According to Wccftech, during an interview at The Game Awards, Phantom Blade Zero director Soulframe Liang received some crucial advice from the developers at Sandfall Interactive, the studio behind 2025’s Game of the Year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The key takeaway was shockingly simple: for the last nine months of development, “the most important thing is to delete things.” Liang admitted this wasn’t what he expected to hear, but the philosophy of cutting content to polish what remains clearly shaped Sandfall’s critically acclaimed, tightly focused RPG. The report notes that while some areas in Clair Obscur feel empty, that intentional limitation made the final game more engaging. Now, the question is whether S-Game will apply this advice to Phantom Blade Zero, which is still months from release.
Cutting is the real polish
Here’s the thing: in an age where “content” is king and games brag about hundreds of hours of gameplay, this advice feels almost radical. But it’s also painfully obvious when you think about it. Every developer has a finite amount of time, money, and creative energy. Spreading that across a vast map filled with repetitive fetch quests and shallow mechanics? That’s a recipe for a 7/10 game that overstays its welcome.
Sandfall’s approach is the opposite. It’s about ruthless curation. It’s saying, “This cool idea isn’t serving the core experience, so it has to go.” And that takes serious guts. You’re killing your darlings. But the result, as Clair Obscur proves, can be a game where every system feels considered, where the pacing is tight, and where you’re left wanting more—in a good way. That’s so much better than the exhausting feeling of “ugh, I still have 40 hours of this?”
Can Phantom Blade Zero follow through?
So, will S-Game actually listen? The report suggests they might already be on that path. The jump in quality from their Gamescom 2024 demo to the 2025 build was apparently massive. That shows a team deep in the polish phase. This advice might just reinforce their existing direction.
But it’s one thing to polish combat and animations—which Phantom Blade Zero seems to be nailing—and another to make hard cuts to scope and story content. The temptation to add “just one more” boss or area is huge, especially for a stylish, ambitious action RPG. My bet? They’ll trim, but maybe not as ruthlessly as Sandfall did. And that’s okay. Different games need different approaches.
A trend we desperately need
Look, I don’t think every game needs to be a tight 20-hour experience. But I do think more studios need to embrace the “delete things” mantra. We’re seeing the backlash to bloat already. Players are burnt out. They’re craving focus and quality over sheer quantity.
When a Game of the Year winner credits cutting content as a key to its success, people notice. It gives other devs, especially indies, permission to focus. It tells publishers that maybe a smaller, more polished game is a safer bet than a gigantic, messy one. Basically, it’s a professional validation of “less is more.” And in today’s gaming landscape, that’s not just good advice—it might be essential.
