The rock blocking the cave Phantom Blade Zero lives in is slowly rolling away. Developer S-Game revealed during PlayStation State of Play June 2026 that the action RPG will get its own dedicated show later this summer, which is also when pre-orders will open ahead of the dark kungfu game's October 29 launch.
The devoted Phantom Blade Zero show will be a "Gameplay & Story Deep Dive" according to Phantom Blade Zero's State of Play trailer, which teases wicked swordfights and an understandably crying baby. You can watch the whole sordid affair below.
In the trailer, a masked assassin who seems to be our protagonist Soul shoos off enemies with expert precision and a very scary metal weapon. He carries a baby wrapped in a plush, but soiled, blanket on his back, and he seems unafraid of the torrent of enemies S-Game shows in a short montage: a woman with giant limbs, a massive, crackling porcelain hand that reminds me of Dark Souls 3's High Lord Wolnir and his skeletal palms, a giant who swoops her meaty leg around like the Dancer of the Boreal Valley in that same game, and an imposing poison-flower-woman thing that evokes Dark Souls' Chaos Witch Quelaag.
S-Game CEO Soulframe Liang insists his Phantom Blade Zero "is neither a Soulslike game nor a traditional action game."
"Maybe it could create a new identity that is Wuxia Action Games?" he hopes, referring to the genre of Chinese fantasy that also motivated big hit Black Myth: Wukong.
And I can see that Phantom Blade Zero is clearly a wuxia game in the ornate gold armor sets and hyperreal melee combat sequences found in its latest trailer, certainly, but I also pick up on creepy whispers of Dark Souls-like monstrosity. I like all of it, even though that crying baby probably doesn't.
I couldn't love Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but Phantom Blade Zero is the action RPG I wanted them to be.
