September 9th was the original release date for "Phantom Blade Zero," leaving only 50 days until the final official release on October 29th. On this significant day, Liang Qiwei, founder of S-Games and producer of "Phantom Blade Zero," published a long article reviewing the game's years of polishing and design philosophy. He detailed the game's difficulty modes, especially the design初衷 (original intent) behind the "66 Days" mode, the weapon progression system, the behind-the-scenes stories of the actors for Zuo Shang and Hun, and the creative resonance between the team and players centered around the game.
Regarding the highly discussed topic of game difficulty, Liang Qiwei stated that his favorites are the easiest "Initiate" mode and the most hardcore "66 Days" mode. The initial difficulty design was an ultra-hard death loop mechanic where players had only 66 lives; once exhausted, the game would permanently end, requiring players to restart from the beginning to clear it. However, to ensure a relatively good experience for different types of players, the team ultimately adopted a compromise: in the first playthrough, players can choose between three difficulty levels: "Initiate," "Breakthrough," and "Defy Heaven." The easiest "Initiate" mode allows even players with no action game experience to easily explore the world and immerse themselves in the story.
All achievements and the Platinum trophy can be unlocked in the first playthrough, with no forced requirement to challenge hardcore content. The highly challenging "66 Days" mode will unlock in New Game+, featuring no manual saves and irreversible death. Every mistake is fully recorded, and exhausting your lives will directly trigger the ending, focusing on a pure experience of extreme challenge.
Regarding weapon progression, each weapon has its own independent growth system. As weapons level up, your combat style and strategies will change significantly. Different weapons also have counter relationships against specific enemies. Players can either switch weapons to strategically counter certain foes or clear the game using just a single weapon.
Meanwhile, Liang Qiwei also shared behind-the-scenes stories about the game and its role actors. The motion capture actor for the protagonist Hun is a long-time fan of the "Rain Blood" series, while the actor portraying Zuo Shang is a current student at the Film Academy of Shanghai University, born after 2000, who is familiar with "Phantom Blade 3." Thanks to his deep understanding of the character, he successfully portrayed Zuo Shang's reserved, cold, and scheming temperament, with his performance in the white-haired state far exceeding expectations. Donnie Yen's deep involvement and co-creation also imbued the hidden boss, Demon Abyss, with unique personal charm. From new-generation gamer actors to international kung fu superstars, creators and performers from different generations jointly breathed vivid life into the game's characters.
Whether it's the extreme trial of "66 Days," the strategic variety in weapon progression, or the co-created stories resonating between players and creators, these elements collectively form the spiritual core of "Phantom Blade Zero." As we get closer to the official release on October 29th, "Phantom Blade Zero" has officially entered its 50-day countdown. We look forward to the official launch bringing players a more immersive gaming experience, inviting them to step into and feel this unique Kung Fu Punk wuxia world.
Below is the original text of S Chang's article:
Difficulty, Weapons, Players
I hadn't realized before that in "Phantom Blade Zero," my favorite modes were actually the easiest "Initiate" mode and the most hardcore "66 Days" mode.
Due to the need for rapid testing to gather feedback, I cleared the game on "Initiate" mode more times than on "Breakthrough" and "Defy Heaven." Playing as an "Initiate," I felt exceptionally relaxed, exploring the world and triggering side quests, relying on RPG progression rather than tense combat reflexes to defeat enemies.
As I mentioned during last year's offline demo event, "Phantom Blade Zero" allows players with no action game experience to easily explore this world, experience the story, discover the map, and still enjoy the fun of combat. We designed a "complex easy difficulty" system through enemy AI and flexible animations: enemies surround you, triggering exciting wuxia-style combat animations, culminating in satisfying executions or direct kills.
And "66 Days" feels almost like a completely different game.
When I first conceived "Phantom Blade Zero" in 2018, I originally envisioned the entire game like this: an unselectable ultra-high difficulty, where players would meet their end after sixty-six deaths.
With each restart, due to improved player skills, you might get closer to the game's ending than the previous time.
Such a "roguelike run" would be far too long. Imagine spending 20–30 hours only to permanently die because you ran out of days—for most players, this would be a game they could never clear, bringing endless frustration and torment.
When I discussed this design with some streamers, I could feel their eager anticipation—the remaining days decrease with each death, and the fewer days left, the stronger the dramatic effect. I can almost imagine how intense the atmosphere in the livestream would be after dozens of hours of streaming, when only one life remains to fight a powerful enemy.
Ultimately, we decided that the first playthrough would follow a traditional game flow, where players can choose between "Initiate," "Breakthrough," and "Defy Heaven" difficulties. The remaining days serve only a narrative purpose and do not affect gameplay. Only after starting New Game+ can players choose the "66 Days" difficulty.
The save file for "66 Days" is separate from other difficulties. Touching the bell automatically saves the game, and there is no manual saving. The process faithfully records all your mistakes and regrets, and you cannot load data from before a mistake, just like in life.
If you exhaust all your days, you will enter an ending of regret in the Jianghu, which includes a short animation. After it plays, that run's data becomes history forever, and you will be asked if you want to start over.
However, "66 Days" is unrelated to achievements—all achievements in "Phantom Blade Zero" can be obtained within the first three difficulty levels. Even if you play entirely on "Initiate" mode, you can still earn all achievements in a single playthrough. Therefore, "Phantom Blade Zero" is a game where, regardless of your skill or experience with such games, you can achieve the Platinum trophy in your first playthrough simply by immersing yourself in exploring this world.
The true grind and the ultimate joy of challenge—or rather, the experience closer to the protagonist "Hun's" life-on-the-line situation—is non-utilitarian and entirely based on the player's voluntary choice.
This was just one of the countless difficult choices made for "Phantom Blade Zero."
We aimed to create a game that anyone can easily pick up, effortlessly executing stunning martial arts moves and dispatching powerful foes with spectacular finishing animations. However, whether you want to casually enjoy our original world and story, experience the cool martial arts choreography, or challenge your limits and delve into the depth of the action, you'll find gameplay that suits you. In the era of live streaming and short videos, these thrilling challenge runs themselves will become content appreciated by even more people.
In "Phantom Blade Zero," you can perfectly clear the game and earn the Platinum trophy in your first playthrough. For many players, stopping there is a complete journey. Our drive for multiple playthroughs doesn't come from any utilitarian goals—if you spontaneously want to continue playing, it's likely because you feel you haven't fully enjoyed using all those weapons obtained later in the game.
"Phantom Blade Zero" features a vast array of weapons. However, if you delve deeply into each weapon, you'll discover it has its own growth system—and often, it's about much more than just stats.
For the same weapon at level 1 versus level 30, due to improvements in certain traits, the control scheme and combat strategy might be worlds apart.
Almost every weapon has counters against certain enemies but becomes less effective in other situations. Choosing specific weapons to defeat different enemies is naturally the optimal solution, but some players can also try clearing the game with just one weapon, or even the weakest wooden sword.
As everyone knows, many of our weapons drop from bosses. Naturally, this means you won't have much opportunity to use weapons from late-game bosses during your first playthrough. As for the final boss's weapon? Or the hidden boss's weapon? They might even serve merely as collectibles.
But we completed all these late-game weapons one by one. Since they drop from late-game bosses, they are inevitably more powerful in the lore, often featuring more motion capture data and complex mechanics. However, they aren't useful during the first playthrough; you can only fully experience these weapons upon entering New Game+.
"Phantom Blade Zero" is a player-centric game. To some extent, it is even a game co-created with players.
As mentioned before, Yucheng, the motion capture actor for our male protagonist "Hun," is a veteran player from the "Rain Blood" era. I felt his temperament was very suitable for playing Hun, and his condition for accepting the role was that he needed to read the script first. After reading it, he happily joined the project.
After Yucheng joined, I hit a bottleneck in casting the other male protagonist, Zuo Shang. For this type of character, especially after his hair turns white, it's easy to accidentally end up resembling Alucard, Sephiroth, or Vergil. While many might think "maybe that's not bad," it wasn't my vision.
For Hun, we could dirty his face, tatter his clothes, and give him a weathered texture to make him a wuxia character. But for Zuo Shang, one wrong move could turn him into one of those generic handsome influencer models who become unrecognizable without their signature hairstyle when placed alongside characters from other works.
After rejecting no fewer than 20 actors for the role of Zuo Shang, one day, a student from the Film Academy of Shanghai University named Zhang Xince approached me, saying he wanted to try motion capturing Zuo Shang. Looking at his profile—a student, born after 2000, with experience in stage plays—I naturally assumed a more mature actor would be suitable for Zuo Shang, who is meticulous and deeply scheming. Yet, this actor wanting to play Zuo Shang was several years younger than Yucheng, who plays Hun.
During the interview, I asked Zhang Xince if he had heard of our series before and why he wanted to play Zuo Shang. He took out his phone and showed me a high-level Qingyu account from "Phantom Blade 3." He said he noticed that Zuo Shang's clothes in "Phantom Blade Zero" seemed to lean towards Qingyu's design. Seeing the 2D sprite transform into such a specific and complex robe, he wanted to experience wearing these clothes in the cyber world and, more importantly, participate in giving flesh and blood to Zuo Shang.
At that moment, I realized that "old" players could be those who played "Rain Blood: Dead Town" 15 years ago, or those who played the mobile game "Phantom Blade 3" five years ago.
I decided right then that he would play Zuo Shang. During subsequent scanning and performances, I noticed that the photos in his profile were actually edited to look too sunny. As a post-2000s kid, his portrayal of Zuo Shang improved with each performance, even excelling in the pale, sickly, weak, and cold-hearted white-haired form.
But what initially gave me a sense of familiarity with him? I think it was probably the label of "gamer"—gamers appreciating gamers. In some contexts, this label isn't considered prestigious, especially for a film school student. But I hope that in the future, not just in our projects, acting in major single-player games will become a coveted career path in the performing arts.
(During the Shougang demo event in 2025, the motion capture actors for Hun and Zuo Shang blended in with the players and cleared the demo)
Games have brought many people closer together. When Donnie Yen directed the CG opening for "Onimusha 3" twenty years ago, he probably never imagined the extent of the game industry's development today. However, these experiences have deepened our respect and trust in him, as they imply a sense of camaraderie among "fellow travelers."
(Besides filming in the motion capture studio in Shanghai, some content that didn't require motion capture, such as the video of Donnie Yen personally performing sword dances in the State of Play trailer, was completed at the former Asia Television site in Hong Kong, where Donnie Yen filmed "Fist of Fury" over 30 years ago)
By the way, you will face the Demon Abyss multiple times in the game. Each encounter will deepen your understanding of "Phantom Blade Zero's" combat—even so, by the final battle, perhaps the only way to win is to forget Everythinggj.
Today is September 9th, the original planned release date for "Phantom Blade Zero," and also marks the 50-day countdown to the official launch on October 29th.
Whether it's the life-on-the-line moments in the "66 Days" mode, the爽快 (satisfying) killing sprees with powerful late-game weapons in the early stages of New Game+, or the performances by people truly connected to the game—from Donnie Yen to our young gamer actors... these elements weave together to form the underlying spirit of "Phantom Blade Zero," which I believe everyone will eventually appreciate.