Phantom Blade Zero and the 15-year-old Rainblood franchise

That older game ran on Unity and was described as a 2D hack-and-slash brawler. Kotaku also reports that the Xbox and PlayStation versions of Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage now appear to have been delisted.

What happened

Kotaku frames Phantom Blade Zero as the latest and far more ambitious step in S-Game’s Rainblood series. The franchise dates back to the early 2010s and, according to the report, includes two earlier Rainblood games followed by Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage in 2013. That places Phantom Blade Zero not as a standalone new project, but as part of a development line that has been running for more than 15 years.

The first two entries launched in 2010 and 2011. According to the source, only the first game made it to the West through a fan translation, which may have been approved by S-Game CEO Qiwei "Soulframe" Liang. The wording is cautious, so the exact scope of that approval is not fully clear. What is clear is that Liang plays a central role in the series’ history, both as a developer and as a name that comes up in the context of the older games’ English release.

Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage arrived in 2013 and differed technically from the earlier turn-based RPGs. The game ran on Unity and was described as a 2D hack-and-slash brawler. Kotaku says the Xbox and PlayStation versions of that game now appear to have been delisted. The available context does not give an exact date for the removal, so all that can be confirmed is that the console versions were no longer visible in the relevant stores at the time of reporting.

Timeline

2010 — The first Rainblood game releases; external context identifies it as Rainblood1: Town of Mystery and describes it as a Chinese indie RPG that launched in Europe and the US in May 2010.
2011 — The second Rainblood game releases; external context identifies it as Rainblood2: City of Flame and places its release in China in December 2011.
2013 — Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage launches on Unity as a 2D hack-and-slash brawler, becoming the series’ later action-focused entry.
2013 — According to the source, only the first Rainblood game reached the West via a fan translation, which may have been approved by Qiwei "Soulframe" Liang.
2026-10-09 — The provided source context says the Xbox and PlayStation versions of Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage now appear to have been delisted.

Background

The naming of the older Rainblood titles varies by source, with versions such as Rainblood1: Town of Mystery, Rainblood2: City of Flame, and Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage. That makes the exact English title history less consistent than the chronology itself. External context also describes Rainblood as an originally Chinese indie game series developed by Liang Qiwei and his studio SoulframE Studio.

The core thread is still clear: Phantom Blade Zero builds on a series that began as a Chinese indie RPG and later shifted toward action. The available context describes Rainblood1: Town of Mystery as an RPG Maker game and Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage as a later Unity release, showing how the series evolved both technically and in genre. That places the new game within a longer franchise history than Phantom Blade Zero’s current marketing might suggest at first glance.

The source context also notes that Rainblood1: Town of Mystery released in Europe and the US in May 2010, while Rainblood2: City of Flame launched in China in December 2011. That makes the series not only older than Phantom Blade Zero, but also spread across multiple regions and release formats. At the same time, the available information leaves open how the English titles should be standardized, since different sources use different transliterations and subtitles.

Sources

Kotaku: Phantom Blade Zero’s fast-paced action took 15 years, two RPG Maker games, and a whole lot of money to bring to life
Baidu Wiki context on Rainblood
GamesIndustry.biz context on Rainblood: Town of Death