We’ve had a chance to speak with S-Game about Phantom Blade Zero previously, but at Tokyo Game Show 2024, the Beijing-based studio showed off the latest that its duel-heavy action-adventure has to offer. The game is looking beautiful, but it was the sheer depth of the combat and its similarities to weapon-clashing adventures like Sekiro that really captured our hearts during the show.
Stand firm like a mountain, strike like lightning
The demo we tried at Tokyo Game Show 2024 was a several-part affair, giving us looks at three different sections of the game. The first gave us a look at sneaking up and dispatching small fry and fighting groups of minor foes. The second put us against a heavy-armored warrior with a jagged blade known (somewhat hilariously) as Commander Cleave. The final part put us against a foe using a sword and a head collector basket on a rope: Huangxing, the Sunken Pillar of Kunlun.
The crux of all combat in Phantom Blade Zero is a decisive mix of parries and carefully timed combos with a large variety of weapons to explore. Our previous Gamescom 2024 preview went into deeper details of the combat flow, including using tightly timed parries and dodges to evade your enemy’s attacks, countering them for big damage, and switching between two equipped weapons on the fly to access devastating abilities. However, at Tokyo Game Show 2024, I got a sense of just how much we’re going to be able to experiment find our own style.
I spoke to the director of Phantom Blade Zero, who told me the team has planned numerous melee and ranged weapons for the game. Obviously, some of these could end up being small variants of each other. However, it’s worth noting that we started with a regular one-handed straight sword and two swift daggers in the first demo section, switched to a massive great katana by the second, and then we had Commander Cleave’s jagged blade by the third section. Each of these weapons played vastly different from each other and even had special attributes. For instance, the great katana could trigger a bleed effect with successive hits. Figuring out what weapons fit you along the way in Phantom Blade Zero seems like it’ll be a blast.
The enemies are also just plain fun to fight in Phantom Blade Zero so far. On normal difficulty, you might be able to brute force your foes a bit, but you still need to be sensible. Block and roll too much and you’ll lose stamina and end up in a defenseless state. Attack too much and your enemies will tank your offense punish you. Some of them even have special attacks with which to annihilate you. For instance, Huangxing has an attack where he throws his basket to try to land it on your head. If you don’t dodge or break the attack, it ends up being a very messy haircut. By perfect parrying and dodge-rolling between attack strings, you put on a graceful ballet of attack and defense with your enemies that is intensely satisfying all the way down to the killing blow, but also means understanding them enough to subvert their offense and break their defense.
A blade wielded with deadly efficiency
Phantom Blade Zero got on our radars with ease after Gamescom 2024, but the latest showcase truly floored us with its gameplay and options. I feel safe to say it was my favorite new thing I played during Tokyo Game Show 2024. The back and forth of combat, the variety of weapons to discover, and a formidable array of enemies have us feeling like plenty of intense duels are headed our way. We’ll look forward to seeing more of what Phantom Blade Zero has for us as S-Game continues to work on it.
These impressions are based on a preview PS5 demo hosted at Tokyo Game Show 2024 by the publisher. Phantom Blade Zero is coming PlayStation 5 and PC.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Phantom Blade Zero's Sekiro-like duels were a delightful surprise at TGS 2024
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