S-GAME, developer of the upcoming action role-playing game (RPG) Phantom Blade Zero, is kick-starting the new year with its Year Of The Snake gameplay trailer, showing off a dual-stage boss fight, additional weapons and a shiny new coat of paint. Check out the six-minute-long trailer below:
Immediately apparent from the trailer are the significant upgrades made in terms of visual fidelity compared to the game’s previous showcase at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2024. Texture quality, lighting and particle effects have all seen a huge facelift in quality, further harnessing the power of Unreal Engine 5 and current-gen consoles to complement its sleek gameplay with eye-popping visuals.
With its focus entirely set on a single boss fight, it’s no surprise that the battle between protagonist Soul and the Seven Judgements seen in the trailer is nothing short of an epic affair. This isn’t just a regular 1v1 fight either, with the boss’s first phase comprised of seven enemies fighting in a “sword formation”, with their leader, Decree, serving as its proverbial “heart”. Taking him down is no easy feat either, as his six disciples can sacrifice their own health to heal him, and vice versa.
During the first phase, the trailer also shows off one of its two new weapons, the White Python and Red Viper dual blades. Inspired by real-world ancient Chinese armaments, these snake-shaped swords offer a multi-hit combo style of combat, excelling in speed at both close and long range, with the longer White Python even able to launch the shorter Red Viper like a boomerang mid-combo.
Once Decree’s health is whittled down, the fight enters phase 2, transforming him into Tyrannical Decree, a puppet-like being that hovers above the ground. This foe operates more like traditional boss battles, utilising a completely new move set that requires precise timing and counters. To meet this new challenge, Soul is seen switching to another new weapon, the Venomous Softblade, a flexible whip-like sword that excels in parrying attacks, featuring a unique perfect parry mechanic that requires additional inputs from the player, but deals massive damage upon successful timing.
The trailer also gives glimpses of two new Phantom Edges, powerful limited-use sub-weapons that players can use to turn the tides in their favour. Among these are the Ink Cut, which extends Soul’s combos upon use, and the massive Savage Axe, a slow, timing-based heavy weapon that he uses to deal the finishing blow, ending the fight with a literal bang.
With so much new content shown in just this short gameplay clip, Phantom Blade Zero is looking to keep surprising us with more content reveals (the developers have teased a total of around 50 weapons) and undoubtedly more boss fights, although it has been confirmed that the game will not be a boss rush and instead follow a more traditional action-game format. Only time will tell how much it continues to evolve over the coming months, but even now, the game looks to be in excellent shape.
Phantom Blade Zero doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will launch on the PC and PS5, with support for enhanced visuals on the PS5 Pro.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
