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The Dragon can see into the future, so each failed attempt takes place in his mind. The twist is that I’m not doing anything in the game’s world until I successfully finish each section. Failure doesn’t mean I did something wrong - it just means I’ve gained a little more information about what does and doesn’t work. Dying isn’t a big deal, since I can instantly start again by pressing a button. The action is fast and brutal think Mark of the Ninja by way of Hotline Miami. Watch this moment from the club shootout, and notice how Wick seems to intuit that a shooter is going to come through the back door and is able to get into position to take him out. More importantly, he also knows where someone will be a few seconds in the future. This never happens because each fight scene is choreographed like a dance, and Wick always seems to know exactly where everyone will be at any given moment. Why worry about friendly fire when Wick is already in the process of killing everyone else in your gang? Someone would eventually be able to shoot Wick in the head while he’s busy with everyone else, even if that person would have to spray the entire room with bullets to do so. Gunshots are loud, and attacking enemies have the advantage of only having to kill a single target.
Katana zero explained movie#
This setup only works if you accept the initial idea that John Wick is basically supernatural, and you can see the seams in the choreography if you watch the movie enough times. His ability to destroy targets at will, no matter how distracting or crowded the environment, makes for some of the best action scenes in modern cinema. John Wick features an assassin who can’t be stopped by ordinary means, even if you throw dozens of armed individuals at him. Why John Wick’s choreography had to cheat It’s cinematic, in fact: You can argue about inspiration between video games and film endlessly, and it often moves in both directions, but Katana Zero “fixes” one of my biggest issues of action choreography from live-action movies like John Wick by using video game logic, and does so with style and grace. Enemy placement and action that might be unfair in any other game turns into opportunities for study and adaptation.Īnd that shift in how the game deals with what actually happens versus what is imagined or predicted makes all the difference. But Askiisoft created a combat system that puts me in a comfortable rhythm of attempt, failure, and iteration that keeps everything moving while also explaining why my character is unstoppable. Katana Zero presents time and perception as malleable objects, which is almost a cliché for hyper-violent action games at this point. I had to learn to do the same thing when I played a recent preview version. But maybe the team saw what was coming in the future, and wanted to make sure they executed every step of the game’s release perfectly. Dying actually feels just as cool as clearing a room in some cases – not something I would claim often.Askiisoft has been developing Katana Zero, a garish, violent, 2D action game, for a very long time. This mechanic is also explained throughout the game's story, having to do with a drug called "Chronos" which deals with time manipulation and precognition.ĭue to the streamlined death/respawn mechanic, continual momentum is felt throughout the game's combat sequences, despite a punishing instant-death system. Upon clearing a room, the player will see their actions replayed through the camera, with "Yes, that should work" appearing on the screen If the player dies, the footage will rapidly rewind and the player will begin again.
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With each room, the player's actions are presented as a planning phase through a camera lens. Justin cleverly weaves story elements into a practical way to quickly get the player back into action, offering an impressive solution to the monotony of retracing steps. Dying and respawning is a known immersion-destroyer in most combat-centric games, yet it is expertly handled in Katana ZERO.