Phantom Blade Zero Rises as Game of the Year Contender Despite Technical Shortcomings

Phantom Blade Zero has received overwhelmingly positive reviews ahead of its release on PC and PS5. Critics have praised its combat system, boss fights and distinctive art direction, although some have raised concerns about storytelling and performance on both platforms.

The review embargo for S-Game’s highly anticipated Phantom Blade Zero has finally lifted, and things are looking promising. The game currently holds a Metacritic score of 88/100 on both PC and PS5, based on 27 and 26 reviews, respectively, at the time of this report.

The reception has been particularly strong among major publications, with IGN, Push Square and TheSixthAxis all awarding Phantom Blade Zero 9/10, while VGC gave it 4/5. Critics consistently praised its fluid martial arts combat, extensive weapon selection and spectacular boss encounters. GamesRadar+ even considers it a potential Game of the Year contender, particularly highlighting its rewarding exploration.

However, not everything has been universally praised. Push Square criticised the game’s storytelling, while VGC found its characters underdeveloped and level design overly linear. Interestingly, we previously reported on a prematurely published review from Brazilian outlet Critical Hits, which awarded the game 8.5/10. It praised the combat but found some encounters repetitive and noted that previously explored areas could feel empty because defeated enemies do not respawn.

As for PC performance, reviewers have reported somewhat conflicting results. Wccftech achieved around 100 FPS at 4K with High settings and DLSS Quality on an RTX 4080. However, enabling ray tracing reduced performance to the high 50s, while path tracing brought it down to approximately 30 FPS. The outlet encountered only minor traversal stuttering. Conversely, Glitched reported severe frame-pacing problems and camera stuttering on an RTX 5080, despite achieving approximately 60 FPS with maximum settings and path tracing enabled.

PS5 performance appears more consistent, although some issues remain. TheSixthAxis reported smooth gameplay in Performance Mode on the standard PS5. Meanwhile, Push Square achieved a mostly stable 60 FPS on PS5 Pro with ray tracing enabled, although certain boss battles caused slowdowns. Insider Gaming reported similarly encouraging results, with frame-rate drops largely restricted to areas featuring heavy rainfall. However, Creative Bloq encountered severe slowdowns during combat, even with ray tracing disabled. S-Game reportedly released a patch addressing several technical problems, but its effectiveness remains unverified.

Overall, Phantom Blade Zero appears to have delivered on its ambitious combat promises, although its technical shortcomings could prove divisive. The game launches on PC and PS5 on 29 October 2026.

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