Phantom Blade

Phantom Blade  (Japanese: ファントムブレイド Hepburn: Fantomu Bureido), also known as Shadow Blade in Japan, is a 2008 action-adventure hack and slash video game developed and published by Fusion Terminal for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was the first entry in the Phantom Blade series. The game follows Yumi, a professional swordswoman whose parents had been assassinated and is now seeking revenge against the one responsible for this incident.

Gameplay
Phantom Blade is an open-world hack-and-slash game consisting of multiple areas containing objectives for the player to fulfill as well as optional side quests. Completing these primary objectives will allow players to earn new weapons as well as upgrades and special abilities. The player controls Yumi, a swordswoman who left her home village to find out the truth of her past.

The main gameplay requires players to defeat groups of enemies using variations of different attacks to earn experience points (EXP), which can level up their character. Leveling up Yumi can increase her vitality and the strength of her attacks.

Plot
When Yumi turned 18, someone had assassinated her parents. Prior to the incident, she trained herself to become the ultimate swordsman so Yumi can get her revenge on the one responsible and uncover the truth about her past.

A few years later, an unknown evil organization was attempted to attack her village, and it was up to Yumi to save the village from mass destruction. With her swordsmanship, she can slice right through her enemies with ease. Not only was this presence trying to destroy her village, but also take control of the world and form a “better” place. Confused and frustrated, Yumi left her village to figure out what’s going on.

Development
Phantom Blade was originally going to be a 2D weapon-based fighting game similar to that of SNK’s Samurai Shodown series for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox until the development was moved to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2006 as a hack-and-slash game. The game was first unveiled at the 2008 E3 event in a teaser trailer, and the first trailer of gameplay footage was shown at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show.

Reception
Phantom Blade recieved “favorable“ reviews according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave the game a score of 32 out of 40.