As soon as I sat down to play it, the developers of Phantom Blade Zero were eager to tell me that they motion captured the movements from real kung fu masters to ensure their game was as "authentic" as possible. They're also very aware that when the game was first revealed, players thought it looked "too choreographed" to be real gameplay, and have made two separate demos in the last year to convince everyone it's the real deal. So far, I'd say it's working.
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week I jumped straight to the second (and harder) of Phantom Blade Zero's two demos, which threw me into battle against a boss suspended in the air on three silky red ropes. He whirled around the arena like a psycho marionette, descending in erratic swooshes to slash at me. I struggled with the timing on his attacks and movements and died—a lot.
