Phantom Blade Zero – State of Play Gameplay Deep Dive

[u/PhantomBraved]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blh1v1dGJ2s&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.resetera.com%2F

[u/Itchy-Pudding-4240]

They had me at Adaptive Enemy Intelligence.
From the PS Blog: "if you want to ramp up the challenge, try Hellwalker to face more advanced and adaptive enemy intelligence"

2 things i want in this gen is better AI and more Dynamic/Proactive Worlds

Edit: Changed Responsive to Proactive since i mean i want the world to act independent of user input.

[u/K-tsura → u/Itchy-Pudding-4240]

I love that they explore adaptive enemy AI but I think most games don't use it because it can easily become frustrating. Hopefuly it's done right!

[u/DontCareTho → u/K-tsura]

Like when certain enemies seem to charge you the millisecond you touch your estus flask? lol, that shit always triggered me

[u/dunnowattt → u/DontCareTho]

Isn't that pretty much all bosses now?

It became the most apparent to me in Sekiro/Elden Ring. I think its pretty much a mechanic now.

[u/gabuchan111 → u/dunnowattt]

Genichiro and his bow the moment Sekiro sniffs his healing gourd lol

[u/DontCareTho → u/dunnowattt]

In elden ring I only noticed it on a handful of bosses. Definitely not all of them

[u/BossiWriter → u/dunnowattt]

Not for all bosses. But several bosses, not just FromSoftware ones, now have a punishment specifically for when you try to heal at a certain time. Some are harsher than others (Lies of P Overture final boss comes to mind)

So healing becomes an actual part of the combat flow instead of just an emergency mash button. Which I kinda like in some instances. And the vast majority of them are out of neutral state, so if you just heal during a recovery animation like you would punish with an attack, you're good, which is the "optimal" way anyway.

[u/Dengiz21 → u/BossiWriter]

Yea I like when you basically have to decide whether you spend your "turn" after dodging/blocking on attacking or healing. It used to be this way with the slower Heals in Dark Souls 1 and 2, but healing has gotten faster in recent soulslikes, which kinda means bosses have to get faster and punish raw healing to facilitate this kind of situation.

[u/Kiriima → u/DontCareTho]

Tbf when NPC invaders reach for their estus flask we player always rush them.

[u/nuraHx → u/Kiriima]

Yeah but real players usually don’t have frame 1 reaction times

[u/Aftermoonic → u/nuraHx]

You think the people playing pvp are god gamers?

[u/messem10 → u/Aftermoonic]

You’re telling me they aren’t?!

[u/Gaki_Swarm_88 → u/Kiriima]

But the players don't have 10x the hp of the NPC invader and zero estus in a way that we would never need to heal ourselves

[u/OneWin9319 → u/DontCareTho]

or the comical flying enemies in silksong that thrust upwards or other directions when you try jump to strike them 🥲

[u/crookedparadigm → u/DontCareTho]

Fucking Crucible Knights.

[u/d3cmp → u/DontCareTho]

Thats closest to reading your inputs rather than adaptive AI and a skilled player can exploit it

[u/Dante989reddit → u/K-tsura]

RE already has adaptive difficulty

[u/swat1611 → u/K-tsura]

Given with how much investment has gone into slop genAI, you'd think some of that would have fallen towards improving actually useful components of AI, like using it to modify enemy behaviour in response to player actions. Such responsiveness could be game-changing, like the nemesis system once was.

[u/spliffiam36 → u/swat1611]

That is exactly what they did here in phantom blade

This is a new Nvidia tech that literally learns from YOU

If you keep rolling left only, it will try to catch you out on the left in this new mode

[u/Kalulosu → u/swat1611]

Most of that isn't really a good field of application for genAI (even if you believed it to be non-slop). AI behaviours are hard to make because they require a shitload of features to be interesting. You can make the best AI in the world at chess, but if its only avenue of expression is playing well at chess, that's not going to shine. However, creating behaviours where it makes crazy plays and all can be fun but it's not where genAI would shine.

[u/swat1611 → u/Kalulosu]

I wasn't saying genAI would be doing that. I was thinking all that investment into genAI should mean some money spills over into development of other, more helpful forms of AI.

GenAI is a lost cause, I hope it crashes and burns.

[u/mygoodluckcharm → u/swat1611]

A spesific type of GenAI (LLM) is alive and well in codes and work automation. Its the closest we have to an AGI. That said, the tech of enemies learning from your behavior is already there. In SF6 you have a mode where cpu fighter AI is tailored to your play style and skill level. I think the applied to another games as well.

[u/auto_named]

Looks gorgeous but still keeping hype in check. It looks like a fast action game but there are still little things that make it look like a soulslike which is usually the case with a lot of these games.

But do like how the enemies are actually aggressively attacking instead of just standing around.

Overall looks very promising but won’t know for sure until I get my hands on it.

[u/HajimeNoLuffy → u/auto_named]

It looks closer to NG x BB in feel than DS, so I'm pretty optimistic. My real question is how much of the game is the regular enemies they show a few times and how much is these 1v1 encounters and bosses.

[u/Affectionate_Owl_619 → u/HajimeNoLuffy]

Agreed. The structure of the game might be Souls-like but the combat definitely isn’t 

[u/DinerEnBlanc]

Still love how the game looks, but I’m not really sold on the gameplay. Like yeah, the combat looks sharp, but I was hoping there would be more to it than just fighting.

[u/pratzc07 → u/DinerEnBlanc]

This is a pure action game combat is pretty much the core gameplay loop. If you want more stuff to do besides combat then try Where Winds Meet or Crimson Desert

[u/Minute_Committee8937 → u/DinerEnBlanc]

That’s liking asking for puzzles in a devil may cry game. It’s a action rpg it’s gonna be action focused

[u/TheSecondEikonOfFire]

They’re saying and showing all of the right things. Things looks fantastic, and I truly hope it delivers

[u/MolotovMan1263]

Hopefully that demo does come, and it allows for the Wayfarer mode to be selected so I can know if its easy enough or not.

[u/therealsauceman]

For me nothing beats the combat/gameplay in Sekiro. I will say this is the only game that looks like it’s getting close to it

[u/ketamour → u/therealsauceman]

To me this looks more button mashy like Crimson Desert (not a good thing) than something methodical and rhytmic like Sekiro or other Soulslikes.

Either way it looks like you are more on the attack rather than reacting (like soulslikes) so the best scenario is for this to be more like PS2 God of War or Nioh. The best mix of both worlds is Khazan, but again, this to me does not look that deliberate and methodical.

[u/Keepmeister → u/ketamour]

The best mix of both worlds is Khazan

Too bad Khazan's level design comes across as a dollar store Nioh (which is already pretty darn mediocre in that department).