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Phantom Blade Zero Requires 145 GB of Storage, With 300 GB Recommended for Preloading
The action game’s kung fu combat and boss fights drew praise, but reviewers said optimisation bugs and frame-rate drops undercut the experience.
- S-Game's Phantom Blade Zero launches Wednesday, October 28, 2026, earning an 88 on Metacritic for its fluid, "kungfupunk" combat style blending traditional Chinese culture with modern aesthetics.
- Set in the Wulin, a martial underworld, the game follows Soul, an elite assassin with only 66 days to live before his magically inserted artificial heart stops. Combat relies on "Sha-Chi" energy to power martial arts.
- IGN's Travis Northup praised the combat as "one of the best action games I've played in a long time," though GameSpot's Richard Wakeling noted the "story is tough to follow" and critics called characters "bland."
- Technical frustrations including geometry bugs and frame rate drops have impacted the experience. Developer S-Game released a 67GB update before launch to address performance and boss mechanics.
- Following 50 hours of gameplay, VGC's Dave Aubrey described the title as "undoubtedly stronger than genre stablemates like Black Myth: Wukong." The release positions Phantom Blade Zero as a potential 2026 Game Awards contender.
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26 Articles
26 Articles
Phantom Blade Zero review - flowing swordplay meets some rough edges in this wonderfully fluid action game undermined by a few little issues
I wasn't around to witness the golden age of Martial Arts cinema, but there are moments in Phantom Blade Zero that make me feel as though I've tumbled through a crack in time onto the set of a kung fu film. There's one particular encounter that sticks in my mind. Approaching a group of enemies in a shaded valley, I slowly raise my sword, and the first enemy rushes at me. Fool. I perfectly parry the blow, performing a slow-motion somersault to la…
Game*Spark's review praised it as a "masterpiece that will leave its mark on the history of action games," and it received a score of 9.
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