NERDAGES™
Phantom Blade Zero First Impressions: I Love Souls Games, Will I Love This?
Eric Poole | Posted: 11/09/2026
(Image credit: Playstation)
Platform: PC | Difficulty: Highest available | Playtime: 10 hours | Progress: 2 of 8 regions
I love Souls games. So, naturally, I'll love Phantom Blade Zero, right?
Maybe...
After spending roughly 10 hours with Phantom Blade Zero, I have some thoughts. Admittedly, I didn't follow this one too closely leading up to launch. Outside of a flashy trailer over the summer, it wasn't exactly at the top of my radar. But with a Steam library stuffed with every FromSoftware game and just about every Soulslike I can get my hands on, the Steam algorithm made sure I wasn't going to miss this one.
And I'm glad it did. Mostly.
Here's the thing. Phantom Blade Zero is, in my opinion, a little too unique to earn the Soulslike badge. Sure, it borrows some familiar ideas, but it also makes several deliberate changes that separate it from the genre. Whether those changes are for better or worse is going to depend heavily on what you're looking for.
In short, it's fast, flashy, and forgiving. And that last part might be where it loses some Souls fans.
A Familiar Formula, With a Few Twists
Like many games that occupy this corner of the gaming world, the story is a little too fuzzy for me to confidently summarize after only 10 hours. So I'm not going to pretend I've pieced together every detail of the lore.
Here's my interpretation so far: You're a guy named Soul, armed with a bunch of really cool swords, trying to save the world from some particularly unpleasant humanoid abominations. Along the way, you'll ring bells that act as checkpoints, cut your way through mobs of enemies, and eventually find yourself trapped in an arena with something much bigger and considerably angrier than everything you just killed.
Sound familiar?
Yeah, that's about where I'm going to stop comparing this game to Dark Souls. Because despite those similarities, the moment-to-moment gameplay is a very different experience.
Fast, Flashy, and Surprisingly Forgiving
One of the first things I noticed about Phantom Blade Zero is just how approachable it is.
After only a few minutes of gameplay, I decided to restart and crank the difficulty up to the highest available setting. The default difficulty wasn't giving me the resistance I've come to enjoy from games like Sekiro, Elden Ring, or Lies of P.
Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I think players who have been intimidated by the Souls genre might find Phantom Blade Zero to be a much more welcoming experience.
But even on the highest difficulty, I'm finding the balance a little strange.
Exploring each region and clearing out regular enemies has been surprisingly easy. Then, almost out of nowhere, a boss shows up and the difficulty spikes dramatically. It's like the game spends an hour telling you how awesome you are before suddenly deciding you've had enough compliments.
I'd personally prefer a more consistent challenge throughout the environments rather than reserving nearly all the punishment for boss encounters.
That said, the combat itself is fantastic.
It's fast, fluid, and ridiculously flashy. Attacks flow together beautifully, animations look incredible, and there's something undeniably satisfying about cutting through enemies with the kind of swordsmanship that would make a martial arts movie director jealous.
And despite hearing about technical issues around launch, my experience on PC has been remarkably smooth so far. No noticeable performance problems, no frustrating bugs, and combat that feels surprisingly polished.
Whatever complaints I have about the game's design choices, the actual act of playing it is a lot of fun.
Death Without Consequences
Now, here's where Phantom Blade Zero really starts to separate itself from the Souls formula.
Dying doesn't carry much of a penalty.
You die, you respawn at one of the generously placed bells throughout the region, and you're back in business. No pile of lost souls or runes waiting to be recovered. No desperate run back through an area praying you don't die twice and lose everything.
Just get up, dust yourself off, and try again.
For some players, that's going to be a very welcome change.
For me? I'm not entirely sold.
One of the things I love about Souls games is the tension created by having something to lose. When you're deep into an unfamiliar area, carrying a ridiculous number of souls, and desperately searching for the next checkpoint, every enemy becomes a threat. Even the weakest mob can ruin your day if you get careless.
That sense of risk adds weight to exploration.
Without it, death in Phantom Blade Zero feels more like a minor inconvenience than a genuine setback.
Another significant difference is that enemies don't respawn when you rest at a bell. Once you've cleared a region, those enemies stay dead. There's no repeatedly clearing the same stretch of enemies to grind levels or farm resources.
Instead, the game takes a much more flexible approach to progression.
You can refund the upgrade points and materials you've invested into your weapons and redistribute those resources into something else whenever you want. Want to experiment with a different weapon? Go ahead. You're not permanently committed to whatever looked cool five hours ago.
From a practical standpoint, I understand the appeal. It encourages experimentation and removes some of the anxiety surrounding character builds.
But again, I'm finding that I actually like some of that anxiety.
There's something satisfying about carefully investing in a build and living with those decisions, even when you realize a few hours later that you've made a terrible mistake.
Phantom Blade Zero is clearly designed to keep players moving forward rather than punishing them for experimenting. I respect that decision, even if it's not necessarily my favorite approach.
Is It Too Easy, or Am I Just a Masochist?
Ten hours in, this is probably my biggest concern.
I'm playing on the hardest difficulty available, and outside of boss encounters, I rarely feel threatened.
Don't get me wrong, bosses can absolutely put up a fight. But there's a noticeable disconnect between the challenge of getting to a boss and actually fighting one.
Souls games have conditioned me to treat every new hallway like it's hiding something that wants to murder me. Phantom Blade Zero has me charging into rooms like I own the place.
And maybe that's exactly the experience the developers intended.
Not every action game needs to be an exercise in suffering. There's certainly room for something that emphasizes spectacle, fluid combat, and progression without forcing players to repeatedly slam their heads against the same brick wall.
But it does raise an important question.
If the punishment and tension are what you love most about Souls games, is Phantom Blade Zero actually going to scratch that itch?
For me, at least so far, the answer is probably not.
Ten Hours In, and the Steam Backlog Is Calling
After completing two of the game's eight regions, I can comfortably say that Phantom Blade Zero is a fun, polished, and visually impressive action game.
It's also a game that has me questioning how much more time I want to invest in it.
That's not entirely the game's fault.
I'm currently staring down two final exams and a capstone project standing between me and finishing my graduate degree. As much as I'd love to spend another 20 or 30 hours slicing my way through the Phantom World, I'm not sure that's the best use of my time right now.
And anyone with a Steam library like mine knows exactly what happens when you put a game down with the intention of coming back to it.
It disappears into the abyss.
The graveyard of unfinished adventures. The digital equivalent of buying a book, reading two chapters, and putting it on a shelf next to 200 other books you're definitely going to finish someday.
Phantom Blade Zero might end up there.
Not because it's a bad game, but because after 10 hours I'm enjoying it more than I'm feeling compelled to finish it.
There's a difference.
Would I Recommend Phantom Blade Zero?
If you're looking for another Soulslike to punish you for every mistake, probably not.
Despite the familiar checkpoints, intimidating bosses, and dark fantasy setting, Phantom Blade Zero isn't trying to be another Dark Souls. And I think approaching it with that expectation might actually hurt your enjoyment of what it does well.
But if you're looking for a polished, fast-paced action game steeped in Chinese mythology and martial arts, with combat that demands more engagement than your typical button-mashing adventure, absolutely.
There's a lot to love here.
The combat feels great, the presentation is impressive, and the game's forgiving progression systems make it approachable without completely removing the challenge.
I just wish the journey between bosses had a little more bite.
My first impressions? Phantom Blade Zero is a great action game that I'm not yet convinced is a great game for Souls fans.
And that's perfectly fine.
Not everything needs to be Dark Souls.
Even if I occasionally wish it were.