As a story, we’ve heard a lot about Phantom Blade Zero’s protagonist, Soul, and how he’s looking to find a cure for a fatal heart injury. Having been ousted from The Order, he’s effectively making his own decisions for the first time while rediscovering the person he used to be. And that could mean a hero emerging from the common people, according to director/producer Soulframe Liang.
In a new developer diary discussing Wuxia and its meaning in-game, he also touched on honor and how that could influence encounters with characters. “You will inevitably encounter strangers brought together by chance. These people have their own stories, and you are just a passerby in theirs. That is to say, in the process of helping others, it’s a bit like the butterfly effect.
“Flapping a wing. In your process of acting with honor, you might actually influence your own main quest, and your own story of love and vengeance.”
In short, if you follow Soul’s code of honor and do the right thing, it will have a “bigger, macroscopic impact.” “Who you are depends on everything you do,” said Liang. And who knows? These “seemingly unrelated events” may even alter the course of the former assassin’s future.
Of course, how all of this will connect remains to be seen, and whether it will eventually result in Soul surviving is another mystery. While the main story requires 20 to 30 hours, the side content bumps this to a potential 50 hours. Either way, you can expect a meaty adventure, all the same.
Phantom Blade Zero launches on September 9th for PS5 and PC. It’s currently in the “intense, final stages of development” with S-Game “pouring every available resource into pushing every aspect of the game to the absolute limit of our capabilities.” It also clarified that everything in the game, down to the maps, is hand-crafted by actual artists with no AI technology employed.
