There’s a lot of doom and gloom around PS5 at the moment in the aftermath of Sony’s live service struggles, but it’s always worth remembering 2024 was a solid year for the system and 2025 is shaping up to be even better.
And here’s a timely reminder of that in the form of an extended Phantom Blade Zero gameplay trailer. Captured on PS5, this looks jaw-droppingly good, as the hatted hero faces off against a boss enemy named the Chief Disciple of the Seven Stars.
While there are clearly Soulslike influences here, the action also looks much faster than a FromSoftware title, closer to something like Stellar Blade or even Devil May Cry.
As the battle develops, the Chief Disciple’s minions take higher ground and start puppeteering their leader around the stage. It’s really impressive stuff. There’s even a Returnal-style, bullet hell moment!
While there’s no release date attached, developer S-GAME says it will officially confirm when the title will launch sometime this year.
Put this one right near the top of your most wanted list.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 53
This looks so freakin' good! OMG!
I'm really hoping the gameplay is as complex as it looks and not like the other ones where you just hold R1 and press square. Getting tired of gameplay systems like that personally and just want combos as complex as DMC again.
Between this and Lost Soul Aside, PS5 owners are eating good off the Chinese action game menu.
Yeah this trailer shows the Sony focus in Chinese games isn't for nothing, these guys are crazy talented lol the game looks fantastic and it's a freaking action game, cherry on top. The studio has talked about the FromSoft inspiration ONLY on level design but the FromSoft combat not fitting their style so I hope people actually see it for what it is and not just like a "soulslike" a term that is derogatory these days.
They have also talked about how Sony is just up to help them in what they can. Spotlight? Consoles? Contacts? You get it. That's how you build good relationships. Hoyo, Shift Up, Koei Tecmo, they get it. SE doesn't lol.
Removed - unconstructive; user is banned
Looks incredible — and sounds incredible too, at least in this early demo. I feel like I need to watch this a few times to take it all in! 😸
Looks fantastic and so badass. Music is pretty peak as well.
Now this is a game
@Reform They don't need too.
I mean, it looks cool. But, as with all hack-n'-slashes, what matters is how it feels. This isn't some anime, after all, it's a video game.
We really won't know how it feels until we get to try it. Though, based on this trailer, parrying looks nice. The attacks themselves? Kinda weightless, and I don't think the animations do that good of a job telegraphing when the player's attacks are actually happening vs. winding up. Maybe the weightlessness will end up feeling good — who knows. But, in my opinion, you really want an OMPH when you make contact, and it looks like only a few specific, contextual moves will have that feeling.
Gameplay looks incredible. Must be a long way away if they’re announcing the release date will drop at some point this year
Now this is how you do a trailer. I wasn't sold in this game at first but I might consider buying it near the release date
This was a dope trailer. Remains to be seen if the combat is all flash and no depth or more, but yah that viewed sick as hell. Loved the camera work and Score for the trailer.
Very well put together. Release window and demo would be nice though. White snake looks awesome.
@RoomWithaMoose "Kinda weightless" My dude no offense, but you're blind. The impacts, camera shake, and sound effects make the attacks feel as meaty and weightful as they should be. Not to mention when I'm attacking with a katana I need that to feel like I'm slicing through butter and this game manages to execute it perfectly.
Bruh this game looks hype af! 💥
The enemy design is quite creepy, the combat looks fast, cool, and fun, the music slaps, but the fight coreography is just #chef kiss
S-Game are cooking a delicious cuisine with this game :3
@Reform Western devs never good in fast-stylish-challenging character action games like this, DMC, or Ninja Gaiden. But i prefer that way so they can do their own thing rather than just copy what Asian devs do.
@Nepp67 Eh. I disagree.
For 90% of his attacks, it looks like he's waving his sword through the air with a very unimpactful 'swoosh' sound accompanying it.
Feel free to disagree, but I know what I'm seeing.
Your "butter" comment is fair. Like I said, maybe the weightlessness will feel good.
Jaw is dropped
The enemy does team move is pretty cool stuff, the game looks promising 😃
The western AAAA games is disappointing this gen but fortunately games from japan/korea/china are really good and worth it.
That looks remarkable. Not my type of game and as someone who’s eaten extremely lightly for games this generation, I’m incredibly jealous.
Absolute cinema. 😎
When was it stated this would be a PS5 exclusive?
I legit cannot wait for this game!!
Man, I hate multi-stage boss battles, with that negative out of the way, this game looks incredible! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it.
@Orishibu Technically it wasn't. They're choosing to release it on PS5 and PC only for now.
They've not said why they're not releasing on XBOX, but there's no exclusivity deal with Sony.
@Shepherd_Tallon
Thanks, thought I remembered as much.. Glad to know it's also coming to PC. Can't wait for this one!
@Shepherd_Tallon You watch, this will be another Black Myth Wukong situation, where good old Grubb will say Sony did a sneaky "deal" with S-game with "trust me bro" sources...
The first trailer I've seen in a while that has me genuinely excited for a release.
Looking forward to seeing more of this in the future!
@DennisReynolds They definitely do.
@Reform and why's that?
I'm a little dubious on the 'Release date with be announced 2025' slapped on at the end... it's a bit too vague for me to have my hype ticket punched.
We’ve given Sony a lot of heat lately for the complete mismanagement of PlayStation Studios and the live service debacle, so I think it only fair to give them props for the foresight to invest in the 3rd party promotional support that has brought some really popular single player games this generation. This is looking like it will join Stellar Blade, Black Myth, Rise of the Ronin, Final Fantasy Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI, Silent Hill 2, and Helldivers 2, (and forthcoming Death Stranding 2), as really quality output from 2nd and 3rd party studios for console exclusive PS5 games.
Perhaps Sony knew all along that they didn’t need a lot of single player games from their first party so that’s why they felt comfortable experimenting with their own studios stepping away from making traditional SP games. 🤷🏻♂️
@Th3solution I like that positive outlook, we need to be more like this people 👍
@Th3solution We were having this conversation in work too.
They've definitely placed an emphasis on third party single player games this gen. They've made it very easy and attractive for the devs to put those games on PS5 at least.
This gen reminds me of the PS1 days in a lot of ways - I bought a PS1 for Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. I only became a fan of first party studios in the PS2/PS3 era.
Looks kinda cool but also looks way too much like style over substance for my tastes.
Hopefully they lean into the deflect mechanic more.
But also, there really needs to be more audio-visual feedback from the player character's weapons hitting their targets.
The second phase of the fight looked like it could have potential in terms of challenge though.
They just need to actually make it feel like an actual threat to the player.
@Shepherd_Tallon bc cn games always mainly market for cn players whom play pc 99%, but Sony offer big help(not just porting) to PhantomBZ, so it will on PS5. So, console market isn't that important to them &they aren't familiar with developing on console (u can see from Wukong)if sony don't help them. That's why xbox are neglected, bc just simply insignificant.
I hope this is difficult. Not pre-stat gains/learning curve difficult akin to FromSoft but legit difficult like Ninja Gaidens/Niohs (which is less so when you get good at it).
@JohntheRaptor The last info on this was that it will have difficulty options and enemies won't respawn on death. It's more of an action adventure game than an ARPG. Visuals and level design are similar to soulslikes, but other than that it will have little in common with them other than a lovely dark fantasy setting.
@Lukeded Yeah it's fascinating to observe the differences. Sony are doing good work increasing sales there, but I can't see PC ever being supplanted in China.
That looks incredible.i always enjoy me some boss fights.phantom blade zero is gonna be a instant hit.word up son
@Shepherd_Tallon What sony mainly do is keeping almost all aaa on ps5, just like nintendo to indie game. &to playstation China, actually they sell ps5 very well. bc console market on cn almost come from zero, so every growth is better. And due to the media, ps5 means expensive, so it will attract rich consumers. For example, many cn consumers buy ps5pro but don't have disc drive, so they will buy ps5 slim disc version just for disc drive and sell console. It's crazy circle, bc cheap selling will attract people buying and look for disc drive and goin on.
It looks a lot better than any of the combat in any recent releases. It looks like it feels good to play, too. It's hard to make a trailer actually give you that sense, but they somehow have. There's no "freeze stop" after every blade hit, the parry/block mechanic looks very manageable (I don't think they take any damage in second phase 😅) but there isn't a load of red and white flashes on screen to alert you when to parry, so it just seems to flow on momentum and character visuals.
I think the last move was them just showing off... waiting for the bulletstorm and timing it so they can flip through it with some kind of stored special move? 👀😁
Also, the jump dodge onto the opponents blade? Come on now.
Is there such a thing as too cool? 😅
Yeah looks amazing and I've already seen enough to know I'll buy it day one.
Game definitely looks good. But I have to say, God Of War and most recently Black Myth WUKONG have really set the bar high on what these kinds of games could and should be. If it can live up to that level of quality and gameplay I’m in
The studios already said this was coming out in 2026
Oh hell yeah I was not expecting DOOM music to kick in. Am sold.
Wow yeah looks fantastic. Dude’s health bar didn’t drop the whole time… did they get gud or is the game in god mode for the trailer… the world will never know!
@Th3solution Of course Sony saw gaps in their first party line up and tried to fill them, they've been doing that for 25+ years. It's awesome.
looks like a soul like devil may cry , which looks amazing. i hope they release a demo like the video above if its like a single boss fight or something to get a taste of the game. this is looking like game of the year for 2026 100%. i didn't even realize that this is a console exclusive too.
I absolutely adore hack n slash games. It's been so tiring over the last few years with everything trying to be a Souls game. I'm keeping an eye on this as it definitely seems to be closer to Ninja Gaiden and DMC.
Played this at Gamescom and I was really surprised, it felt awesome.
Well that looks suitably bonkers!
Love the crazy metal soundtrack, looks to be a certain future purchase, right up my street!
It looks like a great blend of black myth style gameplay, paired with context sensitive animations (the dodging on top of the blades) and cinematics. If all this comes together this'll be solid. I'd be happy if it's shorter but more polished. Makes a game more replayable if it's not 30+ hours.
Looks absolutely fantastic, they will definitely show a lot more this year and give a release date at some point later on in the year.
Phantom Blade Zero doesn’t come out until late 2026 so there’s plenty of time to work on it.
Really looking forward to this game and also Lost Soul Aside is another game that looks incredible which is due out in a few months time now
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