After years of trailers and a final delay from its September date, Phantom Blade Zero is out now on PC and PS5. S-GAME’s single-player action RPG unlocked worldwide at 10 a.m. Beijing time on October 29, which was the evening of October 28 in the Americas. On PC it’s on Steam and the Epic Games Store, and the Standard Edition costs $59.99.
Early reviews are strong: the PC version sits at 88 on Metacritic (87 on PS5), and 96% of critics on OpenCritic recommend it.
What Phantom Blade Zero is
You play Soul, an elite assassin framed for murdering the patriarch of the Order he serves. He survives the duel that follows, but only with a tainted heart that gives him 66 days to live. In that time he has to expose the conspiracy and find a way to save himself.
The setting is what S-GAME calls “kungfupunk”: a world loosely based on Ming-dynasty China, mixed with steampunk and cyberpunk machinery. The game is built in Unreal Engine 5, and its world is semi-open: you can take on areas in different orders, and side quests decide which of the eight endings you get.
Combat built on kung fu cinema
Phantom Blade Zero is a fast action game first. Donnie Yen was a creative consultant (he also plays the character Mó Yuan), and the fights were choreographed by martial arts veterans and motion-captured from real performers. Here’s what you work with:
- Two main blades and two Phantom Edges, secondary weapons such as cannons, lances and hammers. The game has more than 30 main weapons and over 20 Phantom Edges.
- Sha-chi, a resource spent on blocks and heavy attacks.
- Colour-coded enemy attacks: “brutal” and “killer” moves each need a specific defensive answer.
- Weapon upgrades and reforging, six accessory slots and a skill tree.
There are four difficulty levels. The hardest, 66 Days, adds a death counter that ends in permadeath. New Game Plus unlocks after you finish the story.
Editions and price
- Standard Edition, $59.99: the game, plus the Treasure Basin accessory and Legacy outfit as launch bonuses (both can also be earned in the game).
- Digital Deluxe Edition, $69.99: adds two outfits (Wulin Legend and Blood-Steel Form), a digital artbook and the soundtrack. There’s no early access, so it’s only worth it if you want the extras. Standard owners can upgrade for $10.
Physical PS5 editions, including an Ultimate Edition with a steelbook, are planned for 2027.
PC system requirements
The official requirements are modest for an Unreal Engine 5 game, but both tiers assume upscaling, and an SSD is required:
- Minimum (1080p, 30 fps with upscaling): Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1660 6 GB or AMD RX 5500 XT 8 GB.
- Recommended (1440p, 60 fps with upscaling): Intel Core i5-10600K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, 16 GB of RAM, NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB or AMD RX 6700 XT 12 GB.
Leave plenty of room on that SSD: the game takes around 140–150 GB.
Should you buy it?
If you liked Black Myth: Wukong, Sekiro or Nioh, Phantom Blade Zero is an easy recommendation: the reviews are excellent, and the price is $10 below the usual $70 for a big release. On PC, check your graphics card against the recommended spec first. If your GPU is near the minimum, the game will run, but at 30 fps it won’t feel the way fights like these should. See Phantom Blade Zero on Steam.
