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Too often in games I can act like a complete ass, get one line of dialogue about being nice, then the conversation moves on. The best part is that people actually respond in a realistic way when you speak to them aggressively, interrupt them, or maintain your manners and respect. The dialogue is also well written and is presented in an engaging timed-response system in which different dialogue options are only available at limited times. The soundtrack, which varies from classical to synthwave-y, perfectly punctuates story and action. This is true during combat, but it's doubly true outside, with simple body language doing a lot to sell anger, confusion, joy, and exhaustion.
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Every character’s every movement is animated with enough detail and nuance to really bring them to life and give them personality. I’ve knocked games quite often in the past for falling back on retro pixel graphics as a crutch to make up for poor artistic vision, but Katana Zero’s sprites and animation are top-notch. The story works so well in large part due to the wonderful presentation. The way Katana Zero uses its drug-infused time-manipulating premise to play with the player’s perception not only of the narrative but of actual gameplay and progress is deeply satisfying and is a perfect example of the type of stories that only video games can tell. What begins as a simple arcade action-platformer develops into a genuinely intriguing mystery about time, memory, drugs, relationships, and even mental health. If easy-to-learn, tough-to-master twitch combat was all that Katana Zero had going for it it’d still be a solid game that I’d probably recommend, but after the game’s opening mission or two the narrative starts to take hold and the wheels start turning for what becomes one of my favorite narrative gaming experiences in recent memory. There were a few rooms that took me dozens and dozens of tries, and, while I can’t say I was never frustrated, the frustration always seemed surmountable and made my eventual victory all the sweeter. It’s all incredibly satisfying and really garners a palpable sense of achievement upon success. One hit kills just about everything (including Zero), so perfecting your timing, maneuvering, and spacial management is absolutely critical. What you get early is what you get, which gives the game time to really dig into the depth of its set up.
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There are no skill points, no combos, and no weapon improvements to work towards. Right away you’ll have the ability to slow time, slash with your sword, roll dodge, and throw environmental pickups, and nothing is added to that the entire game. Part of the game’s beauty is how much depth the combat is afforded by such a modest amount of actual moves and controls. You’ll be plopped into a map and asked to fight through it in order to eliminate a target. The first level or two play the concept pretty straight. As you can imagine, these facts combine to make him one of the scariest dudes in town. He dresses like a samurai, and he’s got the incredibly helpful ability to manipulate time. We know he’s a veteran of the losing side of a war. Katana Zero is also so much more than I expected it to be when I started playing.Īt the start of the game, you know just about as much about Zero as he knows about himself, which isn’t much. Dressed like a samurai, and with a skill set to match, our protagonist Zero is a contract killer adept at infiltrating and taking out high profile targets.
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Given the general gist of things, I'd forgive you for thinking that Katana Zero is just another pick-up-and-play, brutally hard action game in the same vein as genre heavyweight Hotline Miami.