User:TheJoebro64/KatanaZero

Katana Zero is a 2019 platform game created by indie developer Justin Stander. Set in the dystopic, neo-noir metropolis of New Mecca, it follows Subject Zero, a katana-wielding assassin who uses a drug that allows him to slow down time and predict the future. The story depicts the amnesiac Zero unraveling his past while completing various assassination contracts. Katana Zero features side-scrolling, hack-and-slash gameplay in which the player attempts to kill all enemies in a level without being hit. The player uses Zero's abilities to manipulate time, dodge attacks, and take advantage of environmental hazards. Outside the main gameplay, the player converses with non-player characters through dialogue trees.

Stander began working on Katana Zero in 2013 and developed it using the GameMaker Studio 2 game engine. Stander had previously developed freeware games like Tower of Heaven (2009) and conceived Katana Zero as his first game that could be sold commercially. He sought to make a story-driven game that did not force the player to wait through dialogue and cutscenes, and looked to Korean cinema and films like Sin City (2005) and John Wick (2014) for inspiration. The development was prolonged and Stander largely made the game on his own, although he recruited numerous artists to design the visuals and musicians Bill Kiley and Thijs "LudoWic" Lodewijk to compose the synthwave soundtrack.

Katana Zero was published by Devolver Digital for macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows on April 18, 2019; a port for Xbox One was released on October 14, 2020. The game sold 500,000 copies in less than a year and received positive reviews. Critics praised the gameplay—which they favorably compared to Devolver's Hotline Miami (2012)—visuals, writing, and music; criticism was directed at the unresolved ending and short length. Several critics cited Katana Zero as one of the best games of 2019, and it was nominated for numerous year-end accolades. Free downloadable content is set to release in 2022, and Stander plans to continue Katana Zero fictional universe in future games.

Gameplay
Katana Zero is a 2D platform and hack-and-slash game presented from a side-scrolling perspective. Controlling the player character, the katana-wielding assassin Subject Zero, the single player completes assassination contracts given to Zero by his psychiatrist. Zero can run, jump, wall kick, pick up and throw items, attack using his katana, and dodge. He can also slow down time and predict the future; using these abilities activates a slow motion effect that allows players to predict movement easier, although use is limited by a meter that gradually refills. The game features eleven levels, which use Zero's precognition as a framing device; the player's attempts to complete each level are presented as the possible scenarios that Zero has foreseen.

Levels are split into several rooms, and player must kill every enemy in a room within a time limit to proceed, using their sword, throwable objects like lamps and pots, or environmental hazards like lasers. Aside from occasional bosses, each enemy dies in a single hit. Certain levels feature unique game mechanics, such as a stealth mission in a nightclub, a motorcycle chase mission, and a mission featuring an alternate player character. There is no health; being hit results in instant death, and the player must restart from the last checkpoint. The gameplay has been frequently compared to Hotline Miami (2012), as both games feature levels filled with enemies, one-hit kills, and require players to determine their chosen route strategically.

In between the main levels, the player converses with non-player characters (NPCs), such as the psychiatrist and a young girl who Zero befriends. The game features a real-time dialogue tree system in which the player chooses responses in their conversations, and they can interrupt an NPC's dialogue at any time. Although they do not change the overall plot, the player's dialogue choices can affect events that occur later in the game; for example, one boss fight can only be activated by repeatedly interrupting the psychiatrist and disobeying his orders. A May 2019 update added two additional game modes. Hard mode features more difficult levels with new enemy varieties, reworked bosses, and additional challenges. Speedrun mode challenges the player to complete every level in the fastest time possible, with the options to modify enemy behavior and skip cutscenes.

Plot
Katana Zero is set in the neo-noir metropolis of New Mecca seven years after an armed conflict known as the Cromag War. Subject Zero, an amnesiac Cromag War veteran who can predict the future, completes assassination contracts for his psychiatrist, who supplies him with a drug as treatment. Their relationship becomes strained as Zero deviates from assigned objectives and the psychiatrist refuses to explain the reasoning behind the assassinations. News media refers to Zero's killings as the work of a serial killer known as the Dragon. Zero experiences recurring nightmares of a child—who he believes is himself—in a primitive hut; a scientist runs into the hut and warns the child to hide moments before a soldier shoots him. Meanwhile, Zero befriends a young girl living next door to his apartment.

The psychiatrist assigns Zero to kill Fa Yuan, a prison inmate, only for Zero to find the prison massacred. At his apartment, the girl gives Zero a videotape that contains a recording of V, a Russian mobster, torturing and killing Zero's neighbors. The next morning, V picks up Zero in his limousine. V seeks to recreate Chronos, a drug the New Mecca government gave to soldiers during the Cromag War, and offers to partner with Zero, who refuses. Zero tracks V to an abandoned film studio but is interrupted by the swordswoman Snow, who threatens Zero and leaves with V. Zero experiences a hallucination in which he is visited by Comedy and Tragedy, two men wearing theater masks who taunt him about impending disaster in his future.

Zero is assigned to kill Al-Qasim, a wealthy industrialist, but is captured when he encounters V and his men storming Al-Qasim's mansion. When Zero uses precognition to mock V, he shoots Al-Qasim. Zero pursues V, but before he can kill him, V is dismembered and abducted by another swordsman, who possesses precognitive abilities similar to Zero's and claims to be the Dragon. Zero hallucinates the dismembered V, who claims that his hallucinations are the result of Chronos withdrawal. The psychiatrist sends Zero to a Chinatown casino to hunt the Dragon. Zero encounters another precognitive, Headhunter, who Zero duels while the Dragon flees. Zero acquires a tape containing the prison's security footage from the night of Yuan's murder; it shows the Dragon storming the facility and interrogating Yuan, who tells him about Chronos creator Leon von Alvensleben.

A caller directs Zero to a training facility for NULLs, New Mecca's Chronos-enhanced soldiers. Alvensleben speaks through a series of monitors throughout the facility, revealing Zero was a NULL and that the project was a failure, its subjects marked for death. Zero discovers Alvensleben in cryostasis and kills him. Later that night, the girl reveals that Comedy and Tragedy have been visiting her, and Zero promises to protect her. Zero confronts the psychiatrist, who confirms his targets are all related to Chronos, that Chronos is Zero's "treatment", and what allows him to predict the future. The psychiatrist explains the government seeks to eradicate Chronos and sends Zero to destroy the contents of Al-Qasim's safe room in an underground bunker. Zero encounters Headhunter, who reveals she was also a NULL and that Al-Qasim employed her in exchange for a Chronos supply. Zero kills her and enters the safe room, where he finds a woman and children; he is unable to bring himself to kill them.

Zero discovers his psychiatrist preparing to flee the city, beats him to death, and injects himself with a massive dose of Chronos. He returns to his apartment, finding it burglarized and the girl missing. The landlady tells investigating police that no children lived in the building. When questioned, Zero runs and the police give chase. A flashback reveals Zero's nightmare is a memory from the Cromag War and that he is the soldier who shoots the scientist, not the child who hides. Zero exits the hut and stands with his comrade, the Dragon. In the present, Snow informs her superior of V's death, the Dragon contemplates a board of evidence, and Comedy and Tragedy taunt the girl as she cowers in fear.

Concept
Katana Zero was created by indie game developer Justin Stander under the studio name Askiisoft. It was Stander's first commercially-released game; his previous projects had been smaller freeware games like Tower of Heaven (2009). Stander decided to stop making freeware games after seeing the success of Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV (2010), which made him realize that audiences only pay attention to independent games if they are being sold. Cavanagh, like Stander, had started off making freeware games, but none of them were anywhere near as successful as VVVVVV. Stander said Katana Zero grew out of his desire to create a larger project that could be sold commercially.

Katana Zero development began in 2013 and lasted six years. Stander began working on the game as a hobby during his sophomore year at McGill University and spent the first two years building simple prototypes. Stander used the game as a means of expression outside of schoolwork, and was "a little more focused on the game than on school. My approach to school involved a lot of cramming for finals and getting through those, while most of my time was spent working on the game at home." His coursework did prove useful, as he felt that it "help[ed] grow my overall sense of how to program correctly and keep things elegant." After Stander graduated in 2015, he began to work on Katana Zero full time and finished it in February 2019. He worked on multiple projects alongside Katana Zero so that he could "hedge my bets... [so] I didn't spend the last five years of my life only working on one game that flopped."

The total development cost was US$60,000, which Stander called "an extremely shoestring budget" and "practically nothing" for a game of Katana Zero scope. He stated: "Most of it was just not paying myself at all and cutting down costs in my own life to do nothing but work on the game." Stander developed the game largely on his own, although he recruited numerous individuals to help create art and music. The game was primarily developed for macOS and Windows personal computers, but Stander decided to release a version Katana Zero on the Nintendo Switch immediately after the system was unveiled because he saw it as a "big indie-centric console". Using GameMaker made it easy for Stander to port Katana Zero, and the prolonged development meant it was already well-optimized when he began porting it to the Switch.

Design
One of Stander's main goals was to make the act of killing feel exciting and satisfying. He felt many modern games were too forgiving, with enemies that are not as powerful as the player character. Stander noted that it was difficult to die in modern games like Payday: The Heist (2011) and decided that, in Katana Zero, "if you try to die, then it should be easy." Stander wanted Katana Zero to be difficult but fair; similar to his previous games, he sought for the player to recognize and take responsibility for their mistakes. Production value was important, as Stander felt "mak[ing] the engine flawless" was crucial to create a game worth playing. He said this meant "no bugs. Everything needs to feel like an extension of the player. When you play it, you should always feel like this is exactly what I wanted to do and that is what the character did."

Stander developed the game using the GameMaker Studio 2 game engine and continued his style of design from Tower of Heaven and Pause Ahead (2013), designing short levels filled with instant-death scenarios. Drawing influence from Eastern culture, he wanted Katana Zero to feel cinematic and sought to subvert players' expectations: "As soon as you think you understand how this game is going to play out, then I just try to completely shift it on you... as soon as [you're] comfortable in [something], I try to shift things up. And I do that several times throughout the game. I really mess with the player." To maintain variety, he incorporated many enemy types, environmental traps, alternate level pathways, and set pieces. A minecart pathway inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) took over a month to create.

Katana Zero shares similar one-hit-kill gameplay with another Devolver Digital-published game, Hotline Miami, but Stander said he only played it once before starting Katana Zero. He described Katana Zero as more of a pastiche of the films he enjoyed. He was inspired by Korean cinema, as he sought to feature a vulnerable yet lethal protagonist similar to those from Korean revenge thrillers. Films he cited as inspiration included Oldboy (2003), Sin City (2005), The Man from Nowhere (2010), Drive (2011), and John Wick (2014) for their "invincible-yet-human protagonist[s], and stylistic violence set over a dark, grimy, neon coated setting", as well as Seven Samurai (1954) and the works of Quentin Tarantino. Stander's video game influences included indie games that featured "tight, fast-paced, instant death combat", such as Trilby: The Art of Theft (2009) and Gunpoint (2013). A critical influence was Samurai Gunn (2013), which he felt "really nailed making killing feel good, and a lot of that was about the one-hit kills."

The art style was inspired by the neon aesthetic of the poster for Drive. Recruiting artists proved challenging, with Stander—who called himself "a terrible artist"—noting that for a two-year period, he did not have any artists working on the game. Stander found artists through the online independent developer community TIGSource, but said that it was "extremely difficult" to recruit high-quality pixel artists who would commit to the project, as "a lot of them would stick around for like a week or two weeks, and some that would only do like a day and then they quit, either because they have other projects, or they feel like the style isn't their match, or just all sorts of other reasons." Stander used a "big neon lighting effect" to blend the different styles of the artists, which he felt "pretty much covered every single blemish that there could have been".

Stander had a strong focus on attention to detail, and said that adding a single mechanic, such as a gun turret, "would mean tinkering with 20 different systems, like lighting and replay, to make it all cohesive." He noted that when developing small freeware games, he could "really obsess over the little details", which would result in him spending a year "just to make a short game that can be completed in 20-30 minutes." Adapting this mentality to a full-length commercial game contributed to the prolonged development, with Stander recalling he originally expected development to last only a year or two. Stander's focus on particulars demoralized him, to the point that there was a year in which he made little progress. He credited the artists with motivating him to finish the game.

Writing
Stander had long desired to make films and "wanted to make something more narratively-driven, that paid homage to all my favorite storytelling tropes and expanded on them in my own way... That was definitely a big part of [Katana Zero]: I had a story I wanted to tell." The script is credited to Stander and Eric Shumaker, with additional writing by Sterling Nathaniel Brown and Ian Goldsmith Rooney. As Stander developed Katana Zero focusing on one element at a time, he only had a basic plot summary by the time he finished outlining all the levels. Stander knew that the protagonist would be "sort of trapped in their situation, because those always make for good main characters in action games", and that players would dislike the disagreeable psychiatrist. According to Stander, the script was rewritten around 30 times.

Stander allowed the player to interrupt any line of spoken dialogue because many of the action games he grew up playing "would grind to a halt as the protagonist and the second banana argued about politics, or when the villain deigned to deliver a winding monologue." He considered this one of the biggest problems with cutscenes, as they make players "feel [they] have no agency." Additionally, Stander felt that an assassin like Zero would not wait to listen to a villain justify their nefarious schemes. He was conscious that speedrunners would skip all the dialogue, and included in-game consequences for interrupting constantly to create a sense of realism. He adopted a show, don't tell approach to convey as much of the story, themes, and characters as possible through just visuals; for example, the level in which the player controls the Dragon was intended to show the character's lethality without words. Structurally, the story was inspired by Hotline Miami, in which the player character is directed to kill by mysterious phone calls, and its themes include drug addiction and mental health. Stander hesitated to deal with such topics as they had never affected him, but after some research, felt he could treat them respectfully.

Stander conceived the dialogue tree system for a role-playing video game (RPG) he was considering developing that centered on "the concept of having no limits", in which the player could interact with any object and fight any NPC. He wanted every action to have repercussions, which he likened to the Grand Theft Auto games. Although he never developed the RPG, Stander reincorporated the dialogue system in Katana Zero to keep the pacing consistent. Difficulty arose from finding the right timing between the "interrupt and respond phases"; Stander noted that playtesters would choose the wrong response if they interrupted too late, or unintentionally interrupt by taking too much time to respond. Stander resolved the problem using "coyote time", a trick in game development in which developers provide the player a brief interval to make their decision even if the on-screen window of opportunity has passed.

The stakes for each dialogue choice are minimal, as Stander wanted to reduce tension and make choosing a response feel natural. Stander noted that "even the ones that seem big will peter out or resolve themselves", such as an instance in which a decision will cause the player to temporarily lose their sword; he compared Katana Zero in this regard to Telltale Games' The Walking Dead series. However, he said that "the way the story is told is entirely dependent on [the player's] choices", noting worldbuilding and character relationships can change depending on the dialogue options. For example, Zero's relationship with the psychiatrist suffers if the player chooses to ignore his orders, which can lead to alternate story paths in which Zero learns information he was not supposed to. Stander said the game features hundreds of different choices and that each one has small effects on the overarching narrative.

Stander used various graphical effects to emphasize major decisions, such as moving or different-colored text and character animations. He accomplished this by programming the script to affect other areas of the game when it reached certain points. He originally intended to use these effects merely to add polish, but began to "[get] playful" and used his programming to add elements like distortion effects and screen-shaking.

Music
Katana Zero synthwave score, which blends Chicago house, electronic music, and synth-pop, was composed by Bill Kiley and Thijs "LudoWic" Lodewijk, with additional music by Stander. Kiley had collaborated with Stander in the past, and Stander recruited him to work on Katana Zero at the beginning of development. Lodewijk, who had never composed a video game, became involved in 2015, after Stander found his YouTube channel and recruited him to write a single track. Stander then asked if he could use music from Lodewijk's "jams" (improvised recording sessions Lodewijk had uploaded to his channel); the jam that caused Stander to notice Lodewijk, "Jam #12", was used as the boss theme. Lodewijk composed a few tracks specifically for Stander after joining the project, but Stander told him to "just do what you normally do".

Kiley and Lodewijk looked to 1980s electronic music for inspiration since the game's themes—including drug use and the ramifications that war has on a nation's spirit—were relevant in the 1980s in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. They originally worked separately; Stander wanted Kiley to write music for "the quieter, story-driven scenes" and Lodewijk to write "high-energy" music for the main levels. According to Kiley, "As the project progressed we gleefully broke this rule and ended up writing music for levels and story scenes all over the place." Kiley drew influence from the work of Gary Numan, Yellow Music Orchestra, and Vangelis, and sought to evoke the feelings of 1980s action films. Kiley and Lodewijk attempted to reflect Zero's changing psyche and moods in their music, such as when Zero experiences Chronos withdrawal and snorts cocaine in a limousine.

For each level, Stander sent Kiley and Lodewijk screenshots, concept art, and notes describing the atmosphere he was aiming for, occasionally alongside an existing piece of music for reference. Lodewijk explained that they would send their initial composition to Stander, leading to a series of exchanges that resulted in the final track. Some tracks ended up in different levels than they were intended, and for certain levels and dream sequences, Lodewijk wrote two tracks for Stander to blend together in-game. Lodewijk composed most tracks in a single take, "[letting the music] go and sort of adjust[ing] it as it [went] along." He drew inspiration from Nine Inch Nails, as he and Stander were fans of their "more industrial, dark vibe." Lodewijk did not set out to make dark music, but noted that his tracks were often somber, even when he attempted to compose "happy" music.

Kiley composed his music using the same monitors that Disasterpeace used to compose Fez (2012), while Lodewijk used vintage synthesizers and drum machines like the Akai MPC. While he did edit some tracks using his computer, Lodewijk described his process as "old-fashioned" and estimated that 95% of his music was composed using vintage synths. Stander attempted to synchronize the music with the gameplay; examples include having Zero turn on a Walkman at the beginning of each level, changing the music when Zero takes his earbuds out to talk to an NPC, and slowing down the music when the player uses Chronos.

Release
Katana Zero made its first public appearance at PAX West in Seattle in September 2015. Adult Swim Games obtained the publication rights, and a teaser trailer was released in December 2015. The game was delayed several times; it was originally scheduled for a late 2016 release, but was pushed to 2017, 2018, and eventually March 2019. Stander announced that he had "amicably parted ways" with Adult Swim in December 2018, and revealed that Devolver Digital had acquired the publication rights the following month. Devolver helped Stander localize the game, translating it to ten languages. Stander was impressed by Devolver's software testing process for catching several bugs he did not notice.

Katana Zero was finally released on April 18, 2019, as a downloadable game on GOG.com, Humble Bundle, Nintendo eShop, and Steam. The Switch version was temporarily banned for sale in Australia after it received a Refused Classification from the International Age Rating Coalition in April 2019. Devolver Digital resubmitted the game to the Australian Classification Board, which cleared it for release in May 2019 with an R18+ rating. An Xbox One version was released on October 14, 2020, and was offered for free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

Reception
According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, Katana Zero received "generally favorable reviews". Critics overall considered Katana Zero a stylish and well-designed platformer. IGN said that it "refines the tried and true one-hit-kill formula in a manner that makes it feels fresh, exciting, and innovative", while Nintendo Life and Nintendo World Report considered it a standout in the Nintendo eShot library. Destructoid reviewer said Katana Zero and "bleak, beautiful, bloody, and brilliant" and changed how he viewed video games.

Critics uniformly praised the 16-bit visuals. They enjoyed the retro VHS aesthetic and visual effects   —though some wrote their intensity could induce headaches  —as well as the amount of detail in the sprites and animations. IGN highlighted the lighting effects as "legitimately impressive" and said they worked with the "slick neon aesthetic and fantastic sprite work" to give the game personality. GameSpot appreciated that Katana Zero did not use a retro aesthetic simply for nostalgia, opining alongside Polygon that the detailed sprite work and smooth animations added emotional weight.

The soundtrack was acclaimed;  Nintendo Life said it "all but steal[s] the show in places". Nintendo Life wrote that the soundtrack was simultaneously focused and experimental, and complimented the composers for doing something original instead of relying on the chiptune that is "cliché" in indie games. PC Gamer liked how the soundtrack was contextualized in the world and commended the game for providing track titles and artists.

Although reviewers praised the writing, they were divided on the story. Destructoid and Nintendo World Report noted that the story was difficult to discuss since much is left to the player's interpretation. Shacknews praised the plot twists, and GameSpot said the story did a good job balancing graphic violence with "delicately quiet character moments and some heartfelt relationships". Some commended how the story provided context for the slow-motion game mechanic, and others thought it had heart. However, PC Gamer found the plot generic dystopian fiction with stock characters, while Game Informer felt the story had interesting ideas but "most of them just cryptically meander without reaching any crescendo". GameSpot, Game Informer, IGN, and USgamer disliked the ending, which they called abrupt. IGN, Game Informer, and GameSpot felt there was no payoff for the story moments that the game teased;  GameSpot found this problematic since a sequel was not guaranteed.

The dialogue system was considered creative and innovative. Reviewers said the branching dialogue paths and alternate story scenarios added replay value. The graphical effects used to emphasize pieces of dialogue were highlighted for adding emotional weight to conversations. Destructoid and Nintendo Life said the dialogue system helped make the story interesting, and Polygon wrote it helped the player build an emotional connection with Zero. Minor criticism came from IGN, which said that many story deviations felt superficial, leading to later choices feeling inconsistent with those made earlier. Nonetheless, IGN said the dialogue system was "entertaining" and encouraged multiple playthroughs.

Critics enjoyed the fast, fluid gameplay, which they frequently compared to Hotline Miami. Rock, Paper, Shotgun and IGN said that the influences were obvious, but this was not a problem. IGN said the controls were "empoweringly flexible" and Nintendo Life said it felt great to get the hang of them. Reviewers frequently compared Katana Zero to a puzzle game,   requiring the player to strategize and plan their actions in advance. They said this made completing each level feel satisfying,  with Game Informer considering the trial-and-error process of polishing movements "the most entertaining part of [the game]." Conversely, Polygon felt the gameplay, while good, did not live up to the presentation; the reviewer opined that the puzzle-like design made the game feel limited. The short length was noted,  but IGN and Nintendo Life said it worked in the game's favor since it meant there was no filler.

Reviewers said the player character's abilities were static and limited. While Gamer Informer said this was a problem, USgamer found the game was "all about playing with those scant toys," with PC Gamer adding they were "adaptable enough to make the combat encounters varied." GameSpot, USgamer, Destructoid, and IGN felt the gameplay managed to stay interesting from beginning to end with its set pieces and variety of enemy types, though Game Informer disagreed. IGN reviewer singled out the Chronos slow motion mechanic as his favorite part of the game due to its glass cannon nature, and Nintendo Life described the process of balancing Chronos use throughout the levels as "exhilarating". Destructoid additionally praised how enemies never reset to their exact original position after deaths, although Game Informer considered this an annoyance.

Sales
Katana Zero was Devolver's most-preordered Switch game, sold over 100,000 copies sold within a week of release, and became Devolver's second-fastest-selling Switch game behind Enter the Gungeon (2017). It sold 500,000 copies in less than a year and generated US$5 million in revenue; in contrast, the average indie game generates around US$16,000.

Accolades
Katana Zero was among the top 50 highest-rated games on Metacritic in 2019, and was named one of the best games of 2019 by USgamer (#1), Thrillist (#21), and Red Bull. It was nominated for, but did not win, IGN Best Video Game Music/Soundtrack and Best Action Game of 2019 awards. For his work on the game, Stander was included in Forbes' 2020 30 Under 30 list.

Downloadable content
On April 25, 2019, a week after Katana Zero release, Stander announced that he was working on free downloadable content (DLC). He wanted the DLC's quality to be on par with the main game's, and its size expanded considerably during development; it was three times its originally-planned size by February 2020, and six times by March 2021. However, the expansions did not change Stander's plans to release the DLC for free. The DLC will be slightly more than half the size of the base game and will introduce new game mechanics, enemies, and story elements; Stander described it as "more like Katana 1.5" than DLC. He said the DLC is "going to wrap up a few of the smaller things, answer a few of the bigger fan questions, [and] give a little bit more insight into the world," but will not complete the story.

Future
In May 2020, Stander said that he had plans to continue the Katana Zero story, and that some of his future games would connect to its fictional universe: "The story's going to be wrapped up in something else later on... it's all been planned out since the beginning; it's not a making-it-up-as-I-go-along sort of thing like Lost or something."