Phantom Blade Zero reviews: an 88 score and one big complaint

The combat, by a mile. Reviewers keep reaching for film comparisons, saying fights feel like being dropped into a classic Chinese martial arts movie. IGN gave it a 9/10, with its reviewer saying the combat never got old across 50 hours of play. GameSpot scored it 8/10 and said its best moments make you pull off moves you would not expect a third-person action game to allow.

VGC awarded four stars and went further, calling it stronger than Black Myth: Wukong. That is a pointed comparison, because Wukong won Best Action Game at The Game Awards in 2024 and was a Game of the Year nominee.

Looks come up constantly too. One reviewer called it possibly the best-looking game they had played this year, pointing to mountain forests, burning battlefields and huge factory castles. Fights are fully motion-captured, so enemy finishers and counters look like choreographed stunt work rather than canned animations.

The story. Phantom Blade Zero follows Soul, a feared killer for a group called The Order, who is framed for murdering his master and stabbed through the heart. A mysterious healer brings him back with a poisoned heart and a deadline: 66 days to find the people who set him up before it kills him.

It is a strong hook, but GameSpot said the plot is tough to follow and hard to care about, and VGC called the story and characters bland. Polygon’s reviewer also found the narrative confusing. IGN felt the revenge tale plays it extremely safe. Not everyone agrees: one reviewer who played in Chinese with English subtitles enjoyed the dialogue and praised a strong supporting cast, including the healer Yu’er and a blunt weaponsmith named Forge.

There are smaller gripes, too:

• Boss fights can feel slow. Eurogamer gave it three stars and said the flow of crowd fights fades when you face a boss, likening it to waiting your turn with a wooden sword.
• Regular enemy fights can get repetitive, according to a review from Brazil’s Critical Hits that leaked early with an 8.5/10.
• The camera can slip behind walls during tight fights, and IGN mentioned invisible barriers and some technical hiccups.

This matters if punishing games are not your thing. Phantom Blade Zero borrows some ideas from the Dark Souls style, such as bells that act as checkpoints and fast-travel points, but critics describe it as a third-person action game first.

The biggest difference: enemies you kill stay dead. They do not come back each time you rest, so there is no grinding the same area over and over. You can also move upgrade materials from one weapon to another with little penalty, which encourages experimenting.

And there is a lot to experiment with. The game has 30 main weapons plus 20 secondary ones called Phantom Edges, which have limited uses between checkpoints and range from cannons to axes. Combat rewards attacking and parrying at the same time, managing a meter called Sha Chi, and reading red and blue warning signals that tell you to dodge or parry. Expect a learning curve: one reviewer admitted losing to regular enemies early on.

Phantom Blade Zero launches on Thursday, October 29, on PS5 and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store. In North America it unlocks the evening before, at 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET on Wednesday, October 28. In the UK and Europe, that same moment already falls on October 29.

• Pre-order bonuses: the Treasure Basin accessory, which raises Remnant Dust drops by 10%, and the Legacy outfit. Both can also be earned by playing.
• Deluxe Edition: adds two exclusive outfits, Wulin Legend and Blood-Steel Form, plus a digital artbook and soundtrack. It does not include early access.
• Physical copies: a PS5 disc version is not coming until 2027.

If you play action games for the fighting, the reviews make an easy case. Few games this year have earned this much praise for how combat feels, and the lack of respawning enemies makes it friendlier than a true Soulslike. If you need a gripping story to keep going, wait for player impressions or a sale.

Demand looks strong either way. Analytics firm Alinea Analytics estimates around 500,000 people have reserved digital copies on Steam alone. And with the score it has now, Phantom Blade Zero is a serious contender for nominations when The Game Awards come around in December.