Phantom Blade Zero, a title that managed to pull together quite a bit of expectation from various players, officially launched on the 29th. On its launch day, the concurrent players count smashed through 700,000, and user reviews climbed up to Very Positive.

Released at 11:00 AM on the 29th, Phantom Blade Zero rocketed past 400,000 concurrent players in roughly two hours. As time ticked on, the numbers kept climbing, peaking at 723,876 concurrent players as of the 30th. This marks the second-highest record for a game from a Chinese developer, trailing only Black Myth: Wukong.

Phantom Blade Zero adopts a 'kung-fu punk' setting that fuses traditional martial arts with steampunk. The story follows the protagonist 'Soul', who has been framed for murdering the organization's leader and dealt a fatal blow to the heart, leaving The developer with a 66-day death sentence, as The developer tracks down the masterminds behind the incident. It features motion-capture-based combat, a guard gauge, parrying, and frantic brawls blending various weapons.

Steam user reviews have also improved since launch. Right out of the gate, it sat at Mixed, but as reviews piled up, it bounced back to Very Positive (17,441 reviews, 82% positive). Players are praising the fact that the martial arts action shown in the trailer translates directly into actual gameplay. On top of that, the unique gimmicks of each weapon, execution animations, and a combat tempo that lets players chain parries and dodges mid-attack are drawing solid applause. The developer has also received positive reactions for stripping away the repetitive fatigue typical of soulslike titles—meaning zero death penalties, no regular mob respawning, the ability to resume boss phases, weapon upgrade material recovery, and an intuitive map.

On the flip side, some critics feel underwhelmed by the combat polish and handling. Compared to the sound design of weapon clashing, the physical impact and hit feedback feel a bit weak, while automatic combo strings triggered by a few button presses drain some of the hands-on control fun. Other sticking points include high-difficulty bosses wrapped in constant super armor, pushing battles into a passive loop of simply waiting for a cue to counter-attack. Alongside these, pad controls, awkward dialogue, Chinese voice acting, stiff NPC facial expressions, excessive invisible walls, and side quests failing without prior warning were ticked off as notable drawbacks.

Meanwhile, near the very top of Steam's global top sellers, Football Manager 27 kicked off a free-play period ahead of its November 11 release, landing at number 8. Plus, Age of Empires 4 launched an expansion pack introducing the Viking and Scottish civilizations, pushing the base game to number 10. Crimson Desert climbed to number 5 following the release of its DLC 'Unknown Journey', pulling in a 'Mostly Positive' early reception from users.