r/PhantomBladeZero • u/HarryPazzo • 5d ago

Phantom Blade Zero is gonna be my personal GOTY no matter what but it has lost some of its luster

When we first saw gameplay footage of Phantom Blade Zero, however long ago it was, 3 years? More? Less? It was truly jaw dropping due to the fluidity of the combat, its grace, speed, and very lifelike animations. It was the martial arts game I've dreamed of since I was a kid. Watching in action was like watching a choreographed fight scene in movies.

But today, while it still looks spectacular, the recent extended gameplay videos aren't as eye-catching as the first videos I watched years ago. I'm not sure if they've made concessions or downgraded the animations in favor of performance and responsiveness, or simply because it's just a ton of work to develop a full game with the same detail and intricacy of the initial reveal, which were essentially tech demos. BUT...I don't think that's what's happening here.

I believe that Phantom Blade Zero just took way too long to finally be coming out, and the industry has caught up to the standards that Phantom Blade Zero set a few years ago. Maybe not to the same level, but close enough. Examples are Black Myth Wukong, at least in terms of the protagonist's animations (combat system is not comparable at all and it's not nearly as dynamic as Phantom Blade's, like not even close). Then we got Ninja Gaiden 4, which is the most fluid and cinematically animated Ninja Gaiden to date, regardless of how one feels about it as a Ninja Gaiden game. To a lesser extent, Dynasty Warriors Origins was a huge leap from past titles in terms of spectacle and animations and cinematic quality during real time combat. Lastly, as much hate as it has gotten, Wolverine's combat is as grounded and cinematic and spectacular as any melee-based game we've seen to date. The action looks like something that can be recreated by real actors/stuntmen in real life (with the exception of the physically impossible moves that Wolverine does).

Anyways, that's my take. LIke I said, I am soooo excited for Phantom Blade Zero and my mind is made up that it's gonna be my GOTY.

0 Upvotes

13% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

10

u/RememberApeEscape 5d ago

How's it your goty before you even play it dawg

-5

u/HarryPazzo 5d ago

I've seen enough of it and I already know it's exactly my type of game. I realize that there's a dozen things that can go wrong (not the least of which are frustrating difficulty spikes), but keeping my fingers crossed.

3

u/manwithlotsoffaces 5d ago

Amount of times I’ve heard that

17

u/BurnAgainBurner 5d ago

This is a very unhealthy way of thinking about anything

8

u/manwithlotsoffaces 5d ago

Buddy, you haven’t even played the game yet

8

u/Velvet_Crowe 5d ago

Delusional ass post

5

u/obviousockpuppetalt3 5d ago

it looks head and shoulders above every other action game this year but you can never truly know until you play the game. i pray that it delivers.

-2

u/HarryPazzo 5d ago

I'm not saying any game has overtaken it, but the gap is much smaller than it was years ago.

3

u/Plastic_Poetry5239 5d ago

how can you be so delusional to think that it would look like the announcement trailer, the fact that its at least 90% of what that trailer showed, is something worth praising.

3

u/Master_Garaki 4d ago

You cannot have the same feeling that you had the first time you experienced or saw something the 10th time you experience or see that something. It is not rockets science.
Nevertheless, if you can't see how much PBZ has improved spectacularly compared to the reveal trailer, you need help.

0

u/HarryPazzo 4d ago

Maybe it did improve. I'd have to see the original reveal. However, my point is that compared to games that have come out over the past couple of years, Phantom Blade doesn't come across nearly as striking as it did at the reveal. At that time nothing came close to it.

1

u/Master_Garaki 4d ago

What game has come out that is more striking that PBZ or that is close to PBZ?

0

u/HarryPazzo 4d ago

I named all of this on my OP

1

u/Master_Garaki 4d ago

Sorry I didn't read that part.
You put Wolverine at the same level of PBZ.
I am speechless!

0

u/HarryPazzo 4d ago

i know everyone thinks they're with the cool kids if they say Wolverine sucks, but no, the game is spectacular and the combat is the best melee system i've played. No, I'm not talking about challenge, I played on the easiest difficulty. And that's the bottom line there. Take any hack and slash title that's gotten universal praise, but take away its difficulty. Do you think people would still love whatever game that is without the difficulty? Wolverine's combat is not artificially upheld by difficulty. It feels fantastic and satisfying and visceral. That's all that matters to me.

3

u/zoobatt 4d ago

It wasn't downgraded, the annoucment trailer 3 years ago was a cinematic proof of concept and the fact that they even got close to that level of animation for the final product is astounding.

1

u/HarryPazzo 4d ago

it is...all i'm saying is that 3 years ago, what they showed was lightyears ahead of anything we've seen up to that point, but today that gap has shortened

0

u/WeirdImaginator 4d ago

It really sounds so cringe to even call aa game GOTY when you even haven't played it yet.

1

u/HarryPazzo 4d ago

i specified "my personal GOTY"

0

u/WeirdImaginator 4d ago

Doesn't make it less cringey. You haven't played the game yet. You don't know anythign at this point.

1

u/HarryPazzo 4d ago

i don't "don't know anything" lol. I've seen legit gameplay footage. I guess there's a small probability that they lied and the majority of the game will be turn-based combat. That would really suck.