Kung Fu films, French Sifu, and PlayStation 2 games: what inspires the authors of the ambitious Phantom Blade Zero

Developers from S-Game aim to recreate the feeling of watching classic kung fu films in their new action project Phantom Blade Zero. Speaking to Eurogamer at Game Developer's Conference 2025, the director of the ambitious Phantom Blade Zero game shared that the team draws inspiration from the game development ideas of the 90s to effectively manage the project's scale.

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He added that the authors aim to return to the golden era of Hong Kong kung fu films of the 1970s, in particular to the works of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Donnie Yen. He stressed that this trend disappeared in the early 2000s, and the team wants to revive it in their game.

The developers are also inspired by the Sifu game by French studio Sloclap, noting that if the European team was able to create a quality product in this genre, then the Chinese studio can make something even more authentic based on its own culture.

In terms of the scale of the project, the team wants to return to the approaches of the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 era, when games were smaller, budgets were not sky-high, and teams were manageable. He describes Phantom Blade Zero as a "big indie project" with a proper budget and an experienced team.

Phantom Blade Zero is currently in development for PC and PlayStation 5. Although the exact release date has not yet been announced, the studio is rumoured to be planning to release the game in autumn 2026. The main storyline is expected to take players 20 to 30 hours to complete.

Source: Eurogamer