{"id":482,"date":"2021-04-03T18:49:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T18:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2021-04-03T18:49:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T18:49:14","slug":"katana-zero-savior-or-false-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/03\/katana-zero-savior-or-false-shepherd\/","title":{"rendered":"Katana Zero: Savior or False Shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in May of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEAR YE!!!  HEAR YE!!!  I am always truly amazed by Devolver Digital.  In a world where EA, Activision, and Warner Brothers are trying to squeeze blood from stones, Devolver Digital always seems committed to publishing fun games.  I will admit I have railed against some of their games in the past, but I wouldn\u2019t say those games were bad, just didn\u2019t fit my personal taste.  However, for every, I Hate Running Backwards <\/em>and Ape Out<\/em>, I receive a The Red Strings Club<\/em>, Gris<\/em>, Enter the Gungeon, <\/em>or Hotline Miami<\/em>.  Frankly, I rather have a publisher that misses the mark than one who attempts to turn every game into a live service designed to numb you into a trance hoping you will fork over more money to get a small sense of satisfaction.  It is almost like the futuristic mega-corporation takeover that so many sci-fi movies predict is happening right now.  Speaking of sci-fi futuristics, let\u2019s talk about Devolver Digital\u2019s latest title: Katana Zero<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First, let\u2019s address the elephant in the room.  Yes, Katana Zero <\/em>is very much like Hotline Miami<\/em>.  If you were working the Epic Games slave pits, constantly updating Fortnite, <\/em>and weren\u2019t able to check out Hotline Miami<\/em>, let me set the scene.  Hotline Miami <\/em>is a top-down action game consisting of wild neon pixels, a pounding soundtrack, and buckets of blood.  You\u2019re tasked with executing everyone in the level in a very John Wick style.  The game encourages a frantic run and gun mentality as getting hit once by a stray bullet or punch lands you right back at the beginning of the level.  Unlike Ape Out<\/em>, Hotline Miami <\/em>doesn\u2019t want to delay you from the frantic action as it almost instantly resets the level upon death.  This allows for the breakneck pace to continue even when a level is wiping the floor with you.  Hotline Miami<\/em> also kickstarted the belief that every Devolver Digital game had to be a love letter to the 80s consisting of retro technology and drugs.  Now, a lot of these elements are in Katana Zero<\/em>, but I wouldn\u2019t call Katana Zero <\/em>a Hotline Miami <\/em>clone.  These two compare similarly to the comparison of Dark Souls <\/em>and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.  <\/em>The framework is very much the same, but the devil is in the details. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are an unnamed samurai assassin in the dystopia city that is straight from 80s sci-fi.  Every day, you report to a psychiatrist.  He will discuss previous missions and dreams with you before administering you a drug and a dossier.  These sessions with your psychiatrist and meetings with other characters give you dialog options.  While none of the dialog options really alter the story, you do have the option to interrupt people which can alter some of their lines.  I successfully convinced a receptionist on one of the levels that I was a cosplayer for a random in-game anime.  At first, she didn\u2019t recognize the cosplay until I lied about being from a later season.  I was given the option to interrupt her the whole time, but I never took it.  Later in the game, I ran into her.  She had caught up to the season I had lied about and asked if I wanted to watch anime with her sometime.  Something, very much not needed in a game where you can only progress by killing everyone on a stage, but was able to coerce a smile from your jaded Doomsayer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When you’re not interrupting your psychiatrist, you are blazing through the levels, making sure you are the only survivor.  Unlike Hotline Miami<\/em>, Katana Zero <\/em>is a side-scrolling action game rather than the top-down perspective.  Katana Zero <\/em>also gives you a lot of tools to play with despite not being able to pick up enemy weapons.  You can slash someone with your sword, pick up and throw objects, deflect bullets, a dodge roll, platform hop between walls, and of course, slow down time.  All these tools combined with distinct enemies, allow for some strategic planning that feels similar to the puzzle game Gunpoint<\/em>, as in some stages you won\u2019t be able to brute force.  I often found myself formulating plans of attack rather than relying on pure reflects.  Thankfully, Katana Zero\u2019s<\/em> flexible combat allows for both styles of play.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The impressive thing about Katana Zero<\/em> is how successful it is in making you feel like an unstoppable assassin on par with the likes of John Wick.  At the start of each stage, the assassin turns on his walkmen, then attempts to traverse the section.  Though you are not really going through the stage, you are merely planning the path the assassin will take.  Die to a stray bullet, the assassin says that won\u2019t work, and stage rewinds similar to a tape in a walkman.  Make it through and your reward will be watching him perform the moves in real-time.  Resulting in allowing bullet time sequences to feel impressive as you deflect bullets as fast as the enemies fire them.  All this creates a low entry floor but a high skill ceiling.  Sure I might be glad I made it through the stage, but watching it all play out makes me want to retry the stage in an attempt to get a smoother run.  I can only fathom how smooth and crisp a master of Katana Zero <\/em>could make these stages look.  Considering how a lot of games try to get us to replay them with procedurally generated levels, it is nice to have a game with solid mechanics and level design to draw me back to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katana Zero <\/em>also does its best to make sure every level is fresh.\u00a0 From a club where we are encouraged to stealthily weave in and out of the crowd to a motorbike chase sequence that results in the bad guy firing rockets from a helicopter, Katana Zero <\/em>is never content with just giving you rooms of bad guys.\u00a0 It is always trying to add more and more to prevent stagnation.\u00a0 While I found most of these twists enjoyable, your mileage may vary.\u00a0 I personally hated a level where you had to play as The Dragon, a rival assassin who appears to be helping out our assassin protagonist.\u00a0 He has a long range dash move that I found more finicky to use.\u00a0 Thankfully, none of these gimmicks are really repeated among the levels, which certainly helps the game feel fresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though many comparisons can be made between Hotline Miami <\/em>and Katana Zero, <\/em>I believe Katana Zero <\/em>does more to raise the bar for these action games.\u00a0 While Hotline Miami <\/em>does a really good job making you feel like a coked-up madman, it is not able to create that precision that Katana Zero <\/em>does.\u00a0 Katana Zero\u2019s<\/em> attempt to make us the unstoppable heroes to rival John Wick and John McClane has reignited my excitement that so many open-world games have put out.\u00a0 In a time where so many games are begging for your time, I can full-heartedly say Katana Zero <\/em>is more worthy than any live service trash EA is willing to spit out.\u00a0 This is one wild ride you will want to put time into.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in May of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy. HEAR YE!!!  HEAR YE!!!  I am always truly amazed by Devolver Digital.  In a world where EA, Activision, and Warner Brothers are trying to squeeze blood from stones, Devolver… Continue reading Katana Zero: Savior or False Shepherd<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}