Phantom Blade Zero Receives AAA Budget While Maintaining Indie Spirit

Phantom Blade Zero is being developed with a major game budget, and according to S-Game studio head Liang Qiwei, the team has maintained an independent approach and a willingness to take risks.

Phantom Blade Zero has the budget of a full-scale AAA game, although S-Game studio head Liang Qiwei asserts that the team has preserved an independent approach to development alongside a readiness to take risks.

Soulframe (Liang Qiwei), the head of the Chinese studio and creator of the series, shared in an interview about the transition from mobile games to a large-scale action title on Unreal Engine 5 for PC and PS5. The team had to learn new skills, workflows, and technical solutions from scratch. Other Chinese companies that previously worked for Western and Japanese publishers assisted them in this effort.

Certain key tasks, including the creation of the final boss and the opening scene, were assigned to young specialists who had just graduated and lacked experience working on projects of such magnitude. The studio had to experiment and find its own methods.

According to Soulframe, an independent spirit is defined not by budget, but by a willingness to push beyond familiar boundaries.