Phantom Blade Zero - a new "action RPG" coming to PC and PS5

[Abu Antar]

 

[abnaxus]

Closest we'll ever get to a Ninja Scroll game

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The combat does seems very focused on offense
But it also seems oriented to 1v1 fights and accordingly the fights against multiple opponents seems the weakest part

 

[Anonona]

I got a bit of NG mixed with sekiro feel from that gameplay, specially the bit where he practically performs a Fliying Swallow from the column plus the dial-up combos even if they are more simple. So far I think is looking good, I specially liked how once he mastered the boss he was able to kill it really fast.

 

[DemonKing]

But it also seems oriented to 1v1 fights and accordingly the fights against multiple opponents seems the weakest part

That was my impression - when facing multiple opponents it seems that only one will attack the protagonist at once while the others circle around the combatants like in a bad martial arts movie.

Otherwise looks promising!

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The "Action RPG" label bothers me, as given the game's style and current industry trends, I can't help but associate it with nuGoW shit "ARPG" mechanics

I got a bit of NG mixed with sekiro feel from that gameplay

Your comment got me curious to see if these guys are completely new, or if they had published games before
Apparently it's the latter and the studio is already 10+ years old

They've already made 4 games and all of them are set in this same universe, following the same protagonist - Soul
The 1st game was released in 2008 (the wiki article says 2010, because that year saw the release of a new version with completely rewritten text) and was made in RPGMaker, Rainblood: Town of Death
The 2nd game was released in 2011, also made in RPGMaker, Rainblood: City of Flame - it introduces the main antagonist and the series deuteragonist Shang (the guy with the golden Jian in the trailer - also he's got a bit of Vergil in him, one of his powers is even Summoned Swords)
These 2 games are China only releases, though they got English fan translations
3rd game was Rainblood Chronicles: Mirage, from 2013 this one is a sidescrolling beat-em up, it got a Steam release but the English translation isn't very good
After this the studio became radio silent until last year...
Literally 10 years of nothing until the trailer in the OP
The 4th game was also announced and released last year - Phantom Blade: Executioners - another sidescroller (no Steam release yet, but you can download it in the official site)
So while Phantom Blade 0 is their 5th game, in-universe it's actually a prequel (but to which one of these game is still a guess)
Apparently, early concept for PB0 has been written and designed since 2017 with a team of two-three core members, but the actual development started in early 2022 (this info is according to the Official Discord Q&A).

I specially liked how once he mastered the boss he was able to kill it really fast.

Yeah those twin short swords look quite OP

a bad martial arts movie

You know, it's funny that until now there's never been an attempt at a 3D action game in a Wuxia setting (at least outside of the Chinese market), despite how popular those tales are

 

[ADL]

PC reconfirmed

 

[Nutmeg]

Closest we'll ever get to a Ninja Scroll game

Samsho2 is already basically Ninja Scroll the fighting game.

 

[ADL]

 

[Machocruz]

The "Action RPG" label bothers me, as given the game's style and current industry trends, I can't help but associate it with nuGoW shit "ARPG" mechanics

I get the feeling that lot of this Action RPG stuff lately is just an attempt to make plain old action games feel bigger, like you're getting more for your money. As if NG, DMC, Bayonetta, realGoW etc. weren't substantial games already. And these games already had "skills" and "progression" of some sort.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Honestly all this focus on parrying and big flashy combos reminds me of the original God of War and all the games aping it back then. QTE up the ass. Remember when everyone hated that? Changing the button prompt for a blue sparkle doesn't make it THAT much better.

 

[notpl]

Dang. That looks terrible.