Phantom Blade Zero developer S-Game has unveiled new gameplay in their Year of the Snake trailer. Created in Unreal Engine 5, this new trailer shows off the significant upgrades in the game’s visual quality – from textures and models to lighting. Inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films of recent memory, the combat and mechanics flow in a similar vein. The game also takes more inspiration from other games in the genre. Check out the full trailer below.
Coming Soon?
Coming to PS5 and PC (the release date has yet to be announced, but the game went on a global demo tour throughout 2024, so a 2025 launch seems imminent), Phantom Blade Zero is an upcoming action-adventure Souls-“lite” with an ancient Chinese myth backdrop. Using frenetic and snappy gameplay, I’m hesitant to call it a Soulslike despite its similarities to the genre. This is slightly more fast-paced and forgiving, but the typical dodge, parry, and combat loops we’re familiar with are on display here, just with a much smaller learning curve.
Our Preview
We go the opportunity to go hands-on with the game during Summer Game Fest 2024. Here’s what we had to say:
My demo was broken into three different sections. One was a tutorial level to the hang of basic controls, movement and traversal, the camera, combat, and its mechanics and systems. Here I fought some basic enemies and utilized my ranged attacks to strike from afar. Combat is very free-flowing and fast-paced, with multiple combos at your disposal. You can switch between melee weapons on the fly, expanded your damage and combo potential. One small nitpick I have is that the dodge button was mapped to R1 instead of Circle like I’m used to, but I got used to it. Plus you can always just remap it. Aside from two melee weapons, I also had two ranged: a bow and arrow and what I’m going to call a cannon.
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