Your character can slash in eight directions, slow down time, use a dodge roll to avoid bullets, or reflect bullets back with his sword. Like Hotline Miami, it’s one shot, one kill for both you and any enemy that isn’t a boss. Working up to that moment is a blast because Katana Zero’s action is fast-paced and empoweringly flexible. Every level even ends with a security camera recording of what “actually” happened, which serves not only as a way to see your moment of triumph played back, but also to subvert expectations in interesting ways later on.
So, instead of your character dying, you’re told “No… That won’t work,” as your precognition rewinds to the start (complete with old-timey VCR effect), giving you a chance to find a solution that doesn’t end in your death. In an extremely clever and fun framing of the action, every level is contextualized as being the planning of an assassination.
Katana Zero puts you in control of a nameless samurai assassin with the power to manipulate time and see into the future.
