We visited S-Game in Beijing and Shanghai to play six hours of Phantom Blade Zero, and we came away thoroughly impressed by the style and combat.
When I briefly played Phantom Blade Zero at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, the team at S-Game told me that they'd only shown content from side quests up to that point, and that they wanted to keep most of the story quests a surprise for when the time was right. Once it was revealed that my six-hour hands-on with the game during a visit to Beijing would be right from the start of the game, giving me freedom to do whatever I wanted in the first chapter, I couldn't wait to see what was in store.
Several hours later, I was blown away by the style, cinematic flair, intricate design, and deep combat. I truly think Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to be the next huge action game hit. A title on the level of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which people will continue to speak about for the next five years and beyond.
You play as Soul, formerly one of the most feared fighters in the region, as he fights to try and save the underworld of the Wulin. However, he only has sixty-six days to live, thanks to the mysterious witch-like character called the Flesh Sculptor replacing his heart with an artificial one.
Combat is core to the game's style. S-Game wanted to bring its vision of 'kung-fu punk' to reality, combining the traditional movement of the martial art with modern style. I spoke to Phantom Blade Zero's Director, Soulframe, about how the idea of Kung-Fu Punk came to be, and it's something he's had in mind for a long time. "When I was in undergrad school, I studied architecture [at Yale], so I started the story with some traditional Chinese Wuxia culture mixed with some pop cultures like cyberpunk. But we didn't have the term kung fu punk back then. We just wanted to make something cool, but I was at school at that moment, so after my graduation, I came back to China, and then tried to make something serious."
How fluid the action is is impressive. Soul and his enemies jump, twist, and flip around during fights, creating some of the most cinematic action I've ever played. You can't see the edges of the animations, with each movement flowing into the next.
S-Game has also managed to ensure that extra flair doesn't make the game muddled, either. Even with the movement heightened, you still feel in control of Soul, attacking and blocking at the right time without the kung-fu getting in the way. Just roaming the world, taking out the fodder enemies feels immensely satisfying.
"We wanted to make everyone feel like it's literally in a kung-fu movie. It's a playable kung fu movie, and you are not playing a game through the gamepad. You are actually fighting the enemies," Soulframe said to me, and you can feel that when you play. The cinematic style is at the centre of everything, without overwhelming you to the point that it doesn't feel good.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/phantom-blade-zero/preview-years-to-come
