Now that Phantom Blade Zero's been out for a good few days, I thought it'd be interesting to check in on how everyone's finding the experience in terms of difficulty.

This has been a constant topic ever since the game was first announced, with onlookers initially questioning whether it would be a hard-as-nails Soulslike.

However, developer S-GAME has continually stressed that Phantom Blade Zero is not in the same category as FromSoftware's punishing action RPGs; it's got difficulty settings, and you don't lose any resources upon death.

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Indeed, Phantom Blade Zero is a fairly forgiving game overall — at least in terms of structure. Where it presents a challenge is in mastering its combat, which often demands careful defensive timing and therefore knowledge of your opponent.

Just before launch, I wrote a sort-of-guide on the title's difficulty, which concludes that while Phantom Blade Zero isn't brutally difficult — unless you're playing on the hardest Hellwalker setting — it's still not an 'easy' game to beat.

More experienced action game players will likely push through the adventure with relatively few deaths on the easier 'Wayfarer' and standard 'Pathbreaker' options, but others could still struggle to progress at certain points.

With that in mind, I've seen somewhat mixed takes on the game's general level of challenge, even across this site's own comments sections.

As you can probably imagine, some believe that it's actually very manageable — particularly when compared to its perceived peers, while others have expressed frustration with certain combat mechanics and difficulty spikes.

This kind of divide was always going to manifest, I think, but that's why the topic makes for an intriguing poll.

So, what do you think of the difficulty in Phantom Blade Zero? Is it just right? Actually easy? Or maybe way too hard? Vote in our polls, and then explain your stance in the comments section below.

What do you think of Phantom Blade Zero's difficulty overall?
What difficulty are you playing Phantom Blade Zero on?
How many hours have you put into Phantom Blade Zero so far?