A few weeks ago, S-GAME invited me out to Los Angeles, where I joined several other influencers, content creators, and media outlets for an extended hands-on session with Phantom Blade Zero. Unlike my shorter sessions at Summer Game Fest 2024, Summer Game Fest 2026, and CES 2026, this wasn’t another demo where someone was watching the clock or waiting to move the next person in line. This time, I had roughly six hours with a near-final version of the game. No one telling me where to go, no one stopping me from exploring, and no one standing behind me waiting for their turn.
It was just me, Phantom Blade Zero, and several uninterrupted hours to see what S-GAME has been working on. And let me tell you, I was in heaven. Phantom Blade Zero has been one of my most anticipated games of 2026 for quite some time, and as someone who is already a huge fan of this style of action game, finally being able to sit down and really dig into it was exactly what I had been waiting for. Because this was a much more complete version of the game, I was able to get a better feel for how everything comes together, from combat and weapons to progression and exploration. Plus, I got this really cool photo op with members of the S-GAME team, including Soulframe Liang (Liang Qiwei) William Chen, and Chloe Feng. Seriously, the folks over S-GAME are some really cool people.
That said, this is still a preview, and I’m not about to spoil everything S-GAME has packed into the game. Instead, I want to give you a taste of what I experienced during those six hours and why it left such a strong impression on me. There was plenty I saw that I’m intentionally leaving out, because part of the fun is discovering this stuff for yourself.
Soul’s Story and a World That Rewards Curiosity
We already know from previously revealed story details that Soul has been betrayed, mortally wounded, and given just 66 days to live. That setup gives him a very personal reason to keep moving forward, but I liked that the game doesn’t portray him as someone who only cares about saving himself. As I met NPCs and took on quests, I started seeing a much more compassionate side of him. Some of those smaller interactions can also lead to things you might completely miss.
One of my favorite examples happened early on when I found a man sitting on a rooftop in a village. Nothing forced me to speak with him, but the gamer in me basically demanded that I see what he had to say. He explained that he had once trained several students in archery, only for them to use what he taught them to kill people. Filled with regret, he asked Soul to deal with them if he encountered them.
Eventually, I did. After taking them down, one dropped a damaged bow, and I immediately remembered the man sitting on that rooftop. I brought the bow back to him and was rewarded with a Phantom Edge, a secondary attack ability that gave me access to ranged attacks. Had I never spoken to him or thought to return that bow, I might never have gotten it.
That was one of the things I appreciated most about Phantom Blade Zero. The game isn’t constantly pointing at everything with giant markers or painting the environment yellow and screaming, “Hey, go over here.” It rewards you for paying attention, talking to people, remembering what they tell you, and exploring because you actually want to. S-GAME told us there are more moments like this throughout the game, and Phantom Blade Zero seems perfectly comfortable letting players miss things, which I love.
Plenty of Unique and Enjoyable Weapons
S-GAME was especially passionate about the weapon system. Phantom Blade Zero has plenty of weapons to discover, but the idea isn’t to find one early on and use it for the entire game. S-GAME wants players to experiment and find weapons that fit how they like to play. After spending several hours swapping between different options, I can see why.
You can equip two primary weapons at once, and the combat actively encourages you to use both. Your Sha-Chi is depleted while blocking and attacking, for example, but switching weapons can replenish it. You can also swap weapons on the fly during combat, allowing you to keep your momentum going without completely breaking your rhythm. Once I got comfortable with that, weapon switching became part of how I approached fights rather than something I only did between encounters.
As I progressed, I found weapons from enemies, characters, and simply exploring the world. Each has its own attack strings and combos, but many also have unique properties that completely change how you approach combat. One weapon I picked up toward the end of my session used a Drunken Style, and drinking while using it actually made Soul stronger. It was completely different from what I had been using and showed just how far S-GAME is willing to go with its weapon designs.
Then there was the Jagged Steel, which quickly became my favorite weapon. Attacking enemies builds their Bleed Gauge, and once that fills, it triggers Blood Loss for additional damage. Once I got my hands on it, I pretty much refused to let it go, and it quickly became the MVP for me. Later, when S-GAME moved us ahead to another portion of the game, one of the first things I did was check my inventory to make sure the Jagged Steel was still there, and thankfully, it was.
That’s not to say that the other weapons weren’t fun, because they were. There were plenty of really interesting weapons, but I’m going to refrain from mentioning them. I’m pretty sure S-GAME wants to keep plenty of that stuff as a surprise for when gamers jump into the game for themselves.
Combat Is Where Phantom Blade Zero Shines
Obviously, combat is one of the biggest parts of Phantom Blade Zero, and from what I played, it’s also where the game really shines. There are plenty of attack strings and combos, but simply hammering away at the attack button isn’t going to get you very far. Positioning matters, as does understanding what kind of enemy you’re fighting and paying attention to how they react to you. Some enemies vanish or reposition themselves when attacked, while others block or immediately create distance.
There are even enemies whose defenses can’t simply be brute-forced, requiring you to change your approach or use a specific Phantom ability. The bosses follow that same philosophy, forcing you to pay attention rather than simply overwhelm them with attacks. Button mashing isn’t going to carry you through Phantom Blade Zero; the game wants you to learn what an enemy is doing and respond accordingly. Once you understand that, the combat starts to feel much more deliberate.
One of the clearest examples comes from Red and Blue attacks. Red attacks are unblockable, meaning you need to dodge them, and timing that dodge just before the attack lands lets you pull off a Perfect Dodge. Blue attacks work differently, as they can be blocked normally, but perfectly timing a parry triggers a Ghoststep, a move that quickly moves Soul behind the enemy and gives you an opportunity to punish them.
Once I started recognizing these attacks and reacting properly, the combat really clicked. Phantom Blade Zero wants you to watch, react, and take advantage of openings rather than mindlessly attacking whatever is standing in front of you. That constant back-and-forth between offense and defense gives the combat a rhythm that feels incredibly satisfying once you understand what the game expects from you.
Speaking of combat, I fought a number of bosses during the session, but the Lion Dance Grandmaster was easily one of the most memorable. We’ve all seen it in trailers, but actually sitting down and fighting it is a completely different experience. I’m not going to spoil what happens because you deserve to go in blind the way I did. What I will say is that even though I’ve fought something similar before with Elden Ring’s Divine Beast Dancing Lion, this one takes the cake, easily.
I’ve seen the comparisons between Phantom Blade Zero and Sekiro, and after spending time with both, including plenty of hours in Sekiro, there’s a vast difference. Sure, Sekiro is fast, but Phantom Blade Zero operates at a different tempo entirely. Between Perfect Dodges, Ghoststeps, and weapon swaps, you’re rarely standing still, and it all flows together like a seamless dance.
Making the Game Accessible Was a Must
While this is an action/hack-and-slash adventure and not a Soulslike, S-GAME has incorporated several ways to make the experience less punishing. One of the most beneficial comes during multi-phase boss fights. If you reach a boss’s second phase and die, you’ll respawn at the beginning of that phase rather than replaying the entire encounter. S-GAME explained that it wanted the game to be accessible and understood how frustrating it can be to finally overcome one difficult phase only to get destroyed during the next and be sent all the way back.
From what I experienced, I’m thankful for that decision. The bosses can still put up one hell of a fight, but the game doesn’t feel interested in wasting your time just for the sake of being difficult. That doesn’t mean the challenge disappears, because you still have to learn the fights and execute properly. It simply removes some of the unnecessary repetition that can make difficult encounters more frustrating than fun.
How Did Phantom Blade Zero Run on PC
Before we started, S-GAME asked whether we wanted to play on PC or PlayStation 5. Being the PC gamer that I am and wanting to see how Phantom Blade Zero performed on the platform, I went with PC. I’m glad I did. I couldn’t confirm the exact specifications of the machines, though they were clearly high-end systems.
I did check the settings, and Phantom Blade Zero was running at 4K with everything cranked to Ultra on NVIDIA hardware. Performance was excellent throughout my session, with no hitching, noticeable stuttering, visual artifacts, or anything else that pulled me out of the experience. It was a flawless showing during the time I played, which is encouraging considering Phantom Blade Zero is built with Unreal Engine 5. That engine has had its share of PC performance issues when games aren’t properly optimized, but whatever S-GAME is doing, the build I played gave me none of those headaches.
Speaking with S-GAME, the goal was to ensure the game was running as optimal as possible, and they put in a lot of work, taming Unreal Engine 5, so to speak. And from what I saw, they definitely accomplished that.
Of course, there is an obvious caveat here, because these were powerful machines. I can’t speak to how the game will perform on mid-range or lower-end hardware, especially since I don’t know the exact specifications of the systems we were using. But on the machines S-GAME provided, it ran incredibly well. That at least gives me some confidence heading toward launch.
Six Hours Later, I Wanted More
Before I was even invited to this event, which I am incredibly appreciative of, Phantom Blade Zero was already high on my list of games I absolutely had to play this year. After roughly six hours with it, that excitement has only gone up. Everything I experienced impressed me, from the combat and storytelling to the boss encounters and exploration. During those six hours, there honestly wasn’t much that left me feeling negative about the experience.
Of course, six hours is still only a portion of the full game. However, based on what I played, Phantom Blade Zero feels like the kind of game that could end up in plenty of Game of the Year conversations. If the rest of the experience holds up, I could easily see it becoming one of my personal favorites of 2026. That is obviously something the full game will need to prove, but the preview gave me plenty of reasons to be excited.
S-GAME also made it clear that what I experienced was only a taste of how over-the-top things eventually get. Considering some of the encounters I already played, that has me even more excited to sit down at home and experience the finished game from beginning to end. Those six hours did exactly what a preview should do: they showed me enough to understand what S-GAME is trying to accomplish while still leaving plenty for me to discover.
More importantly, they left me wanting more. So much so that after the session, I walked up to Soulframe and told him, “This game is fucking amazing.” He smiled and thanked me for saying that. No, Soulframe, thank you.
Phantom Blade Zero releases on October 29, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and PC.