Video game difficulty is a topic of debate that has been debated for decades, and perhaps the most contentious space is that of ARPGs. Balancing high-octane combat with genuine challenge is no easy feat, and the biggest pain point lies in how greater difficulties are addressed from a design perspective. There is a major tendency to simply increase the enemy's health pool or damage, and as a result, those harder modes feel less like real feats of skill and more like tests of patience. However, Phantom Blade Zero is looking to break the mold and push back against the norms that have otherwise plagued the genre ever since the beginning, offering some unique difficulties that fundamentally alter how you engage with the game.
You have the story-oriented and standard modes, Wayfarer and Pathmaker, that serve as a nice entry point for both more casual players, then Hellwalker mode, where we start to see where the divergence from tradition really starts to come into play. Instead of just presenting you with some beefier enemies, you will encounter more advanced and intelligent enemies, effectively meaning that you can play through two separate levels and have a truly different gameplay experience each time. Finally, in keeping with Phantom Blade Zero's story, there's 66 Days mode, the toughest of them all, which puts you directly into Soul's shoes and gives you 66 lives to beat the game with, and if you can't manage it, then it is back to the main menu for you. This variety is one of the strongest selling points of the game and indicates how aware the devs are of the typical frustrations that come from raising the difficulty.
Phantom Blade Zero's Difficulty Options Change More Than Enemy Stats
Ever since ARPGs have been around, there have pretty much always been difficulty options to allow you to tailor the gameplay to your skill level and tastes. The vast majority of games come with an easy, normal, and then a multitude of harder modes that can range from a slight challenge increase to perma-death, but the developers almost always choose to take the easy route and just increase the stats of the enemies, artificially raising the challenge by forcing you to make far fewer mistakes and spend twice as long smacking enemies. This is made all the more frustrating in the more difficult ARPGs and soulslikes that really lean into the punishing side of things, and in the end, many players would rather stick to the standard mode as it is the most well-rounded and balanced way to play the game.
Enter Phantom Blade Zero, one of the most anticipated games in many years that has clearly taken many notes from the rest of its contemporaries and chosen to carve out a much stronger niche in terms of how it handles greater difficulties. Before you even get to start slashing away at bosses and leaping around the map, you are given a clear choice of one of four modes, each representing a level of challenge vastly different from the next. Casual and more frequent gamers get their slice of the pie on the lower end, with a more cinematic mode giving you all that warrior goodness without the insane inputs and the standard difficulty that keeps things at a nice baseline across the board.
Where things started to get interesting is on the higher end of the spectrum, which we now know is going to be a lot more complicated than dealing with some juiced-up assassins. The latest State of Play introduced us to the Hellwalker and 66 Days modes, each bringing a real challenge to those veteran ARPG players who won't be sated by the lower tiers. The first has been described as having "more advanced and adaptive enemy intelligence," meaning that the actual foes you encounter will change their tactics and approach the fights in unpredictable ways. Now this isn't the first time a game has introduced improved enemy AI at greater difficulties—look no further than Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry—but it is good to see a modern title being unafraid to be bolder with its mode modifiers.
Then, for the real psychopaths out there that are ready to take on the real challenge, 66 Days mode does exactly what it says on the tin. As Souls himself only has 66 days to live, you will have to journey across the land and take out every threat in your way, all without dying too many times, and if you do cross that threshold, then you can say goodbye to that save file, no matter if it was a two or a 20-hour playthrough. I really like this addition, firstly because of the thematic flavor it brings to your gameplay, but also how it includes the concept of a perma-death run directly into the game, without it being too strict with a single fatal blow, so you have a bit more margin for error if those final few bosses are giving you a hard time.
As we near the final few months before the launch of Phantom Blade Zero, it really feels as though all the puzzle pieces have fallen into place, and we have a virtually complete picture of the game we are about to experience. With the four difficulty options now known, many players who would have previously avoided the game may consider giving it a try, both for the cinematic option and the more hardcore route as well. For me personally, I think I will probably take the standard path to begin with, then see if the 66 Days option is something I feel up to, or whether the thought of immediate death proves too much to handle in the end.
But no matter what difficulty you decide to choose, it is important to at the very least praise the developers for broadening the spectrum far more than a couple of stat changes, forcing you to change your approach and playstyle to combat the new threats and more punishing deaths. Interestingly enough, Phantom Blade Zero isn't the only 2026 ARPG to have a different approach to difficulty, as Mortal Shell 2 recently launched with an equippable item that reduces the difficulty whilst locking out achievements. That version may seem a bit more punishing for newer players, yet I would argue that the real joy comes from overcoming a hard challenge, and if the game proves too steep for you to climb, then there is no shame in bumping it down a notch. And, for Phantom Blade Zero, not only can novice ARPG fans have a blast, but diehard ones can really show their stuff and, hopefully, reach the end with just a couple of lives remaining.
OpenCritic Reviews
- Released
- October 29, 2026
- Developer(s)
- S-Game
- Publisher(s)
- S-Game
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
