I've played Phantom Blade Zero twice now and it's nowhere near enough

Phantom Blade Zero might still be the best thing I’ve played at Summer Game Fest, and the wait for its release date is killing me.

I played Phantom Blade Zero at last year’s Summer Game Fest and it was one of the event highlights for me, combining challenging soulslike gameplay with fluid martial arts movements inspired by classic Kung-Fu films.

While meeting with the developers, S-Game during this year’s Summer Game Fest I played the latest demo featuring a boss shown-off during the Year Of The Snake gameplay trailer, and while it seriously tested my reflexes and fighting skills it was still an absolute blast.

It didn’t take long to get reacquainted with the combat, as the game is designed to be slightly more forgiving than the average soulslike.

My chat with the developers during the demo described the game as a mix of Dark Souls, Devil May Cry and the latest Resident Evil games, and the inspiration is clear to see when you see it yourself.

That said Phantom Blade Zero doesn’t feel like a cheap copy of what’s come before. It looks at what mechanics worked for other games and considers how they could be adopted to serve its own style rather than be defined by them.

I was once again impressed with how accessible the game felt, as despite making a few blunders during my boss encounter I never felt like I was coming up to a brick wall. Every death could be blamed on something I did wrong, but I could learn to do better, victory never felt out of my wheelhouse, which is more than I can say for some FromSoftware bosses, looking at you Promised Consort Radahn…

Even when I was just barely holding on to my healthbar it still felt like I was still in the fight, making that inevitable victory taste far sweeter.

It does concern me slightly that we’re still talking about Phantom Blade Zero a year after its reveal trailer yet there’s still no release date, but I was told by the development team that the launch date will be shared sometime this year.

The new demo I played also felt leaps and bounds ahead of the one I played last year, especially graphically, as I was playing on a PlayStation 5 Pro.

Phantom Blade Zero is one of my most anticipated titles right now and I can't wait to see more, hopefully the full game is just as good as the demos.