State of Play for Phantom Blade Zero Announced for Next Week, 11-Minute Trailer Revealed

I said this in the thread, but that price is very good! and there also rumours that a demo will be dropping, so I would guess after the SoP is finished, either way I'm beyond hyped for this game!

I'm waiting for news regarding a physical version before I decide if I want to prioritize this game or wait for a discount.

I can't wait for the chat to be cluttered with discs, disc emojis, and people complaining about discs.

Fingers crossed that the game plays as good as it looks.

The 11 min trailer dimmed my hype quite a bit. The story and Voice Acting didn't grab me at all. While the combat looks good there were some bad frame rate issues. Hope the deep dive gives a clear look at regular combat encounters since it feels like we have mostly seen boss fights.

Price for the West is quite inflated compared to where I live. Equivalent to 50usd for the deluxe edition. Similar story for Control Resonant and GTA6

@ShadowRJ That will be like those two people who threw orange paint over Stonehenge... as in we get the protest but why here?

Wait, what do you mean I don't need to subscribe to Netflix to watch this game's new presentation? Are they even trying?

@ShadowRJ It's not the right place, sure. But where exactly has Sony given people a place to voice their concerns? When there's no meaningful channel for feedback, people are going to use whatever visibility they can get. You can blame the comments, but the cause is elsewhere.

On the topic of the game, it looks amazing. I hope the gameplay lives up to the hype.

Oh, the special State of Play that so many were sure of it was canceled due to the "powerful" YouTube comments and chat? (If you can call that abysmal spam log a chat, that is.)

Jokes aside, I am very excited to see an in-depth look of the game. Those special deep dives are usually really well done and as a gamer, you can very clearly say yes or no to a buy afterwards.

@chatbot Did the "drop the price" spam in that one Nintendo stream work?

@Oram77 The irony of a staunch Sony defender preemptively getting annoyed at people criticising Sony in a comment section before they've even done it is pretty funny. “We get the protest, but why here?” Sony hasn't exactly set up a suggestion box.

@Pat_trick oh JFC I'm not defending anyone so spare me the name calling.... We've been over this over multiple times now, you want your voice to be heard? then stop buying any Sony products that will get their attention more then a 💿spam in a live chat.

@Pat_trick You misunderstand their point. They are genuinely looking forward to those comments. ShadowRJ is one of the biggest advocates for physical media on this site.

@Oram77 Exactly. Even that stupid boycott during a rather uneventful week is pathetic. Do it throughout the September to November period when the real heavy hitters come out. Sell the console and move to the competition. This karma/like farming rubbish is a waste of time.

@Oram77 @Pat_trick My own personal moral stance is that anything on PlayStation's official channel is fair game. It's unfortunate for the developers, but the video is being hosted on PlayStation's YouTube channel, not their's, and people do have the right to vocalising their opinion.

@dv_xedge I will admit, the first thing I do whenever I tune into a livestream is to instantly turn off the chat.

@ShadowRJ Now before everything gets twisted, can you point out where I said you can't voice your opinion? I just said the choosen battlefield has a lot of deduffs and not a lot of buffs...

@TDHorizon I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to the comments. I always turn them off anyway, because they're almost always cringe. It's just that in this case, we all know what's going to be in it.

On a side note, I do want to mention that I haven't engaged with any "disc disc disc" comments on YouTube outside of upvoting the comments or making fun of those who go "disk disk disk".

@Oram77 You haven't said you can't voice your opinion. That wasn't what I was arguing. What I was trying to say (sorry if it came out wrong) was that it may not be the best battlefield, but it's probably the best one there is (for commenters and spambots at least).

The trailer looks alright - but I can't see a distinctive art style, gameplay is flashy but looks a bit dull with damage-sponge enemies. I'm not sure I've seen anything that I've not seen before in plenty of action adventure games over the years.

But I'll always keep an eye out for reviews and such, but if I want fun action with poor voice acting and an unexciting story I'll just jump back into Crimson Desert

@springer17 What games are you looking forward too? I'm in the same boat as you, and for me, I'm prioritising Onimusha, Ace Combat 8, Rayman, Fire Emblem and Hollow Knight Silksong.

@Hyena_socks
Or...you could just play Phantom Blade Zero with the chinese voice track(wouldn't make sense if there wasn't one) since it's...you know, a chinese action game, for the immersion.
At least that's what I will do, if I decide to play the game.

@springer17 did you play the MS2 beta?

I love a good Soulsike, but really bounced off MS1.... just felt really clunky and uninspired (for the most part)

But so many people seem to be saying that MS2 is a comeback of biblical proportion, and the devs have absolutely nailed a banger of a game.

What was your experience? Just come off the back of Saros, have a brilliant time getting the Plat.... but not quite as good as Returnal IMO!

This is looking so good. Add Donnie Yen to the mix and I'm sold!

@Oram77 Oh, so the only legitimate way to voice criticism is to stop buying Sony products entirely? That's certainly a convenient standard. By that logic, nobody can criticise a company unless they're willing to completely disengage from it. Thankfully you've never been one to defend Sony by telling everyone how they should respond to Sony's decisions.

@ShadowRJ I agree with that distinction. The developers obviously aren't responsible for Sony's hardware decisions, so I'd rather the criticism was directed at Sony where possible. But if PlayStation chooses to host the trailer on its own official channel, I don't think people are unreasonable for using that space to voice their criticism.

@Pat_trick No I'm telling you the most effective way of getting your criticisms noticed, but sure go and spam your emojis and sign those petitions 🤷‍♂️

@Mes_Urson I was just about to say this. I was already sold on this game when I saw the first trailer but to find out that Donnie Yen and his stunt team helped out with the choreography has me more excited!

@Oram77 we get it! You don’t think anyone should show displeasure and just accept whatever crap is thrown our way. No need to go on about it every thread

@Boxmonkey Bruh you are the last person to chirp at me for repeating things in comments, how many times do we see you complain about live service games....?

@Oram77 I disagree on not buying anything Sony related is the best course of action.

For one, you've likely already bought the PS5, for two, surely refusing to buy a game would just reinforce Sony's standpoint, not change it.

"See, nobody's buying this game digitally...what do you mean boycott. That's poppycock."

@ShadowRJ Well from most of the comments I read people say "we need to hit them where it hurts, which is their wallet" which I agree with that's the best way of getting the point across rather then spamming "disk" for 20 mins in a live stream chat.

I'm not waking up at 5 a.m. to see the game I've already been waiting for a long time. I'll just buy it when it comes out. On disc.

@ShadowRJ I'll bite. The only people in this comment section droning on and on and on about the physical disc situation are the pro-Sony "all digital" vocal minority. It's tiresome. You were the person to bring it up in the first place and it's completely off topic.

Please have an easy mode lol.

I watched the 11 min trailer in 4K and the game still looks a little "washed out", anyone else noticing that? And I wish we had a review up on this one soon as the gameplay looks like 70% quicktime events a'la PS3 combined with "floaty combat". Like no sense of 'oomph' in the character hits. Feels alittle too much arcadey for me so far, but I'm hope I'm wrong as I really wanted to preorder this one. Now I'm not to sure to be honest.
I hope the combat feels much better than it looks in the preordertrailer. Hopefully a demo drops before release.

I'm surprise the SoP still happen. I thought Sony forgot about this game.

But the game looks great and it's cool they can get Donnie Yen. No wonder the actions looks superb.

Also $60? Not $70, 80, or 100? Awesome!

I mean do we need a stateof play for it. That trailer was plenty.
Give us a state of play for 2027 stuff!
Also wheres the new Kena game gone. I was looking forward to that.

@Zeke68
Finally someone else who sees what I have seen ever since they revealed the first proper gameplay look a couple years ago or whenever it was. 😅

@Bizzy I'd argue it's not THAT off topic. Bearing in mind this was a State of Play that was highly rumoured to be cancelled or rebranded to another channel BECAUSE of the worry that it would be infested with "disc, disc, disc".

@Ricksta I don't think this is a souls like, so I don't believe it will be a particularly difficult game.

@Oram77 Again, I agree that voting with your wallet is more effective than "disc, disc, disc". With that said, I don't think the time has come for that to happen yet.

It will happen in 2028. Will players still buy games on PS5? Will gamers be interested in the PS6? Can Sony figure out a way to aleviate the controversy by then (presuming it still persists, which I'd say is fairly likely).

@ElPenitente literally love all the Ipman films and anything else Donnie Yen is in.
His kung fu and action films are probably the best in cinema. I think he's highly underrated in comparison to the Jet Li's, Chans, an Lee

@Mes_Urson I was also a huge fan of Flashpoint. That fight with him and Collin Chou at the end is just chef's kiss. Are you a fan of Joe Taslim? If so, I highly recommend The Night Comes For Us.

I haven't seen many Indonesian action movies but this one ranks high up there for me with the few I have.

Cool phantom blade zero always looks amazing. So it's all good.word up son

A few of my friends will be excitedly watching this State of Play that’s for sure! Not my cup of tea on a personal level, but oddly prefer watching others play it haha.

Hope all who tune in to get some gossip about it come away loving it! Even I get excited over game reveals and deep dives that I’m not going to buy, when I know my mates will really be happy.

Something kinda cool about knowing something as simple as a YouTube video with the comments clearly turned off if this site is anything to go by, will make someone so happy after seeing it.

If no physical no pre-order from me.

@ElPenitente not to butt in but I would recommend tony jaa and iko uwais movies especially ong bak and the raid movies respectively. Donnie yen is a big get though, looking forward to this one.

@Zeke68 The game is heavily inspired from Wuxia movies where the combat looks like a dance, fast, and flashy while the characters are light as a feather defying gravity. So you're not gonna see the "oomph" or as if every hit have a lot of weight, realism, and brutality behind it which never been the focus of Wuxia.

@Llamageddon oh yeah, I've seen the raid movies as well as Ong Bak 1, 2 and The Protector. Enjoyed them all.

@PuppetMaster Ah thanks for clarifying man. I got fooled by Push Square's use of "soulslike" so I was mislead.
Now my will to buy this 90% went down to 50/50 after a demoplaythrough. Might be a great game and all but I'm into satisfying combat like Nioh 1-3 , Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Bloodborne and even lighter ones as God Of War , but I need that feeling in my dualsense to really connect with the game.
That's important to me.
Edit: At least I got Mortal Shell 2 preordered and that demo was great!

@Oram77 That's not what you said though. You weren't offering strategic advice, you were complaining about people doing it in the first place. If you'd said “I don't think this is the most effective way to get Sony's attention”, that's a perfectly reasonable position. Don't rewrite your own comment after the fact and pretend that's what you meant.

@ElPenitente I reccomend The Furious. It has Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, and Xie Miao who acted with Jet Li in My Father is a Hero and The New Legend of Shaolin.

@Zeke68 No problem. This game is definitely different compare to Nioh, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring. But i'm not blame you but gaming journalist who nowadays are so lazy that they throw "soulslike" label for every action games. They need to do better with their report or people will have wrong impression.

The game looks really good, I'm excited to see more.

@ElPenitente The Raid movies, now they are brilliant fun. Absolutely love martial arts in any film, from growing up with it and getting really into it as a hobby.

When I lived in Seattle, I did go to Bruce and Brandon's grave, didn't even know it was in the Washington State area, then walking by it I nipped in a bar and heard a bloke on about it. So I ventured off and paid my respects for a moment.

I lived on Capital Hill where the cemetery is and no one told me previously, felt a bit odd to have such idols right next to me whilst I was even referring to their work without knowing.

And though there were lots of crows around due to it being normal, there was something kind of magical at the time about just loads and loads of crows sitting around on that day.

What a time to be alive, growing up with all those martial arts films, and then it influencing things like John Wick, The Matrix and so much more!

With poetic moments like that in life, and the ignore feature on Push Square, life can be kind of beautiful at times haha

I don't know about the gameplay in this trailer though. The QTEs and ridiculous level of sponginess to the enemies alongside almost no reaction or weight to the hits seems off (wuxia isnt a valid excuse here because in wuxia it's parrying as they dance. This was literally the protaganist just hacking/landing hits non stop at a health bar).

The cinematic appeal was great though. Just not sold on that level of hacking away at a health bar. It just ended up watching as grindy, over the top, and frankly almost boring in a way because of it.

I get it's a certain style but I don't know. The visuals also looked pretty bad in certain areas, although hopefully that's just because of the limitations of the Ps5.

All in all I was super hyped for this but after watching this trailer, all it did was lessen that hype some. Definitely waiting for reviews on this one.

@ElPenitente Yes Flashpoint was a great film. It has a bit of Donnie Yen doing some parkour and stuff. That final fight is incredible though. Suplexing through bricks and stuff. It felt so down to earth. No silly strings making them float.

Ive not seen alot of Joe Taslims work. Only seen the first "The Raid" film which I thought was excellent too. I'll be sure to check that one out too! Thanks for the recommendation.
I didnt realise he play Bi-han in Mortal Kombat either haha!

Tony Jaa used to be a good shout too! Ong-Bak and Warrior King were excellent displays of martial arts and stunts. Just a bit weak on the story side of things

@ButteredCrumpet and we are certainly at a time in life where we do need to appreciate the beauty on life.

Fun little anecdotal story regarding Bruce Lee. In my younger years I trained in Uechi-Ryu and there was a photo of Bruce Lee in the dojo and I just thought it was a reference to one of the greats.

WRONG. It was very much intentional. My sensei's sensei was a fellow by the name of Jim Maloney who got to know Bruce when Bruce visited Boston in the late 60s and studied Uechi-Ryu.

Always thought that was pretty neat.

@Mes_Urson haha people certainly have opinions about the new Mortal Kombat movies (I for one love them) but Joe Taslim's eyebrows carried the first movie!

@ElPenitente Agreed. I didn't hate it. It wasn't anything special but I can take it at face value.
Still need to see the 2nd film too! They are a laugh and nothing too deep which is ok. Not everything has to be an epic

@Mes_Urson agreed! There is something to be said about setting realistic expectations. I went in expecting cheese and a good time and that's what I got. I will say the second was a big improvement over the first one.

@Fishysensei play it in the language it was designed for?! Crazy talk!

Still not entirely sure about the game, but as I said, will keep an eye on it. Just waiting to see something that really makes it stand out.

@ElPenitente waiting for it to show up on Amazon prime or something as a freebie then i'll get it watched.
I hope Karl Urban does the Johnny Cage thing well too. He looked good in the trailers at least!

@Mes_Urson The new Street Fighter looks fun. Unfortunately even my tolerance for dubious martial arts films was stretched watching the new MK2 film, it’s definitely a 2am on streaming can’t sleep type of film.

i can't wait for this , one of the games i'm looking forward to the most.

@ShadowRJ The chat will be offline, 100%

Kinda blows that there's no physical release, this was my most anticipated game of the year.

Luckily it comes out on PC so I'm sure there will be a way to play it for free.

I wish they would shake up the style of these grimdark wuxia China soulslike games they all begin to blend into one another after awhile.

Why am I supposed to be interested in this one this time? UE5 or something?

@Athrum is it confirmed for no physical release or are people just assuming that? i haven't seen anything yet.

@Mes_Urson hbo max actually has mk2 streaming right now , they have a fair amount of pretty recently released movies , its worth checking out imo.

@cainhurst94 And, something tells me this is a short game, like 10-15 hours or something. Not crazy about the QTEs, either.

Edit: I just read it's expected to be about 20-30 hours. We'll see.

Even in the best of times, the chat hurts my brain. I’ll be muting it while I watch. Looking forward to seeing this.

@twitchtvpat Well, I do admit it's assumption since they haven't mentioned anything and only the digital pre-orders are up. You don't see physical listings anywhere.
And how things have been going, I guess it's not too much to assume the worst case scenario.

@Vertere Yeah Street Fighter should be fun too!
I follow WWE so its fun to see Cody and Roman in there too.
Hopefully it'll just be silly with some nice choreographed fight scenes and some light story telling thrown in there.

@twitchtvpat thanks for the heads up. Money is tight at the moment but if I can get a free trial or cancel one of the others I may check it out!
thanks

@Oram77 It worked as well as the announcement of Destiny 3... wait...

Black Phantom Myth Blade: Zero... Anyone? Anyone?
Looks great!

Sorry but no disc = no buy.

I thought the opening cart fight was underwhelming (due to the fact nobody was moving) but the rest of the combat scenarios where characters had room to move around freely looked fun. I’ll pick it up eventually but
September is crazy crowded. Maybe the demo will change my mind.

@KundaliniRising333

wuxia isnt a valid excuse here because in wuxia it's parrying as they dance. This was literally the protaganist just hacking/landing hits non stop at a health bar

They're parrying / blocking and even dodging like they're dancing.

@Rambo-kind I hope the deep dive and leaked demo provide more information and context. Koreas output has had its impressive games but China is yet to wow me.

Play-Asia has a physical release for anyone who is interested.