Whereas the studio behind Phantom Blade Zero has been clear about designing the upcoming RPG as being nearer in gameplay phrases to a title like Satan Might Cry 5 than it could be to Darkish Souls, the studio has talked about that’s taking inspiration from a number of video games, together with FromSoftware’s Souls franchise.
Chatting with GamesRadar, developer S-Sport spoke about how Phantom Blade Zero‘s numerous features have been impressed by Satan Might Cry, Souls, and even Resident Evil. The place Satan Might Cry was the inspiration behind fight, the Souls franchise is the place the studio is taking its cues from for stage design. Resident Evil, alternatively, will function the inspiration for the sport’s narrative design and basic ambiance.
“On the Souls-lite stage design aspect, we’re undoubtedly a fan of and impressed by the pre-Elden Ring, interconnected, tight stage design,” stated a consultant from S-Sport. In addition they talked about that director “Soulframe” Liang studied structure at college, “so the extent design is one thing that’s essential for us and we wish to have very sturdy ranges, have a whole lot of depth to them, very dense.”
Liang himself spoke about how the assorted inspirations for Phantom Blade Zero got here collectively in numerous methods. Taking to GamesRadar, he describes the title as being extra like a Resident Evil recreation with an emphasis on preventing with swords.
“Earlier than, everybody thought we’re making a Soulslike recreation,” defined Liang. “So with a purpose to show we now have a completely completely different fight system for the core gameplay, we’re showcasing these fight demos. However now individuals have possibly come the opposite approach round, they suppose it’s a hack-and-slash with no story and also you simply go kill to the tip, however it’s not one thing like that. It’s extra like a Resident Evil however preventing with blades.”
Liang additionally spoke about how exploration will probably be a core a part of the gameplay in Phantom Blade Zero together with its fast-paced motion gameplay and character development. He describes the sport’s exploration features as coming from a Souls video games, whereas the “vibes” come for Resident Evil.
“Something that’s helpful and good for us to make our pillar, a playable kung fu film with exploration and character development, we’ll make use of it,” he stated. “Whether or not it’s exploration from a Souls recreation or vibes from Resident Evil or fight from this hack-and-slash recreation, we’ll take that and convey them collectively. However the general expertise remains to be very coherent. It’s not ripped other than one thing else.”
Finally, S-Sport needs to carry again traditional kung fu motion again in its personal approach. With Phantom Blade Zero, the studio says that its ideologies and ideas in recreation design maintain every little thing collectively. If one side have been to fail, it could additionally carry the remainder of the sport down with it.
“Now we have deeper ideologies and ideas in designing the sport,” stated Liang. “If we don’t have that, each factor we introduced from completely different genres would really feel separate and collapse. One is to carry again the golden age of Chinese language kung fu motion pictures, ranging from Bruce Lee within the Nineteen Seventies and into possibly the early 2000s. We wish to rekindle this ardour for the kung fu film. The opposite one, for gaming itself, we wish to rediscover the golden age of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2.”
Phantom Blade Zero is at present in growth for PC and PS5. Whereas it doesn’t have a launch date as of but, the studio is perhaps concentrating on a Fall 2026 launch window. The studio has additionally beforehand revealed that it’ll take gamers between 20 and 30 hours to complete.
