Phantom Blade Zero Passes Half a Million Players on Steam

According to PCGamesN, Phantom Blade Zero is Steam's top seller worldwide, and concurrent players passed the half-million mark within the first few hours of launch.

S-Game says its day-one patch significantly improves ray tracing and path tracing performance, but Game Director 'Soulframe' Liang still encourages players on lower-end hardware to switch the feature off if they need to. The team spent a great deal of time refining the rasterized visuals, so each environment stays true to the art direction with ray tracing turned off. Liang also confirms that S-Game extensively tested the game on mid-range and lower-end PCs, as well as handhelds, before launch.

Driver advice for PC

Liang warns that the recent Nvidia 621.01 driver can cause some performance instability. He says version 617.42 currently offers the best experience in Phantom Blade Zero, and he recommends rolling back to it and sticking with it until the next driver update, which S-Game expects to arrive soon. Players on lower-end hardware who run into slowdowns can also turn off ray tracing, as Liang suggests, since the team tuned the non-ray-traced visuals with the same care.

Combat and difficulty

Phantom Blade Zero bears passing familiarity to Dark Souls and Elden Ring, yet it takes a softer approach. Bigger bosses might have multiple stages, but they offer checkpoints, so players are not forced to start from square one. Liang says the goal was a game that everyone who loves wuxia and spectacular action can enjoy, while still giving an extra rush of adrenaline to those who seek a challenge. He promises players will taste victory, but he caveats that this does not make the game a pushover.

Settings added after feedback

Liang emphasizes the work S-Game has done in response to player feedback from hands-on previews and show-floor demos. That work includes audio settings that let players adjust the tone of clashing blades, plus flexible control remapping for PC players. The game also supports all major screen aspect ratios, from 16:10 laptops and handhelds to ultrawide displays with aspect ratios beyond 3:1, so players on a wide range of screens are covered.

Official videoWatch directly inside the article

Team and origins

Liang traces the game back to Rainblood: Town of Death, an RPG Maker creation he made as a student. When Phantom Blade Zero made its big debut during a PlayStation Showcase, S-Game took a chance on the reveal's popularity and canceled its other in-development projects to pour everything into it. Liang shares the credit widely. He singles out Art Director Michael Chang, who he says drew the concept art for every character and most of the environments on his own.

Platforms and release

Phantom Blade Zero is out now on Steam, priced at 59.99 US dollars. Owners of the Digital Standard Edition can buy an upgrade pack that adds the Deluxe Edition outfits Wulin Legend and Blood-Steel Form, but the pack does not include the base game. Steam's listing says SSD installation is required, and its lower hardware tier targets 1080p at 30 FPS with upscaling enabled.

Source: steampowered.com

Source: PCGamesN

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