Phantom Blade Zero preview – kung fu soulslike action

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, I wish the soulslike or soulsbourne games were easier so that I could enjoy the story and see what my friends are talking about?’ Well first off, if that’s your first thought, then get good; secondly, try playing the game with friends to have them pull the major workload.

If that still isn’t working then you might want to try a different game and a different genre. At Summer Game Fest, S-GAME showed off their upcoming game Phantom Blade Zero (Phantom Blade 0).

Despite having similar controls and visual style, Phantom Blade Zero has a different style of gameplay called Kungfu Punk. Rather than having to continuously roll and evade like in soulslike games, Kungfu Punk relies on constant attacking, with occasional parrying and rolling.

Phantom Blade Zero Demo

Sitting down at the demo, I was not quite sure what to expect. As a fan of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring, the visual aesthetic of the game enticed us. Once we had the controller in our hands, it was off to the races.

How would we slay the enemy? How would Phantom Blade Zero compare to other soulsbourne games? At first, the gameplay felt very similar.

Yes, there were some subtle differences however the core gameplay itself was similar. Dodging enemy attacks felt easier and there seemed like there were more openings available to kill enemies. Here’s some gameplay from me playing the game:

These openings are how S-GAME differentiates itself from soulsbourne games and why it calls its type of game Kungfu-punk. Rather than constantly rolling and trying to avoid enemy attacks, we were encouraged to take the openings, swing away, and avoid when it was it was fully necessary.

The demo started out by teaching us the controls through the tutorial. Once we beat up the tutorial dummy enough after learning the controls, we had to dispatch the Iron Mask Killer; this fight was fairly simple and after completing it we did a fun celebration with our weapons.

In the first boss fight, we were against Tia Sha the Frenzy. By countering his attacks, we were able to pull off quick critical attacks. Once our momentum meter was charged, we were able to shoot the Lion cannon off to deal a ton of AOE damage.

The third mini-boss fight was against Commander Cleave; he would let out slashes through the air but this attack would leave him open for a counterattack. The final boss was by far the most difficult.

In the dilapidated building, we fought against Huangxing, the Sunken Pillar of Kunhun. In this fight, the enemy utilized a whip that would take your head off if you made the wrong move; this could happen when he threw it up in the air or as he swung it around.

In this fight, there was a variety of ways to dodge the attacks, by utilizing obstacles like running up the nearby pillars we could avoid the whip and jump attack him. At one point, we were able to pull out a flamethrower and burn him.

Takeaways

Playing S-GAME’s Phantom Blade Zero felt like what I expected Dark Souls to feel like before playing it. There was a balance to the combat where the game was challenging but fair.

I didn’t go what the F just happened. Yes, you could die if you weren’t careful but you very easily could kill all the enemies in an area without taking damage. Observing rather than dodging was the way to win.

The game’s environment reminds us of a blend of Chinese and Japanese traditional styles before civilizations took over. In fact, the visual aesthetic reminded us of the opening of the Mortal Kombat movie.

Phantom Blade Zero is in development for Windows PC and PlayStation 5, though it has no release date set.