Wuxia action RPG Phantom Blade Zero's Metacritic score has the game looking likely to be one worth adding to your backlog's ever-growing list of 2026 bangers.
I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there's been a lot of good games this year. And while the early months were filled with some pretty substantial hits like Mewgenics, Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Pokemon Pokopia, the last couple of months have been non-stop thanks to the impending GTA 6 launch leading developers to drop everything as soon as possible.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer all dropped within a month of each other; and I'm both happy and sad to announce it looks like another banger has dropped into the backlog.
Phantom Blade Zero's Metacritic score has debuted at 88, which places it at 21 in the overall top games of 2026 list – although that top 20 is also filled with Switch 2 ports like Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and the Resident Evil Remake trilogy, as well as some DLC, so in reality it's closer to 13th. Meanwhile on OpenCritic, the game sits at a 91, tying it with Forza Horizon 6 and Mina the Hollower as the second-highest rated game of the year behind Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter remake.
This score also has it beat out Nioh 3 (86) and Onimusha: Way of the Sword (85), making it the top dog of sword fighting this year – at least as far as review scores go, it'll have to be something special to beat Onimusha in my eyes.
In the GamesRadar+ Phantom Blade Zero review, freelance writer Luke Kemp gives the game four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "With fights that feel great and flow smoothly, Phantom Blade Zero proves itself as one of the best action-adventures of the year." Elsewhere the game received full marks from the likes of TheGamer, But Why Tho, and PCGamesN, with only two reviews being dubbed "Mixed" by Metacritic's standards.
PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.
