With a little over a month to go until release, Phantom Blade Zero keeps cranking up the pressure, announcing that it has passed another symbolic milestone: more than 3 million wishlists on PC. It's a figure that speaks to the growing interest in this Chinese production, especially as the game is also due on PS5. In short, S-Game's action title fully intends to carve out a place among the big releases of this end of year.
As a reminder, Phantom Blade Zero drops us into the Phantom World, a "Kungfupunk" universe blending traditional Chinese martial arts, steampunk-inspired machinery and body modification. It's a particularly spectacular mix, and one of the title's great visual signatures.
Big fights, but plenty of exploring too
S-Game is also promising several very different environments, including a vast lake that can be crossed aboard a motorboat. The studio has likewise designed 8 hand-painted maps in a traditional Chinese ink calligraphy style. Some areas, meanwhile, will be deliberately trickier to navigate, with few pointers given to the player. It's S-Game's way of encouraging exploration and leaving more room for players to discover things for themselves.
The combat system remains the heart of the experience, of course, and Phantom Blade Zero will offer more than 30 main weapons, alongside the Phantom Edges used as secondary weapons, of which there are 25. Each weapon can be upgraded to unlock different forms and fighting techniques. The progression system will also let you regularly rethink your choices thanks to the "Reforging Talisman". This allows you to reset a weapon, recover the materials invested in it and reassign them to another piece of gear.
Several difficulty levels
S-Game also intends to offer several ways of experiencing the adventure so as not to frustrate players, with multiple difficulty modes. The easy mode is called "Wayfarer" and aims to be more accessible and cinematic, while "Hellwalker" mode will give you a much harder time with more demanding encounters. The studio has also dreamt up a particularly hardcore mode dubbed "66 Days", which turns the countdown tied to Soul's life (the hero) into a genuine gameplay mechanic. Essentially, every defeat costs you time and can lead to permanent death.
With 3 million wishlists already on the board, Phantom Blade Zero certainly has an audience that's now itching to get its hands on it. The date to circle is 29 October 2026 on PS5 and PC. We'll be there to review it, naturally.
