What's at stake becomes increasingly lower. Two pawns of the government, raised to kill to the point where neither of you know anything else, discarded and left to die an agonizing death the moment you stopped being useful, fighting to see who meets that end last. Zero is doing the same, except he didn't know that this fate was in store for him until a few days ago.Īnd so, here you are. And with the withdrawl killing her, the Headhunter is left no choice but to kill to delay that fate as long as possible. The side effects of Chronos means that dying will merely trap them in an endless loop of their own death. And yet, paradoxically, you both fear it. This is stated most explicitly in the scene where Zero chooses the silver mask, and thus to embody death. The government had no interest in helping these people, they couldn't even be bothered to hire a real therapist for Zero.īoth of you were raised to kill. At least in Zero's case, they specifically took advantage of those who wouldn't be averse to killing, and is implied to be the case for Headhunter as well as she confesses to enjoying killing before the fight. The NULL program was inhumane, kidnapping children and experimenting on them to turn them into their time-bending super soldiers.

The real tragedy comes from the fact that the reason why is out of both your hands. The Headhunter isn't acting in self-defense. It's a life or death situation, and unlike almost every other person you kill in this game, you aren't the one starting this fight. I don't ever feel like the game wants me to feel guilty in this scenario. However, most of those games attempt to accomplish this by instilling some form of guilt in the player, and while I'm not here to start some debate over ludonarrative dissonance or whatever, I've personally found it difficult to feel that sense of guilt in those situations.īut the Headhunter fight is different. Plenty of other games have had stories explicitly calling out all of the killing you do, and usually had at least one boss, if not several, with such a highly sympathetic death that you're meant to question the morality of your journey to some degree. This one, though? It's kind of hard not to just. Despite being a decently challenging fight, I can't think of any other boss fight in a game that does not leave me with some feeling of triumph. Just replayed the story for the first time in two years and it only really hit me the second time around just how empty the Headhunter fight leaves you. you may have better luck researching the Steam or GOG forums via the links above.įull spoilers for the entire game ahead, obviously. For product concerns or questions regarding game performance, etc.

This is an unofficial, fan-created subreddit for Katana ZERO. Katana ZERO Wiki (No longer extremely WIP) A branching interrupt-based dialogue system, allowing players to insult everyone and throw away the story the devs worked so hard on.A rich story filled with unique characters, all tied into the gameplay and level design.Every level is a unique and lovingly designed challenge to overcome. No metroidvania gimmicks or item collection. Every cool thing you could possibly want to do - the game lets you. Run, sneak, walljump, roll, slash bullets, toss pottery, and slow down time to complete levels.

Aided with your trusty katana, the time manipulation drug Chronos and the rest of your assassin's arsenal, fight your way through a fractured city, and take back what's rightfully yours. Katana ZERO is a fast paced neo-noir action platformer, focusing on tight, instant-death acrobatic combat, and a dark 80's neon aesthetic.

Katana zero headhunter