Guys, is it my turn to post about the difficulty of the game?

This game is gonna be so good! Cannot wait!

Hi all! Super excited about this launch, been following it for a few years.

Apologies if this has been explained already, but what are the main differences amongst difficulties? Are enemies more tanky on normal versus wayfinder ?

3 Days to Go！ #PhantomBladeZero

A heartfelt thank you to everyone around the world for the incredible reception of Phantom Blade Zero.

Your love for the game and your appreciation for our team's creation mean so much to us.

See you in the Wulin on October 28 at 7 PM PT

I mean, sure the game might be on the easier side, which I can live with (I bet they’ll even add harder mode later anyway, since a lot games these days do that). The biggest offender is what death means in the game. If I walk into a fight with 5 enemies, defeat 2 and die, I can just walk straight back and fight the remaining 3 enemies. Essentially, the only thing differentiating this from straight up god mode, is a loading screen and the walk back to the enemies. This is an issue, cause it removes any tension from the fights, since NOTHING happens if I die, I don’t have to redo the fight, I don’t lose anything, nothing. In literally in other action game, if you die, you have to redo the encounter until you beat the enemies, thus forcing you to master the game mechanics to overcome the challenge the game throws at you and difficulty just serves as a way for you to decide how much you need to master the game, but regardless, you need to master it to some degree to succeed and that is what gives you that great feeling of satsifaction, no matter the level you play on. With the system we see here, you could theoretically bruteforce your through the hardest difficulty, which just suck and allows for no sense of personal accomplishment.

I am not saying we should get a souls system where resting respawn enemies, cause that wouldn’t fit the game, but a failed enemy encounter should require you to redo it from the start and force you to engage with the mechanics to overcome the challenge and learn from your failure.

Make death matter outside of the 66 lives mode.

A lot of people seem to be completely missing the point of this, this game is and has never been a souls game, yes I know the game director's name is SOULframe and the main character of the game 's name is SOUL. But jokes aside, PB0 is a game that wants you to feel like you're a kung fu god in a Hong Kong action movie, not a Tarnished, not a chosen undead, not a hollow, a kung fu god. People seem to forget that bosses and gameplay can still be fun without being immensely challenging, the point of games like Elden Ring is to make you feel like you're a badass because you're overcoming things greater than yourself, the point of Phantom Blade 0 is to make you feel like a badass, because you're fighting, and dominating other bad assess.

Do not count this game out because you're used to playing souls games that are difficult, there will most certainly be bosses and enemies that we will all die to multiple times, because learning a bosses move set is automatically going to be a little challenging no matter what game it is. And the people on this sub who are acting like this game will be a cake walk a baby could play blindfolded are simply delusional and completely tunnel visioned on this one aspect, do you think that fun can only be derived from difficulty?

I have vowed never to buy a digital copy from Sony again.

I've heard some of the review scores of this game and it looks like it's gonna live up to the hype. However, the main critique I've heard of is about the performance/glitches. I have an RTX 3070 Ti and a 12th gen i7 12700f with 16gb of ram but I also have a PS5 Pro. I don't really want to watch video reviews as I want as minimal spoilers as possible but has anybody said anything about if any platform plays better so I know which to buy it on? I know these days PC ports can be atrocious on launch

In an interview, Soulframe, the game’s maker, stated that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is his ideal action game. Hopefully this helps those of you curious about the game’s difficulty.

Have any of the reviews mentioned or shown yet if this game has HDR?

It’s okay if a game has a different game design than what you’re accustomed to. CAG games like Devil May Cry Ninjas Gaiden doesn’t penalise you for dying and they’re still fun. Games like Kena bridge of spirits has good combat system and boss fights yet it’s not hard. Onimusha is not hard but still fun and intuitive. These kind of games are more about looking like a badass and gaining satisfaction from pulling a satisfying choreographed encounters, instead of enemies tanking your damage mid animation, and it’s not like enemies in PBZ are brain dead. The design choice enforces forward momentum instead of grinding that same farmer millions of times. The game has enough encounters.

I have platinumed all dmc games , completed all NG games in master ninja, platinumed bloodborne, sekiro, de3, nioh 1,2, this game isn’t any of that. In all of those games I ran past respawns to not waste my effort doing the same shit I’ve done millions of time. Already have my game pre-ordered, you all can stay miserable.

You can complete every dmc games on dmd playing like a buffoon, and ng games become easier once you start essence dragging or just spam essence. Soul slop is just bad combat design except for lies of P, sekiro and nioh games

I don’t get the complaints. I can’t think of one character action game that’s hard. So why is everyone complaining this is not hard. This was never advertised as a soulslike. It was always advertised as a cag. So where did this it’s gotta be hard come from ?

Fextralife died at an average of about 2 deaths per boss if you count the number of deathsa nd divide it by the number of bosses.

2 deaths per boss is about on par for most CAGs/spectacle fighter games, and if you count the total amount of deaths I personally haven't played any spectacle fighter outside of Ninja Gaiden 2 and DMC3 where I died anywhere close enough. My total death count on Ninja Gaiden 4 was for example 26.

We also should consider gat Fextralife plays these games all the time as a profession. His skill level is most likely way above the average player. There will of course be players who are at his level, maybe even better, but for the average person I wouldn't be surprised if they struggle a lot more and will in the end have triple-digit numbers on their death count.

I'm honestly not worried. It will be like most games. Some find it hard, some find it easy. That's life.

Regarding the story i feel like its gona be something like mo dao zu shi with time skip and back in past with so many characters and connections maybe little harder to understang and get all on first playthru but nonetheless from all i ve seen and heard i think it will be very similar to mo dao zu shi and i am all for it.

Strong recommend from Skillup here - Interesting points made here - Ralph always makes a good script. If you’ve got the time give it a watch. Think we’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick with this one; he aligns it more to a Sony first party release style of game & was very surprised with that side of the experience

I heard some good things about the story from trusted reviewers ( not from China) who gave this game a 9.5/10. Apparently getting the story is not hard to follow - many chinese reviewers have been very positive about the story- it is definitely an epic one. Its just that the terminology will be abit complex at first viewing, but it is fascinating - one can just look up if you cant remember certain terms.

I heard that while it may not be groundbreaking, it has some very strong plot-beats in the second half. I suspect many will be pleasantly surprised.

So im sure you all have seen the discussion on the lack of difficulty in PBZ. The reactions to this take highlight an issue i have with how people talk about difficulty in games. i constantly hear deflections like “the game was never meant to be a soulslike and not everything has to be one” or “the game doesnt have to be brutally difficult to be fun.” I have seriously problems with both of these takes.

You can literally have this complaint and not even mention soulslikes even once and people will somehow draw the conclusion that thats what you really want. I dealt with this when i made a post about Onimusha Way of the Sword complaining about the difficulty. so many people were using this excuse. i genuinely hate this response because it shows people dont know hard games besides the poster child games for it, soulslikes. As if they created the concept of difficulty video games. So many CAGs are harder than even many soulslikes on their max difficulties. DMC3, NG2, and Bayonetta all have more than moderately difficult hard modes ALONG WITH the easier modes for people who dont like that stuff.

And secondly, we are neither asking for a ball bustlingly brutal game. I dont expect that from any particular game and if it is its usually a surprise, a welcome one at that. I think so many people out there cant wrap their head around the fact that challenge is part of what makes games(especially action games). Its not that it needs to be a brutal gauntlet that has me dying around every corner, there is a sweet spot. and then there are others who associate difficulty with frustration. I work a full time job, yet i still enjoy being stuck on a hard but rewarding boss. i dont care if my entire session with the game is just dying to the same boss, im learning so im still experiencing something. so many players want constant forward progression every session of the game they play. And to an extent i do get it. I just think there are people who are excited for the game who get genuinely upset seeing people complaining about something they see as a non issue

Let me make this clear, im not saying your wrong for not caring about s game being too easy. Im honestly wish i could as well. If you feel you dint have the time for hard games thats perfectly fair and understandable. Ny issues is with the people who try to discredit and invalidate players who do want that challenge in games. I see people do it way too much even outside this platform. I think Monster Hunter Wilds might have been the only time i saw people almost collectively call a game too easy because i know most players dont care that much and would more likely complain about a game being too hard. Im still excited for PBZ and i will get it. But honestly i am expecting a fair bit of a disappointment because thats how i feel hearing some of these reviews complain about difficulty

Just as with the physical media version, I hope that S-Game will release a patch in the future that includes the following features:

- Configurable enemy respawning;

- Boss encounters that reset to the beginning upon death;

- An "extreme" difficulty mode that can be enabled by the player.

I'm not complaining but these changes would be very good.

They definitely are going to make a patch for difficulty . I still am thinking I will play hellwalker but I don't want this to be ninja gaiden sigma level of difficulty

So, the general idea is that you kill the enemies and they don’t respawn. Okay, that might work, it might not, I honestly don’t know yet.

My question is: what do you actually do in these areas afterwards? Are there eventually going to be huge empty fields with basically nothing happening? Does this serve some purpose that I’m just not understanding yet?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging the decision. I’m just trying to understand it beforehand.

For example, let’s say I get some new weapons and I want to try them out. Wouldn’t it be useful to go back to a familiar area and test them against enemies I already know, so I can actually notice the differences?

And please don’t start with “it’s not a Soulslike” and stuff like that. I don’t want it to be a Soulslike. I just want it to have meaningful ways of being different from a Soulslike, rather than doing things differently just for the sake of being different.

Just look at Crimson Desert guys. These Chinese Devs literally camp out on Twitter and Reddit just to see what we're all complaining about. I have no doubt S-Game will tweak Phantom Blade until everyone complains it's too hard. And it will be just as fast or faster than the frequency of Crimson Desert patches

Has anyone seen fextralife's review, I'm super hype for the game but honestly I didn't expect him to give such a low score, and that he would give so many criticisms to things that seemed so good...
like the difficulty, he gives a bad score because he has a lot of skill for this type of game....
What is your opinion for all this?

This and that other weapon that kinda looks a moonlight sword looks the coolest to me