Phantom Blade Zero's director says the fast-paced action RPG isn't "another Soulslike" because the developer isn't trying to ape FromSoftware games

Jun. 12, 2024

It also doesn’t feature respawning enemies after checkpoints and deaths

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Phantom Blade Zero’s director has pushed back against a “Soulslike” label, and has also revealed it isn’t a PS5 exclusive.

The game director, who goes by the moniker ‘Soulframe,’ has said that by now, anyone who has played Phantom Blade Zero’s demo as part of SGF should know that it isn’t a Soulslike. The developer never set out to “make another Soulslike,” and instead aimed for “combo-driven, heart-pumping combat that is hectic, rewarding, and exhilarating.”

Phantom Blade Zero does take inspiration from other Soulslike games, for example in its multi-layered map and “multiple approach paths,” but the “similarities stop there.” The new game will have multiple difficulty levels, and also won’t respawn enemies whenever you die or interact with checkpoints. That’s a big departure from the usual Soulslike games.

Additionally, Phantom Blade Zero’s director says the new game isn’t a PS5 exclusive, because there’s a PC release being planned as well. When the action RPG was unveiled last year, it was done so at aPlayStation State of Playbroadcast, so that’s probably why some have been quick to call it a PS5 exclusive. There’s no word on an Xbox launch, however.

Finally, Soulframe writes that Phantom Blade Zero’s demo simply isn’t ready for mass consumption, and the developer wants to take feedback from the SGF demo into account before releasing it to the public. Basically, S-Game wants to make a better Phantom Blade Zero demo before everyone gets to play it.

Check out our ownPhantom Blade Zero previewfrom SGF to see what we made of the new action-RPG when we played it for ourselves.

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