Phantom Blade Zero is an astounding achievement for the action genre. So astounding that I feel pulled to experience everything it has to offer… and that means instead of rolling credits, I’ve been busy completing story-critical side quests and more to get the most complete ending. That’s another way of saying I am enjoying this game very, very much but still need more time to render a final verdict, which is why you’re reading a review-in-progress of Phantom Blade Zero rather than a scored piece.
Though I’m not interested in guesstimating a score right now, I know it will be high because Phantom Blade Zero impresses and then some. It is one of the best action games I’ve ever played, and I’m shocked to be writing that. This is a debut of sorts for developer S-Game, which has dabbled in mobile games and smaller-scale titles; it’s the team’s first triple-A release, and its first game of this kind. This studio is so clearly a dedicated student of the genre, analyzing what works here and what works there in other action greats to create something of its own. It looks forward at what action games can do, can play like, can look like, while looking back at the games before it and understanding why those games – games like Devil May Cry, Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Bayonetta, and just about every other quality action game you can think of – continue to be ones we hold so highly. Should it stick the landing, Phantom Blade Zero will join that echelon of action pedigree.
Protagonist Soul is a quiet, mostly stoic martial arts master who prefers to let his blades (of which there are so, so many) do the talking. The Order he’s sworn his life to betrays him, and, in an effort to right wrongs, he discovers a villainous conspiracy to seize full power of the blood-soaked Chinese martial underground known as Wulin. As a result, puppets, secret sects, powerful god-like creatures, monstrous beasts, and much more prowl Wulin’s various biomes. I haven’t kept count, but there are a massive number of enemies to take down, both standard mob variants and bosses, and the game stays fresh throughout. It’s even fresher when you consider how many weapons you can acquire on Soul’s journey.
Every weapon is wholly unique, like picking up a new character in a fighting game, each with its own moveset and abilities. Upgrading these weapons through various tiers unlocks additional abilities, and you can even Soul Temper weapons to add one final, game-changing ability or perk. A fully upgraded weapon can have a moveset that uses the majority of buttons on your controller. You can do the same with Phantom Edges, special tide-turning weapons with limited uses (before you build up additional charges). Combined with different accessories and medicine types, Phantom Blade Zero offers hundreds, perhaps thousands, of combat kit permutations. You can play as a drunken fighter who switches between sober, tipsy, and drunken states, with his range and damage output changing as a result; you can focus on a bleed build, ripping enemies to shreds with charged attacks that utilize Soul’s own HP to deal extra damage (that can then be earned back with bleed); you can use lightning, wind, fire, and ice to create elemental storms against enemies, and you can use a sword that switches between different elemental states on command as well. You can also just pound enemies to pulp with Phantom Edge fists, too. I’ve struggled to stop using these fists since acquiring them because they’re so satisfying.
Forty-plus hours into Phantom Blade Zero, it feels like I’ve played as dozens of different Souls because I’ve discovered so many build types. S-Game smartly pushes you to try new builds and weapons as you get them, doling out generous upgrade materials and currency; it encourages you to try everything, and the next weapon might just become your new favorite.
Finding these materials (and additional fights) is great fun, too, because Phantom Blade Zero’s various open-area biomes are a genuine joy to explore. You are always rewarded for taking the optional path, and those rewards are always worthwhile. You might find a healthy pile of upgrade materials, or a boss with a weapon you’ll fall in love with. The way buildings, alleys, caves, cliffsides, and other environmental features weave in and out of each other evokes FromSoftware’s architectural design and the subsequent shortcut “aha!” moments.
That said, Phantom Blade Zero is definitively not a Soulslike, though you’d be forgiven for assuming as much given its challenging suite of bosses, interconnected world, and Phantom Bell checkpoints, which are this game’s equivalent of bonfires. However, its challenge is much more surmountable (with various difficulties and accessories to ease parry and dodge timing), and its world progression is materially different. Kill an enemy and it’s dead for good, which to my surprise, adds a sense of worldbuilding I didn’t know I wanted. Progression through this journey feels tangible because I’m actually removing traces of evil with my weapons, traces that don’t respawn when I interact with checkpoints. It’s a nice change of pace that narratively speaks to Soul’s efforts.
Phantom Blade Zero In-Game Screenshots:
Along the way, countless reading materials shed light on Phantom Blade Zero’s intertwining stories, and tracking down the next memory, scroll, or book entry rewards you if you’re interested in the full picture of this Wuxia story. I’d argue the game’s story is its weakest element, but only when compared to the rest of the package. It doesn’t break any new ground narratively, but it provides enough mystery and thrill to keep things moving. And while performances are great, talking to characters is still mostly just two people standing across from each other talking through a new quest. Fortunately, cutscenes pick up the slack with dramatic villains, heartfelt revelations, raw tension, and more.
Production value is high across the board, thanks to incredibly impressive animation and a beautiful rendering of this dark fantasy China. Faces are lifelike, nudging up just shy of the uncanny valley as close-ups reveal porous details, lip quivers, and more, bringing an excellent cast of Chinese performances to life. The English voice acting has its standouts, but Soul’s voice is boring, so I highly recommend the Chinese vocals.
Boss fights draw clear inspiration from Chinese cinema and boast a wondrous sense of awe and scale that only the best in the genre typically offer. There are a ton of bosses, too, with very few repeats (repeats do happen in segmented challenge trials), and it’s impressive to think back on just how many I defeated, and just how many of them delivered a unique fight. I appreciate the checkpoints between boss phases as well. There are so many bosses – nearing 100 or more if I had to guess – and having my progression saved through phases removes some of the repetition I often feel when, say, phase two of a boss continues to kill me and I have to blitz through phase one again and again before taking another stab at it.
That scale and on-screen excitement carry through almost every fight in the game, down to even the simplest mob fights, though these are starting to feel a touch repetitive as I’m barreling toward the game’s end. Soul moves like the world’s greatest martial artist, but your controller inputs make it happen. If you mash the attack button, it looks nice… but if you use each weapon’s prescribed inputs and abilities, Phantom Blade Zero delivers a level of detailed action I’ve seen in few other games. You direct the game’s action, and this lets you turn what might otherwise be just another group of fodder enemies into an electric bout of spectacle.
To say I greatly enjoy this game greatly undersells my feelings – writing this review-in-progress is frustrating because I want to get back to Phantom Blade Zero. I expect to reach credits in the coming days, so please be on the lookout for my final verdict this week.
Related
