Frame breakdown · Official channel on YouTube · 3:12
Phantom Blade Zero launch trailer, frame by frame
The Phantom Blade Zero launch trailer runs 3 minutes 12 seconds: story scenes and fights, then a card with the pre-load and launch times, and a last card announcing PS5 discs for 2027.
- YouTube Phantom Blade Zero - Official Launch Trailer 3:12 · English captions · 22 Oct 2026, 02:00 UTC
- Bilibili The same cut with Chinese cards, posted as the “final trailer” 3:11 · no rating card, so 1.5 s ahead · 22 Oct 2026, 10:00 Beijing
Each tick is one of the 23 frames below, placed at its second; the pins mark the two cards. Every frame carries two time codes: the first opens YouTube, the second opens the Chinese cut on Bilibili.
- Seen A red flower of light, many times taller than the figure, opens behind a figure in a straw hat seen from behind; sparks fly out of its centre.
- Context The figure wears the straw hat and dark armour with red trim that the State of Play puts under the card SOUL (his entry, with that frame). What the red flower is, nothing on screen says: it is the trailer’s biggest effect, and the red answer to the blue flowers at 2:24. The section The radiant heart puts it in order.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
The official Phantom Blade Zero channel uploaded it on 22 October 2026 (UTC; 19:00 Pacific on 21 October), a week before release; S-GAME’s Bilibili account posted the same cut at the same moment as its “final trailer”. Below are 23 frames from it, each with what is on screen, a line of context that links to the entries it touches, and the second it comes from on both sites.
What the launch trailer tells us
- Pre-load 27 October 2026, 02:00 UTC, on all platforms: 10:00 in Beijing, 19:00 on 26 October in Los Angeles. Every city
- Launch 29 October 2026, 02:00 UTC; the card prints the US time, 7:00 PM PDT on 28 October. Release time
- PS5 discs 2027: Standard, Deluxe, and an Ultimate Edition with a collectible steel case. Digital only at launch. Editions
- The director’s note Soulframe Liang, in the top comment under the Bilibili post: a hook into the main story for every player, where long-time players can glimpse new forms of many familiar elements; and the eternal theme, cut your way free and keep your soul, has never changed.
- No names Not one name card in 3:12. Every face is matched here by comparison only: characters, bosses.
- Last words
CUT YOUR WAY FREE / KEEP YOUR SOUL
How to read the frames: Seen is only what is visible in that frame; On screen is words printed in the video, copied exactly; Heard is a line of dialogue as YouTube’s automatic English captions give it, since the video has no subtitles of its own; Said is a quoted source; Context is our reading of the frame, with links to the entries it rests on, and a match made by viewers is marked unconfirmed. A person is named only when a name card is in the same shot, and this trailer has none. Of the two time codes on each frame, the first opens YouTube at that second and the second opens the Chinese cut on Bilibili, which has no rating card at the start and so runs 1.5 seconds ahead.
0:00–0:41 Opening: the hall, the mask and the orb
The first forty seconds set the story up without a single name: a town in the rain, two men vowing to cleanse the world, two masks, a blue orb in the snow and a bloodied hand. Read with the official premise in mind, that Soul of The Order is framed for his leader’s murder (Soul), the pieces take an order; nothing on screen confirms the order we give them.
- Seen Rain over a town of wooden houses and lanterns; behind it a large building glows red.
- Heard
You’ve been the Mandate’s backbone for all these years
- Context “Mandate” is a word the game already uses: Mandate Encampment is one of its nine regions, first read off the State of Play map screen (the name; the screen). Whether this town in the rain is that map, nothing on screen says. The rain itself is the series’ signature, back to the first game, Rainblood (the story so far).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen Two men in a dark hall stand before a large painting; golden light runs through it.
- Heard
Let us cleanse the rot and corruption of this world.
- Context Who speaks is not shown. “Cleanse the rot” is the language of The Order, the organisation Soul served and which the trailer names at 0:58; its patriarch is murdered and Soul framed for it, which is the official premise.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A dark metal mask, close up, with glowing orange slits along one side.
- Context Nothing names the wearer. Masks mark several of the fifteen known bosses: Tie Sha is gold-masked (entry), the Lion Dance Grandmaster is “Mask-Bound” (entry), and the 11-minute trailer shows a gold mask under a tall hat at 8:05. This dark mask with orange slits matches none of them on sight.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A figure in a smooth red metal mask, red cords wound round the head and shoulders, against black.
- Context A second mask, red and smooth, with cords. No boss on our list is described this way; Red Wraith, a swordswoman of the 2025 demo (entry), shares only the colour of her name. Count it as a new face until a name card appears.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A long-haired man in ornate armour looks down at a glowing blue orb in his hand; snow falls behind him.
- Heard
You’re an interesting man.
- Context Three blue lights run through the trailer: this orb, the flowers at 2:24 and the heart at 2:34. The one blue thing with an official name is Memory Flowers, which raise maximum health (store term); whether any of the three is one, nothing says. The same snow and ornate armour frame the silver-haired man at 0:46.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen An open hand, palm up, with blood across it.
- Context The premise in one image, as we read it: Soul is “set up for your leader’s murder”, in the State of Play narration quoted on his entry. The trailer does not say whose hand or whose blood.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
0:42–1:19 Old Phantom Blade moves in new forms
The director’s comment promised long-time players “new forms” of familiar elements, and this is the stretch Chinese viewers pored over: an umbrella, a crow, a column of fire. Each match is marked for what it is, a viewer’s memory of the earlier games (what they spotted), and the links go to what the site can confirm.
- Seen A silver-haired man in dark armour turns his head in a snowy wood.
- Heard
You’re late again.
- Context No name card. The State of Play shows a long-haired man with a sword on his back under the card ZUOSHANG, Soul’s childhood blood brother who drives the blade through his heart (entry; the card). Compare the two; the line itself proves nothing.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen In a hall hung with red cloth, a fighter crouches behind a wide umbrella of metal ribs, opened like a shield.
- Context No umbrella is among the twelve named primary weapons or the ten Phantom Edges, so this is a boss’s weapon or one not yet announced. Chinese viewers recall an umbrella from an earlier Phantom Blade game (below, unconfirmed); the earlier games are background only until a current source says otherwise.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen In the same hall, a pair of huge dark red wings opens over the fighters.
- Heard
The Order hid the truth of our origins.
- Context The Order is Soul’s former organisation: its “Wills” include Soul, and its hunter, The Hunt, is a boss (entry). The wings are the first of two moves viewers match to the mobile games, a giant crow (below, unconfirmed).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A column of fire twists up beside a fighter with a red-hot blade; the ground around them burns.
- Heard
You have no idea who you really are.
- Context The second move viewers match to the mobile games, a fire tornado (below, unconfirmed). Officially, the game’s big moves run on Sha-Chi, the second meter (how it works), and the store text lists Transcension, a body-altering Sha-Chi modification (term); whether this is one, nothing says. “Who you really are” answers “the truth of our origins” at 0:58.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A burst of green light and sparks wraps a fighter in a courtyard.
- Context The one green effect in a trailer of reds, around a figure in Soul’s straw hat, in a courtyard of wooden posts. Compare the yard of the State of Play, where the Lion Dance Grandmaster is fought among burning posts (13:41); nothing names this one. What is known of the weapons’ effects is on the combat page.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
1:20–2:15 Snow, a golden field and the rain
Four fights in four places, snow, a golden field, rain at night and a ruin, each with one line of dialogue and no name card. The links go to the bosses and characters worth comparing, not to identifications.
- Seen On a frozen white slope a fighter swings a large cleaver at a second figure.
- Context Two bosses come to mind and neither is named here: Blizzard Blademaster, the one boss shown on snow so far, a pale swordsman cutting wide arcs (entry; 12:10), and Commander Cleave, a broad swordsman with a serrated blade (entry).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A woman with red streaks in her dark hair raises an arm against an evening sky over a field of tall grass. No name card is shown.
- Heard
You better watch yourself now.
- Context Chinese viewers and one Bilibili creator take a red-haired woman in the trailers for Mu Xiaokui, the daughter of The Order’s founder in the earlier games; her entry (characters) and the basis of the match (names) are both marked unconfirmed. The 11-minute trailer has an unnamed woman with ornaments in her hair at 5:07; whether she is the same person, compare for yourself.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen Two fighters clash in the rain at night; sparks and a white flash between them.
- Heard
Neither of us have a choice anymore.
- Context Rain at night, two blades: the series’ founding image. The first game was called Rainblood, and S-GAME calls this one “the spiritual rebirth of the original Rainblood” (the story so far). Who these two are, nothing shows.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen In a ruined stone courtyard a tall figure lifts a long, pale spear above a fighter in a straw hat.
- Heard
Show me what you have become.
- Context No boss on our list fights with a spear; the long weapons known are Bashpole, a pole hammer (entry), and the carved shield of Zhuobi (entry). “Show me what you have become” is the story in one line: Soul comes back changed, with a replacement heart and sixty-six days (the premise).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
2:16–2:24 The card: pre-load and launch
The one frame that is pure fact: two dates, printed in Pacific time. The Chinese cut carries the same card in Beijing time and adds “all platforms”.
- On screen Under the logo:
October 26, 7:00 PM PDT Pre-load Begins
/October 28, 7:00 PM PDT Game Launch
- Said The video’s page:
Pre-load: Oct 27, 10 am Beijing Time / Oct 26, 7 pm PT
. On the Chinese cut the card reads, in our translation, “27 October 10:00, pre-load on all platforms / 29 October 10:00, the game opens”. - Context Both cards say 02:00 UTC. The pre-load page converts that moment to eight cities (pre-load date and time), and the release-time page explains why the US date reads a day earlier (why the date differs). The download size is still unannounced (what is reported).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
The pre-load opens at 02:00 UTC on 27 October 2026, which the card at 2:18 prints as “October 26, 7:00 PM PDT Pre-load Begins”. The game launches two days later, at 02:00 UTC on 29 October 2026, printed as “October 28, 7:00 PM PDT Game Launch”.
2:25–3:02 The radiant heart
The trailer’s last story beat is the premise itself, a heart, a bargain and sixty-six days, followed by the biggest effects of the whole piece.
- Seen A pale woman with white hair and a jewelled collar; blue glowing flowers cover the ground behind her.
- Heard
And what about the radiant heart?
- Context “Radiant heart” is the captions’ hearing of it. The official story has a healer, the Flesh Sculptor, give the dying Soul a replacement heart that previews call “tainted” (entry), with sixty-six days to live (the premise). The blue flowers are the second of the trailer’s three blue lights (0:36); Memory Flowers, which raise maximum health, are the one blue thing with a name (term). No name card for the woman.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen A heart of metal and glass, glowing purple, hangs between two red paper lanterns.
- Heard
It’s your only chance to live.
- Context The premise in one object and one line: a heart of metal replaces Soul’s own and buys him sixty-six days. The State of Play narration says it in full at 3:43 (the frame), and the 66-day page separates the story from the 66 Days game mode (story, mode).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- Seen Two fighters, one in a wide flat hat, lock blades in front of a wall of flame; sparks blow across the frame.
- Heard
How exquisite.
- Context Two hats: Soul’s straw hat and a wide flat one. Among the fifteen known bosses the one met in fire is the Lion Dance Grandmaster (entry), who wears a lion mask, not a hat; so this is likely someone not yet on the list (all bosses). The speaker is not shown.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
The frame at 2:46 is the one at the top of this page.
- Seen A figure flies horizontally through a red sky towards a tall carved post; two smaller figures kneel at its foot.
- Context A red sky, a carved post, two kneeling figures: nothing on screen names the place. The game’s nine regions are listed in the walkthrough; the 11-minute trailer ends in a burning yard with columns of fire at 9:56, a different place by the look of it.
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
3:03–3:12 Cut your way free, and the PS5 discs
Two cards close it: the motto, and the first word of PS5 discs.
- On screen Beside the calligraphy:
CUT YOUR WAY FREE
/KEEP YOUR SOUL
. Below:Your support brought us here. See you in the Wulin!
- Context The two lines are the series’ motto; the brush calligraphy says the same in Chinese. In his comment under the Bilibili post the director calls them the eternal theme that has never changed (translation ours; above). “Keep your soul” also reads as the hero’s name (Soul). “The Wulin” is the martial world the game is set in (term).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
- On screen
Standard Edition
·Deluxe Edition
·Ultimate Edition Collectible Steel Case
·PS5 Physical Edition Coming in 2027
Editions - Said The video’s page:
One more thing: the PS5 physical edition arrives in 2027!
- Context At launch every copy is digital, Standard or Digital Deluxe, on PS5 and PC (what each contains, prices by region). The discs come in 2027 with a third tier, Ultimate, that exists nowhere else yet; no price, day or contents list has been given (physical or digital).
© PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME
PS5 discs are coming in 2027. The last card shows Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate physical editions, the Ultimate with a collectible steel case, under the line “PS5 Physical Edition Coming in 2027”. At launch the game is digital only. No price or day has been given.
What Chinese viewers spotted
On Bilibili the trailer passed 4.5 million views and 24,000 comments in its first day. The director’s own comment sits at the top. Below it, long-time players of the earlier Phantom Blade games pointed out what they recognised. None of this is confirmed by S-GAME, and nothing on screen names these things. unconfirmed Bilibili comments under the trailer, read 23 October 2026; counts from the video page.
- The dark red wings at 0:58 and the column of fire at 1:03: commenters match them to special moves of two of Soul’s fighting styles in the mobile Phantom Blade games, a giant crow and a fire tornado. The earlier games are on our Rainblood page.
- The metal umbrella at 0:56: commenters recall an umbrella weapon from an earlier Phantom Blade game, and the umbrella blades of Zhang Yimou’s 2018 film Shadow. No umbrella is on our weapons page yet.
- Mu Xiaokui, the daughter of The Order’s founder in the earlier games: one of the most liked comments lists her among the bosses in the trailer. A Bilibili creator had already identified a red-haired woman in an earlier trailer as her; compare the woman at 1:32 and her entry on our characters page.
- The same comment names two more bosses in Chinese. Neither has an English name in anything we have read, so neither is on this page or on our bosses list yet; the list grows only when a name is printed somewhere we can link.
- The same comment says the trailer is almost all important bosses, kept back until now, which fits the director’s word “hook”.
Watch the video
“Phantom Blade Zero - Official Launch Trailer”, Phantom Blade Zero (official YouTube channel), 3:12, uploaded 22 October 2026 (UTC). The picture above is a frame from it saved on this site. YouTube’s player loads only after you press play (from youtube-nocookie.com); until then this page makes no request to YouTube or Google. Without JavaScript the button opens the video on YouTube.
S-GAME’s Bilibili account posted the same cut on 22 October 2026 at 10:00 Beijing time, with the date card and the end cards in Chinese. It runs 1.5 seconds shorter because it has no rating card at the start. Its date card adds that the pre-load is on all platforms. The Chinese cut is on Bilibili, 3:11; this page never loads it, the link opens Bilibili itself.
Launch trailer FAQ
What is in the Phantom Blade Zero launch trailer?
The Phantom Blade Zero launch trailer runs 3 minutes 12 seconds: story scenes and fights, then a card with the pre-load and launch times, and a last card announcing PS5 discs for 2027.
When does the Phantom Blade Zero pre-load start?
The pre-load opens at 02:00 UTC on 27 October 2026, which the card at 2:18 prints as “October 26, 7:00 PM PDT Pre-load Begins”. The game launches two days later, at 02:00 UTC on 29 October 2026, printed as “October 28, 7:00 PM PDT Game Launch”.
Is there a physical edition of Phantom Blade Zero?
PS5 discs are coming in 2027. The last card shows Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate physical editions, the Ultimate with a collectible steel case, under the line “PS5 Physical Edition Coming in 2027”. At launch the game is digital only.
Is there a Chinese version of the launch trailer?
S-GAME’s Bilibili account posted the same cut on 22 October 2026 at 10:00 Beijing time, with the date card and the end cards in Chinese. It runs 1.5 seconds shorter because it has no rating card at the start. Its date card adds that the pre-load is on all platforms.
Sources for this page 12
- Introduction Official Phantom Blade Zero channel
- Introduction Official S-GAME’s account; the title is our translation
- Introduction Official Phantom Blade Zero, YouTube; title, length and date from the video page. Official Phantom Blade Zero on Bilibili; the translation of the title is ours.
- What the launch trailer tells us Official card at 2:18 and the video page; Official “all platforms” from the Chinese post and its card
- What the launch trailer tells us Official card at 2:18
- What the launch trailer tells us Official last card, 3:07
- What the launch trailer tells us Official his verified account, 22 October 2026; translation ours
- What the launch trailer tells us Official the whole video
- What the launch trailer tells us Official card at 3:03
- The card: pre-load and launch Official launch trailer, 2:18. The Chinese post on Bilibili says the pre-load opens on all platforms.
- Cut your way free, and the PS5 discs Official launch trailer, 3:07, and the video page.
- What Chinese viewers spotted Unconfirmed bilibili.com/video
Read next
Frames are stills from the video named in each caption, cut from the 3840 × 2160 upload, cropped and scaled down only. Game images © PARAWULIN PRODUCTION LIMITED / S-GAME; PlayStation logos © Sony Interactive Entertainment. Quotes from on-screen text are copied as printed. Lines marked Heard come from YouTube’s automatic captions and may contain errors. Bilibili time codes are the YouTube second less 1.5, rounded down; the offset was measured on both players at the flash before the date card and at the fade before the disc card.