Following the phenomenal appearance of Black Myth: Wukong in 2024, the world recently witnessed the launch of another AAA-rated video game, Phantom Blade Zero, developed by a Chinese gaming company.
Less than an hour after its release on Thursday, the game, developed by S-Game, had surpassed 300,000 concurrent players on Steam, a digital distribution platform for PC games, with the player count climbing to more than 720,000 at its peak later that day.
In pre-release reviews, the PC version of Phantom Blade Zero earned an average score of 88 on the US review aggregator website Metacritic, surpassing the 81 scored by Black Myth: Wukong.
On Steam, 88 percent of more than 33,250 Chinese-language users gave positive reviews, while the figure among English-language users also reached 88 percent.
So far, the game has sold over 1 million copies, with preorder sales on the Steam and PS5 platforms estimated to surpass $43 million.
US video game critic Travis Northup rated it 9 out of 10, praising the action role-playing game as "amazing".
In his review on the US entertainment media platform Imagine Games Network, Northup wrote: "Phantom Blade Zero is an unbelievably smooth action game filled with memorable boss fights, compelling combat, and limitless swagger. … It is one of the best action games I've played in a long time."
He added that "its tale of betrayal and revenge mostly plays it extremely safe, and some unfortunate invisible barriers and technical hiccups can cause minor frustrations — but the overwhelming majority of my time with this stunning, incredibly well-tuned adventure was downright awesome".
The game begins with the story of a highly skilled martial artist named Soul, whose heart has been severely injured in a previous battle. On the verge of death, he is saved by a mysterious doctor. However, the treatment leaves him with only 66 days to live before his heart will ultimately fail. In the last days of his life, Soul embarks on a journey to find a new heart and to rediscover his true self and his original sense of chivalry in this dark phantom world full of lies and betrayals.
It "truly captures the essence of the martial arts world in (prestigious Chinese writer) Gu Long's novels, which is dark, chaotic, brutal, and romantic", said Feng Ji, the producer of Black Myth: Wukong, in his WeChat Moments after watching the livestreaming of an actual gameplay preview in July.
Before its official release, some 3 million people across all platforms added Phantom Blade Zero to their wish lists, making it one of the most anticipated Chinese action games of 2026. One of the reasons behind the game's popularity among foreign players lies in its rich kung fu elements.
Liang Qiwei, or Soulframe Liang, founder of S-Game and the game's producer, said, "At its core, it's a story rich with traditional Chinese elements". Liang, 45, made his first game at Tsinghua University 21 years ago.
In actual gameplay, what particularly impresses global players is the smooth, refreshing combat design in a style concept called "kungfupunk".
"Kungfupunk" blends traditional elements of Chinese wuxia (a fiction genre centered on martial arts adventures in ancient China), an atmosphere of ancient jianghu, or the realm of martial arts, steampunk-style machinery, occult body modification, and a dark, rebellious punk spirit to create a new form of expression, Liang told media in an earlier interview. In this world, swordsmen, martial arts sects and old Chinese architecture coexist with mechanical limbs, grim industrial ruins and modern rock music.
"We are creating an original global IP that belongs to us, strongly imprinted with the essence of Chinese wuxia culture," Liang said.
The game offers a total of 30 different weapons, all inspired by the vast collection of traditional Chinese weaponry.
"To understand how the weight and length of these weapons affect movement, we sometimes invite swordsmiths to forge them," Liang said in an article published online in April.
The martial arts moves are captured from more than 20 highly experienced kung fu actors, including Hong Kong movie star Donnie Yen.
Additionally, the production team explored locations like ancestral halls in Fujian province, ancient towns in Zhejiang province, and Beijing's old steel factories, scanning and creatively combining them into the unique "kungfupunk" art style.
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