Tokyo Game Show 2024 was a bedlam of many game demo debuts, with the most notable being S-Games’ action title Phantom Blade Zero. The game made its debut in Summer Games Fest, but its demo wasn’t made playable by many until now.

Billed as a throwback to 2000s action games like the Ninja Gaiden reboot or the Devil May Cry titles, Phantom Blade Zero puts you in the shoes of a samurai warrior who has both melee and ranged weaponry to possibly level an army. He has a Chinese Kung Fu Punk-style buster cannon that can be charged up to three times to deal massive blast damage, as well as a broadsword to cleave enemies in twain. He can switch mid-combo to faster twin daggers, and use up his Shang Chi energy to deal heavy-hitting attacks. He can also conserve Shang Chi energy to block and withstand enemy attacks. In fact, he can even perfect parry attacks to do extra hard-hitting counters, or even dodge unblockable attacks at the last second to teleport behind them and backstab them for massive damage.

For all of these moves (and possibly more), the game really needs to be butter-smooth. Thankfully, S-Games made Phantom Blade Zero’s controls one of the best so far, at least where action game demos are concerned. Your attacks are fast, your counters and dodges are responsive, and switching weapons is seamless. It’s pretty much up there with the likes of Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden Black, and that’s high praise especially when this is the studio’s first-ever major triple-A effort.

The demo had us go through a tutorial to familiarize ourselves with the controls, and then had us go through a short level that’s capstoned by three bosses. They’re tough and have multiple playstyles and attacks to keep you on your toes, with even a few of them able to one-hit kill you. That’s the kind of challenge we need out of our character action games these days, and S-Games may have a potential hit in their hands.

Check out our video of our best run yet, thanks to the patient folks at S-Games who let us play the demo a couple more times. It took me many deaths to get to this point.

Phantom Blade Zero will be out for PlayStation 5 and PC in 2025.