Announced at the PlayStation State of Play in August, Beijing-based studio S-Game’s new action RPG, Phantom Blade Zero, an installment of the Rainblood/Phantom Blade game series, is launching on PlayStation 5, Epic Games Store, and Steam on October 29. The studio describes the game as inspired by a mix of wuxia (a popular genre dedicated to martial arts heroes, typically set in ancient China), fantasy, and folk horror, and has even coined the fun new term “kungfupunk” for it.
In an 11-minute trailer, S-Game showed off the opening scene of Phantom Blade Zero as well as some in-game combat and boss fights. Combat looks to be heavily inspired by Dark Souls and other soulslikes, with an emphasis on parrying, and some wild John Wick-esque enemy finishers. On the Steam page, S-Game says that the combat in Phantom Blade Zero, which looks pretty intense and exciting, is authentic to Chinese martial arts and was created in collaboration with martial arts choreographers who have worked on classic wuxia films.
In Phantom Blade Zero, players will take up the mantle of an elite assassin named Soul who has been framed for the murder of his master. The game also includes a time-based mechanic similar to Blood of the Dawnwalker and previous entries in the Phantom Blade series, as Soul only has 66 days left to live after suffering a near-fatal wound to the heart.
Pre-orders are available now, with the Standard Edition priced at $59.99 and the Digital Deluxe Edition at $69.99. Pre-ordering the game on the Epic Games Store will grant a Soul cosmetic set in Fortnite. All pre-orders are digital, and there have been no statements about whether the game will be released as a physical edition, but knowing how Sony feels about discs these days, it seems unlikely.
