Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to be a gorgeous “Kung Fu Punk” game, but there are a few things you should know before playing.
Earlier in October, GosuGamers was invited into S-Game’s studio in Beijing, China for a preview event centred around the developer’s highly-anticipated upcoming game: Phantom Blade Zero. At the studio, we were able to play six whole hours of the game, during which we explored two regions, tested out several weapons, and fought bosses and mini-bosses alike. Towards the end of the session, we skipped ahead to two of the game’s biggest and flashiest bossfights, showcasing its kinetic and action-packed combat systems at their peak.
Since we got to test out many (but certainly not all) of the game’s systems, here’s everything you need to know about Phantom Blade Zero ahead of its imminent 29 October, 2026 release date.
Phantom Blade Zero
Release date: 29 October, 2026
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC
Developer: S-GAME
How many weapons are in Phantom Blade Zero?
The game’s protagonist Soul can pick up 30 primary weapons and 25 secondary weapons in total, the latter of which are referred to as Phantom Edges. Different weapons centre on different mechanics, giving even early game weapons an avenue to stay useful later on.
For example, the weapon Jagged Steel inflicts a Bleeding status effect on enemies. More hits landed with this weapon can build up a Bleed Gauge, which triggers an even more damaging Blood Loss effect on enemies when full. This essentially rewards players for going on the offensive and pressuring enemies with repeated hits, dealing even more damage for doing so.
Phantom Edges can’t be used constantly in battle, as they rely on a specific combat resource. However, their effects can be devastating in battle, armed with a wide variety of effects to best suit the game’s varied enemy types. For example, an axe-type Phantom Edge helps to deliver enough destructive force to break impenetrable enemy shields–this proved pivotal for a mini boss encounter towards the end of our preview session, which involved battling a formidable mounted enemy with a shield.
Can you re-spec in Phantom Blade Zero?
Yes, Phantom Blade Zero is very forgiving when it comes to trying new builds and weapons throughout a playthrough. The game allows you to upgrade weapons to unlock new techniques, or reset them entirely to refund all materials and upgrade other items instead, using a Reforging Talisman. The same goes for Soul’s skill tree, which includes important abilities like improved counter-attacks and sprinting. These skills can be refunded if needed.
Does Phantom Blade Zero have a stamina meter?
Yes, sort of. Phantom Blade Zero is an action-adventure game with an emphasis on parries and dodges. These abilities rely on a resource called Sha-Chi, which can be viewed in a separate bar from the HP bar. Attack combos can be chained together by using Sha-Chi, while parrying continuously also depletes Sha-Chi. Running out of Sha-Chi will leave you vulnerable to attacks and without the ability to execute combos, so managing this resource is important.
However, it’s easier than it sounds to restore Sha-Chi. The bar refills rather quickly, and switching between weapons also instantly restores Sha-Chi (though switching weapons also has a cooldown). Hence, the flow of attacks will mostly involve you using up Sha-Chi on one weapon before switching to the next to continue using Sha-Chi, while keeping an eye on your weapon cooldowns. This also encourages the player to combine different weapon attacks to synergise mechanics and status effects on enemies.
Enemies also have Sha-Chi, and you can deplete their Sha-Chi by laying down pressure through combos and continuous attacks–much like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and similar action games with an enemy posture/stamina meter. Attacks that flash blue or red can be parried or dodged, respectively, to counter-attack.
Now, there is also Sha-Chi Essence, which is a numbered resource that can be used to execute a Power Surge. This is essentially an ultimate ability unique to each weapon, typically taking the form of a flurry of high-damage attacks that can interrupt enemies.
Does Phantom Blade Zero have stealth?
Sort of, yes. Phantom Blade Zero does have a crouch button, and small patches of tall grass wherein you can sneak up to enemies and quickly execute them. If another enemy is nearby and you successfully executed a stealth kill, a flashing button prompt will appear for a follow-up stealth kill. Soul can also climb up onto rooftops and jump down onto enemies for stealth kills.
However, this doesn’t make Phantom Blade Zero a stealth game. Think of stealth assassinations as a helpful way to whittle down the number of enemies in the battlefield before combat begins in earnest.
Is Phantom Blade Zero a Souls-like?
Many comparisons have been made between Phantom Blade Zero and FromSoftware’s Dark Souls-like video games. While Phantom Blade Zero is similar to the Souls-like genre in many ways, there are a few key differences that set it apart. For example, Souls-like games typically have specific checkpoints scattered around the map, and activating them to save or upgrade player abilities will respawn enemies on the map. Additionally, players will lose key resources meant for upgrades upon death, and have to return to their point of death to regain them.
This is not true of Phantom Blade Zero. In this game, enemies stay dead once they’re defeated, and players won’t lose their resources upon death. Death is generally a much more forgiving affair. It’s so forgiving, in fact, that I wound up dying a few times during my preview just to quickly teleport to the nearest checkpoint, instead of doing a longer runback.
There is an exception: the game’s 66 Days difficulty mode. In this mode, Soul can only die a total of 66 times before it’s game over for good. In the six hours we spent with the game during this preview, however, we found that the regular difficulty proved plenty challenging for some of these early bossfights.
What is Phantom Blade Zero about?
We only spent six hours with Phantom Blade Zero, but that was enough for us to grasp the basics of the game’s premise. Players will step into the fearsome shoes of Soul, a warrior betrayed by his own cohorts and stabbed in the heart with a blade. Now affixed with a faulty heart that will only give him 66 days of life, he begins the game by journeying to Pangzhen in an effort to find a replacement heart and the answers to a dark conspiracy surrounding Wulin.
The Wulin itself is an underworld shaped by rival factions, a few of which we encountered in the game’s early hours. Throughout Soul’s journey, he’ll meet a few colourful characters who add more weight to his journey, and deeper meaning to his ultimate goal of surviving the next 66 days.
We met a few of these characters during the preview, like Yu’er, the daughter of a town’s local brewer, who sent Soul on a side quest to save her father. She popped up again in the game’s second region despite her quest being left unfinished, suggesting that she would become a recurring character throughout the story.
Is there missable side content in Phantom Blade Zero?
It’s likely that players will have to actively pursue side quests like Yu'er's in order to unlock key moments in the game’s story. I’ll give you one example: towards the end of the preview, S-Game skipped ahead in the story to give me access to two different bossfights. The first of these, Bai Chilian, was a fantastic fight with two phases, against an eerie woman who floated and teleported around the field to attack Soul.
After transforming in the second phase of her boss fight, I was joined by a friendly NPC named the Chord. The Chord helped out massively in combat, chipping away at Bai’s health while I backed off and recovered from Bai’s flurry of attacks. Incidentally, this is how I also found out that the game saves your progress after each boss phase. When I died during phase two of the boss fight, the boss stayed transformed, and I could simply re-approach her and continue the battle from phase two.
After the fight, S-Game informed me that the Chord–a seemingly overpowered summon–was in fact a completely missable addition to the fight. Players have to complete certain tasks (which were not detailed to me) in order to even have her appear. Otherwise, Soul would be on his own when facing off against Bai Chilian.
The second boss fight I tried was Flame, the Lion Dance Grandmaster seen in Phantom Blade Zero’s State of Play presentation. In this boss fight, Flame summoned small lion dance trainees–seemingly children–to attack Soul, and the battle would occasionally be interrupted by a sequence wherein Soul and Flame would balance on wooden poles to shoot fireballs at each other, and eat lettuce to power up their attacks. It was a pretty bombastic fight, and likely indicative of what we can expect the game to be upon its full release: fast-paced, action-packed, and oozing with style.
Phantom Blade Zero officially launches on PlayStation 5 and PC on 29 October, 2026.
