Is Phantom Blade Zero a soulslike, and how hard is it?
No, according to its director: Soulframe Liang calls Phantom Blade Zero “neither a Soulslike game nor a traditional action game”. It borrows soulslike level design and checkpoint bells, but fights at a faster pace, offers four difficulty modes and, outside Sixty-Six Days mode, takes nothing from you when you die. Press-reported Liang’s developer letter, June 2025, quoted by Insider Gaming and Push Square
It is still called hard: IGN found it hard “even at the default setting”, while PC Gamer found that even the hardest regular mode “doesn’t feel as hard as, say, Nioh”. The game is out on 29 October 2026. Press-reported IGN, 2025 hands-on; PC Gamer, August 2025
| Soulslike? | Not by the developer’s account: “neither a Soulslike game nor a traditional action game”. Press-reported Liang’s letter, June 2025 |
|---|---|
| What it borrows | Layered levels with shortcuts, and bells that work as checkpoints. Liang’s own word for the level design is “Soulslite”. Press-reported RPG Site; IGN |
| What it drops | No XP and no “souls” to lose; defeated enemies stay dead when you respawn at a bell. Press-reported PC Gamer; IGN |
| Difficulty modes | Wayfarer, Pathbreaker, Hellwalker and 66 Days, shown on the in-game menu. Official State of Play deep dive, 11:13 |
| Easy mode | Wayfarer: “A gentler path through the Wulin.” Official on-screen menu text |
| On Steam | Genre: Action, RPG. Players’ tags include Souls-like and Hack and Slash. Store data Steam, read 14 October 2026 |
Is Phantom Blade Zero a soulslike? What the developers say
In June 2025 the game’s official X account posted a developer’s letter from Liang. As quoted by Insider Gaming, it says: “When Phantom Blade Zero was first announced, people thought it was a ‘Soulslike.’ Later, after we released some combat demo, people noticed that the pace was clearly much faster than Soulslike titles—it must be a ‘hack and slash’ game like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden”. Push Square quotes the reason for the first impression: “interconnected maps, hidden secrets, and those sigh-of-relief checkpoints.” Press-reported Insider Gaming and Push Square, 25 June 2025
“Phantom Blade Zero is neither a Soulslike game nor a traditional action game.”
He has said the same in interviews, each time naming what the game takes from soulslikes and what it leaves out:
- To RPG Site, December 2025: the team is “merging archetypes together”: on one side soulslikes, from which “We borrow some part of the, like, level designs and some art style”; on the other, “hack-and-slash classics, like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, or Metal Gear Rising”. On level design: “we want to call the game a ‘Soulslite’.” Press-reported RPG Site, 19 December 2025
- To Inverse, August 2025: “We extracted that multilayered map design and hidden objects in the corners, and side stories – all these are good. But we got rid of the overintricate map that can make players get lost, or the difficulty.” Press-reported Inverse, Hayes Madsen, 11 August 2025
- To PC Gamer, August 2025: “Nowadays there are too many Souls games,” with the aim of a new subgenre, “a kung fu action game.” Press-reported PC Gamer, Wes Fenlon, 8 August 2025
- To Gamersky, July 2024, in Chinese: the game puts the fast combat of traditional action games inside soulslike-style hand-built levels, with a simplified soulslike map of loops and locked doors and a faster pace. Asked whether it would make players suffer, he answered firmly that it would not (our translation). Press-reported Gamersky interview, 16 July 2024, in Chinese
Is it a soulslike? What previews say
Writers who played it mostly agree with the developer, with one or two caveats.
| Outlet | What it says |
|---|---|
| But Why Tho, October 2024 | “is not a Soulslike title, though one can be forgiven for having that thought” Press-reported |
| PC Gamer, August 2025 | “And it's really not a Soulslike”, while noting “a Dark Souls-like interconnected world to explore” Press-reported |
| IGN, 2025 hands-on | “It’s not stamina-based combat in the strict Soulslike sense” Press-reported |
| Geek Culture, August 2026 | “the game isn’t a soulslike, but instead more of an action-adventure title like Devil May Cry” Press-reported |
| Game Rant, October 2026 | Groups it with “Soulslike-adjacent titles, which take heavy inspiration from the genre while also offering distinct mechanics” Press-reported |
| Game Informer, October 2026 | “I hesitate to place the game in the Souls-like genre – it seems generally more forgiving – but the level layout recalls that structure” Press-reported |
| Steam players | The user-defined tags include Souls-like, beside Action RPG and Hack and Slash. Store data |
What does it borrow from soulslikes?
Bells as checkpoints. IGN rang “a small bell suspended from a short wooden stand”; it revealed part of the map and “also functions as a respawn area and fast travel point, similar to a bonfire from Dark Souls.” Game Rant adds that at these bells “players can regain health and upgrade Soul's abilities via a packed skill tree.” Press-reported IGN, 2025; Game Rant, October 2026
Connected levels. Game Rant describes regions “filled with branching paths that are connected via unlockable shortcuts”, and says S-GAME “has openly stated” that the level design is “heavily inspired by Soulslikes”. Press-reported Game Rant, October 2026
Learnable bosses on normal difficulty. Of the boss Huangxing, Liang told PC Gamer magazine: “In normal difficulty, he has some of the Souls-like elements to him: he has fixed combos, and if you fight him enough times, you'll figure out his combos.” Press-reported Push Square, 21 September 2025, from PC Gamer magazine
What is different from a soulslike?
- No XP. “There is no XP”, so “there are no ‘souls’ to pick back up or risk losing when you die”. You get stronger through weapons and items. Press-reported PC Gamer, August 2025
- Defeated enemies stay dead. After respawning at a bell, IGN found that “everyone I’ve defeated remains dead”. PC Gamer adds that they “apparently will respawn if you leave a zone entirely”. Press-reported IGN, 2025; PC Gamer
- No stamina bar in the usual sense. Light attacks and dodges do not drain the Sha-Chi meter; heavy attacks and blocking do. Press-reported IGN, 2025
- A wider parry window. PC Gamer: “The timing's easier to land than a Sekiro parry even on the harder ‘Hellwalker’ difficulty”. Press-reported PC Gamer, August 2025
- Boss checkpoints. “two-phase bosses don't force you to repeat the first phase if you fall during the second.” Press-reported DualShockers, October 2026; The Outerhaven
- Difficulty modes. Four, described below. Official on-screen menu
Is Phantom Blade Zero hard?
Hard enough to kill previewers often, but not built around suffering. IGN: “even at the default setting that I played at, Phantom Blade 0 is hard, and I loved that about it. It never felt cheap; it just demanded more from me.” Press-reported IGN, Justin Koreis, 2025
PC Gamer’s writer found that “Even Hellwalker doesn't feel as hard as, say, Nioh”. Combat director Qianli Ma told him: “If you want to beat it in a mediocre, not-as-beautiful way, it's pretty achievable. But if you want to do it in a very beautiful manner, that's the difficult aspect.” Press-reported PC Gamer, August 2025
DualShockers calls the game “hard” but not “overly punitive”, with one complaint: “almost every boss demands the exact same core execution: mastering parry timing.” Press-reported DualShockers, October 2026
Chinese previews say the same. Gamersky found the timing window for the special attacks not as strict as feared, and a Zhihu Games writer’s six-hour preview, reposted on gcores reports Liang stressing that the combat is not meant to test depth and execution ceilings but to show a visual style never seen before, with the controls kept at a moderate level (our translations). Press-reported Gamersky, October 2026; Zhihu Games writer, reposted on gcores, 2026; both in Chinese
Phantom Blade Zero difficulty modes
The State of Play deep dive of August 2026 shows the difficulty menu with four entries, in this order: WAYFARER, PATHBREAKER, HELLWALKER, 66 DAYS. The narration introduces them as “difficulty options as distinct ways to experience the story.” Official State of Play deep dive, 11:02–11:20, on-screen text
| Mode | Official description | Also reported |
|---|---|---|
| Wayfarer | Menu: “A gentler path through the Wulin. Focus on the story, take in the world, fight at your own pace.” Narration: “‘Wayfarer’ mode is intuitive and cinematic, letting anyone feel like a kungfu master.” Official 11:07–11:13 | The PlayStation Blog: “If you’d simply like to enjoy the story, Wayfarer mode is for you.” Official |
| Pathbreaker | Named on the menu. Its description is not shown in the footage: the cursor never rests on it. Official name only | GamingBolt places it as the next step after Wayfarer. Press-reported |
| Hellwalker | Menu: “The ultimate trial. Enemies strike without mercy, adapt without warning, and hold nothing back.” Narration: it “brings in core fighting game mechanics. Bosses won’t rely on fixed patterns. They react to your spacing, punish your whiffs, and adapt to your habits in real time.” Official 11:19–11:33 | The PlayStation Blog: “more advanced and adaptive enemy intelligence”. Official |
| 66 Days (Sixty-Six Days) | Menu: “Hellwalker difficulty, with one added rule: you have only 66 lives. Unlocks after completing PATHBREAKER or HELLWALKER.” Official 11:51–11:55, on-screen text Narration: “It features the intensity of ‘Hellwalker,’ but every defeat cost you precious time. If the clock hits zero, it is permanent death.” Official 11:51–12:21 | A counter of 66 drops on each death; the run ends at zero. RPGFan says it unlocks after finishing the game; GamingBolt names a Hellwalker or Pathbreaker clear, which matches the menu. Press-reported GamingBolt; RPGFan |
The menu writes “66 DAYS” and counts “66 lives”; the PlayStation Blog and the narration write “Sixty-Six Days” and speak of time. The full rules of that mode, and the story’s sixty-six days, are on Is there a 66-day time limit?
Does Phantom Blade Zero have an easy mode?
Yes: Wayfarer is the story-first mode, “A gentler path through the Wulin”. Whether you can switch to it in the middle of a playthrough is not stated in any source we read. Official on-screen menu text; Unconfirmed switching mid-game
Earlier and differing accounts
The menu text settles how 66 Days unlocks: after completing Pathbreaker or Hellwalker. Official State of Play deep dive, 11:51, on-screen text
The line-up itself has changed over time. Push Square, reporting Liang’s June 2025 letter, says that demo build had three options: “the balanced Gamechanger, the easier Wayfarer, and the super hard Hellwalker”, and that Hellwalker would be “only unlocked in New Game+ in the full release”. GamingBolt, in August 2026, writes that you are “meant to tackle Hellwalker first” before Sixty-Six Days, and in a bracket that “it’s also available after completing the game on Pathbreaker difficulty”. Whether Hellwalker itself is open from the start in the finished game is still not settled. Press-reported Push Square, June 2025; GamingBolt, 18 August 2026
See the frame-by-frame breakdown: the difficulty menu in the State of Play deep dive.
What happens when you die in Phantom Blade Zero?
- You wake at the last bell you rang. Press-reported IGN, 2025
- DualShockers: “you don't lose anything upon death”. Press-reported DualShockers, October 2026
- Die in a boss’s second phase and you restart at that phase. Press-reported The Outerhaven, October 2026
- In Sixty-Six Days mode, each death costs a day, and the run ends at zero. Official State of Play narration
One earlier report differs: IGN’s 2025 hands-on says every death “costs him one” of Soul’s 66 days. Later reports tie the countdown to Sixty-Six Days mode only; see the time limit page. Press-reported IGN, 2025
How do parries and the blue and red flashes work?
Fights turn on a second meter beside health, Sha-Chi 
杀气 (likely the Chinese name; our match). When an enemy runs out of it, the enemy is breached: its stance breaks and it is left extremely vulnerable. Press-reported IGN, 2025; Unconfirmed the Chinese name
| Blue flash | A Brutal Move: parry it. “enemies telegraph with a blue light for parrying (Brutal Moves) and a red light for dodging (Killer Moves)” Press-reported RPGFan, October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Red flash | A Killer Move: “Red attacks are unblockable, meaning you need to dodge them” Press-reported The Outerhaven, October 2026 |
| The reward | The right answer triggers a Ghostep, “a really slick-looking teleport dodge that leads directly into a counterattack.” Press-reported IGN, 2025 |
Weapons, Sha-Chi refills and the rest of the system are on the combat page; individual boss fights are on the bosses page.
What is not yet known
| What Pathbreaker changes | Named on the menu; never described in the sources we read. |
|---|---|
| Switching difficulty mid-game | Not stated. |
| When Hellwalker unlocks | From the start, or after a clear: reports differ. (How 66 Days unlocks is settled by the menu text.) |
| Chinese names of the modes | Not in the sources we read. |
| The full letter | We read Liang’s June 2025 letter only as quoted by Insider Gaming and Push Square, not on X itself. |
FAQ
Is Phantom Blade Zero a soulslike?
Its director says no: it is “neither a Soulslike game nor a traditional action game”. It borrows layered levels, shortcuts and bell checkpoints, but has no XP to lose, keeps defeated enemies dead, and offers four difficulty modes. Steam players still tag it Souls-like.
Is Phantom Blade Zero hard?
Previews call it hard but fair. IGN found it hard “even at the default setting”; PC Gamer found even Hellwalker easier than Nioh, and its parry timing easier than Sekiro’s.
What are the difficulty levels in Phantom Blade Zero?
Four, on the in-game menu: Wayfarer, Pathbreaker, Hellwalker and 66 Days (written Sixty-Six Days elsewhere). Wayfarer is the gentle story mode; Hellwalker has adaptive bosses; 66 Days is Hellwalker with 66 lives, unlocked after a Pathbreaker or Hellwalker clear.
Does Phantom Blade Zero have an easy mode?
Yes, Wayfarer: “A gentler path through the Wulin. Focus on the story, take in the world, fight at your own pace.”
What is Hellwalker difficulty?
The hardest regular mode. In S-GAME’s words, bosses “won’t rely on fixed patterns. They react to your spacing, punish your whiffs, and adapt to your habits in real time.”
Do you lose anything when you die?
Not on the regular modes, according to previews: there is no XP to drop, and you respawn at the last bell. In Sixty-Six Days mode each death costs a day, and the run ends at zero.
Is Phantom Blade Zero like Sekiro or Devil May Cry?
Liang names Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear Rising alongside soulslikes as the two kinds of game the team is merging; from soulslikes he says it borrows level design and some art style. PC Gamer compares its parry with Sekiro’s and finds it easier to land.