Gorgeous hack-and-slash action game Phantom Blade Zero is targeting both low-end PCs and handhelds, despite its use of Unreal Engine 5.
Unreal Engine 5 has had a rough time this generation with a number of titles exhibiting performance issues and stuttering. However, despite that, there are a lot of games on UE5 that run great, such as The Finals, Arc Raiders, and more. And Phantom Blade Zero developer S-GAME aims to be at the top of that list.
Following statements that Stellar Blade: Blood Rain will offer improved graphics at the same specs as its predecessor, Phantom Blade Zero is following a similar aim. Game director Qiwei “Soulframe” Liang said in an interview with PC Gamer that the team is pushing hard on optimisation to ensure that everyone is able to play the upcoming hack-and-slash game.
“This year the hardware price is going up, and people who want to replace their hardware may postpone their plan to upgrade their equipment, so we think we need to let the game be played by as many players as possible without reducing the quality,” the developer said.
Liang explained that the goal is to get the game running on Valve’s Steam Deck, the target for low-end hardware these days. Multiple games right now, including Final Fantasy 7: Revelation, are using Valve’s machine as a hardware target as price increases mean gamers are simply unable to upgrade their machines.
With that said, the game director admits that targeting Steam Deck specifically is “a hard task”, and the game might fall short of its goal. Nevertheless, the team will try to make sure that the game is playable on low-end rigs and handhelds before its release later this year.
Phantom Blade Zero launches on October 29, 2026, just three weeks before the long-awaited GTA 6 release date. Liang explained that their game isn’t really in competition with the open-world game, and they’re not planning to move out of the way of Rockstar’s open-world behemoth.
“We don’t even think of the competition, what’s launching ahead or after,” he said. “What matters is how polished the game is, and if we have one or two extra months, we can fix more bugs, do more optimisation, so that we don’t need a huge day-one patch.”
After years of trying to push graphics further and further, it does appear that we are in a major state of optimisation in the games industry right now. Xbox’s upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, which launches in October, is also using Unreal Engine 5 with a target of 4K 60fps on Xbox Series X, which is a major feat of optimisation. Additionally, Halo: Campaign Evolved, which also uses UE5, has fairly reasonable specs for the sheer detail on display.
These optimisation efforts are clearly on Epic’s minds as well with major Unreal Engine 5 updates including major performance boosts for tools like Lumen. While Epic is already moving towards Unreal Engine 6, there’s still a long life ahead for UE5.
