Phantom Blade Zero looks to carve out its own space among sword-slashing action games. It blends simple controls and intense parries with stylish wuxia animations to create one of the most anticipated non-GTA 6 games of the fall release calendar. I recently got to play around four hours of Phantom Blade Zero on Windows PC at a preview event hosted by developer S-Game in Beijing, China, and experienced the game’s unique take on melee action.
I played from the very beginning of the game until the end of its first chapter. Afterward, I was plopped into two separate boss fights, defeating one and losing against the other. Trading blows with Phantom Blade Zero’s bosses was certainly the highlight of my time with S-Game’s ambitious martial arts game, though the moment-to-moment action in between those boss fights didn’t reach the same highs.
John Wick meets Wuxia
I played as Soul, an assassin being hounded by members of The Order, a shadowy organization he used to work for. Maybe it was the jet lag after a 16.5-hour flight, but I didn’t pick up on that context in the preview; I learned Soul was a John Wick-style assassin on the run when director Soulframe Liang mentioned it during a roundtable interview following the gameplay session.
Soul gets mortally wounded fighting his childhood BFF Zuo Shang, and both dudes stab each other through the heart. Don’t worry, Soul doesn’t die (yet) — a creepy little guy called the Flesh Sculptor hooks him up with a new heart, but it’ll only last 66 days. Zuo Shang also survives, and now Souls sets off on an action-packed adventure to presumably find and battle his old friend once and for all.
Nothing about the story really grabbed me in these opening hours, but, to be frank, the stories of action games like Black Myth: Wukong, Stellar Blade, and Beast of Reincarnation didn’t grab me much either, and I still put dozens of hours into those games. The real crux of Phantom Blade Zero’s appeal is its combat, which, after the preview session, I look forward to experiencing in full.
‘A playable kung fu movie’
S-Game’s stated goal is to bring Chinese martial arts to life through Phantom Blade Zero’s combat. Soulframe wanted to translate the cinema of wuxia films to action-packed gameplay and to “create a playable kung fu movie.” S-Game has recruited movie star and martial artist Donnie Yen to help bring its vision to life as a creative consultant, and he’s even playing and mo-caping a character in the game.
Yen leads a team of about 15-20 stunt performers and helps choreograph the action, which is full of the stuntmen performing lightning-fast choreography that sometimes involves wirework stunts, like in wuxia movies. Kenji Tanigaki — best known for directing The Furious, widely considered the best action movie of the year — is a part of Yen’s team as an action director.
With Yen, Tanigaki, and more martial arts masters on board, S-Game succeeds in its goal, as every animation has an over-the-top flourish. Soul won’t just advance on an enemy and strike, but whirl his sword around, air trials following it, with a certain panache as he attacks. He won’t just climb up a ledge, but dramatically leap upward and do a little spinny spin to land. Everything about Phantom Blade Zero’s style is so extra, which lends the game a certain charm, even when frightening monster enemies are barreling down upon you.
While Phantom Blade Zero nails the look of kung fu, at the end of the day I’m still just mashing Square and Triangle, cool animation or not. The more I play, the more I discover the combat’s depth, however. Key to that depth is Soul’s Sha-chi meter, which is like a stamina meter for his most powerful combos.
In an early boss fight, I learn just how crucial Sha-chi is to the combat. Switching weapons refills the meter, meaning I can exhaust Soul’s Sha-chi with devastating attacks, switch to my other equipped weapon, and keep the party going with a refilled Sha-chi meter. It’s a lot like discovering how transforming your trick weapon mid-combo in Bloodborne can unleash a heavy blow.
Boss battles are certainly the highlight of Phantom Blade Zero. Though the cadence of them isn’t as quick as in a game like Black Myth Wukong (which feels more like a boss rush game at times), they still come fast and furious. The combat really shines in tough boss battles, whereas encounters with regular enemies can feel too paint-by-numbers and end too quickly. I lost count of just how many bosses I tackled in the preview, from an enemy on a horse-drawn carriage to a foe who conjures additional arms mid-battle, essentially becoming a sickle-wielding General Grievous.
The session concluded with two later-game boss battles, both of which were quite tough. The first was against a woman who flitted on the air and summoned what looked like paper mache dragons from the ground. (I was too busy trying not to die to admire their design.) She was a challenge, and had two phases. Thankfully, an ally joined in for the second phase, and I’m hopeful more boss fights in Phantom Blade Zero will have NPCs fighting alongside Soul. I always enjoy having a partner along for the ride.
I only got one attempt at the second boss fight due to time constraints on my play session, but it had some of the most notable sequences in Phantom Blade Zero I saw. I fought against two dancers controlling a lion head puppet; after the first was defeated, the second summoned little enemies, each with their own lion heads. I defeated them, and picked up one of their lion heads to shoot fire at the boss while dodging his blasts and fire by jumping from one raised pole to another. It was immensely exciting, and made me wonder what other creative fights are up S-Game’s sleeve. (You can watch a full fight against this boss at the end of August’s Phantom Blade Zero State of Play.)
Everything else you need to know about Phantom Blade Zero
Now that the September flood of new releases has passed, Phantom Blade Zero might be the biggest upcoming game for the rest of 2026 that’s not about committing crime in Fake Florida. There’s a lot to unpack from the game still, so let’s break down what’s left to learn about S-Game’s playable martial arts movie.
- Phantom Blade Zero will be about 35-40 hours long for players who are experienced with action games. Soulframe said the density of the experience is more important than its breadth.
- More than 30 weapons will be available with 20 more Phantom Edges, which are more akin to special attacks than usable weapons.
- Phantom Blade Zero is a largely linear game, but there are some light Metroidvania elements. Some Phantom Edges will be used in traversal and allow Soul to explore previously inaccessible areas.
- Difficulty options! Phantom Blade Zero will feature three difficulty options to start — your expected easy, medium, and hard. They can be changed at any time. However…
- If you lower the difficulty to easy mode, you can’t go back up. I found this out the hard way during a boss fight I just wanted to clear so I could continue the demo, and had to play the rest of the way on Phantom Blade Zero’s lowest difficulty.
- An additional 66 Days difficulty can be unlocked. Each time Soul dies, you lose a day until there are none left.
- It’s not clear how much Soul’s in-game 66 days will matter. After one cutscene, the days count reduced by one, but I’m not sure what significance this has outside of Soul getting one step closer to death. On regular difficulties, I don’t expect Soul’s 66 days to manifest as a fundamental mechanic (like in The Blood of Dawnwalker), though it does appear to serve a narrative purpose of some sort.
- Boss fights are tough, but, unlike in a FromSoftware Soulslike, there are checkpoints between phases. If you defeat a boss’ first phase but falter in the second, you can tackle the fight from the midway point on your next attempt.
Phantom Blade Zero will be released Oct. 29 for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.
S-Game provided Polygon’s flight and hotel for purposes of attending this preview. Read more about Polygon’s travel and ethics policy here.