Twenty-three days. Or, if you’re Soul, sixty-six. Phantom Blade Zero was meant to be in your hands on September 9 before S-Game pushed it to October 29, and the delay has left a lot of us rewatching the same combat trailers frame by frame, trying to work out which move cancels into which.
We’re skipping Sekiro and Nioh here; we covered those in our Nioh 3 list, and you’ve played them. This list is about speed and style: games with the fast, flowing, martial-arts-film energy S-Game keeps showing off, plus a few that share Phantom Blade Zero’s roots in Chinese history and myth. It starts with the closest match in feel and ends with a free wuxia world you can wander until launch. Phantom Blade Zero’s Steam page has the latest on the release. Eight entries. No filler.
Sifu
PC · PS5 · PS4 · Xbox Series X|S · Xbox One · Nintendo Switch
Play This First
Of everything here, Sifu is the closest to the fantasy Phantom Blade Zero sells: one fighter, a room full of enemies and fights choreographed like Hong Kong cinema. Sloclap’s revenge story runs on Pak Mei kung fu, and the hook is its ageing system. Every death adds years to your fighter, trading vitality for power, until old age ends the run for good. Structure breaks, wall bounces and improvised weapons (bottles, bats, the nearest chair) keep each fight feeling staged rather than repeated. The weakness: it’s only five levels long, and the later bosses spike so hard that you’ll replay whole levels just to arrive younger. That’s also why it’s the best training ground before October 29. If your parry timing survives the club level, you’re ready.
The Hook: For players who want to practise martial-arts-film fighting before Phantom Blade Zero arrives.
02
Character action / PlatinumGames & Team Ninja
Ninja Gaiden 4
PC · PS5 · Xbox Series X|S
Fastest Hands Required
If Phantom Blade Zero’s trailers make your hands twitch, Ninja Gaiden 4 is the purest speed test available. PlatinumGames and Team Ninja’s 2025 revival puts you in the boots of new ninja Yakumo, whose blood-powered weapon transformations turn combos into finishers, while Ryu Hayabusa returns alongside him. It’s character action at its most demanding: enemies swarm, punish hesitation and expect you to cancel, dash and finish without ever stopping. Compared with Phantom Blade Zero’s semi-open world, it’s a straight line from one fight to the next. That’s the weakness too. Levels are corridors between arenas, the camera loses track of things in crowded rooms, and the story barely registers. None of that matters once a fight starts.
The Hook: For players who think the only acceptable pause is a death screen.
03
Action RPG / Game Science
Black Myth: Wukong
PC · PS5 · Xbox Series X|S
The One That Opened the Door
Phantom Blade Zero arrives in the space Black Myth: Wukong opened. Game Science’s 2024 hit proved a big Chinese action game could take over the world, and it’s the obvious companion piece. You’re the Destined One, a monkey warrior fighting through the demons of Journey to the West with a staff, three stances and a spell kit where Immobilize freezes a boss mid-swing. Transformations let you become a defeated enemy for a few devastating seconds. The boss roster is the main event, with dozens of fights drawn from Chinese myth. The weakness is the world between them: invisible walls, no map and middle-chapter layouts that are easy to get lost in. It’s more boss rush than exploration, but what a boss rush.
The Hook: For players who want the game that proved Chinese action could go global.
04
Soulslike / Leenzee Games
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
PC · PS5 · Xbox Series X|S
Darkest Setting
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the darkest pick here, and the most direct look at the late-dynasty dread that wuxia stories love. Leenzee Games’ 2025 Soulslike follows Wuchang, a pirate cursed with an affliction that sprouts feathers from her skin, through the Shu region in the collapsing final years of the Ming dynasty. Its Madness meter is the smart twist: kill too freely and Wuchang hits harder but grows more fragile, so your aggression always carries a cost. Compared with Phantom Blade Zero’s speed, it’s heavier and more deliberate, built on dodges and stamina. The weakness is uneven difficulty, with a few spikes that feel cheap rather than hard, and a launch with performance problems that patches have since eased. For Chinese folklore with real teeth, it’s worth the bruises.
The Hook: For players who want their wuxia history grim, cursed and punishing.
That’s the first half: four games that match Phantom Blade Zero’s speed or its Chinese roots head-on. The back half widens out. These are games that nail one piece of what S-Game is promising, whether that’s parry rhythm, mythic setting, style or a world built for wandering.
Stellar Blade
PS5 · PC
Best Parry on This List
Stellar Blade has nothing to do with wuxia, but it has the closest combat rhythm to Phantom Blade Zero’s trailers: fast, stylish fights built on parries, perfect dodges and reaction windows that reward nerve. Eve’s Beta and Burst skills chain off perfect defence, so the best players spend most of a boss fight inside the enemy’s attack string rather than outside it. Shift Up also built its world the way S-Game describes its own: linear stretches broken up by larger semi-open zones, like the Wasteland and the Great Desert, with side jobs and hidden caches. The weakness is everything said out loud. The story is thin, the supporting cast is flat, and many side quests are simple fetch runs. Play it for the combat and it rarely misses.
The Hook: For players who measure a game by how good its parry feels.
06
Action RPG / Team Ninja
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
PC · PS5 · PS4 · Xbox Series X|S · Xbox One
Most Underrated on This List
Team Ninja’s Three Kingdoms action RPG gets overshadowed by Nioh, which is exactly why it belongs here. Wo Long swaps Nioh’s stances for deflection: the Spirit gauge rewards you for meeting attacks head-on, and a well-timed deflect turns a demon’s whole combo back on it. The setting is Chinese myth by way of the Three Kingdoms, with Five Phases magic and familiar names like Cao Cao and Liu Bei fighting beside you. The morale system adds a smart wrinkle, letting you lower a level’s danger by planting flags and taking down strong enemies early. Compared with Phantom Blade Zero, it’s closer to a classic Soulslike, with checkpoints and punishing bosses. The weakness: loot showers you in near-identical gear, and late-game environments get reused.
The Hook: For players who want Chinese history with a deflect button that feels like a superpower.
07
Character action / Capcom
Devil May Cry 5
PC · PS4 · Xbox One (Special Edition on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S)
Style Check
Devil May Cry 5 is the reference point for nearly every stylish action game since 2019, so if you haven’t touched it, fix that before October 29. Three playable characters split the campaign: Nero and his swappable Devil Breaker arms, Dante and his four live-switchable styles, and V, who fights through summoned familiars. The style meter is the real opponent, pushing you from D to SSS by never repeating yourself, and Dante’s moveset alone can fill a month of practice. Compared with Phantom Blade Zero’s semi-open structure, it’s a mission-based stage game with a score at the end of every level. The weakness is V, whose hands-off playstyle splits players, and level design that rarely asks for more than walk, fight, walk. For more action RPGs with this kind of depth, our label has you covered.
The Hook: For players who care as much about how they win as whether they win.
08
Open-world action RPG / Everstone Studio
Where Winds Meet
PC · PS5
Odd One Out, Worth It
Where Winds Meet is the odd pick: a free-to-play open-world wuxia game, and the best way to live inside the genre’s fantasy until October 29. Everstone Studio’s world is set in tenth-century China, in the chaos after the Tang dynasty fell, and its traversal is what sells it. Qinggong lets you run up walls, glide across rivers and leap between rooftops as if gravity were optional. Combat mixes martial-arts weapons with mystic skills, and there are hours of side activities that have nothing to do with fighting. The weakness is the free-to-play scaffolding. The interface is crowded, shops and passes are everywhere, and parts of it feel like an online RPG’s daily chores. Ignore the menus and the world itself is a pleasure.
The Hook: For players who want to wander a wuxia world for free while they wait.
Closing thought
Five years ago, a list like this would have been almost entirely Japanese action games with one or two outliers. Now Chinese studios fill half the slots, and they aren’t copying anyone: Black Myth bet on bosses, Wuchang on dread, Where Winds Meet on traversal. Phantom Blade Zero is the next test of whether wuxia can carry a big-budget action game on its own terms. On October 29 we find out, and until then our PS5 picks will keep your hands busy.
FAQ
When does Phantom Blade Zero come out?
Phantom Blade Zero releases on October 29, 2026 for PS5 and PC, through Steam and the Epic Games Store. It was originally set for September 9 before S-Game delayed it for extra polish.
Is Phantom Blade Zero coming to Xbox?
No Xbox version has been announced. For now, the only confirmed platforms are PS5 and PC.
Is Phantom Blade Zero a Soulslike?
Not in the strict sense. It’s a wuxia action RPG with a semi-open world and several difficulty settings, including Wayfarer, Pathbreaker, Hellwalker and 66 Days, so you can choose how punishing it is. If you want a full Soulslike in a similar setting, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the closer match.
What should I play first while I wait for Phantom Blade Zero?
Start with Sifu. It’s short, it’s built on the same martial-arts-film fighting, and it’ll sharpen your parry timing before October 29.
Is Black Myth: Wukong like Phantom Blade Zero?
They share a lot of DNA, since both are big Chinese action games rooted in Chinese myth and history. Wukong is a boss-driven game built on staff stances and spells, while Phantom Blade Zero focuses on faster wuxia combat with a wider range of weapons.
Which of these is keeping your reflexes sharp until October 29, and what did we leave off?
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