Phantom Blade Zero finally shows off its interconnected game world, with exploration 'guided by 8 authentic hand-painted Chinese ink wash maps'
Overview & Key Takeaways
It's not a linear action game or an open world RPG.
In a PlayStation State of Play video today, Phantom Blade Zero developer S-Game has finally shown off glimpses of a game world it's largely kept secret up to this point, with eight individual maps that "seamlessly connect into a single world."
In my demos of the game over the last year and a half, S-Game has stressed that the areas I got to play and the bosses I fought were all optional diversions from the main story—impressive, considering their scope. This State of Play has finally pulled back the curtain on some of the game's primary characters and locations and shown in more concrete terms what distinguishes Phantom Blade Zero from linear action games and open world ones.
"Your journey takes you to intricate but surreal landscapes," explains S-Game founder Soulframe Liang. "Villages, valleys, lakes, and shadowed territories, including a valley overrun by ruthless bandits, an abandoned warehouse filled with hanging puppets where a dark ritual seems to be taking place, a steam-powered iron tower built for some kind of dark experiment, and a vast lake, which Soul must navigate aboard a peculiar high-speed vessel."
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We don't get to see more than a few seconds of each of those areas, but the narration still offers a sense of some of the big chunks the game's world will be divided into. More interesting to me, though, is how Phantom Blade Zero is handling maps: I love that it's not giving you all the details like so many open world games, while still offering a bit more aid than a mapless soulslike:
"Your journey is guided by eight authentic, hand-painted Chinese ink wash maps. In complex regions they offer only a rough sense of direction, leaving you to explore and uncover hidden secrets. These maps seamlessly connect into a single world, where bells enable fast travel between discovered locations."
Phantom Blade Zero – State of Play Gameplay Deep Dive | PS5 Games - YouTube
Soulframe says Phantom Blade Zero "is not an open world game, nor is it a linear adventure from beginning to end."
In the State of Play there are a few quick examples of weapons being used to smash through obstacles, meaning there's at least a light bit of metroidvania-style progress gating that will encourage returning to areas to open new paths or find secrets. We'll see how extensive that exploration proves to be, but I hope Phantom Blade Zero manages to be one of the few action RPGs to get within spitting distance of Dark Souls' still-unbeaten world.
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And just in case you missed it last week: Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen has been involved in Phantom Blade Zero's development since 2023.
