I see Phantom Blade Ø, I approve. jacknicholson.gif Per Push Square team:
"It's hard to label our game as a pure Souls game, nor hack and slash. It's just something in between. It's a way to tell a story," director Liang told Eurogamer in a new interview.
Liang goes on to explain Phantom Blade Zero's influences, referencing "Hong Kong kung fu moves from the 1970s", and wanting to recreate that same kind of impressive martial arts action in video game form.
"The trend [of martial arts cinema] has faded out since the early 2000s so we want to go back to that and try to bring the trend back," he comments.
But the part that stands out to us is S-GAME's overall philosophy on development. "We want to get back to the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 era, when the games were not so big, the budgets not sky high, the team manageable, and all the developers were passionate and creative and with experience," Liang reveals.
It's a really intriguing take on game development given the current struggles of the industry — especially at AAA level. "It's like a bigger indie game, but with budget and with experience and with a stable hand, and everything feels so integrated from the starting point when you press down the Start button to the finish point of the staff list," Liang continues.