While the studio behind Phantom Blade Zero has been clear about designing the upcoming RPG as being closer in gameplay terms to a title like Devil May Cry 5 than it would be to Dark Souls, the studio has mentioned that is taking inspiration from several games, including FromSoftware’s Souls franchise.
Speaking to GamesRadar, developer S-Game spoke about how Phantom Blade Zero‘s various aspects have been inspired by Devil May Cry, Souls, and even Resident Evil. Where Devil May Cry was the inspiration behind combat, the Souls franchise is where the studio is taking its cues from for level design. Resident Evil, on the other hand, will serve as the inspiration for the game’s narrative design and general atmosphere.
“On the Souls-lite level design side, we are definitely a fan of and inspired by the pre-Elden Ring, interconnected, tight level design,” said a representative from S-Game. They also mentioned that director “Soulframe” Liang studied architecture at school, “so the level design is something that’s very important for us and we want to have very robust levels, have a lot of depth to them, very dense.”
Liang himself spoke about how the various inspirations for Phantom Blade Zero came together in different ways. Taking to GamesRadar, he describes the title as being more like a Resident Evil game with an emphasis on fighting with swords.
“Before, everyone thought we’re making a Soulslike game,” explained Liang. “So in order to prove we have a totally different combat system for the core gameplay, we’re showcasing these combat demos. But now people have maybe come the other way around, they think it’s a hack-and-slash with no story and you just go kill to the end, but it’s not something like that. It’s more like a Resident Evil but fighting with blades.”
Liang also spoke about how exploration will be a core part of the gameplay in Phantom Blade Zero along with its fast-paced action gameplay and character progression. He describes the game’s exploration aspects as coming from a Souls games, while the “vibes” come for Resident Evil.
“Anything that is useful and good for us to make our pillar, a playable kung fu movie with exploration and character progression, we’ll make use of it,” he said. “Whether it’s exploration from a Souls game or vibes from Resident Evil or combat from this hack-and-slash game, we’ll take that and bring them together. But the overall experience is still very coherent. It’s not ripped apart from something else.”
Ultimately, S-Game wants to bring back classic kung fu action back in its own way. With Phantom Blade Zero, the studio says that its ideologies and principles in game design hold everything together. If one aspect were to fail, it would also bring the rest of the game down with it.
“We have deeper ideologies and principles in designing the game,” said Liang. “If we don’t have that, every element we brought from different genres would feel separate and fall apart. One is to bring back the golden age of Chinese kung fu movies, starting from Bruce Lee in the 1970s and into maybe the early 2000s. We want to rekindle this passion for the kung fu movie. The other one, for gaming itself, we want to rediscover the golden age of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2.”
Phantom Blade Zero is currently in development for PC and PS5. While it doesn’t have a release date as of yet, the studio might be targeting a Fall 2026 release window. The studio has also previously revealed that it will take players between 20 and 30 hours to finish.
