Phantasm Blade Zero released its latest trailer this morning and officially opened pre-orders for the game. Shortly after, Phantasm Blade Zero topped the Steam global sales chart.
This outcome was hardly surprising—if you are aware of the major titles emerging from Chinese games in recent years, the immense anticipation for Phantasm Blade Zero goes without saying.
As always, S-Games was generous with this trailer. In previous trailers, they consistently introduced new and intriguing weapons and boss designs—action sequences and combat scenes meant to shock players upon their first encounter in the full game were packed one after another into trailers and demos, with no concern about spoiling the official content.
This trailer is no exception. Moreover, as this is an enhanced 11-minute demo, the number of weapons and bosses showcased is doubled. From the Snake Woman under the command of "Lady Shengmu" hanging in mid-air with red threads, enough to spark much imagination.
Later came the blockbuster: Mo Yuan, the former leader of the Dark Demon Castle, modeled and motion-captured by Donnie Yen, made his entrance. He not only brought the most exhilarating and gorgeous action sequences in the entire trailer but also presented an Easter egg of the "Ip Man-style straight punch."
Beyond the highly discussable new bosses, what impressed me most in this trailer was the second phase of "Huang Xingzi" (the Big Head Chainsaw Boss). This wasn't just due to the visually shocking presentation of "Killing Intent Modification," but also because S-Games unreservedly revealed all the surprises and secrets of this boss to the players.
In the first playable version of Phantasm Blade Zero, "Huang Xingzi" appeared as the final boss. In the pre-order announcement trailer, he played the key role of smashing out the Phantasm Blade Zero logo. An unknown fact is that we actually saw an early version of this second phase at a closed-door demo two years ago. At that time, media and content creators present praised its imaginative creativity and strongly impactful visual presentation upon first sight.
Originally, this was intended to be a surprise hidden in the full release, but unexpectedly, S-Games directly presented the boss's transformation animation, attack sequences, and even the final execution animation, along with a showcase of the "Green Dragon Crescent Blade."
Combining the content choices of previous trailers, you can actually discover S-Games' somewhat unrestrained desire to express themselves. They seem very confident that they are making something "cool" and are eager to share these "cool" things with players.
What makes this trailer feel different to me is the "desire to express." Perhaps because the game is nearing release and the basic content is complete, S-Games has the confidence to fully introduce their work to players. This first trailer exceeding 10 minutes is packed with content they wish to present. This includes their usual strengths that make players cheer—action sequences, boss designs, aesthetic expressions, and music design—as well as their first attempt at "literary expression," which they are evidently less proficient in—
Namely, that somewhat lengthy and dull carriage chase scene.
Yes, I believe the opening carriage chase scene belongs more to S-Games' "literary expression." I believe this is also why S-Games chose to place it completely at the beginning, despite knowing the obvious disparity in viewing experience between this segment and the subsequent content.
In this trailer, S-Games set the tone with a sequence of white text on a black background.
This sentence basically summarizes S-Games' expressive tendency in this trailer—interpreting their vision of "wuxia."
"Wuxia" is the theme of Phantasm Blade Zero, and it has been the core motif surrounding Liang Qiwei's creations for over a decade, starting from the "Rain Blood" series. Looking at Liang Qiwei's creative journey, it is easy to see that the "Shadow Realm" constructed by him and his team has developed its own vitality through successive works. Phantasm Blade Zero represents a crucial breakthrough in Liang Qiwei's creativity—presenting the wuxia world in his mind on a truly high-spec gaming stage.
Therefore, in this trailer released near the game's launch, Liang Qiwei clearly attempted to offer the first interpretation of "what wuxia he wants to express." In the subsequent creator exchange session, he summarized the content Phantasm Blade Zero aims to express and the work it aims to accomplish as "allowing Chinese wuxia culture to achieve a breakthrough in a new form."
This involves a conceptual clash between "new" and "old."
Liang Qiwei believes that having grown up immersed in wuxia novels and Hong Kong-style wuxia films, he finds the decline of wuxia culture in the contemporary context quite regrettable. In his view, the predicament facing traditional wuxia stems largely from its narrative methods and audiovisual expressions failing to keep up with modern aesthetic demands.
Therefore, Liang Qiwei hopes to achieve a breakthrough through a "Wuxia Punk" approach.
This explains why the wuxia world created by Liang Qiwei, from "Rain Blood" to "Phantasm Blade," has always featured a coexistence of traditional wuxia flavors and groundbreaking trendy punk styles. It is also why I believe this trailer starts with an seemingly ordinary carriage chase.
In many wuxia works, there is often a "prologue" chapter, typically featuring an abrupt chase sequence. Characters intricately linked to the main story get卷入 into a "major event" during the chase, leaving a massive suspenseful hook before the story truly begins.
The car chase scene in Phantasm Blade Zero carries a strong "prologue" flavor—a remote wilderness, an injured person, a group of assassins appearing out of nowhere, and a speeding carriage. It then follows the classic tropes of a chase scene: long-range attacks, close-quarters brawls, technical combat in confined spaces, and finally, a showdown between masters.
From a game design perspective, this chase scene is S-Games' way of "showing off their skills." Liang Qiwei emphasized that apart from QTE interactions, all blocks and attacks are controlled by the player. Thus, in actual gameplay, this is essentially a CG cutscene where the player is fully involved and in complete control.
But looking at the overall content arrangement of the trailer, this is actually a "prologue" before the true story of Phantasm Blade Zero begins, outside of Pang Town. Therefore, after this "prologue," S-Games adopted the very classic wuxia narrative method of "revealing a large world through a small event," using Mu Xiaokui's voice to begin explaining the basic faction settings of this world—the Organization, the Righteous Alliance, and "Lady Shengmu."
The narrative used at the beginning of this Phantasm Blade Zero trailer is entirely in the style of traditional wuxia, following a "wuxia narrative template" we have seen countless times.
S-Games wanted to use this template to complete the intro for this rebirth of the "Phantasm Blade" series, using straightforward language to let everyone understand that this is a direct wuxia story about "a dying man preparing to save ordinary people."
However, while the skeleton remains the same, the flesh and blood S-Games used to fill it is completely different from the audiovisual language of traditional wuxia, known as "Wuxia Punk."
Actually, "Wuxia Punk" has always been the interesting aspect of the "Phantasm Blade" IP. For over a decade, "Killing Intent" as one of the underlying settings of the "Shadow Realm" has successfully built a bridge connecting this particularly Old School wuxia world with many pop culture elements. The existence of "Killing Intent Modification" has successfully expanded the possibilities for character images, weapons, and martial arts. The addition of surreal elements and mechanical alienation has not pushed the "Shadow Realm" into an overly magical style; instead, it has injected a fashionable, dark, and grim tone into this wuxia narrative.
It is precisely because of the "Killing Intent Modification" setting that the huge chainsaw head violently growing out in Huang Xingzi's second phase possesses such rich and solid impact.
Liang Qiwei explained the world-building in the trailer by stating he wanted to use this narrative to illustrate a very special aspect of Chinese wuxia stories: the portrayal of relationships between people. In previous trailers, they showcased simple binary oppositions, i.e., the relationship between protagonist and enemy. But in this trailer, he wanted to further demonstrate the relationship between the protagonist and friends, and more importantly—the relationship between "a knight-errant and the common people."
These are actually very classic narratives in traditional wuxia stories. Whether it's "A great hero serves the country and its people" or "Though millions oppose me, I shall go," the core of wuxia is often linked to connections between people.
But following this narrative segment comes what we have seen countless times in previous trailers: tense fights, imaginative enemy designs, and distinctive weapon showcases. These contents are unified, completing another expression of the "Wuxia Punk" aesthetic concept by Phantasm Blade Zero.
So, to some extent, I believe Phantasm Blade Zero is using this trailer to explain their design philosophy: standing on the core of traditional wuxia, and utilizing audiovisual languages that better meet contemporary aesthetic demands to give the concept of "wuxia" a new and striking expressiveness.
Therefore, I believe the split reception of the Phantasm Blade Zero trailer within the player community perfectly echoes Liang Qiwei's views on the "wuxia dilemma"—
In today's day and age, solemnly arranging a carriage chase scene and bringing in an unknown character to preach about "saving the common people" is a approach that no longer quite works for audiences fatigued by such narratives in contemporary entertainment.
And that sequence of switching from Guan Dao to large shield to gauntlets, blasting enemies' heads, and finally connecting with Donnie Yen, earned plenty of "satisfying to watch" comments in the player community. Meanwhile, the fact that Phantasm Blade Zero topped the sales charts is sufficient proof that the new generation of "wuxia" with strong expressiveness and stylization that Phantasm Blade Zero aims to achieve has competitiveness fully meeting S-Games' expectations.
On the other hand, although S-Games' "literary expression" in this trailer may not have been entirely satisfactory, it is, after all, just a trailer and cannot be equated with the content of the full game. Perhaps they simply haven't mastered the art of editing game trailers, a issue not uncommon among many development teams.
As for the narrative and breakthroughs they aimed to achieve in the trailer, judging by the player community's reaction, as long as they maintain their exceptionally strong strengths, this breakthrough in new-generation wuxia aesthetics is clearly viable.
Moreover, there is an interesting point—
What S-Games is doing is essentially what wuxia works have been doing for decades.
There was a Hong Kong film in the late last century called "Those Were the Days," which tells the story of a contemporary Hong Kong director traveling back to the 1960s, attempting to use movie tropes popular in the 90s. However, they hit a wall when first using Huang Feihong's "Foshan Shadowless Kick." The Huang Feihong stories of the 60s differed significantly from the film series we later saw. The template back then was episodic dramas featuring the aging master Huang Feihong and the villain Shi Jian. Huang Feihong's signature martial art was "Tiger-Crane Double Form," typical of early martial arts films, focusing on hard-hitting fist and foot techniques.
Thus, when the "Foshan Shadowless Kick" first appeared, the character "Huang Feihong" in the film remarked, "Nonsensical, don't steal my spotlight."
But we all know the later Huang Feihong stories. After Tsui Hark rebooted the "Huang Feihong" series, the "Foshan Shadowless Kick" quickly became the signature move of this martial arts grandmaster. And those heroes performing feats like flying over eaves and walking on walls, surpassing normal physiological limits, became commonplace in wuxia films after Tsui Hark—
For our generation, this wave of wuxia films served as the origin of our understanding of the concept of "wuxia." Our audiovisual perception of "wuxia" is itself a阶段性 achievement resulting from generations of creators upgrading and evolving the genre.
The wuxia works of Gu Long and Jin Yong were themselves innovations on the "Seven Heroes and Five Gallants" paradigm of classical novels.
After them, whether in novels or visuals, wuxia authors have actually been constantly renewing their audiovisual languages along with advancements in technology and public aesthetics.
Looking back, what Phantasm Blade Zero aims to do is nothing more than to advance this audiovisual language in the present day.
In Liang Qiwei's narration, this is the key reason for their biggest highlight in this trailer—the collaboration with Donnie Yen. Donnie Yen has always been trying to innovate the audiovisual language of action and wuxia films, a fact evident to all audiences. In the works he starred in, directed, or served as martial arts director for, he has consistently promoted newer forms of action expression. For example, his representative works like "Flash Point" and "SPL: Sha Po Lang" brought iconic and epoch-making visual changes by integrating MMA techniques into Hong Kong-style martial arts films.
Additionally, Donnie Yen actually served as the martial arts director for "Onimusha 3" many years ago, indicating he clearly has a high acceptance for richer forms of martial arts expression.
Many voices in the player community believe that S-Games announcing "celebrity facial capture" as a major piece of information shows a lack of understanding of players, viewing it as a mere gimmick. Because past collaborations between China's entertainment and gaming industries have almost always been superficial "endorsements," we have never held any expectations for terms like "Chinese Death Stranding" or "Chinese Cyberpunk 2077."
However, Donnie Yen's appearance in Phantasm Blade Zero is clearly not just a routine business collaboration. S-Games explicitly stated that Donnie Yen has served as the game's supervisor since 2023, providing facial and motion capture for Mo Yuan, and deeply participating in the design of the game's action sequences.
Therefore, this cross-industry collaboration might truly bring unexpected chemical reactions—after all, compared to the acting provided by an ordinary actor, the involvement of a seasoned martial arts director can obviously bring much more to an action game.
It has been over ten hours since the release of the Phantasm Blade Zero trailer. Alongside the expected chorus of "serious pre-orders," there has also been a rising tide of skepticism and criticism.
Regarding the carriage chase and the subsequent dramatic scenes, the content brought by S-Games indeed has a considerable gap compared to their擅长的 action sequences. But as with many players' reasons for pre-ordering, the subsequent "Wuxia Punk" content truly allowed Phantasm Blade Zero's strengths to reach sky-high levels.
However, I also appreciate the narrative S-Games hopes to convey through this arrangement.
What they are doing is the work every generation of wuxia creators undertakes, or rather, what all artistic workers strive to do—inherit from predecessors while attempting to find expression methods belonging to their own era.
Jin Yong did so, Gu Long did so, Tsui Hark did so, and Donnie Yen did so.
S-Games is doing the same.
This is what I truly look forward to in Phantasm Blade Zero.
Can Liang Qiwei use this work to "make wuxia great again" in our era—
Everythinggj depends on October 29th, and whether we can "burn Pang Town to ashes."
On a side note, on the evening of August 11, S-Games organized a closed-door screening, previewing the trailer for media and KOLs. After the screening, attendees had the opportunity to interact with S-Games' core creative team, including Producer Liang Qiwei, Music Director Bo Caisheng, and Art Director Michael.
Below is the specific content of the interview, edited slightly for better reading experience:
Q: From the mobile series to your first single-player AAA title, what does Phantasm Blade Zero mean to you and S-Games?
Liang Qiwei: Everyone has dreams, but realizing them is never about glamorous moments; it is a process of solving trivial problems day after day. The development of Phantasm Blade Zero was far more difficult than what people see—most of our time was spent tackling various practical issues in R&D, adaptation, and implementation.
Compared to previous entries in the series, Phantasm Blade Zero makes our wuxia expression more complete and thorough, allowing the team's years of dedication to wuxia creation to come to fruition. For me personally, this is the culmination and realization of my long-standing love for wuxia and my gaming dreams.
Q: The game's combat exudes the texture of Hong Kong-style wuxia films. How did the team translate cinematic martial arts actions into gameplay controls? What core qualities were prioritized in the design?
Liang Qiwei: We deliberately avoided piling on cinematic effects or overusing QTE commands. All martial arts visuals and camera presentations are polished based on actual gameplay logic. The carriage chase at the beginning of this promotional video features fights, combos, and pursuit sequences that are all real effects achievable through player operation, relying entirely on free player control.
We drew inspiration from the camera blocking and rhythmic editing theories of Hong Kong-style wuxia films, combining them with game-specific cinematography techniques to optimize the omnidirectional perspective. This addressed issues in early versions regarding the lack of rhythmic layering in weapon combo inputs. Additionally, we created refined, differentiated motion designs for various new weapons like the Guan Dao and gauntlets, maximizing the restoration of the speed, power, and diversity of Chinese martial arts. Players can freely operate these moves, experiencing epic, high-impact martial arts audiovisual effects at any time, balancing cinematic quality with gameplay freedom.
Q: What is the core significance of announcing Donnie Yen as supervisor and actor for the Mo Yuan character? What were some memorable details during the collaboration process?
Liang Qiwei: This collaboration is far more than a simple celebrity endorsement; it represents the first deep integration between China's game industry and top-tier kung fu cinema. The celebrity's role goes beyond merely lending their name for promotion.
Mr. Donnie Yen has been deeply involved in kung fu culture for decades and participated in game action design work early on. He has unique insights into the fusion of traditional martial arts and modern trends, which highly aligns with our creative concept of "modernizing traditional wuxia." Since 2023, Brother Dan has been deeply involved in the project, overseeing facial capture, motion capture, dialogue polishing, and expression direction for the character Mo Yuan. He also led his top-tier martial arts team to communicate deeply with our game action R&D team to polish the entire martial arts combat system in the game. The battle scenes between Hun and Mo Yuan in the game highly restore Donnie Yen's signature moves from his classic films, perfectly blending Hong Kong-style hardcore kung fu aesthetics with the Wuxia Punk style.
Even though Brother Dan is often busy with film shooting, both teams maintained high-frequency communication and held regular online meetings. The key to our efficient and deep collaboration is aligned philosophies—Brother Dan has persisted for decades in fusing traditional martial arts with modern combat, while we persist in fusing traditional wuxia with punk aesthetics. Both aim to give traditional Chinese kung fu culture a new-era expression, hoping to bring Chinese wuxia to the global stage once again.
Q: How does the Wuxia Punk art style of Phantasm Blade Zero balance traditional Chinese research with innovation? What is the design logic behind the core visual elements?
Michael: We always adhere to the art design principle of "research as the foundation, innovation as the soul." All characters, weapons, scenes, and mechanism elements in the game are polished based on real structures from Chinese classical texts, traditional architecture, and ancient weaponry, ensuring the depth and persuasiveness of Chinese aesthetic style and avoiding empty magical designs. On this basis, we integrate mechanical alienation and surreal punk elements, carefully controlling the degree of innovation to avoid being either outdatedly realistic or overly magical, thus forming a unique visual system.
Taking Huang Xingzi's second phase, the Killing Intent Rampage form, as an example. We based the basic moves and body structure on traditional martial arts designs, while adding mechanical punk alienation effects. Through surreal visual expressions, we highlight the character's fallen and frenzied state, perfectly aligning with the core style of Wuxia Punk. Meanwhile, the team implemented refined layered designs for different scenarios and bosses to enhance the overall visual depth.
Q: What is the deeper symbolism behind the two core symbols, masks and red threads, that repeatedly appear in the game?
Michael: Masks and red threads are core visual symbols running throughout the game, possessing both concrete functions and abstract meanings. Currently, this set of Chinese-style punk aesthetic symbols has been collected and exhibited by the São Paulo City Hall in Brazil.
Masks symbolize the disguise, confinement, and repression of the Jianghu, wrapping around the characters' inner frenzy, obsession, and human struggles. Almost all fallen villains and characters bound by the Jianghu appear with masks. Conversely, the "maskless" represent knights-errant who stick to their original hearts and uphold chivalry amidst chaos, serving as the glimmer of justice in the Jianghu.
The red thread holds both concrete and abstract meanings. Concretely, it is a core prop in scene and boss designs, used for suspending or binding characters and objects; the eerie postures of the snake-like female boss and the sword-array master senior brother are closely related to the binding of the red thread. Abstractly, the red thread metaphorically represents the entanglements of love and hate, fate, and interpersonal connections in the Jianghu, symbolizing the intricate causal relationships that are hard to sever or unravel, serving as the core carrier of the wuxia Jianghu atmosphere.
Q: The battle music this time is intense yet maintains a steady main melody, carrying a strong sense of tragic narrative. What was the creative thinking behind this?
Bo Caisheng: Traditional wuxia battle music mostly relies on dense percussion, emphasizing the dynamism of combat but lacking narrative depth and emotional warmth. The battle music for "Phantom Blade Zero" abandons singular percussive rhythms. Even in high-intensity combat scenes, it retains a steady and heartfelt core melody, subtly hinting at the characters' tragic undertones and life stories. This allows players to understand the bonds and struggles behind the characters while enjoying thrilling combat, enhancing the emotional layers of the battle.
Q: How does the game's soundtrack achieve an innovative fusion of traditional folk music and modern styles? Will it pay homage to classic Hong Kong-style wuxia soundtracks?
Bo Caisheng: We deeply explored the diverse characteristics of traditional folk music, allowing single instruments to convey dual emotions—the pipa can depict the grim danger of "Ambush from Ten Sides" as well as outline the gentle tranquility of an illusion; the erhu can present the desolate wildness of combat as well as interpret the delicate emotions of chivalrous tenderness.
At the same time, we boldly integrated modern trendy styles such as electronic, rock, and hardcore House, using techniques like multi-track layering, channel splitting, and instrument distortion to give traditional folk music a fresh texture. In the early stages of creation, we attempted to pay homage to classic Hong Kong-style wuxia melodies, but ultimately found the style compatibility insufficient and abandoned the idea. We insisted on creating original exclusive melodies, maintaining a Chinese style foundation for the core narrative bosses' music, while boldly innovating with secondary scenes and battle tracks. This combination of Chinese heritage and trendy breakthroughs aligns with the game's unique Wuxia Punk temperament.
