Katana Zero is a game I’ve been meaning to play ever since it got released, I just never got around to it until now. Two and a half playthroughs later, I have experienced almost everything the game offers in record time. Despite the short length, Katana Zero is a quality experience with plenty to talk about.
Katana Zero’s gameplay is simplistic, yet its demand for you to master it is what gives it rich depth and addictive replayability combined with its short length. You can kill enemies, toss objects, and reflect bullets, you also can slow down time for more precision, and dodge rolls with invincibility frames to avoid hazards, and roll through enemies. It might seem like a lot when I list it, but really all of it ties together nicely for a smooth learning experience I enjoyed. Katana Zero is about trial and error throughout a section, with plenty of checkpoints and open-ended design which allows players to tackle obstacles in their own ways, complementing its short length and strong replayability nicely. I found solving each room satisfying, and every mechanic I could utilize felt impactful and necessary due to how simple it all is in practice. Slowing down time helps alleviate tighter timings that require more skill like reflecting bullets, or more generous opportunities to dodge but is never required but a single time in the game, which I really liked. Reflecting bullets might be the most demanding mechanic right from the start, but slowing down time very much helps with learning the timing, audio cues are especially important and well implemented into this game which is another plus. I never found the game too demanding or too fast-paced for me to keep up with what it asked me to do, and the variety of gameplay mix-ups present is impressive and kept me engaged the entire time.
Katana Zero’s setting and history is also very fascinating. It’s very much a metropolis setting with the right amount of sci-fi, dark humor, and history behind it that makes it feel very realized and immersive to experience. Every locale struck all the right notes that embodied the setting without ever feeling out of place until the end, however that drastic shift in setting is justified by the story and how it plays out, so it never felt shoehorned in or out of place at all. Combined with the incredible synth-wave style of music Katana Zero presents, it creates this beautiful atmosphere that elevates the metropolis setting, but creates an impression of something being beyond the curtain you can only see at that given moment, giving both the music and the setting further depth that makes it imprint itself upon your mind that much more. It’s also just incredibly complementing to the slow strategic nature of the game, and/or the incredibly fast-paced decision making and vitriol on display, it’s truly universal in its effectiveness.
Narratively, Katana Zero does not disappoint either. It’s full of twists and turns, shocking revelations, impactful decision making, and enough variation for me to say the agency of the player’s choices feels important. While I can’t say with utmost certainty how impactful every dialogue option is, I don’t think it really matters since the writing of the characters you interact with, as well as the one you play as are incredible and consistent. While I do think the emphasis of cursing and everyone just being unhinged could turn a lot of people off, or just become grating, it all serves the tone the game is going for, so I never minded it or batted an eye at it really. What I will especially praise however is the psychological elements this game presents, they’re incredibly surreal and compelling, it was by far my favorite aspect of the game, and thought they did way more with it than I expected. There’s one specific instance that absolutely floored me, and for that reason alone, Katana Zero is very much worth experiencing.
While I have done nothing but praise Katana Zero so far, let’s get into the negatives, particularly the one negative I did have with the game, which is Hard Mode. Now since Hard Mode is entirely optional and doesn’t unlock anything but an achievement, it seems arbitrary to complain about, however if I were to neglect something in the game I thought was flawed, that would be negligent of me as a reviewer I think, so let’s go over it. Hard Mode as the name implies is a harder variation of the main story without cutscenes and much harder enemy placements. To me, a lot of Hard Mode boiled down to simply increasing the difficulty artificially by increasing the number of enemies in a given room to create a challenge. While I do believe many rooms have smart enemy placement that flows incredibly well and is beyond satisfying to figure out, most of the time it felt bloated and unfair to the point of pure frustration. Hard Mode has its perks, such as new enemy types that change how you approach rooms, and I’m sad to see these enemies not implemented in normal mode, since it would’ve helped the small pool of enemies you’re always fighting and made everything just a bit more dynamic. Instead, these new enemies are shoved in with tons of older enemies which dilutes their impact overall to me, even though mechanically they are unique and present specific restrictions I really liked. Overall, Hard Mode was a disappointment, though again, it being entirely optional does not taint my overall outlook on the game at all, it’s merely a blemish I wanted to talk about.
This is definitely on the shorter end of my reviews, but really I don’t have too much more to say. Katana Zero is short and simple but was a very fun and worthwhile experience I can’t wait to see more of in the future. Katana Zero has superb presentation with the pixel art, setting, and music accompanied by gameplay that you can play at your own pace, whether that be fast or slow for the most part. Amazing potential with the story, psychological aspects are done exceptionally well and really make the narrative that much better. Fantastic variation in gameplay, good humor, and is very consistent. My only issue with the game is Hard Mode, but it's optionality makes it easily excusable. Four stars may seem low for all my praise, but I will say I personally don’t feel I can rate it higher for the simple fact that I didn’t always find it so fun and high quality while playing, but it’s definitely there, and I recognize that. Excited to see where it goes from here all the same. Thank you all for reading my review, next up will be God Hand, thanks to a “secret Santa” event, but I’ll go more into that in the next review. Until next time!
Katana Zero’s gameplay is simplistic, yet its demand for you to master it is what gives it rich depth and addictive replayability combined with its short length. You can kill enemies, toss objects, and reflect bullets, you also can slow down time for more precision, and dodge rolls with invincibility frames to avoid hazards, and roll through enemies. It might seem like a lot when I list it, but really all of it ties together nicely for a smooth learning experience I enjoyed. Katana Zero is about trial and error throughout a section, with plenty of checkpoints and open-ended design which allows players to tackle obstacles in their own ways, complementing its short length and strong replayability nicely. I found solving each room satisfying, and every mechanic I could utilize felt impactful and necessary due to how simple it all is in practice. Slowing down time helps alleviate tighter timings that require more skill like reflecting bullets, or more generous opportunities to dodge but is never required but a single time in the game, which I really liked. Reflecting bullets might be the most demanding mechanic right from the start, but slowing down time very much helps with learning the timing, audio cues are especially important and well implemented into this game which is another plus. I never found the game too demanding or too fast-paced for me to keep up with what it asked me to do, and the variety of gameplay mix-ups present is impressive and kept me engaged the entire time.
Katana Zero’s setting and history is also very fascinating. It’s very much a metropolis setting with the right amount of sci-fi, dark humor, and history behind it that makes it feel very realized and immersive to experience. Every locale struck all the right notes that embodied the setting without ever feeling out of place until the end, however that drastic shift in setting is justified by the story and how it plays out, so it never felt shoehorned in or out of place at all. Combined with the incredible synth-wave style of music Katana Zero presents, it creates this beautiful atmosphere that elevates the metropolis setting, but creates an impression of something being beyond the curtain you can only see at that given moment, giving both the music and the setting further depth that makes it imprint itself upon your mind that much more. It’s also just incredibly complementing to the slow strategic nature of the game, and/or the incredibly fast-paced decision making and vitriol on display, it’s truly universal in its effectiveness.
Narratively, Katana Zero does not disappoint either. It’s full of twists and turns, shocking revelations, impactful decision making, and enough variation for me to say the agency of the player’s choices feels important. While I can’t say with utmost certainty how impactful every dialogue option is, I don’t think it really matters since the writing of the characters you interact with, as well as the one you play as are incredible and consistent. While I do think the emphasis of cursing and everyone just being unhinged could turn a lot of people off, or just become grating, it all serves the tone the game is going for, so I never minded it or batted an eye at it really. What I will especially praise however is the psychological elements this game presents, they’re incredibly surreal and compelling, it was by far my favorite aspect of the game, and thought they did way more with it than I expected. There’s one specific instance that absolutely floored me, and for that reason alone, Katana Zero is very much worth experiencing.
While I have done nothing but praise Katana Zero so far, let’s get into the negatives, particularly the one negative I did have with the game, which is Hard Mode. Now since Hard Mode is entirely optional and doesn’t unlock anything but an achievement, it seems arbitrary to complain about, however if I were to neglect something in the game I thought was flawed, that would be negligent of me as a reviewer I think, so let’s go over it. Hard Mode as the name implies is a harder variation of the main story without cutscenes and much harder enemy placements. To me, a lot of Hard Mode boiled down to simply increasing the difficulty artificially by increasing the number of enemies in a given room to create a challenge. While I do believe many rooms have smart enemy placement that flows incredibly well and is beyond satisfying to figure out, most of the time it felt bloated and unfair to the point of pure frustration. Hard Mode has its perks, such as new enemy types that change how you approach rooms, and I’m sad to see these enemies not implemented in normal mode, since it would’ve helped the small pool of enemies you’re always fighting and made everything just a bit more dynamic. Instead, these new enemies are shoved in with tons of older enemies which dilutes their impact overall to me, even though mechanically they are unique and present specific restrictions I really liked. Overall, Hard Mode was a disappointment, though again, it being entirely optional does not taint my overall outlook on the game at all, it’s merely a blemish I wanted to talk about.
This is definitely on the shorter end of my reviews, but really I don’t have too much more to say. Katana Zero is short and simple but was a very fun and worthwhile experience I can’t wait to see more of in the future. Katana Zero has superb presentation with the pixel art, setting, and music accompanied by gameplay that you can play at your own pace, whether that be fast or slow for the most part. Amazing potential with the story, psychological aspects are done exceptionally well and really make the narrative that much better. Fantastic variation in gameplay, good humor, and is very consistent. My only issue with the game is Hard Mode, but it's optionality makes it easily excusable. Four stars may seem low for all my praise, but I will say I personally don’t feel I can rate it higher for the simple fact that I didn’t always find it so fun and high quality while playing, but it’s definitely there, and I recognize that. Excited to see where it goes from here all the same. Thank you all for reading my review, next up will be God Hand, thanks to a “secret Santa” event, but I’ll go more into that in the next review. Until next time!
2 Comments
@NOWITSREYNTIME17 First impressions are very positive so far, so we'll see!
NOWITSREYNTIME17
5 months ago