S-GAME’s action RPG *Phantom Blade Zero* is set to launch on October 29.This highly anticipated title features a unique “Kung Fu Punk” world—a fusion of Chinese “wuxia” with steampunk and modern culture—and is characterized by fluid, high-speed sword-fighting action.
Ahead of the game’s release, Game*Spark participated in a roughly six-hour media hands-on session and subsequently visited S-GAME’s headquarters in Beijing.In this article, we present a joint media interview with Soulframe, S-GAME’s founder and game director, and Bo Caisheng, the sound producer.
■ RPG-Style Design That Encourages Exploration and “Human-Like” High-Difficulty AI Stand in the Player’s Way
――We had the opportunity to play the latest build, and we were surprised to find that each boss requires a different strategy and offers a unique gameplay experience. We’ve heard there are nearly 30 different bosses—with such variety, how do you maintain a sense of cohesion throughout the game?
Soulframe: That’s a great question. This game features over 30 bosses. In addition, there are 30 types of main weapons and as many as 25 types of special weapons called “Phantom Edge.”
What unifies all these diverse elements is the game’s theme: “Kung Fu Punk.” The bosses range from large to small, and their appearances and fighting styles vary widely—some wield shields, others ride horses, and so on.
However, “traditional Chinese wuxia” forms the foundation, to which we’ve added “our own new elements.” That serves as the central axis running through the entire game.
On top of that, we’ve created distinct differences by giving each boss unique strategies, physiques, and characteristics. There are also many more distinctive bosses that haven’t appeared in this demo yet.
――I played a demo of this game about two years ago. Back then, I got the impression it was a much more challenging game than it is now—enemies would respawn, field enemies were quite strong, and even more powerful bosses awaited. Playing it this time, it feels like it’s taken a significantly different direction. Why did it evolve in this way?
Soulframe: Up until now, we’ve mainly shown you the game’s combat.
When trying to clearly convey the game’s appeal through videos or short hands-on demos, fast-paced, thrilling combat naturally tends to stand out. As a result, I think some people may have gotten the impression that this is an “action game where you defeat enemies one after another.”
However, this game isn’t just about combat.
Broadly speaking, it’s built on interconnected elements: exploring the world, the design of each area and stage, and fast-paced, fluid kung fu action.
Underlying all of this are the story, map exploration, and side quests typical of an RPG. On top of that, there’s a variety of level designs, as well as the fast-paced combat we’ve shown you so far.
So, rather than simply changing direction from before, it’s more accurate to say that up until now, we’ve focused on showcasing combat—the aspect that’s easiest to convey visually.
Soulframe: This title organically combines different elements, such as RPG gameplay, exploration, and high-speed sword-fighting action.
The combat you’ve seen in the footage so far is, so to speak, just the tip of the iceberg. I think this hands-on demo allowed you to get a better sense of what lies beneath the surface.
――Could you tell us a little more about that change? Previously, I believe enemies would respawn after being defeated, but in this hands-on session, enemies did not respawn once defeated. What was the intention behind this change in gameplay mechanics?
Soulframe: We want every single minute players spend in the game to be meaningful. We don’t want them to spend a lot of time repeating the same content over and over.
Instead, we want players to move forward, enjoy the story, and experience the world itself.
Of course, some games are designed so that players repeatedly defeat the same enemies to obtain materials and resources. However, we’re confident in the quantity and quality of the content we’ve prepared this time. That’s why we want players to continue having new experiences as much as possible.
――So, does that mean that even if a player wants to further upgrade their weapons, instead of repeatedly defeating enemies in the same location, they’ll end up exploring areas they haven’t visited yet?
Soulframe: That’s right. We want players to experience that kind of gameplay.
If you want to get stronger, we want you to explore more of the map rather than repeating the same actions in places you’ve already visited. This is a deliberate game design choice.
On the other hand, the resources scattered across the map are limited. Therefore, exploration itself plays a crucial role in strengthening your weapons and character.
――I imagine this game will be played not only by hardcore action game fans but also by players who aren’t particularly skilled at action games. Specifically, what kind of adjustments have you made to the difficulty on the Easy setting?
Soulframe: First of all, the Easy mode in this game isn’t simply made easier by lowering numerical values.
While there are some numerical adjustments, they aren’t drastic; the main changes involve the AI’s aggressiveness and how it reacts to the player’s actions. For example, even when enemies are in a guard stance, they won’t immediately launch a relentless attack. We’ve also made it easier to create opportunities to break through their defenses.
Soulframe: However, if we made it possible to defeat enemies easily with a single hit, that would become boring in its own right.
Our goal is to ensure that even with the difficulty lowered, the combat itself retains its excitement and spectacle. We’ve made sure players can fully experience the game’s signature, visually stunning combat—from spectacular finishing moves to action sequences against multiple enemies.
Even with simple controls, we want players to feel like they’ve become the protagonist of a wuxia movie. Our goal is for everyone to feel like a “Kung Fu Master.”
In other words, while we’re toning down the technical demands, we’re preserving the coolness and sense of accomplishment you feel during combat. We place a high priority on striking that balance.
――Now, let’s talk about the high difficulty levels. In “66 Days” mode, I understand that enemies adjust their fighting style based on the player’s actions and playstyle—how exactly does that work?
Soulframe: First, I’d like to clarify one point: the difficulty of the enemy AI itself doesn’t actually change between the standard high-difficulty mode and “66 Days” mode. We use the same top-tier AI for both.
In “66 Days,” the added constraint of “a maximum of 66 deaths” makes it an even tougher challenge.
When creating the highest-difficulty AI, we asked ourselves, “If the opponent were controlled by a human and fighting us in a PvP-style scenario, how would they move?”
For example, they might use feints to bait the player into certain actions or interrupt a combo mid-attack. We’ve incorporated this kind of strategic back-and-forth, where the AI prompts the player to take a specific action and then chooses its next move based on the player’s response.
In typical PvE action games, increasing the difficulty often simply involves raising the enemies’ stats, such as health and attack power. However, for skilled players, this alone tends to result in the same strategy every time.
In competitive or fighting games, even when the same characters face off, the flow of the match changes every time, right? We aimed to incorporate a bit of that philosophy to create “the feeling of facing a real human opponent.”
――Could you also tell us about how you design boss actions? When creating a boss, do you first decide on the actions you want it to perform and then finalize the design? Or do you decide on the boss’s visuals first and then come up with actions that make the most of them?
Soulframe: This game features a vast number of actions. It wouldn’t be practical to use the traditional method—deciding in detail from the start, “This boss will have this move and that move,” and then performing motion capture for all of them. That said, we don’t leave everything entirely up to the martial arts choreographers or the actors either.
First, we provide a somewhat vague set of requirements.
For example, with the character who drinks sake in this game, we have a rough image in mind, such as, “There will probably be moves that incorporate the act of drinking,” “There might be movements where the sword flies around,” or “There might also be ranged attacks or throwing moves.”
Then we have the actual motion actors and martial arts choreographers try these out. We watch their demonstrations, select the ones that fit the game, and build on them from there.
Soulframe: So, it’s not a process where we “decide on A and then create B directly.”
We move from A1 to B1, then to A2, B2… and so on, gradually refining the vague concepts through repeated back-and-forth until they become concrete.
The same applies to character visuals.
Take a certain boss character that appeared at this media demo event: we solidified his appearance by combining his maniacal personality and story background with traditional Chinese ornamentation and his actual combat movements.
In other words, rather than completing the action and design separately, we’re producing them simultaneously while moving back and forth between them.
Soulframe: For this title, we’ve invited Donnie Yen to collaborate on the production.
Since he is both a Hollywood actor and a Hong Kong action movie star, he is sharing his expertise on action production drawn from both cultures.
In Hollywood, the production method is systematic: detailed processes are determined before shooting the action scenes, storyboards and pre-visualizations are created, and these are then recreated on set.On the other hand, in Hong Kong action movies, the approach has traditionally been to decide on the general flow—for example, “These two characters will fight here for about five minutes, and this one will win in the end”—and then work out the finer details of the action on set.
By actually trying out various movements, they select the best ones—saying, “This move looks cool” or “This shot works well”—and build the final action sequence from there.
Nowadays, Hollywood is increasingly adopting this approach, and we can say that we, too, have inherited that spirit in our game development. Rather than fixing everything from the start, we move forward step by step, refining the sequence as we go. This has become a crucial method in creating the action for this title.
