Phantom Blade Zero is the best action RPG I've played all year. The staggering variety of imaginative weapons available to wuxia hero Soul, all painstakingly animated via authentic martial arts choreography, is what really sets the game apart. This is not a Soulslike. You lose nothing upon death, enemies never respawn, stamina is plentiful, there are no RPG stats, and you will restart at phase two of a boss if you clear phase one. Yet Phantom Blade Zero solves two of my biggest complaints with most Soulslikes, one of which still bothers me whenever I sit down to play Elden Ring on a new character.
The weapon emporium is open
Nothing bums me out faster than barely surviving a tough boss fight and then eagerly sprinting to the blacksmith to forge their weapon, only to learn it has almost the exact same move set as the longsword I found in a bin 40 hours ago. This instrument of death feared across the lands is, actually, a normal sword with better stats. If I'm lucky, it may have a special charged attack – often one so slow that I can only use it against most enemies by giving 14 days advance notice.
Weapons in Phantom Blade Zero – the main ones that you swing all the time, and the sub-weapons you break out for special occasions – all feel distinct, and almost every major boss drops one (there are a lot of bosses). There are a lot of swords in this game too, and it feels great to swing them, to hear steel clash like colliding icebergs. There are also twinned daggers that attack on their own, gauntlets that pulverize the very air, great swords that trade your health for damage, chained axes that would be the envy of Kratos, and literal instruments whose plucked strings send searing arcs of energy tearing through enemies. Swords extend, spirits surround you, bludgeons spin like food processors (dude processors, if you will), and fire roars at your request.
Now for the best part. You're perfectly capable of using all of these weapons all the time. Elden Ring is full of unique dispensers of death, but its weapon upgrade system is so laborious that you're often stuck with a handful of weapons until you get very late in the game and materials become buyable. Even then, you can only max out a few weapons each playthrough. The question is not, "Do I like this new sword more?" Instead, you wonder, "Can I upgrade this to the same level as ol' reliable?" Don't take me to a buffet and then give me a plate the size of my fist. I wanna pig out! I wanna try it all, and Phantom Blade Zero lets me.
When you upgrade a weapon in Phantom Blade Zero, you dump materials into it to boost its attack power and unlock additional bonuses and attacks. One-handed, two-handed, and dual-wielded weapons have their own upgrade materials, as do different archetypes of sub-weapons. This encourages you to use, say, a one-handed sword and a dual weapon so that you can upgrade them both maximally, whereas two different one-handed swords would compete for materials.
If you ever want to change weapons, you can just downgrade your current one to refund all the stones and XP that went into it. It's so easy. It doesn't cost anything until you hit level 10, and even then it only requires a coupon I've found dozens of. It's such a simple and elegant system. Finding upgrade materials doesn't enhance one weapon – it increases the effective level of all your weapons.
It's hard to overstate how much this one change improves the flow of a playthrough. Every new boss weapon is exciting because I know I can immediately use it. There are no stats or stones to hold me back. I change weapons all the time in Phantom Blade Zero – not because I get bored, but because I want everything.
The best games of 2026 so far, with plenty still to come.
