Phantom Blade Zero Review – Game of the Year or NO?
In this Fextralife video, I’m going to be talking about my hands-on impressions once again with Phantom Blade Zero. I finished the game earlier this week, and this is a game that I have been championing for several years now. This is a game that I played several iterations of demos, most recently at Gamescom earlier this year, and in Beijing. A lot of people saw my preview for that game and are super hyped about it. And in that video, I stated that this might be my personal game of the year if things continue. So in this video, I’ll let you know if that is the case or not. But there are some things I want to mention about this game before I get into my usual pros and cons.
Timestamp
0:00 Phantom Blade Zero Review
0:35 Prefix
1:50 Visuals
2:38 Combat
3:15 Bosses
4:00 Music
4:40 Weapons and Phantom Edges
5:40 Accessories and Medicines
6:36 Performance
7:34 Story and Voice Acting
8:43 Enemy Variety
9:38 Challenge / Difficulty
13:18 Exploration
14:27 Final Thoughts
15:07 Score and Summary
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Some things I want to clear up from the REVIEW:
– First, I'm such a big fan of this game, that this was an incredibly hard review to make. I really wanted to love this game more than I did, and I didn't make the review to dissuade anyone from playing it. I fully realize that many people are not as skilled as I am at these types of games, and that they will enjoy it more than I did.
– I don't think enemies should respawn. I think this would actually make the game much worse because of the way it is designed! However, I was simply using that point to illustrate its impact on difficulty.
– I have never called this a Soulslike or a Souls Game, and I never expected that from the game. However, I do expect a game to be hard when you play on the "Hard" difficulty, and because it isn't, that means that players with higher skill levels might be disappointed with this game. I was.
– I'm very convinced 66 Days was how this game was orginally conceptualized. Enemies not respawning, boss phases saving, and lower difficulty as a whole all make so much more sense when thinking about the game's design from this perspective. It's possible they got feedback that it was too "hardcore" for a general audience and made it optional instead.
A comprehensive and honest review, thanks. I've been on the fence about this one but after watching this I think I'll give it a miss and save my money for mh wilds ascendance. Looks like a lot of effort has gone into this game though and i hope there's plenty of people out there who enjoy it.
Aw man that sucks. They should update a harder mode where bosses go back to full health and enemies respawn.
Wait, game lacks challenge but you did have 91 deaths?
so no challenge at all? I gotta say Im quite disappointed. After fully getting achievement on Onimusha, I expected PBZ to be harder and more exploration
When you talk about performance I don't think you mentioned the platform. Did you play on PS5, PS5 Pro or PC?
Anyway, major letdown with regards to the challenge. I mean, if there is no decent story and no challenge then there isn't much apart from pretty graphics.
I too, played this on gamescom with my friends. and it blew us away
Not every game needs to be a souls like. Im ok with enemies staying dead if you interact with a 'bonfire'. But enemies staying dead even when you die? Or boss phases staying completed mid fight? Thats just a joke. Im sure there'll be a mod soon to fix this but definitely a L from the devs
Well, if there’s no challenge on the highest available difficulty, then it’s simply a fail. This is just a concession to reviewers so they can finish the game. What must it be like on medium difficulty, which will be the one most players choose? For me, though, the exploration and all those crates everywhere, God of War-style, are worse.
It's on Playstation i can't wait to get it for free
It looks good but man the fact that bosses dont reset there fazes when you die is incredibly lame ngl.
I’ve pre-ordered the deluxe edition❤
The biggest thing i hate about souls-like games is the respawning of enemies especially the ordinary ones, it makes the game become cumbersome and not enjoyable at all but i would've liked for the bosses to reset if you die as it makes more sense. It feels like Phantom blade zero is a match made in heaven
So disappointed to hear the game is much easier than it needs to be for somebody who loves challenge like a souls veteran. Thank you for review
no challenge in a game like this guarantees my refund, i have even pre ordered it but no challenge means there's nothing for me there. I am not going to pay 60 dollars to play an interactive movie
MUSASHI!!
What do you think is better and has a more laid back feel. This or onimusha?
Thank for your hornest review as alway.
Is it linear?
fuck yea, im so tired of soulslike games
I think things like enemy respawn+boss resets to phase one are going to get modded by ppl asap.
…kind of a bummer. Thought this was going to be my first pick up after my Ocarina of Time playthrough. Not now unfortunately. Lack of tension and difficulty really arent my thing…
LOOOLL this guy? what is "challenge" to you? Onimusha wots? That game on cranage mode was not a challenge it was an unfun slog. Fighting bosses from the first phase and dealing with their sponge health bars sucked, not because the gameplay loop was hard but because the fights took way too long causing a lack of focus due to boredom after the first few tries. I got the platinum of course, and if PB0 does away with that useless sh*t it sounds good to me. Also, if you are "first trying" every boss what is 66 days mode going to improve?
Complains about "meaningless" loot but enjoys slop like D4?
Must say I never liked any of your content, usually just ass takes and pointing out the obvious…..so nothing new here.
Hopefully they will patch the difficulty, or offer another mode so that enemies respawn. It seems like its something they could do. There will be a lot of backlash since most people buying the game are souls players.
Thank god it's not a souls game😊
i can‘t wait
“The game is too easy”, say the top 2% of dedicated Souls players…
Can you name many action games, not Soulslikes, where you have died 91 times. I’m not particularly good at games, and even I can’t think of a time outside of Souls games where I have died that many times.