Phantom Blade Zero Review: Chinese Kung Fu on the Trail of Wukong

Phantom Blade Zero Review: Chinese Kung Fu Following in Wukong's Footsteps The action game from S-Game studio launched on PS5 and PC on October 29th, and it has already sold 4 million copies and achieved an 88 on Metacritic. Its fluid combat, visual presentation, and a soundtrack that blends Chinese instruments with metal place it among the best of the year, although the story and performance raise questions. Soul has 66 days to live. The protagonist of Phantom Blade Zero, an elite assassin, is burdened with a death sentence from the very first scenes, and everything that happens in the game, developed by the Chinese studio S-Game, is marked by that countdown. Soul serves the Order, a secret guild of assassins who pull the strings of the jianghu, the martial world of Wuxia tradition. When Mu Tianmiao, the patriarch of the Order and Soul's adoptive father, appears murdered, the blame falls on him. In the ensuing pursuit, he is mortally wounded. A mystic gives him a temporary remedy, which has an expiration date: 66 days. Within that time, he must clear his name and find a cure. The setting, called Phantom World, mixes Chinese martial arts with steampunk aesthetics and occult horror elements, what S-Game dubbed "kungfupunk." The adventure takes place in a semi-open world with vast, interconnected regions. The main plot advances through dialogues and cutscenes, but a significant part of its context remains in documents and memories that the player must explore. From RPG Maker to Unreal Engine 5 It all began in RPG Maker. In 2008, while still a university student, Liang Qiwei (known as Soulframe Liang) released the Chinese version of Rainblood: Town of Death, a turn-based role-playing game he made entirely by himself. Its protagonist, a betrayed martial artist, had 64 days to live. The premise of Phantom Blade Zero is the same, with two extra days, and this nod is deliberate. Liang founded S-Game in 2011. The studio tested action in two dimensions with Rainblood Chronicles: Mirage (2013) before jumping to mobile phones, where the Phantom Blade series, developed with NetEase since 2014, gave it the commercial success needed to fund what came next. In 2017, he started a 3D project for consoles and PC but had to pause it because the team was very small. He resumed it in 2021, the same period Tencent bought a 25% stake in the company, and large-scale development on Unreal Engine 5 began in 2022. The game was first shown at the PlayStation Showcase in May 2023. At The Game Awards 2025, its release date of September 9, 2026, was announced, a date later moved to October 29th. By December 2025, Liang estimated the team size at about 140 people spread across Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles. The Wukong Path The release comes at a unique time for the Chinese industry. Black Myth: Wukong, by Game Science, was released on August 20, 2024, selling over 10 million copies in its first three days. It was considered China's first AAA game, competed for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024 (which Astro Bot won), and according to an official Chinese report released in June, it has already reached 30 million copies. Well, Phantom Blade Zero picks up that baton. Both share the same commitment: top-tier production, Chinese mythology and tradition as source material, and a PS5 and PC launch aimed at a global audience. Differences appear with the control in hand. Wukong leaned toward the soulslike mold, whereas Phantom Blade Zero borrows influences but moves away from it, combining combat from Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear Rising. Phantom Blade Zero surpassed four million copies sold in its first 72 hours, S-Game announced on November 2nd. Flowing Combat The first thing that surprises is the speed. Enemies do not respawn upon resting, there are three difficulty levels (Wayfarer, Pathbreaker, and Hellwalker), and the pace is closer to classic hack and slash than the patience required by FromSoftware. Soul chains together aerial combos, dodges, and weapon switches without interruption, and the choreography bears the signature of Kenji Tanigaki, action director of Rurouni Kenshin movies. It shows; every fight seems rehearsed for the camera. The second thing is the arsenal. Alongside the main weapon are Phantom Edges, secondary weapons that add tactical layers, such as a heavy axe to break shields. The dodge system recalls Sekiro, although the overall tempo is much more frenetic. The only loose thread, so to speak, is in the impact. Movement impresses more than impact; the blows lack weight, and on normal difficulty it is easy to dispatch common enemies by repeating the same sequence. Bosses are another story. Fights like that of the Great Disciple of the Seven Stars or Peng Meng, the axe master, unfold over several phases and require reading every pattern. Wuxia Cinema in Motion Phantom Blade Zero is one of the most visually striking games of the year. S-Game opted for a desaturated, almost monochrome palette, turning every scene into an art martial arts film frame: courtyards under rain, burning villages, straw hats silhouetted against the fog. Here, artistic direction carries more weight than technical spectacle. On standard PS5, the balanced mode moves smoothly. The picture is more debatable on PS5 Pro, where some reviewers noted frame drops that persisted even with ray tracing disabled. Installing patches is advisable. The game takes advantage of the DualSense's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, along with Tempest 3D audio. Chinese Tradition with Distorted Guitars The soundtrack by Caisheng Bo, who also composes for Tides of Annihilation, another Chinese action venture, deserves a special chapter. Bo aimed to unite traditional Chinese sound with modern China, and to do that, he mixed classical instruments with metal and electronic music, his go-to genres. The interesting detail is the method: according to Bo, in some battles the music came first and served as inspiration for designing the boss based on the music. It gives the impression that this investment explains why the big fights function almost like musical numbers, with percussion marking every phase. What Needs Polishing Narration is the weakest point. The premise has urgency, but the story gets tangled in names, factions, and jumps that are difficult to follow. The semi-open world doesn't help either; without enemies respawning, some previously explored areas feel empty. In 2008, Rainblood's hero had 64 days left to live. Eighteen years later, Soul has 66, and Liang Qiwei seems to have made good use of those two extra days.