More Devolver-published games? You bet. BACKGROUND:
I watched a bit of this game on a stream and thought it looked cool. That's it. No other reason. I tend to be easily impressed, it seems. I also streamed most of my playthrough of this game on Discord. The consensus seemed to be that this game was cool as shit. PLOT: You're known only as Subject Zero, and you're a contract killer carrying out assassinations. What makes you effective at your job is that you have the remarkable ability to slow down time and pretty much predict the future. Off the bat, the game starts out intriguing; your missions are being given to you by your psychiatrist, who doses you with a mysterious drug at the end of every session, and you see truly bizarre nightmares every night. As you play, more of the story is revealed, and it goes in a direction I truly didn't expect. You learn more about the origin of your time-bending abilities, the truth behind who you really are, and the actual reasons behind the targets being assigned to you. In addition, the game gets even more trippy as the story progresses, as Zero's mind unravels and the hallucinations get even more intense. I thought the story was cool, though I could see this being too much for other people to follow. My only real issue with the story is that it feels like it doesn't end on a definitive note. They're clearly setting up for a sequel or post-launch story content at the end, but there isn't really any resolution for what actually happens during the course of the game. PRESENTATION: The game's visuals have that retro feel, taking on a somewhat 16-bit pixel art style (albeit more polished than games from that era). Everything is decently detailed and boasts a diverse color palette, but the sprites still have the simplistic charm of old pixel art style games. The gore is also surprisingly graphic despite the visual style being relatively more limited. The music falls mostly into the techno/synth genre, and all the tracks complement the game's stylish action. Despite the lack of any proper voice acting, the game conveys the text-based dialogue in the visuals quite well, with well-animated speech bubbles (which incorporate everything from color to convey tone and moving letters to provide emphasis) and dynamic animation for the sprites. GAMEPLAY: Katana Zero is an action platformer where combat is the main focus. The objective is clear every room of enemies to proceed to the next. As Zero, you're able to run, jump, wall jump, dodge roll, and (in certain levels) sneak to position yourself next to enemies in order to slash the shit out of them with your sword. The sword doesn't really have any special abilities, but in midair, you can perform a sort of dash-slash in pretty much any direction, and you can also deflect bullets back at gun-wielding enemies with good timing. These don't seem like a lot, but they're more than enough to deliver a thrilling and stylish action experience. You don't get any additional abilities, either; what you have in the beginning is what you'll have at the end, so it's all about getting better at managing with what you have at your disposal. Zero's most valuable skill is the ability to slow down time for a limited time. This comes in handy in many situations, allowing you to react to otherwise quick attacks or to plan things out on the fly. It also makes the action look extra cool. If you get hit once by an enemy or a hazard, you die immediately and reset from the beginning of the level. This makes the game rather tough since you have to get a clean run in every time, but the reset only applies to one room; once you get past that room, your next reset will be at the beginning of the next room. Once you succeed, the game plays out a replay of your successful run, which adds to the satisfaction of a job well done. Many levels have hazards, like laser traps (which you can roll through) or crushers, as well as more benign mechanics like conveyor belts. Some of these things can be manipulated with switches, and you can even use the traps to kill enemies if you time things right. In addition, many levels have items in the environment that you can throw at enemies to kill them. Some of those items have special properties, like a Molotov cocktail that sets off explosive barrels nearby, a smokescreen that makes you invisible to enemies briefly, and even a sticky bomb that you can detonate remotely. Using these things to your advantage often leads to super flashy and sometimes hilarious kills, so I always went out of my way to incorporate them in my strategies. There also appears to be a timer at the top of the screen indicating that you must clear a level within the given time. However, I never really ran into a situation when I was low on time. I imagine this timer being a source of stress for other players. Outside of combat, the cutscenes have you participate in the dialogue by having you select something to say from a handful of options. Dialogue selection runs on a timer, and if you select quick enough, you can interrupt people, leading to fun interactions. Some of the dialogue options have a significant impact, with a few in particular influencing things like a specific NPC interaction in the endgame, and one that decides one of the game's two endings. Though the game's level structure is mostly linear, there are a few secrets you can find that unlock alternate weapons for Zero. Other than that, there's little incentive to replay and explore levels (apart from selecting different dialogue options). Beating the game once unlocks Hard Mode (which does what you expect) and a Speedrun Mode, which has toggles for certain game elements that allow speedrunners to focus purely on getting the fastest time. VERDICT: Katana Zero blew me away with its exciting combat that balances quick reflexes, good planning, and the ability to adapt on the fly, but it also impressed me with an unexpectedly complex and bizarre story. The game is rather short, clocking in at only around 4 hours, but I enjoyed that brief time nonetheless. I recommend this for people who want to sink their teeth into a stylish, fast-paced, and fairly challenging action platformer. Here's the game on Steam: Katana ZERO on Steam (steampowered.com) Listen to the soundtrack on Spotify: Katana Zero (Original Soundtrack) - Compilation by Various Artists | Spotify - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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