Phantom Blade Zero bosses might normally have "Soulslike elements," but on harder difficulties, their AI borrows from fighting games: "He will analyze the situation"

News
By published

PBZ devs "tried to borrow a concept from fighting games and incorporate it into his AI"

Phantom Blade Zero screenshot showing two faceless puppets with swords
(Image credit: S-Game / PlayStation)

Phantom Blade Zero director Qiwei Liang has been pretty insistent that his upcoming fantasy action game isn't a Soulslike, even if you won't understand what you're looking at until you play it for yourself. And to really distance the game from a genre Liang said there are "too many" of, the lead dev recently broke down how some bosses actually borrow from fighting games instead.

Speaking to the newest issue of PC Gamer Magazine, Liang spoke about how one boss in particular, called Huangxing, changes in the game's harder 'Hellwalker' difficulty mode. "In normal difficulty, he has some of the Soulslike elements to him: he has fixed combos, and if you fight him enough times you'll figure out his combos." Sounds like the classic souls formula of 'die, die, die, learn, win.'

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.