Several critics cited Katana Zero as one of the best games of 2019 and it was nominated for numerous year-end accolades. The story divided reviewers, while the unresolved ending was criticized. Critics praised the gameplay-which they favorably compared to Devolver's Hotline Miami (2012)-and the visuals, writing, and music. It sold 500,000 copies in less than a year and received positive reviews. Katana Zero was published by Devolver Digital for macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows on April 18, 2019.

The development was prolonged and Stander worked mostly alone, although he recruited artists to design the visuals as well as musicians Bill Kiley and Thijs 'LudoWic' Lodewijk to compose the synthwave soundtrack. He focused on attention to detail and looked to films such as Sin City (2005) and John Wick (2014) for story inspiration. Using GameMaker Studio 2, Stander sought to make a difficult story-driven game that did not force the player to wait through dialogue and cutscenes. He had previously developed freeware games, such as Tower of Heaven (2009), and conceived Katana Zero as his first commercial game. Stander began working on Katana Zero in 2013. In-between levels, the story is told in sequences where the player converses with non-player characters through dialogue trees.

Katana Zero features side-scrolling hack-and-slash gameplay in which the player attempts to kill all enemies in a level without being hit, using Zero's abilities to manipulate time, dodge attacks, and take advantage of environmental hazards.

Zero unravels his past while completing assassination contracts. Set in a dystopian metropolis, the neo-noir storyline follows Subject Zero, a katana-wielding assassin with amnesia who can slow down time and predict the future. Katana Zero is a 2019 platform game created by the indie developer Justin Stander.

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