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Phantom Blade Zero Game Length Is 30-40 Hours, Multiplayer Confirmed, Combat Scenes Captured In-Engine

Draugoth

Gold Member
phantom-blade-zero-5.jpg



One of the major surprises at Sony’s recent PlayStation Showcase was the reveal of S-Game’s Phantom Blade Zero. While we did see what looked liked gameplay, the studio has now relayed a lot more info about it such as the Phantom Blade Zero game length, whether what we saw was in-game and more.

In a Q&A conducted on the game’s Discord, the studio answered a few important questions. For one, we now know that the Phantom Blade Zero game length will take gamers up to 30-40 hours to complete the main story. There’s also multiplayer confirmed as well.

(Note: For clarity, we have edited the Q&A for grammatical and spelling).


Question 1: Is there an assigned game price?
Not yet, we’ll discuss this issue with our partners when most part of the game is done.

Question 2: Explain whether if the combat we saw was actual combat and how does the combat works on the different controllers (Phone, PC, Console)
Yes, all combat scenes are captured in-engine, they are real. But we set a more “cinematic” camera to capture the trailer footage, some angles are specially set.
The actual game will have a stable camera with larger view scope. The combat will look much clearer, but less impactful as it is in the trailer(or it’ll be too dizzying).
“Combo Chain” is a system we have been developed for 10 years, in mobile games for most of the time, but we found it work on all kinds of controllers just fine. Players will edit their skill orders in 2 chains, and simply press the 2 bottoms to release super complex and fast combos. This makes everyone’s gameplay look like a professional twitcher of DMC or Ninja Gaiden. But there are still depth in how to organize the skill order, and other timing related skills(parry, dodge, etc).

Question 3: How long is the game?
Main story alone is about 30~40h, and there are tons of side quests to play with.
Upon completing the story mode, players are presented with a plethora of endgame content that includes various multiplayer dungeons, boss rushes, rogue-like abysses, and more.

Question 4: How we define the Phantom Blade Zero? Will it be like Ninja Gaiden / DMC or like Sekiro?
Kind of mix, the adventure map has multiple paths forward, and combat is similar to Ninja Gaiden. You can understand it as a traditional hack & slash with semi-open world map instead of a linear map.

Question 5: About the release time? and how long has the game been in development?
Release time is a question we can’t answer yet.
Early concept of the game has been written & designed since 2017, but limited to 2~3 core members. The actual development starts in early 2022.

Question 6: Will it be time exclusive or release at the same time on other platforms?
For now we don’t have any exclusivity on any platform.

Question 7: Is the game open world?
Not that kind of vast open world you need a horse to ride from point A to point B. But it does have multiple paths and some open world elements.

Question 8: I was curious if you recommend playing the mobile games before playing the worldwide release or would that spoil the story?
The mobile game Phantom Blade: Executioners is the prequel of Phantom Blade Zero, playing it will give you some of the background of characters and the world. No spoiler for sure.
PBEX tells a story when Soul is relatively younger. He was fighting alongside other executioners of The Order (Organization in PBEX), such as Mu Xiaokui and Zuo Shang, and maybe others who are still his friends. But when it comes to PB Zero, you’ll see something really tragic happening. Soul becomes the traitor for some reason, heavily wounded, and all the former friends are now enemies.
I think it’s kind of like watching a prequel movie of John Wick, if there was one. In that case you may see a younger John Wick with some cool friends. And then you begin to watch the actual John Wick series, and see how he has to kill them all.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Question 6: Will it be time exclusive or release at the same time on other platforms?
For now we don’t have any exclusivity on any platform.

Good to Know
But all the Xbox fanboys were crying "Evil Sony" in the other thread about the game!
Devs must be lying!! /s




It's basically a QTE game disguised as an action game, I'm not sure I like that.

Edit: added /s for clarity
 
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GHG

Gold Member
But all the Xbox fanboys were crying "Evil Sony" in the other thread about the game!
Devs must be lying!!

There are actually more examples of developers simply being selective about the platforms they wish to launch on rather than some kind of external intervention than people like to realise.

But anyway them saying it's "in-engine" rather than "in-game" doesn't fill me with confidence.
 

splattered

Member
Weird could have sworn it was said multiple times it was exclusive.. looks interesting but the combat all seemed a bit too scripted to be true.
 

Aenima

Member
I doubt we see it at launch or it would have been in this list


They just mean that they dont have any exclusivity deal. For now the only platforms the game is coming out is PS5 and PC. MS probably need to aproach them to bring the game for Xbox, cuz thats probably what Sony did.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
So... not actual gameplay.

The interview after the trailer on PS Blog said something like (paraphrasing) "we have years of experience making mobile games so we know how to simplify controls and make cool shit happens"

Remember the Dragon Age 2 "Press A and something awesome happens" ?

that doesn't inspire much confidence.

edit: here's the actual quote:

Lucky for us, during the decade making mobile games, we learned to simplify things in favor of touchscreens, giving players a way to execute elaborate chains of moves with a minimum amount of button-mashing. As it turns out, with some tweaks, this mechanism works just as well on controllers.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
The interview after the trailer on PS Blog said something like (paraphrasing) "we have years of experience making mobile games so we know how to simplify controls and make cool shit happens"

Remember the Dragon Age 2 "Press A and something awesome happens" ?

that doesn't inspire much confidence.

edit: here's the actual quote:
Yeah, much like Ryse and the like. Not fully QTE fail system, but push a rhythm of buttons and watch the animated spectacles.
Tired Good Night GIF
 

Luigi Mario

Member
It's a dressed up mobile game. Think Ryse's combat mechanics and that's most likely what we will end up with.
Considering that the devs of this have a history in mobile games, it will be more like a clicker game where you repeatedly press/touch one button while some nice flashy visuals play in the background.
 

Darsxx82

Member
In summary

-No gameplay. inengine choreographed scenes.

-Start of development in 2022. That is, 2025-2026?

-Studio last game was a 2D mobile game.

-There is no exclusivity, they have simply announced that it will come to PS5. It means that an XBOX version can be announced later and even for launch.

I don't know about the others, but for now I would lower my expectations. Which is sad because the trailer was very interesting what it showed.
 

GymWolf

Member
How does multyplayer work with vaporware titles?

I lie saying that i have the game so another friend can pretend to play with me??

Yo DeepEnigma DeepEnigma are you in for a coop tonight?
 
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01011001

Banned
“Combo Chain” is a system we have been developed for 10 years, in mobile games for most of the time, but we found it work on all kinds of controllers just fine. Players will edit their skill orders in 2 chains, and simply press the 2 bottoms to release super complex and fast combos.

it's almost like I said it looks shitty and automated, and it's almost like I was right... weird...
 

Fbh

Member
It all leads to this, Black Myth Wukong and Lost Soul Aside launching as a single Avengers style vaporware crossover.

They'll call it.... Steam (trademark pending)
 
Not a single big chinese game with amazing graphics has been released yet. Even Lost Soul Aside, that looked great (at the time of the announcement but not anymore) is in limbo essentially with expected release date being 2024 but who knows at this point.
g8jl5.jpg


At this point they are just really nice tech demos for game engines. Somehow they keep convincing these showcases to give them a big spotlight.
 
And this is why the showcase felt sad. You might think people are shallow because they didn't get their familar IP and 1st party games. But really, we've been through this so many times. None of these crazy looking Chinese/Korean games will come out. And all the other slightly promising indie games will also be forgotten and/or tank before you know it.
 
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And this is why the showcase felt sad. You might think people are shallow because they didn't get their familar IP and 1st party games. But really, we've been through this so many times. None of these crazy looking Chinese/Korean games will come out. And all the other slightly promising indie games will also be forgotten and/or tank before you know it.
Don't do this. You're mixing in facts with misinformation. Here are the facts:

1) There is a difference between Chinese and Korean video games. Chinese high profile games have had a horrible track record lately of not coming out, being fake, or releasing in a manner that wasn't what they advertised at all.
2) Korean last gen/current gen games have come out, and on a regular enough basis too. The issue is that many people expect them to not be online games or MMOs, and they end up being just that.
3) There have been tons of indie games that have been great and not forgotten/not tanked, which is why they end up getting sequels or at best, help a smaller studio grow into a larger one which ends up making some great high profile games years down the line that people like yourself might end up enjoying.

If you disagree on these last two points, especially the last point, that's just jadedness. Lumping everything together into one big ball of negativity simply because you weren't satisfied with a single video game showcase, isn't related to the potential issues with this game itself.
 
“Combo Chain” is a system we have been developed for 10 years, in mobile games for most of the time, but we found it work on all kinds of controllers just fine. Players will edit their skill orders in 2 chains, and simply press the 2 bottoms to release super complex and fast combos.

it's almost like I said it looks shitty and automated, and it's almost like I was right... weird...
Ill admit when Im wrong. Looks like you were right lol
 

dottme

Member
Yep, their some interesting thing in the presentation, but it looks like we have to wait for the real gameplay to show up before being convinced.
 
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