From its ‘kungfupunk’ combat to wild boss battles, here’s everything you need to know
Action game fans have had no shortage of choice in 2026. Romeo Is a Dead Man spotlights blood-soaked hack-and-slash combat, Beast of Reincarnation offers Souls-adjacent parry-focused fighting, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword takes parrying to the extreme with a plethora of defensive options.
Phantom Blade Zero looks to carve out its own space among sword-slashing action games. It blends simple controls and intense parries with stylish wuxia animations to create one of the most anticipated non-GTA 6 games of the fall release calendar. I recently got to play around four hours of Phantom Blade Zero on Windows PC at a preview event hosted by developer S-Game in Beijing, China, and experienced the game’s unique take on melee action.
I played from the very beginning of the game until the end of its first chapter. Afterward, I was plopped into two separate boss fights, defeating one and losing against the other. Trading blows with Phantom Blade Zero’s bosses was certainly the highlight of my time with S-Game’s ambitious martial arts game, though the moment-to-moment action in between those boss fights didn’t reach the same highs.
I played as Soul, an assassin being hounded by members of The Order, a shadowy organization he used to work for. 5-hour flight, but I didn’t pick up on that context in the preview; I learned Soul was a John Wick-style assassin on the run when director Soulframe Liang mentioned it during a roundtable interview following the gameplay session.
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