Phantom Blade Zero preview – souls-like kung-fu action

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, I wish the Soulslike or Soulsbourne games were easier so I could enjoy the story and see what my friends are talking about?” Well, first of all, if that’s your first thought, then be good; second, try playing the game with friends so they do the brunt of the work.

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

Despite similar controls and visual design, Phantom Blade Zero has a different playstyle called Kungfu Punk. Instead of having to constantly roll and dodge like in Soulslike games, Kungfu Punk relies on constant attacking with the occasional parry and roll.

Phantom Blade Zero Demo

When I sat down to play the demo, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As a fan of Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden RingThe game’s visual aesthetics seduced us. As soon as we held the controller in our hands, we were hooked.

How would we defeat the enemy? How would Phantom Blade Zero with other Soulsbourne games? At first, the gameplay felt very similar.

Yes, there were some subtle differences, but the basic gameplay itself was similar. Dodging enemy attacks felt easier and there seemed to be more ways to kill enemies. Here’s some gameplay from me playing:

These openings are what sets S-GAME apart from Soulsbourne games and why it calls its style of game Kungfu Punk. Instead of constantly rolling and trying to dodge enemy attacks, we were encouraged to take advantage of the openings, slash away and dodge when absolutely necessary.

The demo started with us learning the controls in the tutorial. After beating up the tutorial dummy enough after learning the controls, we had to take down the Iron Mask Killer. This fight was pretty easy and after we finished it, we celebrated with our weapons.

The first boss fight pitted us against Tia Sha the Frenzy. By countering his attacks we were able to perform quick critical attacks. Once our momentum meter was charged we were able to fire the Lion Cannon and deal a ton of area damage.

The third mini-boss fight was against Commander Cleave; he threw slashes through the air, but this attack left him vulnerable to a counterattack. The final boss was by far the most difficult.

In the ruined building, we fought against Huangxing, the Sunken Pillar of Kunhun. In this fight, the opponent used a whip that would rip your head off if you made the wrong move; this could happen if he threw it in the air or swung it around.

In this fight, there were several ways to dodge the attacks. By taking advantage of obstacles, such as running up the nearby pillars, we were able to dodge the whip and jump attack on him. At one point, we were able to pull out a flamethrower and burn him.

findings

Play S-GAME Phantom Blade Zero felt as expected Dark Souls the feeling you have before playing it. Combat was balanced so the game was challenging but fair.

I didn’t think what the hell just happened. Yes, you could die if you weren’t careful, but you could very easily kill all the enemies in an area without taking any damage. Watching instead of dodging was the way to win.

The game’s setting reminds us of a mix of traditional Chinese and Japanese styles before civilizations took over. In fact, the visual aesthetics reminded us of the opening of the Mortal Kombat Movie.

Phantom Blade Zero is in development for Windows PC and PlayStation 5, but no release date has been set yet.