Since its announcement final yr, Phantom Blade Zero has generated a ton of pleasure, regardless of the truth that its developer, Chinese language studio S-Recreation, doesn’t have a lot of a monitor document to talk of relating to AAA console video games. In fact, you solely have to take a short look at what’s been proven off of the upcoming motion RPG up to now to know why it has turned heads the best way it has. From its setting to the flavour of fight that it’s promising, there’s loads about Phantom Blade Zero that has caught the attention up to now, and right here, we’re going to go over a few of these key particulars.
SETTING
One of many issues about Phantom Blade Zero that catches consideration nearly immediately is its setting and its aesthetic. Promising a mix of steampunk and martial arts, Phantom Blade Zero is ready within the Phantom World, which was beforehand additionally the setting of S-Recreation’s cell title Phantom Blade: Executioners. Primarily constructed as an alternate model of Ming Dynasty period China, it makes heavy use of Wuxia themes, whereas additionally mixing steampunk and fantasy aesthetics.
STORY
In Phantom Blade Zero, gamers will step into the footwear of Soul, an elite murderer in service to the group often known as the Order, which works in service of just one goal- sustaining the stability between good and evil. As the sport kicks off, Soul is gravely injured, and although he’s introduced by a healer by way of mysterious means, there’s a catch- no matter means had been used to convey him again, they’ll solely final 66 days, which signifies that’s how lengthy Soul has to catch his would-be murderer and precise his vengeance. Those that’ve performed the aforementioned Phantom Blade; Executioners can in all probability count on some key characters to return and proceed enjoying a task within the story as effectively, given the truth that Zero can be set after that recreation.
NOT A SOULSLIKE
When Phantom Blade Zero was first unveiled final yr, there have been many who assumed that it was one other Soulslike, or at the least a recreation with heavy similarities to the style. That, nonetheless, isn’t the case. Developer S-Recreation has made it abundantly clear that although Phantom Blade Zero could have some fundamental Soulslike components, all in all, it’s not going to have a lot in widespread with the style. As a substitute, that is being billed as a personality motion recreation that can have extra in widespread with the likes of Steel Gear Rising: Revengeance, Satan Could Cry, and the like. What precisely does that imply for its fight? Effectively…
COMBAT
Phantom Blade Zero’s fight is reflecting very plainly S-Recreation’s insistence that this isn’t a Soulslike. Somewhat than the style’s historically sluggish and deliberate model of fight, Phantom Blade Zero will function a lot sooner and extra offensive fight. Assaults are mapped to face buttons relatively than shoulder buttons, combos are closely vital, animations and assault actions are sometimes over-the-top and explosive, and even parries and blocks look extremely aggressive. Along with a main weapon (which can at all times be a sword), gamers will even have entry to quite a lot of secondary weapons, from ranged choices to heavy melee weapons, so it looks as if the sport will provide loads of selections on the battlefield.
EXPLORATION
Phantom Blade Zero is being described as S-Recreation as a semi-open world recreation, which is to say that although it’s not a totally open world expertise, it would usually put gamers in giant, open maps with full (or nearly full) freedom to discover. The sport is ready to function parkour mechanics, which ought to make traversal throughout environments attention-grabbing, relying on how effectively they’re designed. As per the developer, gamers can count on quite a lot of completely different areas, so hopefully exploration will stay participating all through the size of the expertise. Talking of which…
LENGTH
Most of the time, builders are likely to battle with how lengthy their recreation must be. How lengthy is simply too lengthy? How quick is simply too quick? With that in thoughts, how lengthy is Phantom Blade Zero going to be? Effectively, on face worth, it appears to be going for the appropriate vary. S-Recreation has mentioned that the motion RPG goes to be roughly 30-40 hours long- although there’ll nonetheless be loads extra to do past an everyday playthrough to completion. That may embrace a strong endgame, a dungeon with roguelike components, a boss rush choice, a number of endings, and naturally, loads of facet quests, hidden bosses, and different non-obligatory content material. All in all, it appears to be like like the sport could have greater than sufficient meat on its bones to maintain you occupied for a very long time, relying on how a lot you’re prepared to have interaction with it.
MULTIPLAYER
Phantom Blade Zero is being billed primarily as a single participant expertise, and although that’s the case, it received’t be an completely solo expertise. S-Recreation has confirmed that the sport will even function multiplayer dungeons. Precisely how these will perform stays to be seen. Will there be completely different co-op or PvP choices? Will multiplayer dungeons have distinctive development and rewards? All of that has but to be detailed, however we do know that Phantom Blade Zero isn’t going to be completely single participant.
NO MICROTRANSACTIONS
Multiplayer choices usually are likely to go hand in hand with microtransactions, so is that one thing that we’ll must be looking out for with Phantom Blade Zero as effectively? Fortunately, no. S-Recreation has confirmed that there can be no microtransactions within the recreation, which suggests all gear, cosmetics, upgrades, and what have you may be unlocked by way of gameplay.
ENGINE AND PLATFORMS
Phantom Blade Zero is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and whereas that isn’t a magical swap to make a recreation a technical marvel, it does appear to be the developer is utilizing the engine’s toolset to nice impact, based mostly on what we’ve seen up to now. A launch date isn’t but recognized (we don’t actually have a launch window but, in act), although every time it does launch, Phantom Blade Zero can be accessible on PS5 and PC. Can Xbox gamers count on the sport in some unspecified time in the future down the road? That continues to be to be seen, nevertheless it doesn’t harm to hope.
TECH DETAILS
As we get nearer to Phantom Blade Zero’s launch, we’ll be studying an important deal extra concerning the tech that’s powering it, however S-Recreation has already revealed some tidbits, and there’s purpose to be impressed based mostly on what little has been confirmed up to now. For example, it’s been confirmed that on each PS5 and PC, the sport will use {hardware} raytracing. In the meantime, on PS5, it would have two graphics modes at launch- one focusing on 2K and 60 FPS, and one focusing on 4K at 30 FPS. The studio says it’s persevering with to try to goal 4K at 60 FPS or at the least 45-40 FPS within the latter mode, so issues aren’t fairly set in stone there.
