Phantom Blade Zero arrived on October 29, 2026, and it has already sold more than four million copies across PC and PS5. If you are deciding whether to buy it, wondering how long it takes, or trying to work out whether it plays like a soulslike, the answers below are drawn from official storefronts, developer statements, and the first wave of reviews.
Release, Platforms, and Price
Phantom Blade Zero launched on October 29, 2026, at 02:00 UTC. In North America that meant October 28 at 7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET, which is why Steam shows an October 28 date.
| Platform | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PS5 | Available | PS5 Pro Enhanced: three modes plus a ray-tracing toggle |
| PC (Steam, Epic) | Available | Denuvo on Steam; Unreal Engine 5 |
| China (WeGame, TapTap) | Available | Separate storefronts |
| PS4 | Not available | No version announced |
| Xbox | Not available | 12-month console exclusivity runs to late October 2027 |
| Switch / Switch 2 | Not available | No version announced |
Price: Standard is $59.99 and Digital Deluxe is $69.99 in the US, with a $10 Deluxe upgrade path. Steam charges €59.99/€69.99 and £49.99/£59.99 in Europe and the UK, while the PS Store is higher at €69.99/€79.99 and £54.99/£64.99. In China, prices are ¥268 / ¥328, with a ¥1,199 Collector’s Box limited to 20,000 units.
The Deluxe edition adds the Wulin Legend and Blood-Steel Form outfits plus a digital artbook and OST. There is no early access. Preordering granted the Treasure Basin (+10% Remnant Dust) and the Legacy outfit early, but both are earnable in-game.
Physical editions are not available at launch. PS5 Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate (steel case) versions are planned for 2027, with price and date still unconfirmed.
PC Requirements and Performance
The PC build is demanding and requires an SSD. These are the official tiers:
| Tier | CPU | RAM | GPU | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | i7-8700K / Ryzen 5 3600 | 16 GB | GTX 1660 6GB / RX 5500 XT 8GB | 1080p/30, upscaled |
| Recommended | i5-10600K / Ryzen 5 5600X | 16 GB | RTX 3060 Ti 8GB / RX 6700 XT 12GB | 1440p/60, upscaled |
| Ray tracing | — | — | RTX 5060 8GB | 1080p/60, upscaled |
| Path tracing | — | — | RTX 5080 16GB | 2160p/60, upscaled |
Windows 10/11 64-bit and DX12 are required. There is no native Mac or Linux support. File size is ~145 GB on PC and ~134.9 GB on PS5, and PC preload asked for 300 GB free.
Expect a one-time shader compilation on first launch. Wccftech measured roughly 8 minutes on an i7-14700K, but a weaker i7-9700K/RTX 2060 test took 20–55 minutes with long stalls. Let it finish; it recompiles after driver changes.
For settings, High/Very High with DLSS, FSR, or XeSS on Quality is the sensible baseline. Turn ray tracing off unless you have high-end hardware, disable High-Quality Hair, and set Environment Detail to Medium. Wccftech’s optimized profile raised average FPS from 74 to 103 at 1440p versus Ultra.
Steam Deck: Valve has issued no rating. Steam Deck HQ’s late-October test averaged 23–27 FPS at lowest settings, dipped near 10 FPS, and lasted 2–2.5 hours. It rated the port 1/5 and recommended against it. Frame generation added input lag.
PS5 and PS5 Pro: Digital Foundry recommends Performance mode (60 FPS) on both consoles. Balanced mode has broken frame pacing that VRR does not fix, and Graphics mode can judder. PS5 Pro adds an RT toggle and PSSR upscaling for a sharper image.
How Long to Beat
| Playstyle | Time |
|---|---|
| Main story | 20–30 hours |
| Main + side content | 35–40 hours |
| Completionist | 50–55 hours |
| Platinum trophy | 30–40 hours |
The director cited 25–30 hours for experienced players on the main path. IGN’s reviewer logged around 50 hours on a thorough run. The platinum is shorter than full completion because it does not require every collectible or all 66 Steam achievements. See our how long to beat breakdown for chapter-level pacing.
Difficulty, Accessibility, and the Soulslike Question
There are four difficulty modes, and you can switch between the first three outside combat.
- Wayfarer — easy/story: less aggressive enemies, lower damage, easier guard breaks.
- Pathbreaker — normal: the intended baseline.
- Hellwalker — hard: more aggressive enemies, more damage, new skills and AI.
- 66 Days — Hellwalker AI plus 66 total lives, a separate save, no manual saving, and permadeath. It unlocks after one clear and cannot be changed.
Perfect-deflect windows are 10 frames on Wayfarer and 8 frames on Pathbreaker and Hellwalker, tightening to 6 frames in 66 Days. Blocking instead of parrying takes ×0.33 Sha-Chi damage on Wayfarer and ×0.66 on Pathbreaker, but full damage on the two hardest modes. Mashing block shrinks your next window to about one-third, so use timed single presses.
Is it a soulslike? By the developer’s own definition, no. There is no stamina bar, no XP, no corpse runs, selectable difficulty, enemies stay dead, and bosses have phase checkpoints. It borrows interconnected, shortcut-heavy levels and bell checkpoints, but plays closer to fast wuxia character-action in the Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden lineage. Our combat system explained page covers the parry and Sha-Chi loops in detail.
Accessibility: PS5 lists eight features including adjustable difficulty, subtitles, control reminders, pause offline, manual saving, volume, and 3D audio. Steam adds adjustable text size, subtitle options, and controller support. Guides confirm motion-blur and camera-shake sliders, two subtitle font sizes, axis inversion, remapping, and ultrawide support. No colorblind or high-contrast gameplay mode is confirmed.
Endings, New Game Plus, and Missables
Four endings are named in the release build: Final Battle (the true ending), Long’s Roar, Annihilation, and Undying Grudge (the 66 Days failure ending). Pre-launch talk of “eight endings” did not match the shipped named list. The True Ending is missable and requires specific purple-icon Tales, five Long Pillars, and optional bosses.
New Game Plus unlocks after the credits via Inanis at the Puppet Cell. Gear, training, and archives carry over, while quests, maps, key items, and days reset. Enemies are harder, and there is no new story content.
There are 7 missable trophies according to PowerPyx, including the True Ending and early side tales. A single run on any of the first three difficulties can earn the platinum. Use this checklist to protect your run:
- Finish each region’s Tales before its final boss.
- Keep manual saves before major story beats.
- Collect the five Long Pillars before the endgame.
- Do not skip optional bosses tied to purple-icon Tales.
- Avoid starting 66 Days until you have the True Ending route mapped.
Our missables checklist tracks the specific quests and windows.
Story, World, and Structure
Soul is the youngest “Will” of the Order, framed for murdering his adoptive father Mu Tianmiao and revived by the Flesh Sculptor with a tainted heart that leaves him 66 days to live. He crosses the Phantom World to find the conspirators. Pangzhen is the hub, and the world is eight handcrafted, interconnected regions with branching paths and bell fast travel.
It is not open world, and S-GAME describes it as neither open world nor strictly linear. There is no co-op, PvP, crossplay, or any online mode. The 66-day countdown is narrative framing on normal difficulties; it becomes a real life counter only in 66 Days mode.
Buying, DLC, and Technical Caveats
No story DLC has been announced as of November 4, 2026. The $10 Deluxe upgrade is cosmetic and digital only. Physical editions arrive in 2027. Sequel, anime, and film ideas are concepts only.
No public demo exists. Press played a roughly six-hour build. No PS5-to-PC cross-save has been announced; Steam Cloud syncs across PCs only. This is inferred from store pages and the absence of an announcement rather than a formal statement.
No Xbox, Switch 2, or Game Pass version has been announced. The 12-month exclusivity window runs to late October 2027.
The launch build had Bluetooth controller stutter, NVIDIA Reflex not activating with V-Sync, AMD RX 9000 sky and hair corruption, a rare story progression block, and cutscene glitches. Most were fixed in the November 3 patch, which also added Hit SFX and Impact Intensity settings, an Interact remap, faster shader compilation, and reduced Hua grab frequency on Wayfarer and Pathbreaker.
Reception at a Glance
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Metacritic critics | 88/100, 45 reviews |
| OpenCritic | 88 top-critic average, 95% recommend |
| Steam | Very Positive, ~92% of ~109,000 reviews |
| PS Store | 4.71/5 from ~19,000 ratings |
| Sales | 4 million+ in 72 hours |
| Steam peak | 833,921 concurrent on November 1 |
Combat, animation, bosses, weapon variety, and art direction are near-universally praised. Story coherence, the English voice acting, repetitive common enemies, invisible walls, and launch performance are the recurring caveats. Eurogamer’s 3/5 is the main outlier; most scores land between 8 and 10.
Sources & confidence
The core facts here come from the Steam storefront, the official Phantom Blade Zero site and PlayStation FAQ, Metacritic, OpenCritic, SteamDB, Digital Foundry, Wccftech, PowerPyx, and Game Rant. The biggest uncertainty is the PS5 file size, which comes from PlayStation Game Size datamining rather than an official S-GAME statement, and the patch version naming, which is inconsistent across platforms and trackers.
Sources & further reading
- Steam store page — Valve
- Phantom Blade Zero review — IGN
- Trophy guide and roadmap — PowerPyx
- PC performance review — Wccftech
We link to the primary source for every hard number. If a source conflicts, we say so in the text.
By the PBZ Guide Team · Reviewed by the editorial desk This page was translated with editorial review. Spot an error? Tell us. We link to the primary source for every hard number. If a source conflicts, we say so in the text.