Key takeaways from the preview: There are a ton of boss fights, and so far they’re fantastic. If you like the style, PBZ oozes it. I’ll admit that when I first saw the trailers for the Phantom Blade Zero game, I wasn’t immediately excited. After all, this sword-happy parrying action game exists in an era where we get at least a dozen of these a year. However, it only took about five minutes with developer S-GAME’s Phantom Blade Zero to see how it sets itself apart, with the most fluid and satisfying action since Sekiro, a surprising amount of things to do and secrets to find as you explore each level, and a story that looks like it’ll be harder than you expected. After over six hours of racing through the first stage of the adventure, I left completely excited to play more and have now joined the ranks of those who count this among their most anticipated games of 2026. What immediately struck me about this finely honed action game is how much effortless style it oozes. One scene has a character played by Donny Yen balancing a baby on the edge of his sword as he fights off numerous attackers, a boss encounter involved me fighting (and eventually taking the form of) one of those awesome dancing lions you see in Chinatown at Chinese New Year; Even the first few minutes have your character choosing which heart they want to receive from a creepy ghost monster just to make sure you know the game you’re playing is metal as hell. Honestly, it’s pretty hard to make your action game with a cool swordmaster protagonist fighting hordes of monsters stand out from everyone else, given how common this trope is right now, and yet I don’t think there’s ever been a point in my playtime where I went more than half an hour without coming across something I hadn’t seen before. It’s incredibly impressive! That’s all without getting to the combat itself, which is easily the star of the show here. I don’t think there was a single second of Phantom Blade Zero where I didn’t feel like a complete badass. Some of the many examples I found include: riding atop a horse-drawn chariot while fighting armed pursuers and blocking their shots with your sword, killing enemies with absolutely brutal finishers after you’ve broken their guard meter with repeated parries, and holding off two enemies on either side by executing an absurdly cool double kick at the same time. This game has an incredible ability to make you feel like you are the only person in the world who could have accomplished something like this. an incredible ability to make you feel like you’re the only person in the world who could have pulled off something like that, and a lot of that comes down to how smooth the parry mechanics and attack combos are. I was surprised by how often I was able to do crazy things like parry three daggers thrown in quick succession, then follow them up with a series of attacks that had me spinning in the air and spinning gracefully while hitting enemies like they were nothing, though most weren’t far behind. I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to action games, so if the parry windows aren’t right, or the attacks don’t feel very satisfying in some imperceptible way, I tend to become disenchanted very quickly, but Phantom Blade Zero nails a lot of those little details perfectly, making it incredibly difficult to put down. Tools of the Trade And if the core ways the combat feels satisfying are what drew me in, then the fact that I got to experience it all. Again, from a new framework thanks to the set of melee weapons was what caught my attention. I don’t know how many weapons this thing has or if they’re all as unique as the ones I got my hands on in this section of the adventure, but almost every weapon of destruction I tried felt extremely personalized. I obtained a huge two-handed sword by defeating an optional secret boss that led me to victory through a ton of encounters thanks to its ability to deal an incredible amount of damage, while another boss was a. The drunken fighting master rewarded me with his drunken fighting style after his defeat, allowing me to swing and weave like a champion, moving unpredictably while guiding my sword telekinetically in front of me, even able to send it flying towards the enemy like a ranged weapon. The differences between these types of weapons were so stark that it took me a long time to adapt to each one, learning the combos available to me along with the pros and cons of using each as I went, and that was an incredibly long road. to help keep my attention while I cut down the 100th enemy minion in half an hour. There’s also a surprising amount to upgrade as you master your kung fu skills, whether it’s upgrading weapons by investing materials into them to boost their stats and abilities, or investing in the various paths of the skill tree, which offer everything from active abilities like one that lets you interrupt your own attacks to execute a quick dodge to get out of the way, to passive buffs like one that restores your Sha-Chi (used to perform certain special actions) faster than normal for an action game that’s primarily focused on getting kills. sick, there’s a surprising amount of RPGs that have snuck into the mix here, and I’m all for it. It’s nice to have breaks from combat to do some good old fashioned building, even if it doesn’t seem to be that deep from what I saw. It’s a good thing that almost all of the ones I played were an absolute success. While most of the early fights were pretty standard stuff, like a hooded man throwing chained swords at me or a large burly monstrosity wielding an ax the size of a grown man, it wasn’t long before some more interesting and original ideas took center stage. attacks, which tested my quick reaction times and my ability to read the enemy’s movements. On the other hand, the duel against the lion dancers was not as chaotic, as most of the attacks were slower and quite telegraphed, but the difficulty was in having to find creative ways to get around the almost impenetrable armor of the lion mask, which I finally learned the trick to unbalance this ferocious enemy that I would not like to reveal more here. There are examples here, except developer S-GAME has asked me not to mention some of the cool bosses I fought so as not to spoil too many of them, so you’ll have to take my word for it that there’s some pretty cool stuff in there. Speaking of boss fights, a lot has been made of Donnie Yen’s role in Phantom Blade Zero as the mysterious Mó Yuan, and with good reason: this guy is the crazy Ip Man, after all! The guy somehow managed to be the coolest guy in a Star Wars movie! For the love of God! time.Densely PackedWhen you’re not slamming your fists of fury into beefy bosses, you’ll battle through levels that have a surprising number of secrets to discover, side quests to complete, and areas completely impossible to explore. Over the course of my demo, I found weapons and gadgets that others at the preview event reported they hadn’t found at all, discovered one of the coolest bosses of my session that was completely optional, and came across hidden regions full of them. loot to claim, like some creepy underground fortress that I had missed until I backed away a bit. Phantom Blade Zero’s interesting aesthetic, which mixes industrial design with traditional wuxia elements, creates some pretty interesting and unique areas, such as one that featured a huge factory of some kind located in the center of a quiet town in the mountains. a supporting character while exposing you to a few more combat encounters with some minions, but it also gave me more reasons to stop and smell the roses, explore areas I might have otherwise overlooked, and generally give me extra things to do in a world I enjoyed being in. One area I haven’t had enough exposure to to form an opinion yet is the story is quite simple, as the protagonist only has 66 days to live and goes on a quest to cure himself before it’s too late. and take revenge on his enemies, pretty normal things for this genre. And while I did see the opening scenes and a few bits of the story in the first few hours, it was mostly setup stuff that I would describe as good enough, but not especially interesting. However, I didn’t get to see many of the big story beats that develop beyond the first act setup, so it remains to be seen if I can at least say that everything I learned about Donnie Yen’s character and their relationship. The Final Hurdle Clearly, my time with Phantom Blade Zero was overwhelmingly positive, and it certainly won me over as someone who will definitely play this game, but if there’s one area I’m a little nervous about it’s the technical performance. Obviously, the build I played wasn’t final, and S-GAME told me that most of their focus in the remaining weeks leading up to release is primarily on optimization, but it’s worth it. Shouting out that I experienced infrequent but fairly severe frame rate drops during the course of my demo. I was playing on a decently powerful PC, so I’m especially curious how it will look and run on PS5, which is the only console PBZ will debut on later this month. Since the day I played Phantom Blade Zero, it’s gone from not being on my radar to being at the top of my wish list this fall, and I really can’t wait to dive back in later this month to see if it can hold up beyond those first few hours. However, at least for now, almost everything I’ve seen and played has further convinced me that this will be one of the best action games of 2026. While you’re here, check out these recent trailers for other great upcoming games we’ve seen. Recently! Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read coverage of his games here.
