Phantom Blade Zero Receives Enthusiastic Media Reviews - One of the Strongest Action Games of the Year

The first reviews of Phantom Blade Zero, an action RPG from S-Game studio in the wuxia style, have been released. The hero, assassin Soul, after betrayal, has only 66 days to live. Critics agree that the game lived up to the expectations set by the first trailers.

After 29 reviews on Opencritic, the project received 91% and a 100% player recommendation.

The combat system is named the main advantage. Parries, perfect dodges, and quick weapon switching, which restores Sha-Chi resource, allow for long combos. The game is accessible for beginners, while experienced players have room for mastery. More than 30 types of main weapons and over 20 Phantom Blades provide huge build variability and a reason to replay the game. Bosses are praised separately: each is unique, and the battles resemble scenes from kung fu movies.

World exploration truly unfolds after a few hours: semi-open regions are full of secrets, there are metroidvania elements and optional locations. The campaign takes about 35-40 hours. The style, detail, and music are also noted.

It was not without flaws. Reviewers write about performance drops, rare freezes and getting stuck in the environment, enemy AI glitches, and errors during finishers. According to one review, on PC, enabling ray tracing reduces the frame rate from 80-100 to 20-30 FPS on an RTX 4060 Ti. Other drawbacks include blurry textures in the first region, simplistic side quests, unnecessary talismans for resetting weapon upgrades, and an abundance of names that are easy to get confused with.

Ultimately, minor technical rough edges do not prevent the game from being considered one of the main action games of the year.