THE CRUNCH
Phantom Blade Zero, the upcoming kung fu action RPG from Chinese studio S-Game, launches on October 28, but players will want to start clearing disk space now. The studio says the game weighs 145 GB once installed, yet the pre-load process, which begins on October 26, requires at least 300 GB of free disk space. According to a Steam blog post from the developer, temporary files and the complete game files must coexist during the unlock process, seemingly for decryption and decompression. The extra space is returned once installation completes.
The rest of the PC requirements are comparatively modest for an Unreal Engine 5 title. Minimum settings call for an Intel Core i7 8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with a GTX 1660 or RX 5500 XT, delivering 1080p at 30 fps with upscaling. Recommended settings target 1440p at 60 fps with an Intel Core i5 10600K or Ryzen 5 5600X and an RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6700 XT. Exactly which graphical and upscaling settings underpin those targets has not been specified.
An SSD is mandatory either way, and the studio also advises installing the latest graphics drivers before launch. With memory and storage shortages making drives pricier lately, freeing up 300 GB on an existing SSD may be the trickiest requirement of all. Demand apparently will not suffer for it: some estimates put the game past 500,000 copies sold on Steam before release, though Eurogamer's review criticised its underwhelming boss fights and lack of polish alongside its fluid, cinematic action.