Those who enjoyed Black Myth Wukong’s mixture of Chinese folklore and soulslike gameplay are in for a treat with Phantom Blade Zero. This time, however, you are not a legendary god monkey, but an assassin named Soul, and the world looks like it’s taken some inspiration from Sekiro and Bloodborne, which is a cool mashup.
Judging by the trailer alone, Phantom Blade Zero looks like it’s going to be fairly hardware-intensive, so let’s take a look at what kind of PC you’ll need.
Helpfully, the Steam store page for this game provides performance targets. If you meet the minimum requirements, you can expect 1080p at 30 FPS with upscaling enabled, while the recommended specs target 1440p at 60 FPS.
“With upscaling enabled” might be doing some heavy lifting here, so if you’re not keen on non-native rendering techniques, you may want to exceed the recommended specs with an Nvidia 50 Series or AMD 90 Series graphics card.
One thing that is non-negotiable is an SSD, as this game, like many modern titles, absolutely insists on having one.
Soulslike games, much like competitive FPS titles, require pixel-perfect timing and very fast reactions. The best way to ensure these, other than to just git gud, is to have a high frame rate (at least 60 FPS) and a correspondingly high refresh rate monitor. A 50 Series GPU should take care of the frame rate, even if you opt for native rendering.
Additionally, a controller is a must for these kinds of games. A SCUF NEMESIS PRO or ENVISION PRO is a great choice here.
The term “soulslike” is gradually losing its meaning as the genre continues to stretch, morph, and develop. So, let’s get a bit more specific. You play as Soul. Framed for killing your master, you suffer a severe heart injury, leaving you just 66 days to live. That’s 66 days to kill a bunch of bosses and, presumably, clear your name.
Gameplay-wise, there's a lot more emphasis on parrying than dodging, making this closer to Sekiro than the original Dark Souls games. Additionally, the marketing materials contain a lot of talk of “real Kung Fu,” meaning that the concept of realistic-ish martial arts movement is key to the game’s design.
Fans of Hong Kong action cinema will have a lot to look forward to here, as both Donnie Yen and Kenji Tanigaki helped with the game's choreography, all of which was performed via motion capture.
Stay up to date with CORSAIR. Get our latest News, Guides, and Product Updates in your Google feeds.
Add CORSAIR as a preferred sourceThanks for helping us improve this article.
JOIN OUR OFFICIAL CORSAIR COMMUNITIES
Join our official CORSAIR Communities! Whether you're new or old to PC Building, have questions about our products, or want to chat about the latest PC, tech, and gaming trends, our community is the place for you.