[Exclusive] Phantom Blade Zero Could Feature 2D Animation Sequences

Soulframe: Since the release of Rainblood in 2008, we’ve expanded the setting into a big fantasy world with tons of new lore and characters, as well as many new storylines in the following 15 years. Phantom Blade Zero is a spiritual rebirth, not a straight remake such as Final Fantasy 7 remake or Resident Evil 4. The world and main characters stay the same, while the story is completely new and much longer. There have been 4 million downloads in China for the old Rainblood since 2010, but no one knows how the new story will go.

Soulframe: It’s basically a fast flashback of Rainblood in 2008. There are millions of players in China who are very familiar with it, and we also released it in the global market back in 2010, with all the texts translated and revised by fans. So firstly, it’s a gift for all those old fans. For most audiences, this is a self-contained, independent anime giving a taste of the story of the Phantom Blade series.

The two characters, Soul and Zuo Shang grew up and practiced Kungfu together, and they fought side by side until some big tragedy happened, after which they turned into lifetime enemies of one another. It’s something classic, like Guts and Griffith or Dante and Vergil, but it’s also something really new, in a Chinese Wuxia background, and the story will be solid and moving. In Phantom Blade Zero, Soul is facing the challenge of his old friend, and there are shadows of the past constantly revealed as the game proceeds.

Soulframe: Yes, after the duel in the anime, the two main characters are stepping on different paths, and the story of PBZ begins. But knowing this backstory is not a necessity to begin playing PBZ. The actual game will tell a full story, including what happened in the past.

Soulframe: It’s an interesting idea. You know, Asian studios are good at making 2D animations. Many of our friends’ works feature great anime-style graphics, although we want to make the main part of the game realistic, dark, and deep, as you saw in last year’s PV and this year’s footage.

But there may be some possibility of using 2D animation to illustrate special scenes, such as the memory world, phantom illusions, or other scenes different from reality. We are still figuring it out.

Soulframe: Yes, there is, but the time is not decided yet. We are preparing a 30-minute demo open to a certain group of people invited from our social media. Testing is really important to collect feedback and generate a community of core players.

Soulframe: For many games, maybe, for us, no. Testing is alongside the whole development process of our game; it’s a part of development, not a marketing event. We don’t use demos to raise pre-orders but to polish the game in a real environment. It’s one of the several things we borrow from the mobile game developing experience. There are alpha, beta and pre-launch tests. I am not saying we would do the same, but I do love to have players get their hands on an early version of the game, and we polish the game further to the next test, from which players can see the progress.

Soulframe: There are many. The 80s~90s Hong Kong Kung-Fu movies, Japanese anime/manga such as Berserk and Claymore, horror movies, H.P.Lovecraft, Stephen King … and many more.

Phantom Blade Zero is a deep, dark fantasy with a mature and mysterious style mixed with Chinese cultural elements. We call it Kung-fu-Punk.

Soulframe: There are several types of main weapons and 30+ secondary weapons; they are two different systems that can’t replace one another.

Soulframe: Multiple, depends on your choices and ways of finishing the game.

Soulframe: Half-half, I would say. The trunk doesn’t change much; we just polish it and make it better. But many branches change according to actual experiences.

Soulframe: There are tons of suggestions, and we really appreciate them. We treat them more as encouragement and expression of love.

For actual consideration, we’ll split the suggestions into two parts; for the “service” part, like UI, tutorial, accessibilities, etc, we are more likely to react to players’ suggestions; for the “creation” part, like core style, gameplay, map designs, story, etc, we’d rather stick to what we’ve created, and we believe that’s what the players come for.

Soulframe: There are many, can’t tell you the number yet. We’ll try to make every boss fight unforgettable.

Soulframe: We hope first to ensure that the basic game content is very rich so that there is no need for DLC to provide additional supplements.

However, we do have a lot of stories and characters that cannot be included yet, and both DLC and sequels can be expected. But let’s first present a content-rich basic game!

Soulframe: Actually, we have another original IP themed on universe exploration and combat in space. But let’s focus on Phantom Blade first.

Soulframe: Since we revealed the first trailer on PlayStation Showcase in May 2023, there has been a lot of encouragement and feedback, as well as speculations and suspicions. But we’ve been relatively silent about all of these.

We have produced a lot more new content, way beyond what we’ve shown before, but we wouldn’t showcase anything until we feel they are 100% polished and exceed everyone’s expectations. There will be something really great for 2024. Stay tuned!