We have some new details on Sony’s next exclusive from a Chinese game studio, Phantom Blade Zero.
As reported by MP1st, the story mode will last 20 to 30 hours long. As an action RPG, it will be a lengthy experience, but it is closer to the average playtime for its genre. It will also have 20 hours’ worth of side missions and extra content.
While Phantom Blade Zero’s bosses will have two phase fights like Soulsborne games, unlike FromSoftware, S-GAME will let you switch the difficulty from Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extremely Hard. The game is also more generous, in that if you die after reaching a boss’ second phase, you will respawn into that second phase instead of having to start over.
S-GAME will also introduce a mode called Li Wulin. In this mode, players can return to fight bosses they already defeated at their pleasure. It will also give you access to hidden bosses.
While some fans may have forgotten this by now, Phantom Blade Zero entered a console exclusivity controversy similar to that experienced by Black Myth Wukong. It was introduced in a 2023 PlayStation Showcase, coming for PC and PlayStation 5. While it appeared at the time that Sony helped in its development, it is not part of their China Hero Project.
However, S-GAME moved to quickly debunk rumors spreading that they rejected bringing their game to Xbox. We later reported that the source of the rumor turned out to be AI slop, a discredit to the games press that unfairly maligned a developer for the sake of profit.
A rumor spread last week that S-GAME benefited from Black Myth Wukong’s success, such that they received an influx of heavy last minute funding when they were already nearing the end of development.
While we can’t verify if said rumor is true, we do hope that S-GAME would have enough money between it and its potential sales to fund development of the game to other platforms. Black Myth Wukong, for all the hype around it releasing to PlayStation 5 before Xbox Series X|S, achieved most of its sales from a captive China fanbase on PC.
While S-GAME and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers developer Leenzee would want to have Game Science’s level of success, that doesn’t seem like a healthy way to look at the industry. It would be more reasonable to find more fans for their work than those that already exist outside of China, and outside the platforms they already play on the most, to maximize that potential audience for their future.
