Phantom Blade Zero Story

Soul is the hero: once the Order's most feared blade, now framed, betrayed and living on borrowed time. S-GAME's creative director traces him back to the trailer shown at The Game Awards 2025: "a great hero rescues a baby from a fire", and that baby "grows up to become the new hero, which is our protagonist".

Mó Yuan leads the Bastion of Mó. He is the man cradling an infant in S-GAME's trailers, and Donnie Yen, the game's creative consultant since 2023, gave him his face and his movement through motion capture.

Zuo Shang is the leader of the Order now. In the pre-order trailer a voice warns that "Zuo Shang's order no longer upholds its rules. Nor does he care about the people of the Wulin."

The Flesh Sculptor is the mysterious healer who restores Soul's life after the duel, at the price of a fatal condition: 66 days and no more.

The Merciful Lady of the Veil is named in the pre-order trailer, in a line about who still looks after ordinary people: "The Mandate's leaders don't care about ordinary people. The Merciful Lady of the Veil doesn't care either."

Alkaid leads the Seven Stars. At Justice Camp a swordsman grumbles that "The gate's locked, and Alkaid has the key", and the Nameless Survivor points Soul to the seven swordsmen "beyond the pigeon loft and the skywalk along the cliff": "They call him 'Alkaid.'" The 2025 demo ends on picking up Alkaid's Echo Blossom.

In the pre-order trailer Forge appears as an artisan in a lady's service. The 2025 demo's equipment cards credit Forge with two weapons modeled on Soul's Sanguine: the short swords Sanguine Twin and the polearm Sanguine Reach.

Huangxing is one of the three Pillars of Kunlun and the commander whose order sends Allied Justice to Perfect Transcension. Soul fights him as Huangxing, the Kunlun Renegade.

The Nameless Survivor is a man at Justice Camp who poisoned himself rather than face Perfect Transcension: "death will claim me long before I transform into one of those things." He tells Soul the way to the training ground and warns him about the Seven Stars, "dark and hollow, just like their faces".

Hua Qianxiao is the Sword Fanatic, a swordsman who once led a sect of the Mandate and now fights drunk. He has not forgotten that it was Soul who broke his blade.

Peng Meng is the Axemaster, a giant with a great axe and a hatred of the Mandate.

At the top of the Valley Sha-Chi Tower in Weeping Creek Valley, a Watchful Shadow Warden greets Soul as a fellow deserter: "Master Soul's a traitor... and so am I." He broke free of the Mindseal, "how the Order controls us", after he accidentally swallowed a Primal Stone.

In the side quest A Severed Mindseal, Soul brings him another Primal Stone. He takes it gladly: "My mind feels clearer again! Master Soul, I can't thank you enough!"

The Order made Soul its blade: in the creative director's words he was "a pawn used by the 'Order' to wage war". Zuo Shang leads it now, and it no longer keeps its own rules. Its Shadow Wardens answer to it through the Mindseal, and Soul still heals with its standard-issue medicine, Healing Dew.

Shadow Wardens serve the Order under a Mindseal: "The Mindseal is how the Order controls us. There's no ordinary way to undo it." A Primal Stone, the stone that powers the Transcension Towers, can break the seal.

The Seven Stars are seven swordsmen led by Alkaid, famed for their sword formation: "Together, they have slain countless evildoers. But now... Now they're dark and hollow, just like their faces." In the 2025 demo Soul collects the Echo Petals they leave behind, 6 in all.

Allied Justice is at war with the Masks. At Justice Camp a notice signed by Huangxing reads: "All members of Allied Justice are to report to the training ground for Perfect Transcension augmentation." Whoever refuses faces a trial for treason, and the sentence is a public beheading.

What it does to them, in the Nameless Survivor's words: "It takes away your heart, leaving only a husk."

The Pillars of Kunlun are three masters of the Kunlun Sect: Yuyin, "staunch and very much respected", Huangxing, "reticent and often feared", and Moji, the most modest and gentle of them and "widely loved". With the Masks wreaking havoc, the three are sent to Pangzhen and its surroundings to unite the local sects.

The Masks are the enemy in Allied Justice's war. Huangxing's notice demands every ounce of strength "to win this war against the Masks", and a document describes them "wreaking havoc everywhere".

The pre-order trailer says it plainly: "The Mandate's leaders don't care about ordinary people." Hua Qianxiao once led one of its sects, Peng Meng swears to "slaughter every last Mandate rat", and the Mandate Encampment has a map of its own.

The Bastion of Mó is led by Mó Yuan, the character Donnie Yen plays.

The Eleven built the Transcension Towers long ago, by the account of a Shadow Warden at the top of one in Weeping Creek Valley: "This Transcension Tower was built long ago by the Eleven."

Idols of the Lady Behind the Veil turn up at Justice Camp, a sign that "the cult's influence is spreading beyond Lu's Village".