Wuxia Explained: What Western Players Will Miss in Phantom Blade Zero

Phantom Blade Zero is a wuxia game, and almost none of what makes it one has been explained in English. Its director, Soulframe Liang, named the films and novels behind it on a Chinese podcast, in Chinese. This is what he said, with the films and books themselves. Where the word wuxia comes from, the jianghu, the righteous and the wicked, the two kinds of wuxia hero and why Soul is a Gu Long one, the films Liang picked, where wuxia stops and kungfupunk begins, and a watch list before launch. More on Phantom Blade Zero What China really thinks of it    • What China Really Thinks of Phantom Blade ...   Its closest relative is Khazan    • Phantom Blade Zero vs Wukong, Sekiro, Nioh...   How its combat actually works    • Phantom Blade Zero Isn't Sekiro: How Its C...   Everything we know before launch    • Phantom Blade Zero: Everything We Know Bef...   The previews are in    • Phantom Blade Zero: The Previews Are In   The lore, the 18-year story behind Soul    • Phantom Blade Zero Lore Explained: The 18-...   Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:54 What wuxia is 3:11 The jianghu 4:59 The righteous and the wicked 7:00 Two kinds of hero 9:52 The films 12:18 Where wuxia stops 14:24 Why a game 15:36 The watch list The watch list A Touch of Zen (King Hu) The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967) Swordsman II (1992) New Dragon Gate Inn (1992) Once Upon a Time in China II and III (Tsui Hark) The Blade (Tsui Hark, 1995) And two books in English, A Hero Born by Jin Yong and The Eleventh Son by Gu Long Phantom Blade Zero launches 29 October 2026 on PS5 and PC (28 October in North America). Sources Soulframe Liang on the 核电波 podcast (EP.29, December 2025), the S-GAME team panel at ChinaJoy 2024, Liang's 2019 essay on Sekiro (Zhihu), his 2023 interview with 游戏陀螺, his Bilibili post of 23 June 2025, and S-GAME's own video What exactly is Wuxia? (April 2026). Han Feizi chapter 49 and Sima Qian's Shiji chapter 124, our gloss. Film and book facts from Wikipedia and the sources they cite. Chinese on screen is quoted from the source and the English under it is our translation. Liang's own words carry his name and source on screen, and our own readings are marked OUR READING. Footage Official S-GAME and PlayStation trailers and videos (the State of Play deep dive, the pre-order and release date trailers, the 2023 announce trailer, the Year of the Snake gameplay trailer, the ChinaJoy 2024 demo and panel, What exactly is Wuxia?). Older builds are tagged on screen. Film posters via Wikipedia (non-free), shown for criticism and review. #PhantomBladeZero #影之刃零 #Wuxia