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Phantom Blade Zero Game Length Is 30-40 Hours, Multiplayer Confirmed

Murdok

Member
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.



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.



Phantom Blade Zero has so far been announced for PC and PS5. Release date is unknown.


 

Bridges

Member
Game looks great but their explanation of their combat system makes me worried, sounds like it will be extremely simplified
 
Game looks great but their explanation of their combat system makes me worried, sounds like it will be extremely simplified

FWIW the OG Xbox Ninja Gaiden games were very well-received and are still favorites today. This doesn't have to be a Souls-like to have depth; in fact if they're going for a more arcade-style challenge where the difficulty isn't in managing a million factors, but having a simple moveset with a high challenge from the enemies & areas themselves, I'd be down for it.

Of course, splash in some of that Souls-like stuff where it makes sense, but that's cherry-on-top stuff.
 

Success

Member
The combat system also has me worried.

I was hoping for the second coming of Sekiro but it also being a mobile game has dashed those hopes.
 

iamvin22

Industry Verified
Game looks great but their explanation of their combat system makes me worried, sounds like it will be extremely simplified
That's exactly what it is. Face buttons are pretty much a start and end to an auto combo. I've seen this system used on a past game that didn't launch.
 
This game isn't getting released anytime soon...

"Reportedly, work on Phantom Blade Zero began in 2017, but it was in 2022 that the game entered a core development cycle with just three people working on it..."

https://insider-gaming.com/phantom-blade-zero-story/
from the op: "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..."

i'm thinking one article or the other involves a mistranslation...
 
Last edited:

fermcr

Member
from the op: "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..."

i'm thinking one article or the other involves a mistranslation...

Even with a full team working on it since 2022, a AAA game takes an average of 4-6 years to develop... so this game will release at the earliest in 2026.
 
Even with a full team working on it since 2022, a AAA game takes an average of 4-6 years to develop... so this game will release at the earliest in 2026.
i'm not disagreeing with you, or expecting to see the game anytime soon, either. but there's certainly a big difference between a full team working on it since 2022, & just 3 people doing so...
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
This game isn't getting released anytime soon...

"Reportedly, work on Phantom Blade Zero began in 2017, but it was in 2022 that the game entered a core development cycle with just three people working on it..."

https://insider-gaming.com/phantom-blade-zero-story/
These companies cant help themselves when it comes to showing games six years away huh? Fucking sick and tired of this horse shit. If your looking to recruit, then post on fucking indeed. Stop wasting time in these shows with games that may very well not ever actually come out
 
This is why trailers don't really mean anything.
My trailer guide.

What you normally see is what you get:

AAA Japanese games
Indie Japanese games
Japanese mobile games
Sony First Party games
Nintendo First Party games
2d Indie games
AA games
European PC games(Strategy, RTS, Eurojank, etc)
Certain genres that never have big sweeping changes/never take big chances: Driving Sims, Fighting games, Flight sims, etc.

What to be skeptical about when you see it:

AAA Western games (Unless the dev has a record of multiple games in the high 80s and 90s on Metacritic)
AAA European games (Unless the dev has a record of multiple games in the high 80s and 90s on Metacritic)
AAA Chinese games
AAA Korean games
Xbox First Party games (Until proven otherwise)
3d Indie games
The Pokémon company
Battle Royales/GAAS/Multiplayer only
Genres that sound like a word salad
Unknown developers/publishers showing something new (usually a sales pitch)

Not saying anything skeptical is bad, but instead I'm just promoting that people should be cautious with their money and not get too hyped if it falls into that category.
 

Aion002

Member
Hype deflated.

Maybe a PS7 game?

Anyone remember Lost Soul Aside? Announced in 2016... It might get released next year.


80S Ok GIF
 

Kilau

Gold Member
I finally watched the trailer and I'm not seeing what has everyone so interested in this game.
 

01011001

Banned
I thought people were claiming it was an exclusive.

well given that they barely started development, so far I guess there is only a demo for PS5 and not on Xbox.

I wouldn't be surprised if what we saw in that trailer was literally everything that's actually in any way functional, and they just quickly ported this from their PC code over to PS5 in order to have a "running on PS5" claim there.
 
this almost sounds like they want to use this as a stealth ad for their mobile game prequel...
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.

200w.gif
 
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