Katanaut Review – A Stylish and Addictive Roguelike

Katanaut Review

Every fifteen minutes or so, another pixel-art roguelike pops up on Steam. You can almost set your watch by it. That’s awesome if you’re a fan of the genre and can afford to sample everything. But most gamers need to be selective, and not wade through an endless sea of Metroidvanias to find that one special title. I’ll save you some time and trouble. Katanaut isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot of fun, and not just for the die-hard genre fans.

Cyberpunk, Meet Lovecraftian Horror

Sometimes games in the Metroidvania-hack-and-slash-roguelike genre have immersive narratives. Often, they’re like Katanaut, which has less of a story and more of a premise. You’re on a space station. Said station has been invaded by monsters. Go kill ’em. Sure, there are a few NPCs back at home base with specific functions like selling stuff, but you’re not going to remember their names. There’s a cat you can pet. So, no offense to the writing team, but your hard work is definitely in the background.

Front and center are the game’s aesthetics and combat systems. Let’s talk about visuals and level design first, because therein lie a couple of issues. The game uses pixel-art style graphics and a blend of cyberpunk and Eldritch horror monster designs. This means you’ll be fighting both robots and tentacle monsters, sometimes blended into one enemy. There’s a nice range of enemy types to learn, though there isn’t necessarily a logical reason for them to be in a specific area. They just proliferate as the levels get more difficult.

Katanaut looks pretty good, with an effective use of blood splatters to remind you which areas have been cleared. One of the game’s annoyances, however, comes by way of its pixel art. Too often, collectables were obscured in a cloud of colorful pixels and combat effects. While it’s fine to clear an area and then scour it for loot, some of those critical drops, powerups, and weapons are useful in the heat of combat and go unseen.

Katanaut’s audio does a good job of making both melee and ranged weapons feel punchy. The synth-heavy score isn’t melodic but atmospheric. However, it rises above being electronic wallpaper and supports the action well.

Systems Shock

Katanaut embraces familiar roguelite mechanics but adds a twist here and there. First, the game uses a stamina system, so you can’t simply spam attacks with your katana or constantly dodge and slide. Second, while there are permanent upgrades back at base, a very large element of player success comes courtesy of the RNG. Players pick up powerful orbs — special attacks — and orb upgrades along the way, along with weapons and syringes, i.e., buffs.

Maybe more than with most games using this mechanic, drops seem wildly inconsistent. Some runs were so full of deadly orbs and other useful loot that I sliced through the level in no time. A couple of runs, I didn’t find a single orb until many minutes into a level. The bosses in Katanaut are appropriately difficult, but nearly impossible if the run to them has been unlucky. Referring back to an earlier note, these critical items might have been missed in the piles of pixels.

Levels are procedurally generated, and a mixed success. Like the loot drops, they’re inconsistent, with some runs being much larger or more complex than others. Like most Metroidvanias, there are easily missed small areas, but no real secret rooms. There are portals to teleport between sections of the map, but I rarely used them, preferring to just keep moving. Occasionally, they were the only way out of a dead end. I am terrible at most platformers, but it’s a testament to Katanaut that this element was rarely frustrating.

Again and Again

Nothing about Katanaut screams originality, but the game’s particular combination of familiar elements comes together in an addictive package. There are a few minor annoyances, but nothing rises to the level of real frustration. Fans of side-scrolling Metroidvanias, retro-themed action games, and roguelites should have a great time with Katanaut.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***