Phantom Blade Zero surpassed 720,000 concurrent players on Steam — ECNS

The Chinese action role-playing game Phantom Blade Zero, developed by S-Game, surpassed 720,000 concurrent players on Steam on its release day. Less than an hour after its launch on Thursday, the number of users playing it simultaneously on the platform exceeded 300,000.

As ECNS reports, sales of the game have already exceeded 1 million copies. Revenue from pre-orders on Steam and PlayStation 5 was estimated at more than $43 million. Before its official release, about 3 million users across all platforms had added the game to their wishlists.

Critics' and users' ratings

In preliminary reviews, the PC version of Phantom Blade Zero received an average score of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic. This is higher than the score of 81 received by Black Myth: Wukong on the aggregator.

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Positive reviews on Steam were left by 88% of more than 33,250 Chinese-speaking users. Among English-speaking users, the share of positive ratings was also 88%. American critic Travis Northup gave the game 9 out of 10, praising its combat system and boss battles. At the same time, he pointed to invisible barriers in locations and certain technical issues.

Story and style of the game

The main character is the martial arts master Soul, who suffered a severe heart injury in a previous battle. A mysterious doctor saves him, but the treatment leaves the character with only 66 days to live. During this time, Soul sets out in search of a new heart and tries to find himself in a world of lies and betrayal.

S-Game founder and the game's producer Liang Qiwei called it a story with pronounced traditional Chinese elements at its core. The creators describe the style as “kungfupunk,” combining wuxia aesthetics, the atmosphere of jianghu, steampunk, mechanical limbs, and punk elements. The game features 30 types of weapons inspired by traditional Chinese armaments, while movements for combat scenes were recorded with the participation of more than 20 kung fu actors, including Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen.