By Josh Cotts & Anthony Taormina
Everything revealed about Phantom Blade Zero so far hasn't really made it out to be a game about making choices. Most of what's been shown has focused on the action RPG's combat, which is flashy and diverse enough to justify putting it front and center. However, while its combat might be the star of the show, Phantom Blade Zero is still apparently packed with branching paths for players to take in its narrative, to the point that it has more possible endings than FromSoftware's Elden Ring.
In a recent interview with Game Rant, Phantom Blade Zero creator Soulframe disclosed details about the game's length, the branching choices of its narrative, and how many potential outcomes players can reach that are based on the actions they take throughout the story. As it turns out, despite having more endings than Elden Ring, it's only around half the length of the soulslike icon, and it seems each conclusion doesn't necessarily come down to major story decisions but more subtle choices players make along the way.
Phantom Blade Zero's Story Rewards the Thorough
Length isn't everything in a game, but for some players, it can mean the difference between buying and trying, or playing on launch day and waiting for a sale. There's no single hard rule for how long a game needs to be in order to justify a full-price purchase, as it ultimately depends on the genre and quality of the game, as well as the player's personal taste. Even so, historically, story-driven, single-player games generally sit closer to the 20–30 hour range, with things like open-world RPGs pushing well beyond that. For Phantom Blade Zero, though, it looks like it may be leaning more toward the length of many story-driven, single-player games. As Soulframe stated during the interview:
"I think for the main story, maybe 20–30 hours to finish the main story. But if you don't do anything else, you might end up with a bad ending."
As far as Phantom Blade Zero goes, the main story alone should take players roughly 20 to 30 hours to complete. This puts that portion of the action RPG alongside other games like God of War (2018), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Control. However, Soulframe indicated that players might not want to pursue Phantom Blade Zero's story exclusively, as it would likely give them a "bad ending." Not only does that confirm that the game has multiple endings, but also that its narrative will reward players who are more thorough by granting them more possible outcomes and extending the game's length. Soulframe continued:
"We have 8 different endings in the game, depending on how many side quests you complete. There are story elements, and you'll know why. There are also different completions, like when you get to this point in the story, if you have something, it will be different, if you don't have something, it will be different. If you have that thing prior to that point, that will make it different."
The outcome of Phantom Blade Zero's story seemingly doesn't depend upon major narrative decisions but upon how much players do and collect on the side, even though there will potentially be some choices involved in that side content that result in branching paths. Soulframe wasn't explicit about side quests involving important choices, though—only that doing them will open up different possible endings to the game's story. Furthermore, he explained that collectors will have more outcomes made available to them as well, as certain points in Phantom Blade Zero's narrative will serve as an item check of sorts. Should players have a certain item, the story will branch in a different direction, whereas lacking the item will lead to a different conclusion.
Perhaps the biggest piece of info about Phantom Blade Zero's story, however, is that it features 8 potential endings, up two from Elden Ring's six endings. Something else interesting to note is that many of Elden Ring's endings are dependent upon players completing certain side quests, just as Phantom Blade Zero's seem to be, observing a similar side-quest philosophy found in other games like the Mass Effect franchise and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Read the full article on GameRant
This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
