Let’s clear one factor up: Phantom Blade Zero is just not a soulslike. Certain, it has bonfires within the type of ornate bells and difficult multi-stage boss battles.
However, with flashy high-octane fight and cinematic, choreographed motion sequences, it’s clear developer S-Sport is pushing in an entirely distinctive course with the studio’s upcoming RPG. And, after an hour thrashing and flipping by way of its gorgeous legendary world, I’ve realized that it doesn’t actually matter how we categorize it, as a result of no matter that is, it completely guidelines.
In Phantom Blade Zero, gamers step into the footwear of Soul, an elite murderer working for a mysterious group known as ‘The Order.’ After being framed and subsequently murdered, Soul is resurrected and set on a 66-day-long journey for revenge earlier than they succumb once more.
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Whereas the demo I attempted didn’t delve into the story an excessive amount of, its preliminary hooks are very compelling, bolstered by the visible design of the world, which dances between steampunk aesthetics and Wuxia mythology.
Reduce a touch
My time as Soul started with a speedy fight tutorial, explaining the fundamentals of dodging and attacking. To unleash your rage on an enemy, you may select between heavy and light-weight assaults, chaining them collectively to ship a vicious combo. Smacking sq. 4 instances in a row triggers a sequence of momentum-building slashes ahead. Equally, chaining collectively the Triangle button 3 times permits for the same set of swipes ending with a trendy flip.
To diversify your moveset additional, you may as well swap to a second main weapon mid-fight and entry an entire new number of combos. What makes this swap so partaking is that your selection of weapon will even influence how the blows hit.
Given a collection of eight main weapons, starting from two-handed cleavers to bleed-inducing damaged swords, I opted for a duo of brief blades dubbed Sanguine Twin and a set of chakrams lovingly known as Seamless Dying. Each weapons supplied dynamic, gravity-defying combos that destroyed my opponents and sometimes left me hungry to spill extra blood and flex my newfound acrobatics.
Phantom Blade Zero additionally provides one other weapon set to select from known as Phantom Edges, which offers particular assaults to amp up the drama and harm in fight situations.
In the course of the demo, there have been 5 choices to select from, together with a Evening Owl bow, which allowed for some ranged harm, a jumbo axe aptly known as the Man-Cutter, and a menacing metallic masks known as Flaming Mane, which spewed hearth in direction of enemies. As with the first weapon, you’ll have two to wield and swap between, offering much more selection as you struggle.
Fight would possibly seem frantic in movement, however in observe, the sport does quite a lot of heavy lifting so that you can obtain that outcome. Regardless of solely urgent a couple of buttons, Soul instantly began throwing his type into every transfer, dipping and diving towards opposing enemies like an Olympic gymnast.
It took a couple of makes an attempt to grasp the method of chaining my combos and timing my parries good, however Phantom Blade Zero ensured that even when I went down, I might be taking place in type. This acrobatic motion additionally applies to the sport’s platforming challenges, which noticed Soul gliding down ladders one-handed and swinging throughout ropes with gusto, too.
Mythological missions
Talking of taking place, there are three issue settings in Phantom Blade Zero to select from – Wayfarer, Gamechanger, and Hellwalker. Relying on which mode you choose, the enemies won’t solely have extra well being but additionally wield distinctive movesets, satisfying the wants of masochists while leaving house for normal gamers, too. It’s not typically that combat-driven motion video games present such choices, and it was refreshing to see S-Sport cater to quite a lot of gamers – particularly contemplating how intriguing the lore underpinning the story is.
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