Phantom Blade Zero, the martial arts action game from Chinese studio S-GAME, launches this week on PS5 and PC to glowing reviews. As of October 27, OpenCritic had it at 90 out of 100 across 46 reviews, with 96% of critics recommending it, and Metacritic listed an 88. Reviewers broadly agree that the combat and boss fights are the highlight. Most of them also find the story hard to follow.
You play Soul, an assassin framed for his master's murder who has 66 days left to live. The fighting draws on Hong Kong martial arts movies and offers more than 30 main weapons, according to KeenGamer's launch roundup. S-GAME pushed the launch back from September 9 to polish its visuals and details.
What reviewers love
Push Square gave the PS5 version a 9 out of 10 and called it "one of the greatest and most gratifying action games on PS5." The review singles out how every hit feels, the bosses, and the range of enemies and locations.
Wccftech played more than 30 hours on PC and awarded a 10, with a headline calling it a real Game of the Year contender. The reviewer liked that every weapon has its own upgrade path, so none of them gets left behind as the game goes on.
TheSixthAxis also scored it a 9 and pointed to two choices that set it apart from Dark Souls-style games. Defeated enemies stay dead, and dying doesn't cost you the experience you've earned. If you'd rather skip the brutal end of the challenge, the review suggests starting on Pathbreaker, the standard difficulty.
Where it falls short
The story draws the most complaints. Push Square is especially harsh about it, pointing to confusing flashbacks and monologues that trigger when you pick up collectibles. Wccftech found the opening hours difficult to parse because of all the in-world terminology, and thought the English voice cast sounded stiff. It recommends the Chinese audio track, which suits the tone better.
Push Square played on a PS5 Pro in performance mode with ray tracing turned on, the setting that renders more lifelike reflections and lighting, and saw the frame rate dip below 60 frames per second during some boss fights, which makes motion less smooth. It also flagged blown-out sound effects and dialogue mixed lower than the music, and it didn't test a standard PS5. TheSixthAxis ran into a texture bug after a prerelease patch and fixed it by switching graphics modes.
OpenCritic also lists lower scores, a 3 out of 5 and a 4 out of 5, from reviews that praise the combat but want more polish and better balance.
Release time and price
The game unlocks worldwide at the same moment, which in the US means October 28 at 7 p.m. PT and 10 p.m. ET. Preloading opened on October 26 in the Americas, according to the S-GAME schedule published by KeenGamer.
The standard edition is $59.99 on both the PlayStation Store and Steam, and the Digital Deluxe Edition is $69.99. It's also on the Epic Games Store. Deluxe adds two outfits, a digital artbook and the soundtrack. Preordering unlocks an accessory and an outfit early, though both can be earned by playing.
There's no Xbox version and no boxed copy yet. S-GAME has announced three physical PS5 editions for 2027, Push Square reports, with no price or month. Phantom Blade Zero arrives just ahead of a November that brings the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on the 5th and GTA 6 on the 19th, both in our November release guide.
How long it takes and how much space it needs
Push Square needed 25 to 30 hours to finish the story and estimates about 45 to clear the side quests and collect every weapon and upgrade. TheSixthAxis puts its playthrough at around 40 hours.
The PS5 download is about 135GB before any day-one patch, according to the PlayStation Game Size account, which tracks file sizes listed on the store, as reported by Push Square. That's nearly a sixth of an 825GB launch PS5. If you're short on room, our guide to expanding PS5 storage covers which SSDs work and how to install one.
PC requirements
The minimum spec on Steam is an Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1660 6GB or Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB graphics card, which S-GAME says gets you 1080p at 30 frames per second. The recommended spec steps up to a Core i5-10600K or Ryzen 5 5600X with an RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6700 XT for 1440p at 60 frames per second. Both require a solid-state drive (SSD).
Those targets assume upscaling is on. The game renders each frame at a lower resolution and enlarges it with tools like DLSS or FSR, which we break down in our DLSS, FSR and PSSR explainer. S-GAME hasn't published numbers without upscaling.
At the high end, Wccftech measured around 100 frames per second at 4K on high settings with an RTX 4080 and DLSS Quality. Switching on path tracing, the most demanding form of that lifelike lighting, dropped it to about 30. The first time you launch it, the game compiles its shaders, the small programs that tell the graphics card how to draw lighting and materials. The review says that step prevents stutter during play.
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