Phantom Blade Zero: The Fastest Deaths at SGF: Hands-On Impressions from Summer Game Fest

Plenty of games were challenging this year at Summer Game Fest. There were plenty of games where my character died. But in just a short twenty-minute hands-on demo of S-Game’s Phantom Blade Zero, I think it took more lives than any other game that weekend. This upcoming fast-paced action title visually mirrors popular souls-like games in its grey, shadowy aesthetic. Combat can be challenging in the vein of a souls-like, but it is more of a mix of fast-paced combos, swapping through an arsenal of weapons, guarding, and dodging at the right moments, which are cued by a flash of light.

Thankfully, I learned quickly that when an enemy breaks through your defenses, you won’t have to fight all of their minions again. The game saves your progress through an area, as well as the progress you’ve made in defeating enemies. You only have to defeat each enemy once. The short demo was expected to take me through four stages, each with a boss to defeat at the end of the stage. I only barely defeated the third boss as I realized I was already a minute late to my next appointment. Maybe they were just being nice, but the developer assured me that had there been more time I probably could have made it all the way through the final stage. Even though I had struggled and fallen to the enemy many times, the fact that I had lost track of time told me I was having fun.

Phantom Blade Zero, S-Game, 2024

Phantom Blade Zero takes place in a fantasy setting that mixes kungfu, steampunk, occult horrors, and completely original ideas. In a PlayStation blog post, the founder and CEO of S-Game, Qiwei “Soulframe” Liang, called the genre “kungfupunk.” Players will take on the role of an assassin named Soul, who has been saved from death by a mystic healer after being framed for murdering the head of The Order. The magic was able to keep him alive, but only for sixty-six more days. This puts a hard time limit on Soul’s opportunity to find the mastermind behind the plot that cost him his life.

During the demo, I had access to four weapons. The primary katana-like longsword, dual-wielding blades, a bow, and a massive flamethrower. The flamethrower sounds fun (and it is) but it is slow and clunky, as I quickly learned. It requires the right timing to be effective. Each of the bladed weapons has an ultimate attack that can be charged up and unleashed for massive damage. These varying weapons and the lightning-quick combos are fun, but the key to successful fights in Phantom Blade Zero comes from timing. The player can block incoming attacks, but only for so long. Eventually, the enemy will unleash one of two kinds of strikes, ones that flash a small blue light and ones that flash a red light. A perfectly timed dodge will leave the enemy open and vulnerable to a counterattack.

Phantom Blade Zero, S-Game, 2024

Summer Game Fest was the first opportunity for anyone to get their hands on the Phantom Blade Zero demo, but the game will be making its rounds to other events this summer including July’s ChinaJoy in Shanghai, August’s Gamescom in Cologne, and Tokyo Game Show in September. With a release date still promising sometime in 2024, there are fewer and fewer months remaining. To speculate, it would make sense for Phantom Blade Zero to complete is summer tour of gaming events before making any major announcements about its launch.

Are you interested in trying out Phantom Blade Zero? What is your experience with unforgiving and challenging games? You can read my Stalker 2 impressions for another of Summer Game Fest’s most unforgiving games.