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-Recreation spoke about how Phantom Blade Zero‘s numerous elements 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 common ambiance.
“On the Souls-lite stage design aspect, we’re positively a fan of and impressed by the pre-Elden Ring, interconnected, tight stage design,” stated a consultant from S-Recreation. Additionally they talked about that director “Soulframe” Liang studied structure in school, “so the extent design is one thing that’s essential for us and we need to have very sturdy ranges, have numerous depth to them, very dense.”
Liang himself spoke about how the assorted inspirations for Phantom Blade Zero got here collectively in several methods. Taking to GamesRadar, he describes the title as being extra like a Resident Evil sport with an emphasis on preventing with swords.
“Earlier than, everybody thought we’re making a Soulslike sport,” defined Liang. “So with a purpose to show we have now a very totally different fight system for the core gameplay, we’re showcasing these fight demos. However now individuals have perhaps come the opposite approach round, they suppose it’s a hack-and-slash with no story and also you simply go kill to the top, nevertheless it’s not one thing like that. It’s extra like a Resident Evil however preventing with blades.”
Liang additionally spoke about how exploration shall 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 elements 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 sport or vibes from Resident Evil or fight from this hack-and-slash sport, 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.”
In the end, S-Recreation needs to deliver again basic kung fu motion again in its personal approach. With Phantom Blade Zero, the studio says that its ideologies and ideas in sport design maintain the whole lot collectively. If one side had been to fail, it could additionally deliver the remainder of the sport down with it.
“We’ve got deeper ideologies and ideas in designing the sport,” stated Liang. “If we don’t have that, each factor we introduced from totally different genres would really feel separate and collapse. One is to deliver again the golden age of Chinese language kung fu motion pictures, ranging from Bruce Lee within the Seventies and into perhaps the early 2000s. We need to rekindle this ardour for the kung fu film. The opposite one, for gaming itself, we need to rediscover the golden age of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2.”
Phantom Blade Zero is at the moment in improvement for PC and PS5. Whereas it doesn’t have a launch date as of but, the studio is likely to be concentrating on a Fall 2026 launch window. The studio has additionally beforehand revealed that it’s going to take gamers between 20 and 30 hours to complete.
