Endings: eight routes and what decides
Facts checked 2026-10-28
The game has eight endings. Side quests, called Tales, have multiple outcomes and decide which conclusion you reach, so the ending is set long before the last boss.
Phantom Blade Zero has eight endings. They are not selected from a menu at the end: they are the accumulated result of how you resolved the side stories, called Tales, across the whole game.
That makes the ending system the most important thing to understand before your first playthrough, and the easiest thing to spoil by reading too much. This page explains the structure, not the scenes.
How the ending is decided
Tales have multiple outcomes. Each outcome is a small choice about who Soul helps and how, and those choices accumulate into one of eight conclusions.
The practical consequences:
- You cannot save-scum the ending at the final boss. The decision was made across the whole run.
- Skipping Tales is a choice. It leads to a conclusion, just a blunter one.
- The true ending has requirements beyond Tales. It asks for specific quest chains, high-tier optional challenge locations and hidden realms, which means the secret conclusion is a completionist reward rather than a dialogue option.
The structure, without spoilers
| Layer | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Main story | The baseline conclusion and which final chapters you see |
| Tales | Which variant of that conclusion you reach |
| Challenge locations and hidden realms | Whether the true ending is available at all |
Think of it as three gates: finish the story, finish the people, finish the world. The first is guaranteed, the second is missable, the third is optional.
What to do before the last chapter
- Finish every Tale you have started. Half-finished chains usually resolve to the default outcome.
- Clear the high-tier challenge locations. They are the gate on the true ending.
- Open the hidden realms. These are the traversal-gated areas; the regions page explains tool gates.
- Check the trophy list. Several quest trophies are direct markers of Tales you have completed; the trophy page is a decent proxy checklist.
Should you chase the true ending first?
Only if you are already a completionist. The true ending requires challenge content that will flatten a first-time player, and the normal endings are not lesser experiences — they are the story you earned by playing the way you played.
The cleaner plan: finish your first run honestly, then use New Game Plus with your arsenal intact to clear the challenge content and the remaining Tales. The New Game Plus page covers what carries over.
FAQ
How many endings are there?
Eight, according to S-GAME and the pre-launch material.
Can I get multiple endings in one save?
Not by reloading a final choice. The ending is set by Tale outcomes across the run, so a different ending means a different set of decisions, usually on a new run.
Is there a point of no return?
There is a final chapter, and the story can close off quests as it advances. Finish regional Tales before you push the main story into its last act.
Does the true ending have a trophy?
The trophy list does not include ending-specific trophies, so the eight conclusions are a story pursuit rather than a trophy requirement.
