It’s too early to tell, but the trailer was very promising. Chinese studio S-GAME unveiled the first trailer for their new, Wuxia-inspired game, Phantom Blade 0, at the 2023 PlayStation showcase, and it looks really good so far.
This could be a smashing success, or it could be a micro-transaction-filled mess. It’s really up in the air.
Phantom Blade 0 just had its first trailer released at the 2023 PlayStation showcase and even though it looks like it could be one of the best of the upcoming games, it’s way too early to tell if this will actually be a great game or another micro-transaction front for S-GAME and its developers.
Now, I don’t want to sound cruel or ruthless towards Chinese developers and their gaming studios, but they really haven’t had the best reputation of late when it comes to making games.
Whether its Tencent buying huge stakes in non-Chinese gaming studios and then mandating their games have hundreds of loot boxes and over-priced microtransactions (aka: Riot Games and Legue of Legends, Epic Games and Fortnite, and Bluehole and PUBG) or NetEase revoking the access to World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft to the 1B+ Chinese population due to a minor contract dispute with Activision Blizzard, the major Chinese publishers have been more a force for corporate hackery than consumer good in the gaming world of late.
And I’m a little fearful S-GAME will do the same (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) with Phantom Blade 0…and that would be a real shame as this game looks amazing.
Inspired by the old, beloved, and famously interesting Wuxia legends, which are essentially a Chinese version of Marvel and DC superheroes mixed in with ancient Chinese legends and tales (aka: something similar to the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid), Phantom Blade 0 is an action-RPG game that’ll have players fighting the antagonists and villains of The Order as they just have 66 days left to clear their name of wrongful murder accusations and to bring the actual murders to justice.
Like I said, its sound like a great story, it has fantastic backstory and inspiration, and the combat shown in the trailer looks awesome.
Similar to Ghost of Tushima, Elden Ring, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Phantom Blade 0 will have combat similar to these games (you know, the classic Souls-like combat) but supposedly a flair of ancient, traditional Chinese martial arts added in to give a more accurate representation of source material being derived from. Again, another great selling point!
But even though it’s supposed to be single-player action-RPG (or that’s why I think it is with my limited knowledge about the game), I just have a sinking feeling a major publisher will interject its crony corporate prerogative into this title and ruin it beyond what the developers had in mind. It’s just how things usually happen with “independent” Chinese studios.
(S-GAME/Sony-Phantom Blade 0-Announce Trailer)
Given the nature of the Chinese government and the corporate set-up of the thousands of “privately owned” corporations, I have a really hard time believing this game will survive getting bought up by one of the major Chinese studios if this game gets really popular.
I mean, if the Chinese government wants one of the “privately owned” but actually government-run publishers like NetEase or Tencent to buy this studio, it’s going to get bought. As I It’s just how things are done in China.
So, I’m extremely excited for the potential of this game as everything about it sounds really cool, but the logistics behind its development really aren’t promising.
Images Source: Featured Image: (S-GAME/Sony) (Phantom Blade Zero – Announce Trailer | PS5 Games – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (S-GAME/Sony) (Phantom Blade Zero – Announce Trailer | PS5 Games – YouTube)
