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The gaming industry came together to celebrate its biggest achievements in 2025 when The Game Awards reconvened in Los Angeles this month. Den of Geek was on site to attend, not only reflecting on a triumphant year, especially for indie games, but also to get a sneak peek of what is set to launch in 2026. This preview included several hands-on game demos of early builds from upcoming eagerly anticipated games set to debut throughout the new year.
From imaginative dungeon-crawlers to unique twists on fantasy hack-and-slash adventures, 2026 is quickly shaping up to be packed with exciting new games. This comes as The Game Awards provided plenty of blockbuster announcements as part of the star-studded annual event. Without further ado, here’s what we saw at The Game Awards 2025 and got to sit down and play for ourselves.
Phantom Blade Zero
S-GAME has been working on Phantom Blade Zero for a long time and all that hard work is definitely setting up the title to become one of the most hotly anticipated fantasy action games of 2026. Set in the Phantom World, drawing from cultural and mythological elements from China’s Ming Dynasty, the game lets you play as Soul, a stoic assassin with a reserved demeanor working for a powerful organization known simply as The Order. After being framed for murder, Soul becomes the focus of a harrowing manhunt, with a grave injury leaving him 66 days to live. Soul is determined to learn who set him up with the time that he has left.
We had previously played an early build of Phantom Blade Zero at Summer Game Fest 2024 and, in the subsequent year and half, the game has come a long way since its already impressive teaser. The latest build that S-GAME let us play with goes even deeper with the experience, navigating through a feudal village besieged by monstrous forces inspired by classic Chinese folklore. This build gave me a fuller idea of what the game will ultimately look like, from a wider arsenal of weapons to choose from on the fly, a more formidable array of combat and evasion techniques, and a more sweeping look at the gorgeous environments as I lethally flitted between enemies in the village and nearby canyon.
Just as with the SGF 2024 build, this early version of the game really soared during its boss battles, and I powered through several during this demo. There is an intensely operatic feel to these set pieces, whether caught in a frenzied duel on a rooftop overlooking a valley or confronting a real juggernaut of an opponent in a burning courtyard. S-GAME was heavily inspired by classical wuxia and anyone who’s ever seen something like Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will recognize these familiar martial arts aesthetics.
Despite its emphasis on melee combat and dark fantasy elements, Phantom Blade Zero isn’t a soulslike game and, with more elegant fighting styles, it’s not quite a standard hack-and-slash experience either. Instead the game feels like a blend of epic historical martial arts films, including Once Upon a Time in China, along with intense action that favors technique and timing, but without the unforgiving difficulty of a soulslike. For any fan of the fantasy genre or sword-based combat, this a title to definitely keep an eye on going into 2026.
Developed and published by S-GAME, Phantom Blade Zero launches Sept. 5 for PlayStation 5 and PC.
DAMON and BABY
While Arc System Works may be hard at work continuing to support fighting games like Guilty Gear Strive and the upcoming Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, they’re also working on a variety of original games debuting throughout 2026. One of the earliest is DAMON and BABY, a cozy dungeon-crawler with a solid companionship dynamic. Players control Damon, the Demon King, as he navigates dimly lit caverns and other environments with a child riding atop his shoulders.
I got to play an early build of DAMON and BABY and one of the things that struck me as unique about it right away was the fact that Damon isn’t armed with the medieval melee weapons typical to the genre, but a modern handgun. Using both joysticks, players can move and aim as they blast through waves of enemies. Though the demo started with Damon armed only with a sidearm, other glimpses at the game showcase him with an expanded arsenal, including with submachine guns and assault rifles. This sets it significantly apart from other games in the genre, though there are also melee mechanics for those who want to get up close and personal.
The other big mechanic is how Damon works with Baby to advance, able to throw the little girl and warp to her when it comes to the game’s platforming elements. This also informs the game’s quirky humor, which I got snippets of while playing through the build, though a lot of this experience was understandably geared more towards the gameplay than the overarching narrative. Finally, Arc System Works teased that the game would feature two-player co-op gameplay, though I didn’t have the chance to give it a spin at this time.
Another step beyond the fighting game genre that Arc System Works usually associated with, DAMON and BABY is set up to be a quirky and approachable title some time in 2026. For all the gameplay and fantasy action, this title feels much more intimate in scale, closer to something like Silksong rather than a big, bombastic spectacle. This was only an early build of the game that I got to sample, but I’m intrigued to see where Arc System Works goes with this.
Developed and published by Arc System Works, Damon and Baby launches in early 2026 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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