Phantom Blade Zero promises bosses that learn from you: what Elden Ring never was

After Elden Ring launched, a theory spread across forums and social media: bosses were supposedly studying the way you played and changing their behavior to punish you. It was never true. Now, as reported by Vida Extra based on an interview published by the outlet Automaton, S-GAME Studio says that Phantom Blade Zero will actually do what so many players imagined in the Lands Between: bosses that learn from your actions and adapt to them.

The confirmation comes from Liang Qiwei, CEO of S-GAME and head of the project, after Automaton played the first few hours of the game and visited the motion capture studios. This is no minor detail. If the promise holds up, it changes how you prepare for a run, record a guide or plan a speedrun. Memorizing patterns would no longer be enough: you would have to read an opponent who is also reading you.

What you need to know

• S-GAME confirms that Phantom Blade Zero's bosses learn from the player and adjust their behavior.
• There will be well over 30 bosses; according to Liang Qiwei, the final count will be at least 50 different encounters.
• Every player weapon is obtained by defeating bosses: 30 main weapons and more than 20 secondary ones.
• Bosses will have several types of weaknesses that can settle a fight in just a few minutes, including so-called "strong mechanics," which demand a specific fighting style.

From Elden Ring myth to confirmed promise

It is worth separating myth from reality. In Elden Ring, bosses did not learn anything during a fight, but they did have very specific responses to certain playstyles, such as mages or archers. That precise reaction to a spell or an arrow fed the feeling that the AI was studying you. FromSoftware, true to form, never confirmed or denied any such system. The big difference with Phantom Blade Zero is that here the studio itself is putting it on the table.

The other striking detail is the sheer volume. The logic Liang Qiwei lays out is simple: if every weapon comes from a defeated boss, the number of weapons sets the minimum number of bosses. That is where the count comes from.

Weaknesses that shorten the fight

Beyond adaptation, each boss will have different types of weaknesses that, when exploited well, can end the encounter in a matter of minutes. "Strong mechanics" force you to fight in a particular way, which suggests a design where figuring out a boss's key matters as much as your reflexes. There are more categories, but the details of all of them are not entirely clear yet, so we will have to wait for more information before drawing conclusions.

Our take

At Underworld Lordz we like ambition, but we are wary of buzzwords. "Adaptive" can mean a lot of things: anything from an AI that genuinely changes strategy to a boss that simply triggers a counterattack when you repeat the same move too often. The latter already exists in plenty of action games. Until we see it working with a controller in our hands, we are treating it as a promise, not a revolution.

For competitive players, the idea cuts both ways. On one hand, it punishes spamming and rewards those who master multiple tools, which fits nicely with an arsenal of 50 weapons. On the other, a boss that reacts to what you do can break consistency, which is exactly what speedruns and no-hit challenges rely on. If behavior varies too much, routes turn into roulette. S-GAME will need to strike a balance between surprise and readability, because frustration sets in fast when you feel the game is cheating.

For content creators, on the other hand, the outlook is promising. Bosses that respond differently depending on your style make for comparisons, build guides and community challenges that will not run dry in a week. That said, 50 bosses is a lot, and quantity does not guarantee quality. We would rather have 30 memorable fights than 50 where half feel like filler to justify a weapon.

What do you think?

Some will see this as the logical evolution of soulslikes; others, as an elegant way of saying the boss is going to punish you for playing the way you enjoy. We want to see it in action before getting fully excited. Are you drawn to facing bosses that adapt to you, or do you prefer fixed patterns you can master through practice? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.