Phantom Blade Zero Reviews: Great Kung Fu, Messy Story

Phantom Blade Zero has been a trailer darling for years, and the reviews just landed: 88 on Metacritic, with 22 of the 31 scored PC reviews at 90 or higher. Critics agree the sword fighting is the real deal. The catch is everything around it: a tangled story, invisible walls and a few rough frame drops.

If you buy action games for the fights, it’s an easy yes at $59.99 when it unlocks Wednesday, Oct 28 at 7 PM PT (10 PM ET). We haven’t played it yet, so this is the critics’ consensus, sorted so you can decide fast.

What did critics score Phantom Blade Zero?

High, and almost all on the same page. Metacritic has it at 88 on both PC (33 reviews) and PS5 (25 reviews). On the PC page, 30 reviews are positive, one is mixed and none are negative. IGN gave it a 9 and an Editors’ Choice badge.

Six outlets gave it a perfect score, including PCGamesN and Wccftech. Wccftech even put it a notch above this year’s Nioh 3 and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which tells you how crowded 2026 got for sword games. VGC went for the spicier comparison and called it stronger than Black Myth: Wukong.

The low end is short. GameSpot, VGC and Dexerto landed at 80, and Eurogamer is the lone mixed review at 3 out of 5.

What reviewers loved

The combat, unanimously. Parries and dodges click within minutes, and there are dozens of weapons with their own movesets. One smart twist from IGN’s review: swapping weapons refills your posture meter, so the game pushes you to juggle loadouts instead of maining one sword. Upgrade points are easy to pull back out and spend elsewhere, so experimenting costs you nothing.

The bosses. Nearly every review singled these out. If a boss kills you in its second phase, you restart at that second phase, not the start of the fight. IGN played on the hardest setting and beat most major bosses in two or three tries, which sounds easy until you remember there are dozens of them.

Exploring. There are eight big maps packed with side quests, chests and hidden bosses, and the game hands you hand-drawn maps instead of a screen full of icons. The best secret: a missable questline where Donnie Yen trains you as a mysterious gold-masked master. IGN called it one of the strongest subplots in the game.

The look and the music. It’s built in Unreal Engine 5, and VGC called it one of the best-looking games on the engine. TheGamer singled out a soundtrack that blends Chinese sounds with modern genres.

The catch: what reviewers didn’t like

The story tries to do too much. This was the most common complaint. IGN said the opening hours bounce between so many timelines that the exposition wears you out before the first real boss. Everyeye.it and MMORPG.com both called the plot thin or slow to come together.

Invisible walls and sticky scenery. The funniest stat in any review: IGN’s reviewer died close to 200 times, and by their count about half of those deaths were falls or getting stuck on the environment, not bosses.

Fodder enemies. GameSpot’s main knock is that regular enemies barely fight back, so stretches between bosses can drag. Eurogamer, the lowest score, pointed to balance and quality issues dimming great combat.

Performance hiccups. IGN found the frame rate much steadier than in its preview build, but one map ran badly enough that they expect a launch patch. Combo Infinito also flagged PC performance issues.

When does Phantom Blade Zero unlock?

The PlayStation Store lists 2:00 AM UTC on Thursday, Oct 29, which puts it on Wednesday night in the US. Launch coverage reports the same unlock time on Steam.

How much does Phantom Blade Zero cost?

$59.99 for the Standard Edition, $10 less than the $69.99 standard edition of Gears of War: E-Day. The Digital Deluxe Edition is $69.99. No physical edition has been announced.

Our take: the Deluxe is two outfits, an artbook and the soundtrack. Grab it only if you want the music, since the soundtrack is one of the things critics loved. Pre-orders also get a Treasure Basin accessory (10% more Remnant Dust) and a Legacy outfit, but the PlayStation Store notes both can be earned in the game anyway. Prices checked Oct 26, 2026.

How long is Phantom Blade Zero?

For $59.99, that’s a lot of game. None of the reviews we read complained about the length.

Is Phantom Blade Zero a soulslike?

Not really, and the studio has said so for years. It plays more like fast kung fu action than a slow, punishing soulslike. There are four difficulty modes: Wayfarer (story-first), Pathbreaker (standard), Hellwalker (bosses adapt to you) and 66 Days, a nod to the plot. Soul has 66 days left to live, and in that mode every death costs you time.

If you’ve bounced off FromSoftware games before, the phase checkpoints and the easier modes make this a friendlier entry point. If you want the full gauntlet, check our soulslike games ranking and see where you’d slot it.

PS5, PS5 Pro, PC or Steam Deck?

• PS5 and PC: same 88 on Metacritic. More outlets reviewed it on PC (33) than on PS5 (25), IGN included.
• PS5 Pro: the PlayStation Store lists it as PS5 Pro Enhanced.
• Steam Deck: S-GAME has promised Deck support, but early reports on frame rates are shaky. Wait for dedicated Deck tests if handheld is your main way to play.
• Xbox: no Xbox version has been announced.

Hype is real on PC too. Analyst firm Alinea Analytics estimated about 500,000 Steam pre-orders before launch. That’s an outside estimate, not an official S-GAME number.

Should you buy Phantom Blade Zero at launch?

• Buy it Wednesday night if you love parry-heavy action like Sekiro, Sifu or Ninja Gaiden. The fights are why it exists, and critics say they hold up for 50 hours.
• Wait a week or two if you’re on an older PC or a Steam Deck. IGN expects a patch for its one rough map, and Deck results are still coming in.
• Wait for a sale if you play for story first. The plot is the weakest part in almost every review.

Our plan: we’ll check the launch patch notes and Steam user reviews after it unlocks, and update this page with what players actually report.

Sources: Metacritic PC and PS5 critic pages, the PlayStation Store listing, IGN’s review and the published review summaries from GameSpot, Eurogamer, VGC, Wccftech, TheGamer, Everyeye.it, MMORPG.com, Areajugones and Combo Infinito. Scores, prices and unlock time checked Oct 26, 2026.

Read next: The best video games of 2026 · Best soulslike games, ranked · Gears of War: E-Day reviews, patches and price

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