S-Game announced the release date for Phantom Blade Zero during The Game Awards on Thursday, alongside a meaty new trailer showing a lot of combat and wrist-ache-inducing combos. Phantom Blade Zero will be released on Sept. 9, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC via Steam.
If you were hoping for a bit more clarity about what’s going on in Phantom Blade Zero, you’re out of luck. If you wanted firearms, ferocious spear thrusts, lasers, people turning into ceramic dolls and shattering, mysterious masked men kidnapping babies, giant monsters, and drunk swordsmen, well, there’s plenty of that.
Phantom Blade Zero is a lot of things. It’s a continuation of S-Game’s Phantom series, a reboot of the original Rainblood game, and a mashup of genres and styles that S-Game calls “Kungfupunk.” You’ve got Soulslike elements, hack-and-slash combat that wouldn’t be out of place in Nioh, and some bits of steampunk aesthetic that are wholly its own.
“In Phantom Blade Zero, you’re Soul, an elite assassin serving an elusive but powerful organization known simply as ‘The Order,'” S-Game founder Soulframe Liang said in a PlayStation Blog post when the game was announced. “He was framed for the murder of The Order’s patriarch and gravely injured in the manhunt that ensued. A mystic healer managed to save him from death, but makeshift cure only lasts for 66 days. He must find out the mastermind behind it all before his time runs out, against powerful foes and inhuman monstrosities.”
Soul has plenty of swish moves at his disposal, and the trailer shows more than a few complicated combos with a dizzying array of fast-paced sword strikes and fancy stepping. However, Liang said years of developing games for mobile devices and touchscreens taught the team how to keep things simple without sacrificing substance. So here’s hoping Phantom Blade Zero lets you do all the cool things without ushering in early-onset arthritis.
