fu abilities, whether or not it’s enhancing weapons by investing supplies in them to enhance their stats and capabilities, or by investing within the numerous paths of the ability tree, which provide every part from energetic talents like one which lets you interrupt your individual assaults to execute a fast dodge out of the way in which, to passive perks like one which restores your Sha-Chi (used to carry out sure particular actions) quicker than regular. For an motion sport that’s principally centered on pulling off sick kills, there’s a shocking quantity of RPG that’s snuck its approach into the combo right here, and I’m all for it. It’s good to have breaks from fight to do some good quaint buildcrafting, even when it didn’t appear to go all that deep from what I noticed.
Who’s the Boss?
Boss fights could make or break a sport like Phantom Blade Zero, so it’s factor that almost each one I performed was an absolute banger. Whereas many of the early fights had been fairly lavatory normal stuff, like a hooded man throwing chained blades at me, or a giant burly monstrosity swinging an ax the scale of a grown man, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than some extra attention-grabbing and authentic concepts took middle stage. In a single struggle I perfected a dance of demise towards a snake girl who swooped by way of the air in a barrage of hilariously convoluted strikes, which put my quick response instances and skill to learn enemy actions to the take a look at. However, the duel towards the lion dancers wasn’t as chaotic, since many of the assaults had been slower and pretty telegraphed, however the problem lied in having to provide you with artistic methods to get across the lion masks’s nigh-impenetrable armor, which I finally realized the trick to throwing this fiery foe off its stability that I received’t spoil right here. I’d actually like to present extra particular examples right here, besides developer S-GAME has requested me to not point out a number of the cool bosses I fought in order to not spoil too a lot of them, so that you’ll simply need to take my phrase that there’s some fairly neat stuff in there.
Talking of boss fights, a lot has been fabricated from Donnie Yen’s function in Phantom Blade Zero because the mysterious Mó Yuan, and with good cause – this man is freaking Ip Man, in spite of everything! The dude someway managed to be the best man in a Star Wars film for crying out loud!. Whereas I undoubtedly received’t go into particulars on the way in which his character weaves his approach into the story or the character of those fights, I’ll say that I used to be fairly stunned by how this element of the journey takes form. Dealing with this clearly formidable foe didn’t go down the way in which I assumed it could, and working into him a number of instances over the course of my playtime was undoubtedly a spotlight, and featured a number of the downright coolest animations I’ve seen in an motion sport in a really very long time.
Densely Packed
If you’re not laying the smack down along with your fists of fury towards beefy bosses, you’ll be combating throughout ranges which have a shocking quantity of secrets and techniques to find, aspect quests to finish, and fully missable areas to discover. In the middle of my demo, I discovered weapons and devices that others on the preview occasion reported not encountering in any respect, found one of many coolest bosses from my session that was totally elective, and bumped into hidden areas stuffed with loot to say, like a creepy underground fortress that I’d missed till I did a bunch of backtracking. Phantom Blade Zero’s attention-grabbing aesthetic, which mixes industrial design with conventional wuxia parts, makes for some fairly attention-grabbing and distinctive areas, like one which featured an enormous manufacturing facility of some sort nestled into the middle of a quiet village within the mountains. The sidequests I accomplished had been principally brief errands to journey to completely different components of the map and kill issues or accumulate gadgets, so largely busywork that fleshed out a little bit of story with a aspect character whereas exposing you to some extra fight encounters with some scrub minions. But it surely additionally gave me extra causes to cease and scent the roses, discover areas I may need in any other case missed, and customarily give me further stuff to do in a world I used to be having fun with being in.
One space I didn’t get sufficient publicity to for me to kind an opinion on simply but is the story. The premise is fairly simple, with the protagonist solely having 66 days to reside who units out on a quest to treatment himself earlier than it’s too late and get revenge towards his enemies – fairly regular stuff for this style. And whereas I noticed the opening cutscenes and some bits and items of the story within the early hours, it was principally setup stuff that I’d describe as ok however not particularly attention-grabbing. I didn’t actually get to see lots of the huge story beats develop past the primary act’s setup, although, so it stays to be seen if there will probably be payoff. I can a minimum of say that each one the stuff I realized about Donnie Yen’s character and his relationship to the protagonist made me suppose that perhaps the story might ship, however it’s nonetheless anybody’s guess.
Final Hurdle
Clearly, my time with Phantom Blade Zero was overwhelmingly constructive, they usually actually received me over as somebody who will certainly be taking part in this sport, but when there’s one space I’m a bit nervous about it’s technical efficiency. Clearly the construct I performed wasn’t last, and S-GAME informed me that the majority of their focus within the remaining weeks main as much as launch is usually round optimization, however it’s price shouting out that I skilled rare however pretty extreme framerate drops all through the course of my demo. I used to be taking part in on a decently highly effective PC, so am notably curious how this one will look and run on PS5, which is the one console PBZ is debuting on on the finish of this month. In any case, it’s one thing I’ll be maintaining a tally of nearer to launch, as a result of superior video games popping out the gates with unlucky technical hiccups is disappointingly frequent lately.c
After half a day taking part in Phantom Blade Zero, it’s gone from principally not on my radar to to the highest of my wishlist this fall, and I actually can’t wait to dive again in later this month to see if it may possibly ship past these first handful of hours. At the very least for now, although, nearly every part I’ve seen and performed has made me extra satisfied that that is going to be one of many coolest motion video games of 2026.
When you’re right here, take a look at these current previews of different huge upcoming video games we have checked out lately!
Travis Northup is a author for IGN. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and skim his games coverage here.