Six hours with an early build of Phantom Blade Zero were enough to understand the hype. An early hands-on preview calls it “the most smooth and satisfying action since Sekiro,” praising fantastic boss fights, deeply customizable weapons, and a world packed with secrets. Here’s everything we learned from the preview.
Key Preview Takeaways:
- There are a ton of boss fights, and they’re fantastic so far.
- If you like style, PBZ is oozing it.
- Framerate hitches on a beefy PC are a yellow flag this close to launch.
Sword-wielding, parry-heavy action games arrive in droves these days, and at first glance Phantom Blade Zero looked like another entry in a crowded genre. It took about five minutes with developer S-GAME’s game to see how it sets itself apart: combat described as the most smooth and satisfying since Sekiro, a surprising number of things to do and secrets to find while exploring each level, and a story that seems like it will go harder than expected. After more than six hours pushing through the first leg of the adventure, Phantom Blade Zero has gone from barely on the radar to one of the most anticipated games of 2026.
The first thing that stands out is how effortlessly the game oozes style. One cutscene has a character played by Donnie Yen balancing a baby on the edge of his blade while fending off numerous attackers; one boss encounter involves fighting (and eventually taking on the form of) a dancing lion of the kind seen in Chinatown on Chinese New Year. Even the opening minutes, which see the protagonist choosing which heart to receive from a creepy ghost-like figure, make it clear this game is metal as hell. Standing out among a horde of cool-swordmaster-fights-monsters games is genuinely hard, and yet rarely half an hour went by without running into something that felt new.
And that’s all before getting to the combat itself, which is without question the star of the show. Nearly every moment of Phantom Blade Zero makes you feel like a complete badass: riding atop a horse-drawn wagon while fighting off armed pursuers and blocking their gunfire with a sword, breaking an enemy’s guard meter with repeated parries and finishing them with brutally cinematic executions, or holding two enemies at bay on either side with an absurdly cool simultaneous double kick.
This game has an incredible knack for making you feel like you’re the only person in the world who could have pulled something like that off.
A lot of that comes down to how smooth the parry mechanics and attack combos are. Parrying three thrown daggers in quick succession, then flowing into a string of attacks that sends the character flipping through the air and spinning gracefully as enemies get smacked around, feels spectacularly natural. For players who are particular about parry windows and the imperceptible feel of a satisfying strike, it’s easy to become disenchanted quickly — but Phantom Blade Zero gets those tiny details right, making it incredibly hard to put down.
Tools of the Trade
If the core feel of combat is what pulls players in, the bevy of melee weapons is what holds their interest. Every weapon tried in this section of the adventure felt extremely bespoke. One massive two-handed blade, earned by defeating an optional secret boss, carried the fight through a ton of encounters thanks to its insane damage output. Another boss — a drunken fighting master — awarded his drunken fighting style upon defeat, allowing the player to bob and weave unpredictably while guiding the blade telekinetically, even sending it flying at enemies as a ranged weapon. The differences between weapons are stark enough that each one takes real time to adjust to, learning combos and weighing pros and cons while slicing through wave after wave of minion.
There’s also a surprising amount to upgrade while mastering kung fu skills: enhancing weapons by investing materials to improve stats and capabilities, and investing in various skill tree paths that offer everything from active abilities (like interrupting your own attacks to execute a quick dodge) to passive perks (like restoring Sha-Chi, used for certain special actions, faster than normal). For an action game mostly focused on pulling off sick kills, a surprising amount of RPG has snuck into the mix, and it’s welcome. Breaks from combat for a bit of buildcrafting go a long way, even if it didn’t seem to go especially deep in what was shown.
Who’s the Boss?
Boss fights can make or break a game like Phantom Blade Zero, and just about every one played so far was an absolute banger. Early fights run standard fare — a hooded man throwing chained blades, a big burly monstrosity swinging an ax the size of a grown man — but more original ideas take center stage soon after. One fight is a perfected dance of death against a snake lady who swoops through the air in a barrage of hilariously convoluted strikes, testing fast reaction times and the ability to read enemy movements. The lion dancer duel is less chaotic, with slower, fairly telegraphed attacks, but the challenge lies in finding creative ways around the lion mask’s nigh-impenetrable armor — including a trick for throwing the fiery foe off balance that won’t be spoiled here.
Much has also been made of Donnie Yen’s role as the mysterious Mó Yuan, and with good reason. Without going into details on how his character weaves into the story or the nature of his fights, the way this component of the adventure takes shape is genuinely surprising. Facing this formidable foe doesn’t go down the way you’d expect, and running into him multiple times over the course of the playthrough was a highlight, featuring some of the downright coolest animations seen in an action game in a very long time.
Densely Packed
Away from the boss arenas, the levels hide a surprising amount of secrets to discover, side quests to complete, and completely missable areas to explore. During the demo, weapons and gadgets turned up that others at the preview event reported never encountering; one of the coolest bosses found was entirely optional; and hidden regions filled with loot rewarded backtracking, like a creepy underground fortress that stayed hidden until late. The aesthetic, which mixes industrial design with traditional wuxia elements, makes for unique areas — like a massive factory nestled in the center of a quiet village in the mountains. The side quests completed were mostly short errands: travel somewhere, kill things or collect items — largely busywork that fleshed out a bit of story with a side character and exposed the player to a few more combat encounters, but also gave more reasons to stop, explore, and soak in the world.
The one area without enough exposure to judge is the story. The premise is straightforward: the protagonist has only 66 days to live and sets out to cure himself before it’s too late and get revenge against his enemies — pretty normal stuff for the genre. The opening cutscenes and early story bits were mostly setup, good enough but not especially interesting, and few of the big beats developed beyond the first act. Whether there will be payoff remains to be seen, though everything learned about Donnie Yen’s character and his relationship to the protagonist suggests the story could deliver.
Last Hurdle
The time with Phantom Blade Zero was overwhelmingly positive, but one area gives pause: technical performance. The build played wasn’t final, and S-GAME said most of its focus in the remaining weeks before launch is on optimization. Still, it’s worth flagging that infrequent but fairly severe framerate drops cropped up throughout the demo — on a decently powerful PC, no less, which makes how it will look and run on PS5 (the only console PBZ is debuting on) an open question. It’s something to keep an eye on closer to launch, since awesome games shipping with unfortunate technical hiccups is disappointingly common these days.
After half a day with Phantom Blade Zero, the game has leapt to the top of the wishlist, and the plan is to dive back in later this year to see if it can deliver beyond those first handful of hours. For now, just about everything seen and played suggests this is going to be one of the coolest action games of 2026.
Disclosure: This article is for informational purposes only and contains no affiliate links. Impressions are based on an early non-final build and the final game may differ.
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