Gu Long
Gu Long and Phantom Blade Zero: What the Creator Says
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Gu Long
The source is a GamerSky article of 30 July 2025 about an STN interview with Liang Qiwei during a hands-on event. It is a report. This page does not upgrade it into a transcript, and it does not add novel titles he is not quoted as naming.
Interview evidence
Asked whether Soul was shaped by Gu Long, Liang is reported to have said that he loves Gu Long’s work. The article then gives his description of Gu Long’s characters: a state of going mad, obsession, “mad inside and cold outside.” He is reported to have pointed at the chief disciple of the Seven-Star Sword Formation as a design meant to carry that nearly frantic temperament, in both the fight and the skills.
He is also reported to have said that many small stories in the game are like short Gu Long biographies. The article does not name those stories or those books. The report gives the comparison and does not name the books.
Character temperament
The useful part is the temperament, not a borrowed plot. Cold outside, driven inside, and a willingness to look excessive. That can sit on a disciple in a sword formation without making the formation a copy of a historical array or of one novel’s sect. The June 2026 letter only confirms that a seven-star formation was shown in 2025. It does not repeat the Gu Long comparison. The two sources stay in their years.
The same article reports a later description of Soul as the last post holding up a martial world that is about to collapse, even though the player feels very strong. That sentence is about the emotion Liang says he wants. It is not an ending.
Duel atmosphere
Liang is reported to have connected xia culture with ordinary people and to have set jianghu against the court. He wanted the main quest and the side quests to show that atmosphere. Duels, in this reported view, are not only damage. A flexible sword and a sonic attack by a six-fingered qin demon are his examples of weapons as emotion, and of forms that players used to large axes may not immediately understand.
The six-fingered qin figure appears in that report as an example of a weapon used for feeling. The report does not give the figure a separate biography.
Interpretation limits
Liang’s own 2023 essay names Jin Yong and several films. It does not name Gu Long. Readers should not “correct” the essay by importing the 2025 report, or erase the report because the essay was earlier. People add influences as a project goes on. What they do not do, on this site, is acquire a bibliography they never spoke.
English editions of Gu Long are a separate problem of publishing and rights. They are not part of this page.
Sources
- Press report · 2025-07-30GamerSky report of an STN interview on Gu Long 游民星空 · 2026-10-28
- Developer essay · 2023-05-24Phantom Blade Zero: a new beginning in a long journey PlayStation.Blog · 2026-10-28