katana zero is pretty great. it’s doing the cyan & magenta vhs synthwave grindhouse violence thing, but significantly better than other games in the (admittedly oversaturated) space. it dips heavy into absurdity and surrealism while taking some honest ownership of them, instead of forgoing coherent narrative altogether.
it is visually inconsistent in places but overall super-beautiful, drawing from great late-pixel games – SotN, Metal Slug, etc. many games combine low quality pixel art with high quality quality post effects and vice versa, but i can’t think of any equivalent game that balances both sides of the equation as well. there are a variety of styles smashed together between background, foreground and character art including stuff by frankie and recent pixel art twitter darling deciever but somehow it all pleasantly coheres.
combat is fast and fun but occasionally too messy. it’s got hotline miami’s doors, inconsistent cinematic platformer style enemy alert behaviour (edit: i think this has been improved in patches for the benefit of speedrunners), finicky jump-thru platforms etc. feels like it could have benefited taking more cues from elevator action returns than 2010s era gamemaker action games. combat fails to justify both an invincibility roll AND a time dilating slomo, imo. it’s definitely at it’s best played fast:
Katana 'ZERO' HITSTUN&SLOW / 카타나제로 0% 타격지연, 노슬로우 - YouTube. stage navigation mechanics get introduced early on and haphazardly discarded later. at worst it’s rote, at best a little sloppy.
where it shines is plot delivery – it’s solidly paced, and the action-oriented dialogue system works incredibly well. where bioware & ilk never manage making the choice-branch setup engaging, this game’s system is extremely clean, and incentivizes paying attention; that i could mash thru any given scene but didn’t want to is basically a miracle.
cboyardee has a writing credit and his influence shows: the plot manages moments of moody contemplation, cheeky nihilism, semiotic islamic mysticism, self-deprecating weeb humour &tc, wrapped up in a thematic exploration of violence that manages a bit more nuance than “so, you like hurting people??”
there are optional post-game collectibles that require returning to stages to solve small scene-specific vignettes and environmental puzzles which unlock optional stuff like alternate weapons and a final-final boss. i’m playing thru bomberman 64 right now and so appreciate this game letting you dip in to a level to explore something initially skipped over, snag an unlockable and quit the stage without losing that progress.
in case it’s not clear, this is an endorsement!! please play this so i have people to talk about it with
