After Onimusha's focused swordplay, Phantom Blade Zero delivers a sprawling, maximalist action epic
News Source
β’Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:55:06 +0000
π° What Happened
Phantom Blade Zero is a huge action game from studio S-Game. Fifteen hours in, PC Gamer's reviewer has already swapped main weapons more times than in a whole Souls game. He is still less than a third of the way through.
A PC Gamer guide writer told him there are about a hundred boss fights still to come. The reviewer calls the scale exciting, but also a warning about games that grow too big during a long development.
π The Backstory
The game spent more than half a decade in development, like Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Onimusha keeps its story tight around Miyamoto Musashi and the people he fights for. Phantom Blade Zero spreads out instead, with flashbacks, side characters and secret messages about puppets and monks in gold armour.
It leans on Chinese martial arts and an interconnected world explored with hand-painted ink-wash maps, giving players many more weapons and routes than its rival.
π― Why It Matters
Big action games take years and cost a lot to build. This one shows the trade-off: far more bosses and weapons, but a story that can feel tangled and hard to follow.
Phantom Blade Zero is a huge action game from studio S-Game. Fifteen hours in, PC Gamer's reviewer has already swapped main weapons more times than in a whole Souls game. He is still less than a third of the way through.
A PC Gamer guide writer told him there are about a hundred boss fights still to come. The reviewer calls the scale exciting, but also a warning about games that grow too big during a long development.
The game spent more than half a decade in development, like Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Onimusha keeps its story tight around Miyamoto Musashi and the people he fights for. Phantom Blade Zero spreads out instead, with flashbacks, side characters and secret messages about puppets and monks in gold armour.
It leans on Chinese martial arts and an interconnected world explored with hand-painted ink-wash maps, giving players many more weapons and routes than its rival.
Big action games take years and cost a lot to build. This one shows the trade-off: far more bosses and weapons, but a story that can feel tangled and hard to follow.