The Beijing nights in early September are already showing a chill. I walked out of the lawn at Xishi Space in Chaoyang District and took off the red rope on my wrist that represented entry to the 'Phantom Blade Zero' demo event. Standing at this point in time, I can say that the most urgent thing for me right now is for someone to knock me out so I can fast-forward to October 29th, the day the game launches.
Actually, I wasn't initially very excited about 'Phantom Blade Zero' because its ambitions seemed too grand, bordering on unrealistic.
Early last year, at the demo event attended by Teacher Space Bear, producer Mr. Liang Qiwei mentioned that the game has over thirty main weapons, all with independent models, not just recolors. Earlier, at the event attended by Teacher Marvin, it was revealed that the game's total length is 20 hours for the main story and 40 hours for completing major side quests. Frankly speaking, for an action-dominated game, this scale is abnormal in the industry.
Even if we take a step back and assume all thirty weapons are high-quality and the 40-hour gameplay isn't padded, I still have doubts about the game's action system.
I attended two offline demos of 'Phantom Blade Zero,' fighting Huang Xingzi once and Senior Brother once, neither of which required much effort. The action system is indeed cool, with impressive attack animations, impact feedback, and responsive defense and dodge mechanics. However, the protagonist's overly strong defensive and evasive capabilities always raise suspicions—is it my skill that makes it look so cool, or is the game just baby-difficulty?
To put it bluntly, I'm really afraid that 'Phantom Blade Zero' will become a formulaic ACT where you just hold down block, wait for red light flashes and blue light parries, and sneak in a couple of hits during enemy recovery frames.
However, everyone can see from the start that this guy pretending to be profound is just using a formulaic 'praise after criticism' technique. His desire to brag is about to burst—so let's get straight to the point.
This demo was the most complete presentation of flow in all 'Phantom Blade Zero' demo events. Accurately speaking, this wasn't a special demo build, but the complete version currently in debugging. Attendees entered at 10 AM, starting from the prologue tutorial and playing until 6 PM. Deducting over an hour for interviews and meals, the remaining six-plus hours allowed everyone to see how far they could go and how thoroughly they could explore based on their own skills.
Unfortunately, like previous demos, Lingyou Studio did not allow us to record footage internally. Therefore, the following descriptions may not perfectly match the visuals, please understand. Additionally, apart from two late-game Bosses manually skipped to by staff, I played the entire demo on 'Defier' (i.e., Extremely Hard) difficulty.
First, let's talk about combat.
At first glance, the combat system of 'Phantom Blade Zero' seems familiar. Both players and enemies have a yellow bar below their health bars. When the yellow bar is empty, their stance breaks. Holding the defend button allows you to parry attacks by consuming the yellow bar. To break guards, enemies use blue-light attacks that heavily damage the Killing Intent bar, requiring precise parries to neutralize, and unblockable red-light attacks, which players must dodge at the right moment. Modern players are very familiar with this system.
Some call it 'taming dogs,' others call it 'Souls-like.' Whatever the name, it feels awkward. Essentially, people have experienced too many of these action systems, leading to aesthetic fatigue.
'Phantom Blade Zero' is not that kind of game.
Wuxia dramas often feature a scene where two warriors are entangled in combat. You make a move, I block it. It seems like a balanced exchange, but in reality, one person has already fallen behind. Just one push, and that person will collapse completely.
In 'Phantom Blade Zero,' you will frequently see scenes like this.
We just mentioned that players and enemies in 'Phantom Blade Zero' have a 'yellow bar' below their health bars. This description is inaccurate and容易 (easy) to misinterpret as a 'guard bar' or 'stance bar.' The true name of this yellow bar is 'Killing Intent,' and its function is more similar to 'Drive' in 'Street Fighter 6.'
It exists not only as a defensive resource but also as an offensive resource to be consumed. Killing Intent refills when triggering Perfect Dodge or switching weapons. When depleted, the player enters a weakened state where they cannot use Killing Intent, becoming vulnerable to immediate defeat.
The protagonist's attacks are divided into light combo chains consisting only of the square button, and Killing Intent combos interspersed with the triangle button. As the name suggests, these moves consume the protagonist's own Killing Intent in exchange for powerful effects—higher damage, faster depletion of enemy Killing Intent, and some special weapons can apply Debuffs. However, consuming Killing Intent puts you in a more dangerous situation. When your Killing Intent bar is low, any imperfect defense will result in an immediate guard break.
On screen, this translates to a young warrior who, despite possessing great bravery, uses overly broad and open moves, only to be easily dismantled by a grandmaster. After a dozen exchanges, their stamina wanes and their moves become predictable, leading to a fatal strike through their vital points due to a single mistake.
Therefore, you cannot attack blindly; you must act within your means.
At the same time, you cannot simply turtle up.
Souls-like games indeed have strong defensive capabilities. The timing windows for Perfect Parry and dodging are relatively generous, and cancel priority is high. As long as you hold defend, most conventional attacks can be neutralized.
However, the combat pace of 'Phantom Blade Zero' is extremely fast, so fast that even such strong defensive capabilities are hard to maintain. Your Killing Intent might withstand one set of conventional attacks, but enemies will quickly follow up with a second or third set. You might neutralize ordinary slashes and chops, but against stomps from bull-like enemies or weapon effects like fire and bleed, even perfect parries will likely result in taking some damage.
On screen, this corresponds to those old masters who suffered dojo challenges. Although they could parry waves of attacks with years of experience and instinct, they inevitably succumbed to internal injuries, their inner energy fading until they were sent flying by a heavy slash, crashing into a wall and dying with blood in their mouths.
So, what is the approach of a martial arts master?
The Killing Intent mechanic applies to enemies as well. Whether attacking or defending, enemies bear the same risks as you. Therefore, what you need to do is perform better than them—defend while attacking, and attack while defending.
Precise defense and dodging provide breathing room to recover Killing Intent, while active offense prevents enemies from recovering their stance. Avoid the brunt of fierce enemy attacks, and strike their weaknesses when their offense wanes. If you are skilled enough, you can rely on the high cancel priority of defensive actions to perform precise defense while counter-attacking. When Killing Intent is low, use Perfect Dodge or weapon switching to refill resources, then use the recovered resources to interrupt enemy moves, draining their Killing Intent at a whirlwind speed to achieve suppression and lethal effects.
The game fully encourages this behavior. The first accessory dropped for players in 'Phantom Blade Zero' has the effect: 'Deal extra damage when attacking during an enemy's attack animation.'
Of course, fully interpreting Bosses sounds difficult, and it is. 'Phantom Blade Zero' does not mark every dangerous move of a Boss like mainstream action games on the market. Many moves without red or blue lights, which seem harmless, can have effects far beyond player expectations. Many so-called 'normal attacks' would be considered cheap tactics in other games.
Take the Wine Sword Immortal 'Hua Qianxiao' from the trailer as an example. In his normal state, 'Hua Qianxiao' is a fairly standard sword-wielding Boss. The difference is that this drunkard will opportunistically drink during the battle. If you fail to interrupt him in time and he activates the 'Sauce Aroma Engine,' his performance significantly enhances. Not only do the speed and range of his flying swords increase, but he also uses elegant drunken steps to dodge player attacks, even initiating zero-frame throws to ride on the player's head and chug wine before throwing another flying sword...
The first part of this throw has no red or white light warning (fortunately, it deals no damage), making it a must-eat item on the 'Phantom Blade Zero' menu. The flying sword attacks coming from all directions after drinking can easily deplete the player's Killing Intent bar. And you can only act like an incompetent husband... After all, here, he is ranged, and you are melee.
Of course, despite being annoying, these Boss fights are generally fair. You can feel that they are just doing their best to defeat you with their given abilities. Throughout the process, I didn't feel any so-called 'input reading,' nor unreasonable frame-skips or variable-speed attacks. These bastards are just rocking their wheelchairs, not cheating to treat me like an idiot. Just react a split second faster, refine my countermeasures slightly, and manage resources more strictly, and this hurdle can be overcome.
The game's numerical gradient isn't 'abnormal' either. 'Hua Qianxiao' doesn't put excessive pressure on the player's health. The second stage of his cheap command throw can be avoided by reacting to the red light. If handled properly, it can even stagger the opponent...
However, mechanism-heavy bosses are still mechanism-heavy. Once they get the chance to drink, the battle shifts to their rhythm. Until you exploit their opening to sober them up, players will be in an extremely passive position. Many unavoidable first-time kills will force players to pay their tuition fees.
The good news is that 'Phantom Blade Zero' is not just a game that provides challenges; it also generously rewards those brave enough to overcome trials. Every time you kill a Boss, you can seize a weapon from their hands. After slaying 'Hua Qianxiao,' you learn his flying sword and the entire set of Drunken Sword techniques.
This weapon was the first I encountered that significantly changed the basic attack module. Although the few weapons tried in previous demos had their own independent modules, they were still within the scope of conventional weapons. The change in the Drunken Sword module is obviously much more exaggerated.
Like 'Hua Qianxiao,' in its base form, the Drunken Sword in the player's hand is just an ordinary one-handed sword with mediocre range and damage. But as everyone knows, playing with the Drunken Sword requires getting drunk. You can take a sip anytime during combat. Subsequently, the Drunken Sword is infused with spirituality, transforming into a flying sword—yes, the kind with ultra-long range and auto-targeting. You just mash buttons wildly, and let the sword handle the rest.
If you activate exclusive skills that consume 'Pure Killing Intent' resources while drunk, triggering the 'Sauce Aroma Engine,' the performance of the Drunken Sword will leap forward even further. At this point, you're not just tipsy, but completely intoxicated. The flying sword's power increases, your footwork becomes staggered and unsteady, movement speed slows down, and dodge distance shortens.
Yet, at this moment, you can dodge any enemy attack with a perfectly timed stumble—yes, any. You don't need to deliberately press defend or dodge. When enemies attack, you dissolve their strikes completely, dancing gracefully like wearing the 'Evasion Cloak' from 'Monster Hunter: World,' passing through flowers without a petal sticking to you.
To put it more bluntly, you are basically a hacker spinning like a top. In the eyes of enemies, you have aimbot and are unhittable—Bro, does your household register have hundreds of pages? Are your stats tuned this high?
Soon after, I faced a snake-shaped Boss named 'Bai Chilian.' In her second phase, 'Bai Chilian' hangs in the air by puppet threads, similar to the 'Senior Brother' fought earlier. Regular weapons often can't reach her, forcing you to wait passively for her to attack first. At this moment, the long-range Drunken Sword counters her perfectly. My dear, fly slowly; my flying sword will follow you forever.
In short, equipping the Drunken Sword gives you a trump card to handle any Boss using the 'Sauce Aroma Engine,' and you never have to fear kiting from long-limbed enemies. The only two things to note are: you must replenish your alcohol in time, otherwise, you'll suffer a punitive stun resembling a hangover once the drunken effect wears off. Also, switching weapons clears all drunken effects, requiring you to drink again when switching back—though this can be seen as an 'emergency evasion' if you fail to replenish in time.
During this demo, I also encountered many 'wheelchair' characters (overpowered/easy-to-use builds). There was a beheading blade called 'Red Makeup Ghost Slash,' which could summon a field of Spider Lilies that unconditionally reduced enemy Killing Intent, allowing enemies to experience the 'joy' of losing stamina while breathing and dying while walking. There was also a large saber that drained HP when executing Killing Intent combos but restored a massive amount of health upon hitting enemies with skills, acting as a perpetual motion machine for tightrope walkers.
The development team encourages players to try new tricks as much as possible. There is almost no cost to trying out weapons. Respecing weapons before level 10 is completely free, meaning players can try every new toy at zero cost until the mid-to-late game, selecting the best one. Later, 'changing sects' is also possible, as the game generously provides items for full respecs, ensuring enhancement materials are never lost.
Besides the Bosses mentioned above, in the latter part of this demo, I skipped ahead with staff assistance to play a later Boss, the 'Lion Dance Master.' You may have seen the specific flow on PlayStation's State of Play, so I won't repeat it here. I will only share some feelings from actually playing it.
When fighting the first phase of the 'Lion Dance Master,' you can clearly feel that this Boss is not a single entity—which makes sense, since humans only have two legs. To simulate a lion, one person must act as the 'tail' following behind. When the front person lunges for an attack, the rear person must keep up; when the rear person performs the lion's tail swing, the front person must stand firm to provide support.
Every move distinguishes between the primary and secondary roles of the two people. One attacks primarily, the other assists, seamlessly transitioning to the next move. You attack while I defend, I defend while you attack. The two under the lion skin each perform their duties, making the beast above look majestic. It presents a craftsmanship different from common animal-type Bosses—you wouldn't say 'What a good lion,' but rather admire the two under the skin for performing such a great lion dance!
Once the first phase's health bar is depleted, the dancer acting as the lion's tail is slain by you, and the lion skin is stripped away. The lion dance is left empty with only the lion head remaining, but the Master does not stop dancing. Instead, he dances with even more passion.
Freed from the constraints of the lion's tail, the Master was able to incorporate more street dance-style floor moves into the lion dance. The sharp blade on the lion head paired with the dual blades on the Master's feet, combined with the two swords in the protagonist's hands, created a dazzling display of five-fold swordplay—truly exhilarating! The background music shifted accordingly, blending electronic sound effects and suona melodies with the traditional gongs and drums, pushing the battle to its climax.
Some say the first and second phases represent different schools of lion dance. I'm not very familiar with this and can't see too many nuances. But even someone as dull as I can discover the thought contained in this dance. Cooperation between two people, with a majestic lion head and agile lion tail, is lion dance. Even without the lion skin and with a残缺 (incomplete) tail, continuing to dance, and dancing with more innovation and vigor, is also lion dance.
With a deafening Cantonese command, 'Disciples, listen up! Return to positions!', flaming plum blossom poles rise from the ground. A group of 'Young Lions' from the Southern Lion Dance style emerge slowly, looking tiger-headed and brainy, swaying unsteadily. After defeating them, you take the lion head from one of them and put it on yourself. Now, you have officially inherited this craft.
Plum blossom poles rise from beneath your feet. Now, you must wear this lion head, step onto the plum blossom poles they have stood on unmoved for who knows how many years, and accept their mantle through a fiery lion dance battle, completing this 'Final Dance of the Lion Dance Master' together.
Perhaps you think my lengthy description is just overthinking or artistic pretension, but please believe me—the choreography, presentation, and music of this Boss fight are truly at that level of quality and感染力 (appeal). They naturally evoke these images and sensations in your mind, leaving you stunned and unwilling for it to end.
Let's leave the combat and Boss discussion here for now. There are more clever ideas from the developers buried in this Boss fight, but spoiling them all would ruin the fun. Let's refocus and use the remaining space to discuss other concerns, such as how long the game is, how many Bosses like this exist, whether traversal is torturous, and if getting lost is an issue.
During the approximately six-hour demo session, I basically completed the exploration of the game's first chapter, visiting all accessible areas and achieving about 72% exploration completion. All in all, I defeated ten unique Bosses.
According to Mr. Liang Qiwei in an interview, 'Phantom Blade Zero' will have a total of eight chapters. When I asked if subsequent chapters would be as long as the first, the answer was, 'Many chapters will be longer than the first.'
As for exploration—to be honest, I didn't have high expectations. For an action-focused game, my expectation for map exploration was simply 'not holding me back.' If the design isn't good enough, just make it linear so it doesn't interfere with the combat fun.
In this regard, 'Phantom Blade Zero' exceeded my expectations. The overall map structure extends branching paths that likely loop back from a clear main route. The main path is highly recognizable. Considering myself somewhat directionally challenged, I did not encounter any getting-lost issues during the demo.
There are relatively many bonfires, and the game provides many items for instant teleportation, making traversal pleasant. Meanwhile, various paths that require specific off-hand weapons to open are automatically marked on the map. Main and side quest locations also provide limited pathfinding guidance, so even players with poor spatial awareness won't find it torturous.
It's worth mentioning that the game handles exploration rewards quite well—a longstanding difficult problem for ARPGs in recent years. Many games have excellent map designs with cleverly hidden items, but when players get close, they find nothing more than optional 'Mushrooms' and 'Forging Stones 2.'
Theoretically, 'Phantom Blade Zero' is prone to this issue—after all, most weapons drop from Bosses, lacking the most attractive part of exploration rewards, leaving little room for designing exploration incentives.
In reality, most of the exploration rewards I found during the playthrough were upgrade materials, or I simply ran to a white light marker only to find it gave just over a thousand coins.
But the cleverness of 'Phantom Blade Zero' lies in the fact that picking up over a thousand coins and upgrade materials genuinely provides strong positive feedback. This is because minor enemies in the map do not respawn; once killed, they stay dead. This makes basic resources non-renewable, with a fixed total amount available before each checkpoint.
Meanwhile, unlocking moves and upgrading weapons require a significant amount of basic resources, and each upgrade offers substantial improvements. Weapon levels 5, 10, and 15 unlock different traits, such as adding elemental damage or simply unlocking new moves and changing combo strings.
Due to the high demand and non-renewable nature of basic resources, rewards from exploration become predictable and quantifiable improvements. Driven by the desire to level up and unlock new moves quickly, exploration becomes a natural progression. If you're lucky, you get new charms and upgrade materials; if not, you pick up some money, so it's not a wasted trip.
Of course, this approach can lead to some issues in resource allocation, forcing players to choose between upgrading weapons and upgrading skills. The design of not being able to farm souls also 'punishes' players who are unwilling to explore and loot maps to some extent. But overall, the exploration and traversal experience in 'Phantom Blade Zero' is relatively good—above expectations, not holding me back, making me willing to allocate some time to exploration for better combat enjoyment in the future.
Finally, let's talk about the story...
Forget it, let's not talk about it.
This isn't because I'm dissatisfied with the story. On one hand, I was rushed by time limits, rushing through Everythinggj without paying much attention. On another, I'm not familiar with the previous entries in the series and lack a deep understanding of the worldview, so I don't want to embarrass myself. Furthermore, many characters in the story speak cryptically, muttering proper nouns I haven't heard of without explanation, leaving me confused.
In the end, after playing for a long time, all I remembered was that the Souls-like protagonist had purple lips, possibly due to heart problems, and would die after 66 days, needing to find the Left Alliance Leader to do something before kicking the bucket...
Oh, by the way, speaking of 66 days, there is indeed a '66 Days Mode' in the game. The difficulty is the same as 'Defier,' but you lose one day per death. Once the 66 days are exhausted, it's game over.
I calculated that by the time I put down the controller, I had probably used up half of the Souls-like protagonist's 66 lives. At this rate, the protagonist will meet an untimely end before reaching halfway through the game.
Fortunately, Liang Qiwei has revealed that this mode is designed purely for streamers to create entertaining content. Regular players can safely skip it, as it won't introduce any new mechanics or storylines—well, there is a tiny bit of new story: the scene where Lord Hun passes away after the 66-day countdown ends.
That concludes Everythinggj from the Phantasm Blade Zero offline demo event in Beijing. I've done my best to summarize the most noteworthy aspects, but due to space constraints and my limited writing skills, there are still far too many indescribable feelings that couldn't be conveyed, which is truly regrettable.
But none of that matters anymore—what's important is that the game launches in less than 66 days, and it looks absolutely stellar. By the time this article goes live, the release date should be just around the corner. I hope my piece makes those who aren't anxious yet as anxious as I am, and makes those already anxious even more so...
Whether you're anxious or not, I'll take the lead in being anxious first.