Aki Masamune Beats a Two-Phase Boss After About 40 Minutes in Phantom Blade Zero

ASTARS PRODUCTION — Aki Masamune beat a boss with a second phase in Phantom Blade Zero on Tuesday, ending about 40 minutes of attempts and claiming a chain scythe as a new weapon. The fight came in the first episode of a new series on the Chinese martial-arts action game, a stream that ran more than five hours.

Aki Masamune, a first-generation member of AStars production, streamed in Thai. He opened by sorting out the picture and sound, placing his model at the top of the screen so it would stay clear of the game’s health bar and weapon icons, and picked Normal difficulty after a look at the hardest setting. He said he expected the game to take about a month. Early in the story he had to choose between two ways to survive a wound to the heart: one would have left the hero without human emotion, the other, a poison heart, kept him alive for roughly 60 days. He took the poison heart and read out the countdown as in-game days passed, with 61 left late in the night.

“My hands and arms are shaking. I’ve never had it this bad before.” — Aki Masamune, after beating the boss

The following hours went to learning the game’s parry-and-dodge combat, upgrading gear and working through side errands, among them gathering herbs for an apprentice healer and having a veteran archer repair a broken bow so he could use it. He won a blade that makes enemies bleed in an early fight and a giant axe from a hulking opponent later, using the axe to cut iron chains. He said the game’s over-the-top dialogue had him slipping into the same dramatic voice himself, and chat said he did it naturally.

The hardest stretch came in the third hour, when a bride-themed boss that sent out flowers and poison cost him several attempts. A later boss revealed a second phase and took roughly 40 minutes. He said he had used nearly every key, among them Q, Shift, Control, W, S, D and the number keys, that right-clicking was wearing him out, and that his legs and hands were trembling. When the boss fell, he said the adrenaline would keep him from sleeping, and played on.

He kept going for more than an hour, past 1 a.m. by his own count, and talked with chat about the cooler weather and anime recommendations. Near the end he lost his last attempts against a boss, a swordsman who fought with a wine cup, and left it for the next session. He thanked viewers, said his neck was sore and the game was great fun, and said he expected to be back the next day around 8 p.m.