Phantom Blade Zero vs Competitors

Sekiro is the most parry-focused of the three and honestly I've died more times to mistimed deflects in this game than in every other action game I've played combined and I'm not even exaggerating I mean the whole thing revolves around perfect parries to break enemy posture. And the deflect window is so tight that if your timing is off by a few frames you're eating a full combo and there's no way to grind past it either you learn the rhythm or you stay stuck. But when it clicks when you're in that flow state trading deflects with a boss it's maybe the most satisfying combat feeling in any game period and I've watched friends literally quit at Genichiro and never come back which honestly tells you everything you need to know.

Black Myth: Wukong kind of said nah to the whole parry obsession and went hard into dodging instead and tbh I respect that like the see-through system where you dodge into an attack to trigger slow-mo for a counter is pretty awesome when you pull it off but I'll be real with you half the time I just panic dodge and get clipped anyway. So parrying technically exists in this game but it's more of an afterthought you can basically ignore it and be fine or whatever.

Phantom Blade Zero honestly splits the difference in the smartest way possible imo they did this color-coded thing where blue attacks are meant to be parried with generous timing and red attacks need to be dodged with Ghoststep and this system basically teaches you both skills without feeling overwhelming like you always know what the game expects you to do. And the parry window is forgiving enough that you don't need to be some rhythm game tournament player to enjoy it and with the difficulty options you can pretty much make it as chill or punishing as you want honestly it's the best of both worlds imo.

Sekiro gives you exactly one main weapon and that's it and honestly I respect the purity of it but man it limits replay value like there's the prosthetic tools and combat arts as minor augments but at the end of the day you're using Kusabimaru for 30 hours. And if that moveset doesn't click with you there's basically nothing you can do about it. So the replay value comes from getting better at the same thing rather than trying new builds which works for some people but I get bored of that pretty quick ngl.

Black Myth: Wukong gives you 4 staves with unlockable Spirit Skills and you get 55 of those total which let you transform into defeated enemies and that's pretty cool and the builds revolve around your stance choice and which spells you load out and there's enough variety to keep things interesting for a couple playthroughs but it's still within a fairly constrained framework you know what I mean. Then again who knows maybe you'll find one build you love and stick with it forever etc.

Phantom Blade Zero has the most build variety and it's not even close tbh with 30+ primary weapons that each have their own evolution trees plus 20+ Phantom Edges and the dual weapon loadout where you can switch mid-fight which is so satisfying when you pull off a combo chain across two completely different weapon types and you can also learn combat techniques from defeated enemies. And honestly a second playthrough with a different weapon type basically feels like a totally different game I'm not kidding like it's that different.

Sekiro has the steepest learning curve and it does not budge one bit like the game has zero difficulty options and zero ways to grind past a boss you're stuck on and the Genichiro fight is still a wall that I've personally watched multiple friends slam into and quit and never pick the game up again. And I don't blame them honestly sometimes you just want to have fun without getting absolutely destroyed for three hours straight you know. But if you're the type who likes that feeling of finally beating something that seemed impossible then maybe that's exactly what you're looking for idk everyone's different.

Black Myth: Wukong is more accessible than Sekiro but it still has no difficulty options which kind of sucks because some bosses are legitimately brutal. I'm thinking about Erlang specifically here who basically requires specific build counters and if you accidentally showed up with the wrong loadout you're gonna have a bad time. Anyway the spell system gives you tools to handle most situations at least so it's not completely hopeless or whatever.

Phantom Blade Zero is the most accessible by design and thank god for that because not everyone has 50 hours to practice boss patterns you know the three difficulty levels let you pick your poison and enemies don't respawn at checkpoints which reduces the frustration of running back through the same area 20 times. And maybe the best thing is that dying in phase 2 of a boss respawns you at phase 2 not the beginning and you don't lose any currency on death which honestly should be the standard in action games at this point but I'm not holding my breath for other devs to adopt it lol.

Sekiro does the classic FromSoftware thing where the story is told through item descriptions and environmental clues and sparse dialogue and you kind of have to piece everything together yourself like a detective and I get why people love that approach honestly the lore around Wolf and Kuro and the Divine Realm is really interesting once you dig into it. But sometimes I just want the story told to me directly instead of having to watch a 40-minute VaatiVidya video afterward to understand what actually happened and I know that's a me problem but still you get the idea.

Black Myth: Wukong is based on Journey to the West which is a classic Chinese novel but they take a lot of liberties with it and the story comes through cutscenes and character dialogue and those chapter-ending animated shorts which are genuinely beautiful. And it's more explicit than Sekiro's approach but still not as straightforward as a traditional RPG and if you don't know the source material some things might go over your head but you can still follow the main thread and that's probably fine for most people tbh.

Phantom Blade Zero has the most traditional narrative structure of the three and I personally prefer this like you've got a framed protagonist a ticking clock with the 66 days thing a conspiracy to unravel and eight possible endings that branch based on your choices. So the character relationships and dialogue actually matter which is something the other two games don't really do and the 20-30 hour campaign feels like a proper story-driven experience rather than a scavenger hunt for lore fragments and I love that about it honestly.