This morning, Phantom Blade Zero Game Director Liang Qiwei (known to the public as Soulframe) posted a lengthy letter on X about the studio's commitment to human artistry and creative expression over AI-generated content. Above all, though, it seems like the studio is quietly withdrawing support for the new NVIDIA DLSS 5 technology.
Phantom Blade Zero was and still is officially listed among the first games to support NVIDIA DLSS 5, alongside AION 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Black State, CINDER CITY, Delta Force, Hogwarts Legacy, Justice, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, NTE: Neverness to Everness, Resident Evil Requiem, Sea of Remnants, Starfield, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and Where Winds Meet.
However, this part of the letter can hardly be interpreted in a different way:
Every single piece of content in our game has been crafted by the hands of real artists. We will not use AI visual tech that could alter our artists' original creative intent.
It seems likely that S-GAME originally committed to the technology but got cold feet after the controversial reveal, which led many gamers to call it a mere AI filter that ruined the developers' artistic intent. We've written a lot on both sides of the argument, gathering both positive and negative impressions on the early DLSS 5 reveal. However, this is the first time a developer who evidently approved the technology's inclusion in their game has reversed that decision.
It's not good news for NVIDIA, that's for sure, especially since it's just one side of its problems. Earlier this week, we asked Liquid Swords, the studio behind the new game Samson, what they thought about it. Without entering the ideological debate, they pointed out that it would need to be fully integrated into the character production pipeline and support all the platforms they were targeting. While the former could happen, the latter seems highly unlikely at this point.
Anyway, back to Phantom Blade Zero: Soulframe also pointed out that everything in the game is fully human-created, from the character models built on 3D scans of the actors who also performed facial capture to full lip-syncing in Chinese and English, motion-captured combat animations, scans of Chinese locations that contributed to the handmade creation of the environments, and even hand-drawn maps using Chinese brushes and Xuan paper (rice paper).
The game is now in its final stages of development ahead of the planned September 9, 2026 launch on PC and PlayStation 5. Check out our most recent hands-on preview to discover our first impressions of the long-awaited action RPG. Moreover, the game's Director, Soulframe Liang, has just revealed that the side quests will influence the main storyline.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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