Phantom Blade Zero preview: A stylish Soulslike refined enough to make FromSoft proud S-GAMEWe went hands-on with Phantom Blade Zero at Summer Game Fest and while an unintentionally short demo, we came away more than impressed by its swagger. The game has a confidence about it, knowing it\u2019s in the upper echelon of Soulslikes. FromSoftware mastered its style of game over many releases in recent generations. Naturally, with the studio\u2019s success, we\u2019ve seen many imitations and spinoffs over the years. While some leave a lot to be desired, others like 2023\u2019s Lies of P, stand their ground as remarkable additions to the genre. Phantom Blade Zero is next in line striving to join those ranks. After closing out the show during Geoff Keighley\u2019s Summer Game Fest presentation, which I found out was a surprise even for the developers watching along live, the team at S-GAME was on hand in LA to walk media through a demo of the upcoming release. In just a few brief minutes with the game, it quickly became clear this isn\u2019t just a run-of-the-mill Soulslike, but rather a stunningly realized, deeply authentic iteration. Building on the success of the games that came before it, Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to epitomize the genre in From\u2019s shadow. Focusing on the familiar Just from a glance, you can no doubt tell exactly what Phantom Blade Zero is trying to accomplish. Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, the upcoming PS5 game pays homage to the lineage of FromSoft titles before it. A third-person action RPG with an emphasis on punishing difficulty, it\u2019s a Soulslike without a shadow of a doubt, and devs aren\u2019t trying to hide that fact. Grueling boss fights with attack patterns to learn, snappy, precise combat with timing windows to optimize, and multiple weapons to master and swap between on the fly, if you\u2019ve played any FromSoft title before, you\u2019ll feel right at home here. Where Phantom Blade Zero sets itself apart, or at least tries to, is in its pacing. This is a blindingly fast game. Much like Sekiro, your reaction time needs to be on point to have any hope of success. Enemies can close the distance and attack in the blink of an eye, multiple targets can surround you and make your life hell if you\u2019re not fast to reposition, it\u2019s all about speed. With an array of powerful weapons and unique combo moves on your side, you can dispatch said foes with the right timing and distance management. Some abilities execute long strings of attacks, staggering targets for heavier strikes, while others may even slice in multiple directions, taking down more than one enemy in a single flurry of blows. It\u2019s an exhilarating rush when things go your way, or an exciting learning opportunity when things go awry. However, with my experience, I was able to cruise along and surprise the developers in just a matter of minutes. Setting records at Summer Game Fest Typically when it comes to previews at press events of this nature, you have someone guiding you through at least the first few minutes. Sitting down for my hands-on session with Phantom Blade Zero, I didn\u2019t have that, but it didn\u2019t phase me. Quickly coming to grips with the game\u2019s familiar control scheme, I got to work. Three bosses are what devs had lined up in the demo build, and three bosses are what I quickly dispatched. Seven minutes later and with just one death throughout, I\u2019d reached the end of the demo without realizing it at first. Multiple devs quickly came over, assuming I\u2019d broken the build or something had set me back to the start. To their shock, the endgame screen showed my completion stats clear as day. Adding to my gamer credentials, the CEO of the company soon came over asking for a picture with me, as I\u2019d somehow set the record for the weekend. Certainly a feather in the cap. Far from the most experienced Soulslike veteran out there, if I was able to blitz through the challenges on my first attempts, I can\u2019t wait to see what real seasoned pros make of it later this year. While the difficulty is no doubt paramount, with the right approach, there are clearly ways to style on the dozens of bosses that await.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phantom Blade Zero preview: A stylish Soulslike refined enough to make FromSoft proud S-GAMEWe went hands-on with Phantom Blade Zero at Summer Game Fest and while an unintentionally short demo, we came away more than impressed by its swagger. The game has a confidence about it, knowing it\u2019s in the upper echelon of Soulslikes. FromSoftware […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}