Phantom Blade Zero Review Round Up: S-Game's Console Debut Is A Hit

Phantom Blade Zero Is A “Genuine Game Of The Year Contender”, Reviews Say Published Oct 26, 2026, 4:46 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Phantom Blade Zero reviews had the potential to land just about anywhere. While the advanced trailers showed off hyper-flashy combat in a spooky depiction of China, concerns remained that the game prioritized style over substance and could have performance issues. Reviews have now dropped, and those concerns have washed away, as it becomes one of the year's highest-scoring action games, with some dubbing it a serious contender for Game of the Year. Phantom Blade Zero Reviews Are In, And They're Looking Great Phantom Blade Zero's review score sits at an 88 on both PS5 and PC on Metacritic. That means it outscores two of its biggest rivals this year: Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which scored an 85, and Nioh 3, which got an 86. Things are looking even better on OpenCritic, as Phantom Blade Zero sits at 91. It is missing one major outlier from its scores, though. Here's what the critics had to say: TheGamer - 5/5 Starting off with none other than myself, it's safe to say I loved the game. It's the first time in seven years that I've given a game top marks, and it thoroughly deserves it. In my review, I said, "Phantom Blade Zero evoked shades of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Not in how it looked, felt, played, or even sounded, but in how S-Game took an established genre and put its own spin on it with refined and masterful craftsmanship. "It has some all-time great boss battles, a phenomenal soundtrack that fuses Chinese sounds with contemporary genres, and a story that tugged on the strings of even my cold, tainted heart. Phantom Blade Zero is a genuine Game of the Year contender and is one deserving of a place in action-game folklore." You can read the full thing here. DualShockers - 9.5/10 Our sister site, DualShockers, shared the same sentiment. Reviewer Christian Bognar said it was "hands down the best action RPG this year." They were full of praise for the build variety, weapons, and the world. Polygon - Unscored While Polygon doesn't score its reviews, its reviewer Paulo Kawanishi heaped praise on the game, despite feeling it had some drawbacks. They said, "There are few joys like watching a good Wuxia movie play out on screen — an experience that S-Game recreated in Phantom Blade Zero by making every attack and dodge look like the kung-fu films of old. Even so, as dazzling as Phantom Blade Zero’s aesthetics are, it ultimately lacks putting trust in the player to act out these abilities, minimizing the active nature of the game." IGN - 9/10 IGN reviewer Travis Northup also loved the game. While he faced some unfortunate performance issues, preventing it from receiving the prestigious 10/10, he had plenty of good things to say. "Phantom Blade Zero is one of the best action games I’ve played in a long time, with standout combat that never came even close to feeling old across 50 hours of playing. It all takes place in a sharp, unique world that I adored spending time in, despite the fact that just about everyone and everything in it wanted me dead." Eurogamer - 6/10 With a Metacritic score of 88, most reviews were positive. There was one outlier, however: Eurogamer, which scored it a 6/10 in a very balanced review. Critic Emma Kent said, "This game is exceptional in so many areas - the animations, the beautiful environments - and when the combat works, the sense of flow is incredible." They did, however, criticize the boss fights, which they felt slowed the game's early pace, along with a "pretty unremarkable narrative." All in all, you have to imagine S-Game is thrilled with this score, especially given it's the studio's debut console title. If it was in your periphery, I can't recommend it enough. Systems Released October 29, 2026 ESRB Unreal Engine 5 Developer(s) S-Game Publisher(s) S-Game Engine Unreal Engine 5 Genre(s) Action, RPG