Critics broadly agree that Phantom Blade Zero, S-Game's wuxia-inspired action game, delivers some of the best combat of the year, even as most of them shrug at its tangled revenge story. According to Polygon's roundup, the game was sitting at 88 on Metacritic at the time of writing. That puts it ahead of Control Resonant, 007 First Light and Saros, level with Star Wars Galactic Racer and behind only Forza Horizon 6, which holds a 90. Gamebonk's release tracker lists the game for October 29, 2026 on PC and PS5.
High scores for the fighting
The top marks come from critics who were won over by how the game moves. Polygon reports that IGN's Travis Northup gave it 9/10, writing that it is "one of the best action games I’ve played in a long time," though he called the story safe and noted invisible barriers and technical hiccups. GameSpot's Richard Wakeling scored it 8/10 under a headline arguing the combat is good enough that the nonsensical story stops mattering. He still admitted that "the story is tough to follow and difficult to care about."
VGC's Dave Aubrey awarded four stars, calling it one of the fastest and flashiest action games he has played. He singled out the bosses, each of which attacks in its own way, and the sha-chi system, a stagger gauge that opens a window for heavy combos once it is broken. Polygon notes he rated the game "undoubtedly stronger than genre stablemates like Black Myth: Wukong" while dismissing its narrative and characters as "bland." Aubrey's complaints were that incoming strikes can come so fast that parrying turns into mashing, and that the kungfupunk world is very linear, with side areas locked behind keys and abilities.
Eurogamer and Polygon are cooler on it
Eurogamer's Emma Kent gave three stars. She praised the animations and landscapes and described group street fights as cinematic and expressive, but felt the momentum collapsed in boss encounters. "Then you walk into a boss battle and feel all that power fade, like you're waiting your turn to get hits in with a wooden sword," she wrote, according to Polygon. Kent compared the dodge-red, parry-blue boss loop to a high-octane Sekiro and welcomed generous parry windows and the option to restart a boss at its second phase. She was harsher on the lore, much of it delivered through collectible scrolls, and on a cast that talks a lot without saying much. Kent added that embargo rules barred her from describing some of the visual storytelling she liked, including its use of a traditional Chinese art form.
Polygon's own review, by Paulo Kawanishi, did not carry a score in the roundup. He called it the "perfect martial arts game" in both the flattering and unflattering sense, arguing that its push to recreate wuxia cinema trades player control for spectacle. "Even so, as dazzling as Phantom Blade Zero ’s aesthetics are, it ultimately lacks putting trust in the player to act out these abilities," he wrote.
