From Hands-On Demo to Full Playthrough: What Kind of Report Card Has Phantom Blade Zero Delivered?

We haven't missed a single in-person demo of Phantom Blade Zero. Watching it evolve from one limited-content demo after another into the complete game it is today - that kind of firsthand witnessing is often more moving than simply playing it. In 2024, we went hands-on with the game once again at Gamescom, where the booth even felt a little on the quiet side. The pleasant surprise, however, was that this in-person demo offered up a hard mode that had yet to be shown in any of the earlier demos held back in China. At the time, we excitedly described that hands-on experience as "the second college student from the village" - now that the demo has finally become a full playthrough, it's time for this "college student" to turn in its report card. 

Combat Experience: Sha Qi in Flow, Staging a Wuxia Duel of Flashing Blades

The most gripping thing about Phantom Blade Zero is the clash itself. Catch an opponent's string of attacks, seize the opening to knock them down, then swap in another weapon to build the offense back up - the game makes you feel like you're taking part in a duel straight out of a wuxia film. The more skilled you become, the more your fights take on the flavor of a true wuxia hero. 

Behind all of this, Sha Qi (killing intent) is the key link between offense and defense. Blocking and powerful combos both consume it, which means you can't simply turtle up and wait for an opening, nor can you completely ignore how you'll handle the next exchange. Swapping blades restores Sha Qi, so your second weapon naturally becomes part of the fight. When do you keep pressing the attack? When do you swap blades and let the other weapon take over? That's what creates the shifts in rhythm across an entire engagement. 

On top of that, perfect blocks and Ghost Steps can turn an enemy's offense into an opportunity for you. An attack that seemed certain to win the exchange often becomes the start of your counter once you catch it. The satisfaction of these extended exchanges shows up even more clearly in boss fights. With both sides constantly trading offense and defense, paired with the action choreography, finishing a fight genuinely leaves you itching to run it back right away. 

Weapon System: A Martial Arts Feast of 30 Primary Weapons, Rejecting Monotonous Violence Aesthetics

The weapon variety in this game is rich to a downright "excessive" degree. There are 30 primary weapons and 25 secondary weapons in total. Just when you haven't had your fill of the one in hand, the next one is already delivered to your doorstep - each with its own traits worth digging into. 

For example, the "Broken Vat" builds up bleed through sustained attacks; the "Crimson Trail Slash" can use the lingering damage it leaves behind to control the engagement zone; and the "Devourer's Broken Sword" builds its playstyle around the secondary weapon and "Drunken Taibai," weaving flying swords into the mix. Every weapon can unlock new abilities and movesets. The Earth Fiend Talisman can max out 2 to 3 of your favorite weapons, while the "Cold Reverse-Cultivation Talisman" lets you refund the resources spent on upgrades and reinvest them into another weapon. 

The game encourages players to keep experimenting with new weapons, and upgrade resources are fairly generous. By tuning the margin for error and the payoff, these instantly tangible differences and changes keep you constantly looking forward to getting your hands on the next new weapon. Different weapons and different enemies come with different execution animations - for an action game that emphasizes reading and countering each move as it comes, details like these are a huge plus. 

Story & Narrative: A Steady, Solid Main Quest, with Fragmented Text Filling Out the Many Facets of the Jianghu

The game's story does not follow the fragmented-narrative trend common in titles before it: its themes of revenge, conspiracy, and sect conflict - of power grabs and saving the world - remain, at their core, a tale of the grudges and passions of the martial world.

The game delivers a complete story with a proper beginning and end, but without any truly jaw-dropping plot twists, and it lacks the deeper substance that would keep you mulling things over after beating the game. On the whole, it plays out like a wuxia action film - every punch lands, every blade flashes.

Beyond the main story, additional narrative tension lives in the side quests. These advance the plot largely through equipment descriptions and dialogue, while the finer details needed to flesh out the jianghu are tucked away in a wealth of collectible memories and fragments - 30% comprehension, 70% filling in the blanks. For now, the handling of character interactions during dialogue remains rather thin: expressions and movements come across as stiff, transitions between some cutscenes still feel unnatural, and the sense of immersion so painstakingly built up during combat sequences is often broken the moment a character opens their mouth.

Graphics and Optimization: AAA Standards Reached, but Atmosphere and Performance Still Leave Something to Be Desired

The visuals are the most conflicted part of this review. Taking the first two maps as an example, their graphical fidelity absolutely reaches mainstream AAA standards, yet they fall slightly short in scenic artistry. To draw an analogy: a tree modeled realistically enough doesn't mean that placing it in a miniature landscape makes for good bonsai composition.

The objects within each scene carry their own distinct sense of material texture, but the overall atmosphere sometimes falls a bit flat. Phantom Blade Zero is inconsistent in conveying atmosphere, missing some of the artistic ambiance that makes you stop in your tracks. Fortunately, it is only once you reach the fourth map, "Pangzhe" - with its glossy black roof tiles and a small town shrouded in mist - that this bone-chilling air of grim, lethal menace finally spreads through.

In "Pangzhe," however, we also ran into fairly severe frame drops on the media review build. On an i9-14900K paired with an RTX 4090 24G (32GB of RAM), at 4K resolution with ray tracing off, DLSS enabled, and the graphics preset set to the second-highest tier, "Ultra High," the average framerate across most of the town fluctuated between 50 and 60 fps. On top of that, issues such as getting caught on invisible walls, falling out of the map, and black screens during cutscenes occurred from time to time. For a game that emphasizes the rhythm of combat exchanges, these problems genuinely undermine the experience. We hope they can be thoroughly resolved in the day-one patch or subsequent updates.

Levels & Progression: 9 Semi-Open Maps, Hardcore Linear Exploration and Ability Locks

For reference: in this test, a lightning-fast run through the main story took roughly 30 hours, with map exploration at 65% and 101 cumulative deaths. A rough estimate puts a single playthrough on normal difficulty at 30 - 40 hours, while full exploration could approach 50 hours. 

The game features 9 semi-open maps in total. Except for "Pangzhe" and a lake map, progression through most areas remains fairly linear. This linearity doesn't mean a straight road where you can spot the endpoint right from the entrance - instead, you need to observe the environment and judge the direction of your destination before you can find your way. 

Even more worth highlighting, the secondary weapon system ties combat abilities directly to exploration. The great axe can sever the iron chains sealing off roads, while the grappling hook lets you move via anchor points. On a first visit, you can explore roughly 80% of a map; the remaining areas require coming back to unlock once new abilities are in hand. The closed-loop exploration experience is executed quite solidly. 

Review Summary: Not Quite at Its Peak in Every Aspect, but Already the Best Action Game of the Year

As the most anticipated homegrown AAA game since the release of Black Myth: Wukong, Phantom Blade Zero came with a level of pressure on its development team that's easy to imagine. Fortunately, on their very first outing in AAA game development, they delivered an exceptionally polished and complete work. 

In the action genre, this is a solid, praiseworthy game. Regrettably, though, a few flaws still keep it short of an all-around peak - it didn't live up to expectations in every single respect. 

But in the one "core subject" that matters most, it performs with exceptional brilliance. Action design steeped in the texture of wuxia cinema, boss fights that are impossible to put down, and a weapon system so deep you couldn't exhaust it in a single playthrough. At least in my view, it's my best action game of the year. 

Top Community Comments

After the review went live, the community sparked heated discussions. We’ve selected a few representative takes and shared our interpretations:

@aAnsons: “Following a formula makes scoring quick - this outlet previously gave Dragon Age 4 a perfect 10.”

Interpretation: Some players questioned our scoring criteria. As an objective media outlet, our principle remains to evaluate different games using the standards of their respective genres. Dragon Age 4, as a CRPG, earned a perfect score based on its narrative and system depth, while Phantom Blade Zero’s high rating reflects high praise for its excellence in the “hardcore action” category. Different tracks, each with its own strengths.

@: “Onimusha should cap at 6 points - its combat, characters, and story are all maxed out.”

Interpretation: The pride of veteran action players. Some argue the game’s barrier to entry is high and differs from traditional musou-style action titles. In fact, Phantom Blade Zero truly follows a “read-and-respond” hardcore path; this high-interactivity combat system and the grim, lethal character design are precisely what set it apart. It’s not for everyone - but for those who love it, it’s a masterpiece.

@: “Are you overmarketing this? I’m starting to feel annoyed.”

Interpretation: Some players feel fatigue from the recent wave of intensive promotion. Admittedly, as the next flagship title among homegrown AAA releases, Phantom Blade Zero carries immense attention and expectations, which has inadvertently raised everyone’s anticipation. That said, setting aside the promotional hype, when you truly settle in and step into the game, that visceral wuxia immersion - with every strike hitting hard - will likely remain the core reason you love it.

📌 One-Line Takeaway

Phantom Blade Zero may not yet be a flawless, perfect-score masterpiece in every respect - visuals, narrative, and beyond - but it is without question the year's best hardcore wuxia action epic, one that pushes its core action interactions to the absolute limit and delivers an utterly exhilarating experience!