Phantom Blade Zero Reviews: Critics Hail the Combat, Split on the Story

Phantom Blade Zero has been one of the most watched action games of the past few years, and now that it is out, the verdict from critics is clear about one thing: the combat is exceptional. S-GAME's kung fu action RPG launched on PS5 and PC at the end of October, after a delay of roughly seven weeks from its original September 9 date, and the reviews have settled into a strong, if not unanimous, consensus.

At the time of writing, OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 88 from 66 critic reviews, with 95 percent of critics recommending the game and a "Mighty" rating. Metacritic shows 88 for the PC version from 47 reviews and 86 for PS5 from 45. Players are on board too: the Steam store page shows a Very Positive rating, with 91 percent of English-language user reviews positive. For a big-budget single-player action game from a Chinese studio, that is a significant result, and it lands in the same conversation that Black Myth: Wukong started two years ago.

The basics

The PlayStation Store lists a release date of October 29, 2026, while the Steam page shows October 28, so the exact day depends on the store and region. S-GAME Studio developed the game and S-GAME Publishing handles publishing. In the US, the Standard Edition costs $59.99 on PlayStation and the Digital Deluxe Edition costs $69.99. The PS5 version supports PS5 Pro enhancements. There is no Xbox version, and the Steam page notes that the PC release uses Denuvo DRM.

The delay itself was framed as a polish pass. KeenGamer reported in October that S-GAME pushed the launch back by about 50 days to ship "a more polished version," citing the studio's own announcement.

What critics love

The combat is the headline in almost every review. IGN gave the game 9 out of 10 and called it an "unbelievably smooth action game." GameSpot scored it 8 out of 10, and its headline sums up the mood across much of the press: the combat is so good you will not care that the story makes no sense. GameSpot's verdict calls it "a fantastic game that any action aficionado should lap up."

DualShockers went furthest, with 9.5 out of 10 and a declaration that it is "hands down the best action RPG this year." TheSixthAxis, scoring 9 out of 10 on PS5, praised the martial arts fighting and memorable bosses, and singled out a design choice that will please players tired of soulslike friction: enemies do not respawn, and boss phases do not need to be repeated, which it read as respect for the player's time. Shacknews (8 out of 10) highlighted the visuals, the polished combat, a wide variety of weapons and easy respeccing.

Even the more critical reviews agree on the fundamentals. Eurogamer, which gave the lowest major score at 3 out of 5, still described "wonderfully fluid and cinematic kung fu-style combat."

Where reviews push back

The story is where the consensus fractures. GameSpot's headline jokes about it, and VGC, which scored the game 80 out of 100 according to a roundup by The Loadout, found the characters bland and the levels linear. Hardcore Gamer took the opposite view, giving 4.5 out of 5 and praising a surprisingly strong story and world, though it warned that important narrative content is easy to miss and that the English dialogue is clunky.

Localization and polish come up repeatedly. Shacknews noted that the final localization was not ready at review time, and also flagged a camera that clips behind terrain. Hardcore Gamer reported crashes on PC, including during fast travel. TheSixthAxis mentioned "some small technical hiccups," including a texture bug introduced by a pre-release patch. Eurogamer's summary on Metacritic argues that "balance and quality issues ultimately dim its shine."

Performance on PS5 Pro is a mixed picture. The Loadout's roundup found reviewers split: one reported serious frame rate drops even with ray tracing off, while another saw a largely stable 60 frames per second. The PC review in that roundup reported relatively smooth performance.

A big launch on Steam

The reception has translated into players. KeenGamer reported a launch day peak of 723,876 concurrent players on Steam, citing SteamDB, and KitGuru later reported a peak above 800,000 over the first weekend. S-GAME has also shared a sales milestone: on November 2 it announced that the game had sold 4 million copies in its first 72 hours.

Our take

If you play action games for the feel of a fight, Phantom Blade Zero looks like an essential purchase, and the reviews are unusually consistent about that. The fact that even its harshest major critic praised the combat says a lot. The no-respawn design also makes it more approachable than its soulslike comparisons suggest.

The caveats are real but fixable. Clunky English dialogue, unfinished localization at review time, camera trouble and PC crashes are the kind of problems patches can address, and S-GAME already delayed the game once to improve polish. If story matters most to you, or you play on PS5 Pro and are sensitive to frame rate, waiting a few weeks for updates is reasonable. Watch the patch notes, and watch whether S-GAME's success pushes more Chinese studios toward big single-player releases on PC and PlayStation.

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