Phantom Blade Zero becomes highest-rated Chinese game ever

Phantom Blade Zero became the highest-rated Chinese game ever on Metacritic after its review embargo lifted, TheGamer reported Oct. 28, 2026.

TheGamer and Yahoo Tech said Phantom Blade Zero earned an 88 on Metacritic, placing it among the highest-rated games of 2026. Most reviews fell in the 8–10 range aside from one outlier, and critics especially praised weapons, combos, skills, bosses, level design, challenges, length and pacing.

TheGamer said the 88 score finishes two points ahead of Genshin Impact, four ahead of Icey and seven ahead of Black Myth: Wukong. Genshin Impact held the title of China’s best-reviewed game. Black Myth: Wukong scored 81 on Metacritic, earned a Game of the Year nomination and became Steam’s second-most-played title ever.

The embargo lift ended Genshin Impact’s run as China’s best-reviewed game, with S-Game’s upcoming adventure taking the crown, TheGamer said. The outlet described a massive boom in Chinese game development, with Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Marvel Rivals capturing the games-as-a-service (games with ongoing updates and seasonal content) audience while China also produces big single-player narrative adventures.

TheGamer said Phantom Blade Zero may struggle to match Black Myth: Wukong’s Steam concurrent player record despite its critical achievement. The outlet’s reviewer contributed to the 88 Metacritic score, earning their first top marks after seven years in the job.

Yahoo Tech and Polygon list Oct. 29, 2026, as the release date for PlayStation 5 and PC. Yahoo Tech says the game arrives after Final Fantasy Resonance as October’s last major release.

S-Game, a Chinese studio that has primarily designed mobile games in the past, developed and published Phantom Blade Zero, Yahoo Tech reported. The outlet calls it another success for Chinese developers breaking into Western markets, comparable to Black Myth: Wukong in 2024.

Polygon reports that easy locks the player out of returning higher, while an unlockable 66 Days difficulty removes a day per Soul death.

Polygon says it is unclear how much Soul’s in-game 66 days matter, since the count drops by one after one cutscene and the mode is not expected to function as a core mechanic on regular difficulties. Unlike a FromSoftware Soulslike, Phantom Blade Zero has checkpoints between boss phases, so failing the second phase lets players resume from the midway point.

Yahoo Tech reports that Soul is an assassin framed for murder with 66 days to live after the Flesh Sculptor replaces his heart. Polygon adds that Soul was mortally wounded fighting childhood friend Zuo Shang, and both stabbed each other through the heart, while the Flesh Sculptor gave Soul a new heart lasting 66 days and Zuo Shang survived. Director Soulframe Liang described Soul as a John Wick-style assassin on the run hunted by The Order, the shadowy organization he used to work for, during a roundtable interview.

Polygon reports that S-Game brought in martial artist and movie star Donnie Yen as a creative consultant. Yen plays and motion-captures a character, leads about 15–20 stunt performers, and Kenji Tanigaki serves as action director. Tanigaki, best known for directing The Furious, widely considered the best action movie of the year, is part of Yen’s team. The studio wants to “create a playable kung fu movie,” according to director Soulframe Liang.

PCGamesN reported that S-Game’s motion capture studio in Shanghai uses kung-fu experts on wires with replica weapons to create authentic action. Director Soulframe studied architecture at Yale and conceived the game’s kung-fu punk style by blending traditional Chinese Wuxia (Chinese martial-arts fiction) culture with pop culture like cyberpunk, and he said he started with traditional Chinese Wuxia culture mixed with pop culture after returning to China. The goal is to make players feel like they are literally in a kung-fu movie.

Polygon and PCGamesN report that Phantom Blade Zero features more than 30 weapons plus 20 Phantom Edges, which function more like special attacks than usable weapons. Most weapons come from defeated bosses and each has unique traits, including The Fanatic’s Broken Blade with its Tipsy ability that makes Soul drunk. Some Phantom Edges help traversal in the largely linear game with light Metroidvania (a genre with interconnected exploration and ability-gated progression) elements.

Polygon says the game runs roughly 35–40 hours for experienced action-game players, with director Soulframe Liang calling density more important than breadth. Its previewer played about four hours at a Beijing event hosted by S-Game and found boss fights the highlight, while moment-to-moment action between them did not reach the same highs. The outlet discloses that S-Game paid for its flight and hotel to attend the Beijing preview.

Soul’s Sha-chi meter acts like a stamina meter for his most powerful combos, and switching weapons refills it, Polygon reports. The previewer said boss battles come fast and furious but not as quickly as in Black Myth: Wukong, while regular enemy encounters can feel paint-by-numbers and end too quickly.

Polygon reports that one later-game boss is a woman who flits on air and summons paper mache dragons in a two-phase fight where an ally joins Soul for the second phase. Another boss features two dancers controlling a lion head puppet; after the first falls, the second summons lion-headed enemies, and Soul can grab a lion head to shoot fire while dodging by jumping between raised poles. A full fight against this boss appeared at the end of August’s Phantom Blade Zero State of Play.

Exploration is a major part of Phantom Blade Zero, with players backtracking to use new skills and weapons, fighting bosses hidden in caves off the beaten path, and discovering entire areas, PCGamesN reports. Soulframe described the world as original and crazy, saying players will see more strange stuff until suddenly seeing steam towers. The outlet concludes that Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to be a phenomenal action game that people will be talking about for a long time.

PCGamesN reports that its writer had a six-hour hands-on in Beijing starting from the game’s beginning, after briefly playing Phantom Blade Zero at Summer Game Fest where S-Game had only shown side quests. The Beijing visit gave freedom to explore the first chapter and left the writer blown away by the game’s style and combat. The outlet believes Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to be the next action game hit, on the level of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Yahoo Tech reports that critics praised Phantom Blade Zero’s combat, weapons, combos, skills, bosses, level design, challenges, length and pacing, but most took issue with the story as underbaked and inconsequential. Many critics call it among the best action games ever made, and most reviewers found it hard to put down despite the story shortcomings.