《影之刃零》最终上手前瞻：66 天模式与非典型魂类机制解析

Kung-Fu Punk. That’s the term for the genre being created for Phantom Blade Zero that developer S-Game was keen on repeating during our preview session. This was not my first time going hands-on with Phantom Blade Zero, with prior sessions being held during Summer Game Fest in recent years, but it was during this final preview event that I finally began to understand just what they’re going for here. Not quite a Soulslike, not quite a Wuxia action title, but something in-between. This is our final preview for the upcoming hardcore action RPG, Phantom Blade Zero.

While all of my previous times with Phantom Blade Zero began in medias res, this was the first time that we were able to see the lead character Soul’s story from the very beginning, starting with a flashback to his youth, establishing the groundwork for the combat system through natural tutorials and an introduction to another key character in the story whom Soul has shared a deep connection to.

It’s here during the opening act that Soul is struck down and left for dead, but given a single chance at rebirth with a heart offered forth by a mysterious deity. Players are offered a choice between two hearts, with the latter featuring an expiration date of 66 days; however, this much more limited option isn’t available to the player from the beginning and is instead a tease for something unlockable after clearing Phantom Blade Zero for the first time. During an open group Q&A session (which you can read here), the developers confirmed that the 66 Days mode is intended as an extra challenge for those who wish to pursue it and is not required to earn the platinum trophy on PlayStation 5.

Flash forward some time in the future, and we next catch up with Soul as he’s being chased by marauders on horseback and has to fend off their attacks while navigating a horse-drawn cart across a treacherous mountain pass. If you’re a fan of the absurd levels of action seen in some kung-fu films, you’re in luck. This is the first real introduction to the cinematography work at play in Phantom Blade Zero, combining different angles to the action and pseudo QTE’s as the player tries to both wrangle the horses to keep from running off the side of a cliff while also parrying and countering enemy attacks while trying to keep up a hearty counterattack. This all culminates in a sequence where Soul drives off the cliff only to use the poor beasts for a bit more leverage to his height, using their noble sacrifice to propel himself across a chasm.

It’s here that Phantom Blade Zero goes off the rails in more ways than one and lets the player start to take control and explore the world. Not quite a fully open-zone type of game, Phantom Blade Zero’s progression is more in line with that of the first two Nioh titles, with the chapters themselves being fully self-contained levels filled with secret collectibles and more optional bosses than you can shake a peach wood sword at. While the critical path is always there for the player, just about every section of the game will feature some alternative path to explore, perhaps open up a shortcut to run back in the likely event Soul dies and has to restart from the last checkpoint, or pick up a new weapon or collectible. Each chapter is easily a couple of hours to explore and conquer, especially if you’re like me and prone to getting ambushed or slain from seemingly nowhere. 

While the Soulslike roots are ever-present in Phantom Blade Zero, some of the core mechanics players would expect to see here are much different than the typical ruleset. For starters, while yes, you do rest at checkpoints to recover health and consumables, it does not respawn the enemies you’ve already slain. Take out one enemy from a mob of three or four, and he’ll still be missing when you gather your courage and try to run it back. Experience is a finite resource, and you can’t simply grind your way to a higher level to overcome a challenging boss; instead, the player themselves needs to "level up" and get a better grasp of the boss’s attacks and when to dodge, parry, or counterattack.

Nothing is permanently expended in Phantom Blade Zero as you try to experiment with different weapons or builds, with perhaps one exception. Increasing a weapon’s level past a certain threshold appears to require a consumable that locks the weapon at a particular level, so even if you try to reset and recover what you’ve invested in the weapon, there may be points where either the upgrade item or the materials invested to reach that point may be permanently locked onto the weapon. Now, this wouldn’t necessarily be an issue if there are enough items to upgrade every weapon during a single playthrough, but I could see this being a small handicap if the player upgrades one of Soul’s weapons only to find out they aren’t fitting with their playstyle or substantially different from what they expected.

Phantom Blade Zero features a variety of weapons, ranging from familiar Chinese martial arts tools of warfare to more mechanical, seemingly futuristic types that wouldn’t necessarily be fitting for the Ming dynasty period. One of the more fantastical weapons that I couldn’t quite fully grasp during my limited hands-on time was that of a drunken sword style. Its base form is your typical one-handed Jian sword, but what made it unique was the ability to send the sword out to autonomously fly about and slash at the enemy while the player channels their inner Voldo and flops around on the ground or stumbles about in a drunken stupor. Granted, the one opportunity I had with the drunken sword was against a massive snake boss who routinely liked to dart across the arena and send attacks at me from twenty meters away, so I thought having a flying sword would be helpful, but the damage it could output was so minimal compared to the massive, hulking two-handed sword I was accustomed to playing through Phantom Blade Zero with.

The boss fights in Phantom Blade Zero are truly the highlight of the experience, and each one feels radically different from one another. Not only does each have its own dynamic soundtrack that ebbs and flows as the fight goes on, but routinely, bosses that feature a second phase to the fight completely shake up the musical genre and layer familiar leitmotifs upon a more epic and bombastic melody. Even if Phantom Blade Zero were just a boss rush-style game without any of the exploration, I would be satisfied with the price they’re charging for admission. One novel addition that I absolutely have to mention here is that if you manage to make it just barely to the second phase of a boss fight and find yourself getting immediately struck down, you don’t have to replay that entire first section again. You can re-challenge the boss with a fully refreshed arsenal and begin the fight from the last unlocked phase.

Phantom Blade Zero was a frustrating yet enjoyable experience in the few hours I spent with it, and I could see myself overcoming these hurdles of the bosses I was challenging over and over again if I had more time to learn the different weapons and develop a solid counter strategy, rather than just relying on a greatsword to overpower everything in my wake. I’m all for the world-building and vibes at play here, but really, I just want a chance to challenge these bosses and listen to the music once more.

[Editor’s Note: Phantom Blade Zero was previewed on PC. Travel and accommodations were provided by the developer.]

About the author: Kai joined the gaming team of Wccftech in 2016 and has since penned over a hundred reviews and interview pieces, covering a bit of everything from one-man indie gems to AAA masterpieces and whatever lies in between. Over the recent months, Kai has expanded into preview and interview coverage of not only the gaming side of the industry but also tech and consumer electronics.

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