Gamescom First Look: Phantom Blade Zero

After almost a year of silence, Phantom Blade Zero took Gamescom by storm with a hugely impressive playable demo that had Cologne buzzing. I spent a good hour with Chinese developer S-Game's latest, playing the demo twice, and spoke with the representatives about what makes it stand out in the competitive field of soulslike games.

That second part is a bit contentious, as the word "soulslike" wasn't something anyone wanted to lay claim to. Phantom Blade Zero is its own thing, despite sharing a lot of DNA with the iconic genre popularized by From Software. Yes, you still fight your way through increasingly complex boss battles, the world is a fragmented ruin, and the plot is told through morsels of exposition. There are bonfires and resting at them resets enemies across the map. On paper, Phantom Blade Zero is very much a souslike game.

But it's beyond these – admittedly familiar – elements that Phantom Blade Zero stands out. Combat is faster and more intuitive than in any game of this genre that I've played before. The boss battles are more intimate. And the accessibility, a nagging issue that previous iterations of this genre have failed in which previous iterations of this genre have failed, feels finally like a thing that S-Game got completely right. Based on the demo, Phantom Blade Zero is the first hardcore action title I can recommend to everyone without reservations.

That's a huge deal.

Another major aspect that Phantom Blade Zero nails perfectly is how the action feels. The visceral combat is blazingly fast, yet it feels tactile and responsive to the point that even in a short amount of time, I found the experience a natural extension of my sensibilities.

For example, an early encounter finds you surrounded in a camp with both melee and long-range combatants. After some trial and error, I discovered the block and parry functions work with every type of attack, including ranged ones. In a few seconds, I juggled my immediate attackers in the air as my character kicked dynamite out of the air, sending it straight back to its owner. In the blink of an eye, everyone around me fell to the ground dead. It was like a scene from a Chow Yun-Fat movie, where the hero breaks out their powers for the first time. Phantom Blade Zero made me feel all-powerful and awesome, and it was only the first few minutes of gameplay.

The sound effects play a huge part in making the action feel spectacular. Every parry is paired with a satisfying, crystal clear ding, and attacks replay the glory days of Shaw Brothers cinema with exaggerated thuds and slices.

The demo featured three boss battles, each with vastly different styles and environments. Tie Sha the Frenzy, Commander Cleave, and Huangxing were each imposing, yet not insurmountable. In fact, I beat each one on my first time, at which point my handler asked if I wanted to try out a higher difficulty. I was surprised because this wasn't normal for me: I'm usually terrible at this type of game. But it's here that Phantom Blade Zero surprised me again. The difficulty, even at this early stage, is a smartly balanced and nuanced system that doesn't punish the player needlessly.

Instead, the presenters explained, it's to provide an additional challenge that makes the player crave another playthrough. It's more fun with different conditions, something that a good difficulty setting always should be, yet rarely is.

After adjustments, I set out for another run with Huangxing, the Sunken Pillar of Kunlun, a formidable enemy that defies gravity during your encounter. The battle takes place indoors in a pillared temple, where the verticality of the fight introduces a whole new way to approach the frenzied combat. The first time with the heightened difficulty, Huangxing wiped the floor with me. But I wasn't frustrated. Instead, it felt like another revelation. I had to adjust my playstyle once more, and once I did, Phantom Blade Zero felt like an entirely new experience. I was still an all-powerful adventurer, but instead of a bull in a china shop, my approach was more measured and reflective. I had to rely on my reflexes, blocks, and parries much more.

It's this fluidity that makes me so excited about what Phantom Blade Zero has to offer. In rethinking familiar aspects of a well-loved genre, it draws out entirely new aspects of gameplay from something I thought I had experienced to death. The result is a fascinating and breathlessly inventive action-adventure title that can't come soon enough.

There's no release date yet, and the presenters wouldn't even hazard a guess on one beyond "not long now". Hopefully, 2025 will bring us some good news, and we'll all get to experience this wild fantasy at home sooner rather than later.