Phantom Blade Zero is set to arrive soon, and its developers are distancing themselves from thesoulslikegenre. They have indicated that it will actually be more of ahack ‘n’ slash, something the director reaffirmed in a recent interview.
Phantom Blade Zero Is Not a Soulslike
It seems that the S-Game team wants to take a very different approach in this action adventure inspired by Chinese folklore, transporting players to a somewhat sinister world filled with enemies and final bosses. Beyond this, the main difference from titles like Dark Souls and Elden Ring is that the pace of the PS5 and PC title will be much faster. In fact, the director himself stated that they were more inspired by games like Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear Rising to achieve the gameplay they desired.
“There is a good rhythm in the combat, but overall it is much faster than that of the soulslikes. We were inspired by the combo-based action of games like Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear Solid Rising, which not many people play anymore. Those games are our favorites, but nowadays, younger players might find them too difficult, so we needed to make them more accessible.”
With this in mind, the team was very clear from the beginning that they didn’t want to develop a game identical to the soulslikes, especially to avoid it being frustrating at any point.
“From the beginning, we decided that we were not going to make another soulslike. We believe that the difficulties and frustrations you experience in a typical Souls game cannot be the main part of the game. That’s why we wanted to eliminate the frustrating parts and add more positive ones. Every dodge, every perfect parry will reward you with great animations.”
Phantom Blade Zero is expected to arrive sometime in 2024 for PS5 and PC, positioning itself as one of the most promising games of the second half of the year.
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