Jax is an avid gamer since young. Starting from SUper Mario on NES, he discover his passion for the world of video gaming. Currently a PS3 and Xbox 360 gamer, Jax is actively looking for the 'next better game'. Jax is also the chief editor for GameTrader.SG blog.
If you stayed up late to catch the latest episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity on Disney+ Singapore, Episode 44 delivered one of the arc’s most anticipated casting reveals — and it was worth the wait.
Yuki Kaji Officially Joins BLEACH as Adult Toshiro Hitsugaya
For those catching up on the lore: completing his Bankai causes Hitsugaya to age rapidly into an adult body, consuming ice that would normally crystallise around him. It is the payoff to years of build-up — and because the adult form is a different character in every meaningful way, the creative team brought in a separate voice actor rather than have Romi Park pitch-shift. Kaji steps into a role Singapore anime fans will recognise immediately: he is the voice of Eren Yeager across all four seasons of Attack on Titan, Shoto Todoroki in My Hero Academia, Meliodas in The Seven Deadly Sins, and Kenma Kozume in Haikyu!!.
Episode 44 — What Goes Down in “The Perfect Crimson”
Image courtesy of Studio Pierrot / TV Tokyo
The episode throws Kenpachi Zaraki, Hitsugaya, and Byakuya Kuchiki together against Gerard Valkyrie, the Sternritter whose “Miracle” power proves infuriatingly hard to put down — every sword-chip triggers a new miracle, steadily turning the tide against the three captains. Kenpachi charges in on pure instinct, but even his raw output is not enough to break through. Simultaneously, Ichigo endures Yhwach’s assault in the throne room, waiting for any opening to turn the fight around.
It is a dense episode that juggles three fronts without losing momentum, and Studio Pierrot’s animation on the Gerard sequences is — as fans on X Singapore have already noted — genuinely spectacular.
Final Trailer | BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Final Part – The Calamity | INTL SUBS | VIZ — via vizmedia on YouTube
A Rotating Ending — Rukia Takes the Spotlight
Image courtesy of Studio Pierrot / TV Tokyo
One running detail worth noting: each episode of The Calamity swaps out a character in the ending animation to mirror whoever the narrative spotlights that week. Episode 1 featured Ichigo, Episode 2 replaced him with Kisuke Urahara, Episode 3 switched to Orihime Inoue, and now Episode 4 places Rukia Kuchiki front and centre — a neat creative touch that rewards attentive viewers. The ending theme remains “Rasen” by 9Lana.
Streaming on Disney+ Singapore — No Extra Cost
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity streams internationally on Disney+, which covers Singapore. As we covered when Part 4 launched locally, no separate purchase is needed beyond a standard Disney+ subscription. With the cour officially locked in at 10 episodes, Episode 44 is the fourth instalment — just past the opening stretch, and with the most brutal fights still ahead. New episodes land Saturday nights JST, which means Sunday mornings in Singapore.
One month out and Insomniac Games has shown its hand. The 42-second D23 Showcase Sizzle, released at this weekend’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, finally lays out who Logan and his allies are up against when Marvel’s Wolverine hits PS5 on September 15. The short answer: Sentinels, Sabretooth, Mystique, and a very familiar mutant-hating industrialist narrating about extinction.
Image courtesy of Insomniac Games / MarvelMarvel’s Wolverine – D23 Showcase Sizzle | PS5 Games — via PlayStation on YouTube
The Marvel’s Wolverine D23 Villain Roster in Full
The SDCC story trailer already confirmed Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike, but D23 expands the rogue’s gallery substantially. Sentinels — the towering mutant-hunting robots and one of the most iconic threats in X-Men comics — appear in Wolverine footage for the first time. Sabretooth and Mystique are also confirmed. Bolivar Trask narrates the sizzle with a line that sets the stakes directly: “Let me introduce mutant kind’s extinction.”
Trask, the scientist behind the Sentinel programme, appears to be the human orchestrator with Omega Red as his muscle. Between street-level Hand ninjas, cybernetic Reavers, Sabretooth, Deathstrike, and now Sentinels, the game is stacking an antagonist roster that covers every tier of threat Wolverine faces in the comics.
Jean Grey and Team X Are Fighting Alongside Logan
Image courtesy of Insomniac Games / Marvel
Jean Grey is more than a cameo. The sizzle frames her and Logan as co-leads protecting mutantkind, with her telekinetic abilities on clear display alongside the story’s core threat. Whether she’s a playable character or a key NPC ally, her role alongside Team X — the covert mutant unit from Logan’s past — signals that the story leans deep into X-Men mythology rather than treating this as a pure solo brawler.
The confirmed story locations span Madripoor, the Canadian wilderness, and Tokyo, which maps onto a genuinely globe-trotting scope for the campaign.
What Singapore PS5 Players Need to Know Before September 15
Image courtesy of Insomniac Games / Marvel
The game is a PS5 exclusive on September 15, 2026. Insomniac has confirmed 60 fps with ray tracing as the default on the standard PS5 — no Pro required to hit the intended visual target. It is also Insomniac’s first mature-rated Marvel project; the Spider-Man games were rated T for Teen, and this is clearly positioned differently.
We covered the Battle Yellow PS5 Digital Edition bundle at SGD 849 when Sony confirmed Singapore pricing — pre-orders for the hardware open on 19 August. The standard game edition is priced at USD 69.99 globally; local PlayStation Store pricing in SGD has not been officially confirmed separately. Check the PlayStation Store for the latest. For more upcoming game releases, we’ll have full coverage as September approaches.
After four years of near-silence, Kingdom Hearts IV finally has a release window — and a first Disney world that nobody had on their bingo card. At D23’s Disney Entertainment Showcase, Square Enix and Disney confirmed the game launches in late 2027, and handed Sora a Keyblade shaped like a guitar in the Land of the Dead from Pixar’s Coco.
The trailer went up on Pixar’s own YouTube channel rather than Square Enix’s, which tells you how much Disney wants this crossover front and centre. It is the first Pixar world ever confirmed for a mainline Kingdom Hearts game.
KINGDOM HEARTS IV | D23 2026 Showcase Trailer — via Pixar on YouTube
Pixar’s Coco is the first Kingdom Hearts IV world
The roughly 90-second trailer opens inside Coco‘s story rather than beside it. Papá Héctor explains the Final Death — what happens to the dead once the living stop remembering them — before Miguel steps up to a microphone and performs for a crowd. Then the Heartless arrive, and Sora drops in wearing the same calavera face paint as everyone else in the plaza.
That is a meaningful change in how these worlds are built. Kingdom Hearts has spent two decades dropping Sora into Disney films alongside their plots; here he is inside the story beats, in costume, fighting through a sequence the movie’s own characters are living. His Keyblade even reshapes into a skull-fronted guitar to match — the same instrument that drives Coco‘s plot.
Still from Pixar’s official KINGDOM HEARTS IV D23 2026 Showcase trailer.
The other detail worth flagging: neither Donald nor Goofy appears anywhere in the Coco footage. Sora fights alongside Héctor instead, which lines up with where the story left off.
Kingdom Hearts IV release window: late 2027, on almost everything
Square Enix pinned the game to late 2027 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store and Xbox on PC. The Steam store page is already live and wishlistable in Singapore, listing Square Enix as both developer and publisher with a 2027 window.
That platform spread is the real break from series tradition. Kingdom Hearts has been PlayStation-first since 2002, with Nintendo getting the handheld spin-offs and, eventually, cloud versions of the mainline games on Switch. Kingdom Hearts IV is the first numbered entry launching natively on a Nintendo home console on day one — Switch 2 sitting in the same launch bracket as PS5 would have been unthinkable a console generation ago. Square Enix Asia put out its own cut of the platform teaser back in June:
KINGDOM HEARTS IV – Teaser Trailer | June 2026 — via Square Enix Asia on YouTube
One caveat worth keeping in mind: this franchise has a long record of slipping. A “late 2027” window announced in mid-2026 leaves a lot of runway, and Square Enix has not committed to a date.
Image courtesy of Square Enix.
Donald, Goofy and the search for Sora
The trailer also checked in on the rescue party. King Mickey, Donald and Goofy are still hunting for Sora after the events of Kingdom Hearts III, and the footage shows them in the Underworld putting the question to Hades — who confirms Sora is not among his dead.
Image courtesy of Square Enix.
Strelitzia and Sigurd from Kingdom Hearts Union χ were also confirmed to return, which will matter enormously to anyone who has been tracking the Lost Master arc since the mobile game shut down.
Quadratum, the Tokyo that isn’t
The game’s hub is still Quadratum, the photoreal city Square Enix’s Osaka team modelled on Tokyo — a fictionalised Shibuya and Minami-Aoyama, with Sora keeping an apartment there as an early-game base. It is the most grounded setting the series has ever used, and it is where Sora wakes up after Kingdom Hearts III, unable to get home.
Still from Pixar’s official KINGDOM HEARTS IV D23 2026 Showcase trailer.
Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue are directing, with Yoko Shimomura returning to score. Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher are back as Sora and Riku.
Image courtesy of Square Enix.
Kingdom Hearts is becoming an animated series too
The second announcement out of D23 was a Kingdom Hearts anime series, greenlit for Disney+ and Disney Channel, made with Nomura and the Square Enix creative team. It will not retell the games — Disney is describing it as a new story inside the same universe, with an original lead rather than Sora.
Speaking in Disney’s announcement, as carried by Nerdist, Disney Kids & Family president Ayo Davis said the show would be “unmistakably ‘Kingdom Hearts'” while giving fans “a whole new way to experience the world they love”. No premiere window, studio or staff beyond Nomura’s involvement has been named.
For Singapore, only half of that distribution matters: Disney Channel no longer exists here. It went dark on local pay-TV in June 2020 and the wider Southeast Asian feed shut down in October 2021, with everything folded into Disney+, which launched in Singapore in February 2021. So when this series arrives, Disney+ is where SG viewers will find it — assuming it carries the same rights into this region, which has not been confirmed either way yet.
The 25th anniversary panel airs Sunday morning, Singapore time
There is more coming almost immediately. D23’s DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS panel — an hour marking the series’ 25th anniversary in 2027 — runs at 4.30pm Pacific on 15 August, which is 7.30am on Sunday 16 August in Singapore. Kingdom Hearts IV co-director Tai Yasue is on the panel alongside Osment, Gallagher, Disney & Pixar Games’ Nana Gadd and Disney Character Voices’ Renée Johnson.
It streams on the official Kingdom Hearts and Disney YouTube channels plus The Game Awards’ YouTube and Twitch. The catch, per Square Enix: there is no VOD afterwards. If you want to see it, you are setting an alarm for a Sunday morning.
Catching up before 2027
Late 2027 is a long wait, and the back catalogue is unusually cheap right now. At the time of writing, the Singapore Steam store has Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX at S$19.23 (down from S$64.10), and both Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind and HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue at S$24.03 (down from S$80.10) — all 70% off. That is roughly S$67 for the whole run-up to Kingdom Hearts IV, which is a far friendlier entry point than the series’ reputation for convoluted spin-offs suggests.
We will have more as the D23 panel airs. In the meantime, there is plenty more in game news and manga and anime on the blog.
Square Enix dropped its biggest Kingdom Hearts news in four years at D23 in Anaheim overnight: Kingdom Hearts 4 has a late 2027 release window, its first confirmed Disney world is Pixar’s Coco, and a brand new Kingdom Hearts anime series is heading to Disney+ and Disney Channel. Following this morning’s Kingdom Hearts 25th anniversary deep-dive preview, here is everything revealed at the Disney Entertainment Showcase.
Kingdom Hearts 4 – Official Coco Showcase Trailer | D23 2026 — via IGN on YouTube
Sora Steps Into the Land of the Dead
Image courtesy of Square Enix
The Land of the Dead is Kingdom Hearts 4’s first confirmed Disney world, and in a notable first for the franchise, the trailer establishes that this world follows the plot of the 2017 Pixar film rather than telling a separate side story. Papa Hector opens the sequence by explaining the concept of The Final Death to Miguel: those forgotten by the living eventually fade from existence entirely in the afterlife. Miguel is then shown performing for a crowd as Heartless materialise around him, and Sora arrives to deal with them.
Sora appears dressed in Día de los Muertos face paint and Coco-appropriate clothing, blending naturally into the world’s visual language. The Land of the Dead is rendered in vivid, layered detail — the city’s tiered architecture lit up in gold and violet across the cable car sequences — making it one of the most visually striking worlds the series has ever shown.
The Guitar Keyblade and a Fight Alongside Papa Hector
Image courtesy of Square Enix
Each world in Kingdom Hearts hands Sora a Keyblade that reflects its aesthetic. The Coco world’s version takes the form of a guitar decorated with sugar skull motifs, marigold flowers and warm-toned light — immediately one of the most striking Keyblade designs in the series’ history. The trailer shows Sora fighting alongside Papa Hector, confirming the skeleton musician as a party ally.
The trailer also shows Strelitzia and Sigurd — characters from the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union χ — appearing in Quadratum alongside Sora. Their presence is a clear signal that the Union χ storyline threads are being woven into the main game, which will matter enormously to fans who stuck with that game through its ending.
Mickey, Donald and Goofy Are Searching — Through Hades
On the other side of the story, King Mickey, Donald Duck and Goofy are shown visiting what appears to be the underworld from Hercules. Dialogue from Hades confirms they have consulted him to track Sora’s location in Quadratum. Donald and Goofy appear as glowing outlines from Sora’s perspective, suggesting the two sides of the story connect across dimensions rather than crossing over directly — a neat way to reintroduce the classic trio without pulling Sora out of Quadratum.
Taken together, the trailer does a great deal in under 90 seconds: new world, Coco-specific Keyblade, returning friends, and enough Union χ fan service to reward players who completed the mobile game’s storyline.
Kingdom Hearts: The Series — On Disney+ Singapore
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Disney
Beyond the game, Disney announced Kingdom Hearts: The Series — an original anime following a new character (not Sora) set within the Kingdom Hearts universe. It will air on Disney Channel and stream on Disney+, meaning Disney+ Singapore subscribers will have access once it launches. No specific date was given, with the announcement card simply reading “Coming Soon.”
Kingdom Hearts 4 is confirmed for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store — all platforms simultaneously, with a “late 2027” window. For Switch 2 owners in Singapore, that simultaneous release is the key detail: there is no longer any ambiguity about a Switch version. As we covered earlier today, the franchise recently crossed the one-billion-dollar revenue milestone, giving Square Enix considerable commercial momentum going into this launch.
No specific date or price has been announced. Follow our Game News section for any further Kingdom Hearts updates from D23 or Gamescom later this month.
Disney has officially confirmed what longtime fans have suspected for years: Kingdom Hearts is a billion-dollar franchise. The announcement landed this week ahead of a dedicated D23 Deep Dive panel streaming tonight — and Singapore fans can catch it live on Sunday morning.
Kingdom Hearts Hits the Billion-Dollar Mark
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Disney
Sean Shoptaw, Executive Vice President of Global Games and Digital Entertainment at Disney, revealed in an official blog post that the company’s games division now spans nine franchises that have each cleared $1 billion in retail revenue. Kingdom Hearts is one of them — sitting in the Disney & Pixar Games label alongside Marvel Strike Force and titles from Lucasfilm Games and 20th Century Games.
Shoptaw noted that “games have become such an important part of the broader Disney landscape” and are increasingly “the first place audiences discover Disney’s characters and worlds.” Disney Games as a whole drove an estimated $3.5 billion in annual consumer spending in recent years, surpassing $4 billion in the most recent fiscal year. It’s a remarkable figure for a series that began as an unlikely crossover between Square Enix’s Final Fantasy DNA and Disney’s beloved animated worlds back in 2002.
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Disney
Watch the D23 Deep Dive Live — Sunday Morning SGT
The timing of the billion-dollar reveal is no accident. Disney is hosting a “Deep Dive Into Kingdom Hearts” panel at its D23 fan event in Anaheim today, August 15, at 4:30 PM PT — that’s 7:30 AM SGT on Sunday, 16 August. The hour-long session will be livestreamed on the official Kingdom Hearts YouTube channel and the Disney YouTube channel, so Singapore fans can set an alarm and tune in from the couch.
DEEP DIVE Into KINGDOM HEARTS | D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event — via KINGDOM HEARTS on YouTube
Note: the panel may not be saved as a VOD after the stream, so watch live if you can. If it is archived, we’ll update this post.
What to Expect From the Panel
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Disney
The panel commemorates the series’ 25th anniversary (the actual milestone falls in 2027) and is confirmed to feature a behind-the-scenes look at how the games come together. Panellists include:
Nana Gadd — Disney & Pixar Games
Tai Yasue — co-director at Square Enix
Haley Joel Osment — voice of Sora (and Vanitas)
David Gallagher — voice of Riku
Renée Johnson — Disney character voices
Disney has not confirmed outright that Kingdom Hearts IV will appear, but with Tai Yasue on stage, the series co-director in tow, and the franchise’s biggest financial milestone as backdrop, anticipation among fans is understandably high. Speculation is running hot on whether a new KH4 trailer — possibly showing English voice acting and the first confirmed Disney worlds — could drop during the stream.
The Switch 2 Collection Is Still on Track for October
Image courtesy of Square Enix / Disney
For Singapore fans who haven’t played the older entries, good news: the Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] — covering HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX, HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind — is still confirmed for Nintendo Switch 2 on 8 October 2026, alongside PS5 and Xbox Series X|S releases. As we covered when the collection was confirmed for Switch 2, the original Switch versions will run via cloud streaming. This is the complete, native way to get the full saga on Nintendo hardware before KH4 arrives.
Set that alarm for Sunday morning. If anything big drops from the D23 stage, we’ll have the breakdown up shortly after. Check in on our game news section for the follow-up.
The Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu anime turned twenty this year, and KADOKAWA is marking the occasion with a full programme of events — including a Tokyo exhibition that runs through 30 August, an ABEMA special stream kicking off 16 August (that’s tomorrow), and a limited Seiko chronograph that costs more than most consoles but looks spectacular. For Singapore fans: both anime seasons and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya are on Crunchyroll right now.
SOS Exhibition at Sunshine City Ikebukuro
The SOS展〜世界を大いに盛り上げた涼宮ハルヒの展〜 is running from 10 to 30 August 2026 at Sunshine City Ikebukuro (文化会館ビル2F 展示ホールD), open daily 10:00–19:00. Tickets are ¥2,500 for timed entry; a ¥2,000 merchandise exchange ticket is also available for those primarily there for the goods. The exhibition’s illustration is by original character designer Noizi Ito (いとうのいぢ), featuring new visuals of the full SOS Brigade.
Starting 16 August, ABEMA is running a special anniversary stream of the series — Japan-only, unfortunately. What is accessible from anywhere: KADOKAWA’s official 20th anniversary PV (embedded below), and a voice cast appreciation video featuring Aya Hirano (Haruhi), Tomokazu Sugita (Kyon), Minori Chihara (Nagato), Yuko Goto (Mikuru), and Daisuke Ono (Koizumi).
Official 20th anniversary PV — via KADOKAWAanime on YouTube
Where Singapore Fans Can Watch
Both Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu seasons (2006 and 2009) and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya film are available on Crunchyroll in Singapore. If you have never seen it: the 2009 broadcast order, which opens differently from the original air order, is the one generally recommended for first-time viewers. The film — covering the events of the fourth light novel — is one of the stronger theatrical anime releases of its decade and holds up well twenty years later.
The Seiko Collaboration Watch
A limited-edition Seiko chronograph is part of the 20th anniversary merchandise line. It features a light-blue dial referencing Haruhi’s school uniform, an “H” marker at 12 o’clock, and the SOS Brigade emblem engraved on the case back. Specs: quartz movement, stainless steel case, 10 ATM water resistance. Price: ¥65,780 (approximately S$595). Pre-orders are through PREMICO; estimated shipping is mid-December 2026. Seiko anime collabs tend to move fast, so if this is on your radar it’s worth bookmarking before general sale opens.
Japan can’t get enough of Chiikawa — and honestly, neither can we.
THE MOVIE CHIIKAWA: THE SECRET OF THE MERMAID ISLAND has officially crossed ¥8.07 billion (roughly S$73 million) at the Japanese box office as of August 14, cementing its place as the top-grossing film in Japan for 2026. That’s a massive number for a movie that only opened on July 18 — just under four weeks of theatrical run.
The ¥8 billion milestone follows an enormous opening weekend and relentless word of mouth that has kept audiences coming back week after week. With the film now hitting Southeast Asia from August 20, those international numbers are only going to climb.
The non-credit opening animation, released officially this week — pure Chiikawa magic.
The production team also dropped the full non-credit OP this week, and it’s a stunning piece of animation. The sequence leans fully into the cosy, watercolour-tinged world Nagano built — and if you weren’t already emotionally compromised by this franchise, this clip will do the job. It’s been making the rounds online and it’s easy to see why.
The movie also introduces a set of armoured antagonists who look wildly out of place in the usually soft and gentle Chiikawa universe — which is precisely what makes them so unsettling. Promotional materials have leaned into the contrast between the cute and the ominous, and fans have clearly responded to it.
For Singapore fans, here’s the news you actually came for: Golden Village is running a special Chiikawa Fans Screening at GV Suntec on August 22, and tickets go on sale today (August 14) at 3PM. Prices are $30 for standard seats and $28 for GV members. The wider theatrical release in Singapore begins August 20, but if you want the full fans-screening energy with fellow Chiikawa devotees, August 22 is your date.
With Japan’s box office firmly in its pocket and a dedicated fan community here in Singapore, THE MOVIE CHIIKAWA: THE SECRET OF THE MERMAID ISLAND is shaping up to be one of the anime events of the year locally. Tickets for the fans screening won’t last — set a reminder for 3PM today.
Manga readers have been hyped about this one for a while. Tank Chair — the action series about a wheelchair-bound combatant who refuses to be anything but the most dangerous person in any room — is getting its anime adaptation from Polygon Pictures, premiering October 4, 2026 on Tokyo MX.
Based on Manabu Yashiro’s manga serialised in Monthly Shonen Sirius (Kodansha), Tank Chair follows Nagi Taira, a young man who takes on enemies from a custom combat wheelchair — the Tank Chair. The tagline says it all: 座して、最強. Seated, the strongest.
Polygon Pictures Steps Up
The studio choice is a deliberate one. Polygon Pictures has built their name on action-heavy titles with precise visual execution — Ajin: Demi-Human, Knights of Sidonia, Drifting Dragons — and Tank Chair’s central mechanic, with combat choreography built around a wheelchair in motion, benefits from exactly the kind of CG animation discipline Polygon brings. Fight sequences in the trailer already show the Chair being used as both a weapon and a vehicle in ways that feel mechanically grounded.
Cast
Koki Uchiyama as Nagi Taira
Minori Fujidera as Shizuka
Saori Hayami as Touko Kurosaka
Gakuto Kajiwara as Naozumi
Uchiyama brings the kind of intensity this role needs — he handles emotionally complex protagonists well, and Nagi is not a simple character. Hayami as Touko and Kajiwara as Naozumi round out what looks like a strong core cast from the key visual.
SiM on the Opening — This Is Going to Be Loud
Opening theme: “DALALA” by SiM. The Yokohama punk-metal outfit known for their hard-hitting anime theme work is a dead-on match for Tank Chair’s energy — aggressive premise, aggressive sound. If the OP hits as hard as it looks in the trailer, this one is going straight into the gym playlist.
Ending theme: “SYNC” by Daoko, bringing an atmospheric, introspective counterweight to balance out each episode’s intensity.
Official Trailer
Tank Chair premieres October 4, 2026. No Southeast Asian streaming platform has been announced yet — we will update this post when simulcast details drop. Keep it locked to GameTrader.
Two pieces of confirmed news make the upcoming Phantom Blade Zero State of Play worth blocking your Tuesday calendar for: action icon Donnie Yen is officially in the game as a central character, and the dedicated PlayStation broadcast lands this Tuesday 18 August at 10am SGT.
Phantom Blade Zero – State of Play Gameplay Deep Dive | PS5 Games — via PlayStation on YouTube
Donnie Yen Is Mó Yuan — Voice, Face, and Motion Capture
Hong Kong martial arts icon Donnie Yen — known across Singapore and Southeast Asia for the Ip Man series, John Wick 4, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — has been contributing to Phantom Blade Zero as a creative consultant since 2023. S-GAME has now confirmed he goes further than that: Yen provides the voice, facial model, and full motion capture performance for Mó Yuan, a commanding elder figure who looms at the centre of protagonist Soul’s story.
The pre-order trailer offered the first clear look at Mó Yuan — a dark-robed patriarch carrying a glowing infant in one hand and an ornate sword in the other, carrying Donnie Yen’s features directly from face scan. His involvement makes particular sense for Singapore and the region: Yen has defined Hong Kong action cinema for two decades, and Phantom Blade Zero’s dark wuxia setting is precisely that genre transplanted into a PS5 action RPG. Having him shape the physical performance of a central character, not just advise on fight choreography, adds a layer of authenticity that’s rare in gaming.
Image courtesy of S-GAME
What the State of Play Will Show
The broadcast promises nearly 20 minutes of new gameplay, covering two areas the 11-minute pre-order showcase only teased: story characters we haven’t seen yet, and the breadth of build expression the game supports. S-GAME has previously described a deep weapon and skill customisation system; this State of Play should be the first time it’s explained in meaningful detail — Sony’s own words are “just how expressive players can be with their individual builds.”
The game follows Soul, an elite operative framed for the murder of The Order’s patriarch and left with 66 days to live. The existing trailer has already shown open-environment traversal, large boss encounters, and close-quarters combat with a visual intensity that draws comparisons to animated Hong Kong action. The State of Play should expand all of that considerably.
Image courtesy of S-GAME
When and Where to Watch in Singapore
The Phantom Blade Zero State of Play airs at:
Monday, 17 August at 7:00pm PT / 10:00pm ET (US)
Tuesday, 18 August at 10:00am SGT / HKT (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong)
Tuesday, 18 August at 11:00am JST (Japan)
Watch live on the official PlayStation YouTube channel or PlayStation Twitch. Tuesday at 10am is a comfortable morning watch — and with Phantom Blade Zero launching on 29 October, this is likely the last major reveal before pre-release hands-on coverage begins ahead of reviews.
Image courtesy of S-GAME
Pre-Orders and Release
Phantom Blade Zero launches on 29 October 2026 on PS5 and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store). Pre-orders are live now on the PlayStation Store Singapore, Steam, and Epic — early purchase unlocks the Treasure Basin accessory and Legacy outfit, both also earnable through normal progression. Check the Singapore storefront directly for confirmed SGD pricing.
