History VideoGame / KatanaZero

You are a katana-wielding assassin, known only as The Dragon, who leaves no one alive. How do you do it? By utilizing Chronos, a drug that lets you screw around with time and even look into the future. Pretty sweet, right? Problem is, you've got some personal issues going on. For starters, you don't know much about yourself and the stuff there is to know is pretty nasty. You've also been having some really vivid nightmares. But you're seeing a therapist, so it evens out, right? Still though...

** Sometimes during dialogue segments where the player has multiple choices, the screen will glitch and choose a (usually bad) option for them. For example, [[spoiler:if you finish the prison level without killing anyone, then you'll kill the homeless veteran you meet afterwards no matter what. Perhaps you really can't go an entire day without killing]].

** [[spoiler:Subverted during a hallucination sequence. The protagonist will come across the child frequently seen in his dreams. The only option will be "KILL THE CHILD." The more times this is selected, the more identical options will fill the screen. The protagonist will then snap back to reality and then spare the targets of his mission. Based on a clearer dream sequence, it seems the child from the hallucination was spared as well.]]
** That said, played fully straight [[spoiler:with the "Life or Death" choice. If you choose to die, the game merely sends you back to the menu to continue again. If you want to experience the full game, you ''must'' choose to live, and accept the consequences]].
* ChildSoldier: Assuming that the age seen in his dossier is correct, [[spoiler:Zero couldn't have been older than ten during the Chromag War]]. Whether this applies to [[spoiler:the rest of the [=NULLs=] is uncertain]].
* CoDragons: The psychotic thug V and the mysterious people female ninja Snow are these to their unnamed employer.
* CoolBike: The Dragon and V both get them [[spoiler:[[https://youtu.be/EyboyNKAHVM?t=337 in their final showdown]]]].

* {{Cyberpunk}}: Absolutely dripping in it. Neon everywhere, futuristic drugs, a corrupt, crime-ridden city, high skyscraper buildings, and a middle ground between newer and older technology.
* DeconstructionGame: In a meta way, ''Katana Zero'' is a {{Deconstruction}} of a Deconstruction Game (which both of askiisoft's [[VideoGame/TowerOfHeaven prior]] [[VideoGame/PauseAhead games]] toy with); while having many typical traits of them, such as blending hallucinations and real events, a protagonist with little sense of self, and having many ButThouMust moments, the choices players make ultimately matter only superficially, removing the agency of the players and showing that the Dragon's choices are his own.

** For example, Josh Rose is typically DrivenToSuicide, but can also be killed by the Sword of Masters, or other throwables like the statue and the cleaver that also spawn in the segment. This will change the way his death is described.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Cromag War is very similar to the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar — New Mecca invaded an unnamed Asian land, which is a dense jungle region (not unlike Vietnam), and fought a long and bloody war there that ended in defeat. The way that veterans are treated when they came back was also eerily similar to how real-life Vietnam vets were treated in the post-war American society, with them being demonized for their actions. The destruction of civilian villages is also similar to real life actions perpetrated by the U.S Military during the war, and the "child killings" brought up by the veterans in the bar scene are likely a parallel to the infamous "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre My Lai Massacre]]", in which anywhere from 350 to 500 Vietnam civilians were slaughtered by U.S troops.
* DisintegratorRay: How security lasers work — you or your enemies, all is reduced to dust.
* EscortMission: Subverted. The first level ends with what appears to be an escort quest involving Dragon taking care of an injured scientist, who even has a health bar, only for the scientist's head to immediately detonate when V triggers an unseen bomb.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even if the player chooses to play Zero as an unfettered, sociopathic serial killer who only cares about his next fix, he will always respond with disgust to [[ImYourBiggestFan V's gushing over his prowess and style]].
* FantasticDrug: The protagonist gets his precognitive abilities from one. [[spoiler:It's a military combat drug called Chronos. The psychiatrist takes an entirely different (unnamed) drug that apparently gives him RealityWarper powers.]]

** The Dragon's nightmares reveal bits and pieces of his history. While they slowly imply that [[spoiler:he's a Cromag refugee of some kind]], one may notice that the person who shoots the scientist is a [[spoiler:NULL soldier]]. [[spoiler:Later nightmares put The Dragon into the position of that soldier, and it's revealed in the end that it is indeed him, and not the child.]]
** The little girl whom the Dragon can befriend appears in the first few nightmares, and [[spoiler:is indicated to be a hallucination by two police officers who state that the man whom the girl claimed was her father lived alone]].

** In the same vein of apparent 'gameplay inconsistencies', during the Slaughterhouse, [[spoiler:skipping the first video (or watching it & then resetting the room and skipping) does not change any dialog from the mastermind — he'll still address you like you tripped all the previous videos. …Which makes sense, considering they're all recordings.]]
** [[spoiler:Averted, regarding the psychiatrist's daughter. Early in the game, the protagonist can observe a picture of her on his psychiatrist's desk, and he remarks that someday the protagonist might meet her. After killing a female NULL, during an angry rant, the psychiatrist remarks that he can't contact his daughter. However, the NULL, known as the Headhunter, is not his daughter.]]
** The Media eventually begins referring to the protagonist's activities as being the work of a serial killer known as 'The Dragon.' [[spoiler:While the game deliberately tries to wrong-foot the player into thinking that this means Zero, if you watch the TV long enough after the first level, you'll hear a report stating that the Police are currently seeking the same serial killer, even though this is presumably one of Zero's first operations. This is an early hint that the Dragon isn't Zero.]]

** [[spoiler:It is implied that the girl is a hallucination at the end of the game, where the man assumed to be her father claims to have lived alone. She's referred to by Tragedy as the manifestation of the Subject Zero's conscience, and is "kidnapped" when he decides to don the metaphorical silver mask of death.]]

** It's unclear if [[spoiler:Comedy and Tragedy are hallucinations or not, as they are aware of the girl and refer to her as the protagonist's conscience — abducting her when he chooses to become an embodiment of death. They also abruptly appear and disappear, and demonstrate otherworldly powers of a kind not seen anywhere else in the game when they seem to pause time to speak to the protagonist, and then psychically murder the police squadron that had him surrounded]].
** [[spoiler:It's possible that the secret final boss fight with the mutated psychiatrist was this. After the fight is over, the psychiatrist is simply on the chair with a sword impaled into his head, not resembling the mutant he looked like in the fight at all.]]
* HeroAntagonist: While most of the enemies faced in the game are hired goons and thugs working for V, Zero doesn't hesitate to cut down the SWAT officers who are just trying to stop the rampaging samurai. The Psychiatrist chews him out for it.

** It eventually becomes apparent that [[spoiler:all your targets within the game are linked to the NULL project and/or Chronos in some manner, and are being systematically wiped out by government assassins like yourself. In their session before the bunker level, Zero can even lampshade that the Psychiatrist is probably going to order his death as well, and that he's lying when he insists that's not the case — proven when Zero finds an assassination dossier on himself after killing the Psychiatrist stating that he's to be disposed of if he learns too much]].
** An exaggerated trope given that the Protagonist is usually ordered to LeaveNoSurvivors, which implies that anyone who is even tangentially related to or employed by one of the targets is marked for death for this reason.
** If the Receptionist knows that Zero is an assassin and tells the police, the Psychiatrist will order someone else offscreen to take her out.
* IAmWho: The protagonist is not given a name at all for most of the game. The closest he comes is a nickname the Media apparently assigns to his killings. [[spoiler:They have him confused for someone else. His real identity is Subject Zero, a Gamma NULL — a psychically augmented super-soldier with the ability to see into the future with incredible clarity. He's also not the real — or at least the ''only'' — Dragon, as another NULL, Subject Fifteen, demonstrates.]]

* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:The protagonist refers to V as a "fucking sub-human" when he asks him to help him in his snuff film. At the end of the game, if you haven't unlocked the TrueFinalBoss, the psychiatrist says this to the protagonist while being beaten to death.]]

* KatanasAreJustBetter: The Dragon's default weapon is a katana he uses to effortlessly slice up even armored opponents and machines. [[spoiler:Fifteen wields one as well, to equally deadly effect.]]
* LagCancel: You can cancel a roll into a katana attack… but not vice versa. Careless aggression will make you restart, careful aggression will win the day.
* LeaveNoSurvivors: Your mandated M.O. Unless you're explicitly supposed to avoid casualties, you can't leave an area unless all hostiles are dead. This is actually PlayedWith to a certain extent, as the Psychiatrist's behavior makes it fairly clear that this is only supposed to apply to criminals, thugs, and bodyguards. When Zero is sent after Fa Yuan, a prison inmate who is thus guarded by police and civilians, the Psychiatrist explicitly orders him not to kill anyone, and after Zero's escape from Chinatown, he chews him out for killing an entire team of SWAT officers. [[spoiler:This is probably because the Psychiatrist works for the government, just as they do.]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Downplayed compared to other games, but ''Katana Zero'' does have a few unique game-over screens. [[spoiler:One that stands out is if Zero blows himself up in one of the Bunker's elevators, with him noting that would be a funny prank.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: For a given definition of "[[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness mundane]]." [[spoiler:It's extremely unclear what Tragedy and Comedy are, and whether or not they're hallucinations or something more. Their appearance in Chinatown is the only time they actively interact with people other than Zero, which ends with them killing a massive amount of SWAT members to save Zero's life should he choose to live… but at the same time, it's entirely within Zero's ability to kill them by himself. It should also be noted that while a single SWAT member does acknowledge the duo's initial appearance, choosing to die in the following conversation makes the scene play out like they never showed up. While they kidnap the girl in the game's ending, she's implied to possibly be a hallucination as well, which only complicates matters.]]
* MindScrew: Pretty much the entire game. Katana Zero gives ''Hotline Miami'' a run for its money in terms of how difficult it is to decipher the plot. Special mention goes to the hallucination sequences, however — [[spoiler:especially Tragedy and Comedy, assuming they're hallucinations at all]].

* MundaneUtility: The all-powerful precognition of The Dragon can be turned to alternate uses… such as winning money at the gambling table. [[spoiler:This is key to entering the Chinatown level without violence.]]
** Also PlayedForLaughs when V picks you up for a Limo ride; V requests Zero's katana… in order to cut up drugs with it. [[ShmuckBait You can give it to him,]] in which case you have to fight through the first two rooms of the ensuing level without it.
* NoNameGiven: Taken UpToEleven! The only characters in the game who have names are the targets, and of these, [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude Electrohead's is probably a nickname rather than his actual name]]. Not even the protagonist himself is given a name until the ending, which reveals that [[spoiler:he probably doesn't even have one; the closest he gets is a numerical designation, Subject Zero]].
* NonstandardGameOver: If the player were to [[spoiler:pick the death option during the "Life or Death" choice, the end credits play and the player is booted to the main menu]].
* NotQuiteFlight: One of the unlockable weapons his this effect. [[spoiler:The Savant Dagger's range is abysmally short, but it has such a rapid attack speed that Zero can stay off the ground almost indefinitely just by rapidly slashing.]]
* OneHitKO: You can dish these at your enemies... and the reverse is true.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The Dragon has nightmares every time he sleeps, and with time, the true context of said nightmares become more and more clear.

* ParryingBullets: A casual swipe of your sword is enough to send gunfire [[CatchAndReturn back from whence it came]]. Somewhat downplayed due to the fact there is a brief lull before you can swing your sword again, so it requires incredible timing to deflect more than one bullet at once, [[MoreDakka which is a problem if your foes outnumber you or if they're carrying shotguns]].

** At the bar, he gets drunk with the two Veterans, and they share some genuine camaraderie together.
** Most of his interactions with [[MoralityPet The Girl]] are this, by design; they serve to humanize Zero regardless of the choices the player makes.
** If you [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential don't get her killed]], Zero can flirt with the Receptionist and even play a card game with her, culminating in her shyly asking him if he'd like to watch anime with her some time.

* RevealingCoverup: The attempt to [[spoiler:cover-up the NULL project eventually becomes this]]. Also Deconstructed: The coverup wasn't ''supposed'' to be revealing, and The Psychiatrist becomes [[BerserkButton intensely angry]] whenever the situation escalates out of control. He doesn't hesitate for a second to chew out The Dragon for it either, whether it's caused by player choices or not.

** One of the secret weapons, [[spoiler:the Sword of Masters, is a blatant shout-out to the Master Sword from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' — being a blue-hilted longsword that shoots [[SwordBeam energy projectiles]] at enemies]].

* ShieldMook: SWAT troopers have riot sheilds that will deflect your katana and thrown object, but die like everyone else when hit from behind.
* SignsOfDisrepair: The sign in the Murdower Hotel lobby just reads '''MURD'''__'''ER''' Hotel, as the "O" and "W" are burned out.
* SnuffFilm: At one point in the story, V invites The Dragon over to his studio to help film a snuff film involving him beating two prostitutes to death. V also sends a VHS to Dragon where he kills his next door neighbors, though the grislier acts of torture (one of which would have involved pliers) aren't seen before Dragon ejects the tape.
* SourceMusic: Whenever the Dragon begins a new contract, he grabs his headphones and puts some music on. This is how most of the levels in the game get their music tracks.

* StylisticSuck: [[spoiler:The secret boss fight against the Psychiatrist in Hard Mode contains a portion where the game's frame rate drops considerably to make it harder to hit your targets.]]
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:This can happen to you if you choose "life" — to let yourself die for the sake of those that you'd protect.]]
* SuperSoldier: [[spoiler:What NULL soldiers were intended to be, thanks to the power of Chronos. Most of them were purged, with the only known survivors being Zero, Fifteen (who is the real Dragon), and a woman going by "Headhunter".]]
* SwordBeam: Two of the unlockable weapons grant this effect to the protagonist's katana. [[spoiler:The Sword of Masters charges and fires a long-range spiralling crescent-shaped energy blade similar to ''The Legend of Zelda''[='=]s, while the Phoenix Sword unleashes a short-range wave of flames with each slash.]]
* TitleDrop: Katana ZERO refers to [[spoiler:the player character, whose real "name" is Subject Zero]].
* TimedMission: Every section has a generous timer, justified as the limit on the character's precognitive abilities.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The Dragon's withdrawal of Chronos is affecting his mind severely, and hallucinations become frequent later in the game. At one point the Dragon [[spoiler:gets precognition for an assignment he hasn't even been sent on yet, implying that the drug is making his powers go haywire]].
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: You never throw your Katana, but anything else you can pick up is fair game, and can one-shot your enemies [[RocketTagGameplay like literally everything else in the game]].

* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: A key maneuver with abusable i-frames, required for bypassing lazers, bullets, and SWAT mooks alike.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Playing the game as cruel and abrasively as possible will piss your [[spoiler:psychiatrist]] off enough that [[spoiler:he takes some form of combat enhancement drugs in an effort to kill you]].
** Piss off [[spoiler:the Receptionist]] and they'll sic the guards on you before you can defend yourself.
* WhamLine: One that proves just how detailed The Dragon's precognition abilities can get.
--> '''The Dragon:''' I want answers, V.
--> '''V:''' [[spoiler:{{I never told you my name}}...]]

--> '''V:''' You think you're tough shit? The Dragon!? Well I'm the DRAGON SLAYER!
--> [[spoiler:'''Fifteen:''' He is not the Dragon. I am.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Chronos users are essentially immortal as long as they have enough of the drug in their system, as the drug grants users omnipotent levels of precognition that allows them to ostensibly rewind time. However, a side effect of withdrawal from the Chronos drug is that time effectively "stops" for its user, trapping them in time. The Dragon regularly experiences time displacement due to this, as he's regularly forced to live out the trauma of decades-old memories of killing innocents in the war. Chronos addicts are regularly forced to take the drug just to maintain a casual flow of time, and it's even implied at one point that the drug is able to keep the brain alive in a comatose state well after death, subjecting the user to [[FateWorseThanDeath an eternity of torture]]. NULL subjects not only have to worry about this, but also heavily decelerated aging (The Dragon, despite being in his 50s at minimum, is regularly mistaken for being in his mid-20s).]]
* WholePlotReference: To ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami''. Beware of unmarked spoilers in the following note.[[note]]A [[AmnesiacHero highly-efficient, amnesiac killer]] goes on killing sprees at the direction of a mysterious handler, with explicit orders to LeaveNoWitnesses. The plot is heavily impacted by a relatively-recent war, of which the protagonist is a veteran. There's another character with a skillset very similar to the protagonists's, but who is considerably better-informed about what's going on, and who will probably wind up being the one who really gets to the bottom of what's going on. The handler is revealed to be manipulating the protagonist for their own ends, and both he and the protagonist are pawns of a larger conspiracy. The only differentiating factor is the involvement of Chronos; for all ''Hotline Miami'' [[MindScrew makes you feel like you're on drugs]], there was no FantasticDrug involved with its story, at least not that we know of.[[/note]]
* TheWorfEffect: After being the only character in the game to survive more than one encounter with Zero, V is [[spoiler:effortlessly disarmed and then abducted by Fifteen, who [[KilledOffScreen tortures him to death offscreen]]]].
** This is ''slightly'' downplayed by the fact that [[spoiler:Zero did most of the work, having already left him concussed and bleeding out on the freeway after a high-speed motorcycle chase]].

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: The protagonist is clearly repelled when V explains [[InLoveWithYourCarnage how much of a fan he is]]. While the former kills because it's his job, the latter derives sadistic pleasure from mutilating his victims.

* BlackComedy: At the beginning of the hotel stage, some of the letters on the Murdower Hotel sign are faded, making the sign simply look like "Murder Hotel."

* BreakThemByTalking: [[spoiler:How the protagonist manages to prevent their execution by the hands of V. Via repeatedly using his clairvoyance, he deduces that all V wants is his attention and approval. Constantly interrupting V sends him into a breakdown, causing him to walk out in a huff.]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: V partakes in these on occasion.
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: The only way to fight the TrueFinalBoss, [[spoiler:your psychiatrist]], is to be as much of an asshole as possible — interrupting people left and right and making your employers extremely angry with you.

* DeconstructionGame: In a meta way, ''Katana Zero'' is a {{Deconstruction}} of a DeconstructionGame (which both of askiisoft's [[VideoGame/TowerOfHeaven prior]] [[VideoGame/PauseAhead games]] toyed with); while having many typical traits of them, such as blending hallucinations and real events, a protagonist with little sense of self, and having many ButThouMust moments, the choices players make ultimately matter only superficially, removing the agency of the players and showing that the Dragon's choices are his own.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Cromag War is very similar to the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar — New Mecca invaded an unnamed Asian land, which is a dense jungle region (not unlike Vietnam), and fought a long and bloody war there that ended in defeat. The way that veterans are treated when they came back was also eerily similar to how real-life Vietnam vets were treated in the post-war American society, with them being demonized for their actions. The destruction of civilian villages is also similar to real life actions perpetrated by the U.S Military during the war, and the "child killings" brought up by the veterans in the bar scene is likely a parallel to the infamous "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre My Lai Massacre]]", in which anywhere from 350 to 500 Vietnam civilians were slaughtered by U.S troops.

* FantasticDrug: The protagonist gets his precognitive abilities from one. [[spoiler:It's a military combat drug called Chronos. The Psychiatrist takes an entirely different (unnamed) drug that apparently gives him RealityWarper powers.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Possibly.]] V claims that this happens to anyone who goes into [[spoiler:Chronos withdrawal]]. Whether he's right or not is debatable, however, given that at this point [[spoiler:V is either being tortured to death by Fifteen or dead already, and the "V" who Zero has this conversation with is a dismembered corpse who appears in a hallucination]]. It's left up in the air whether this is a way for Zero's suppressed memories to express themselves, something more paranormal, or just a straight-up hallucination.

** The little girl who the Dragon can befriend appears in the first few nightmares, and [[spoiler:is indicated to be a hallucination by two police officers who state that the man who the girl claimed was her father lived alone]].

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:According to V, people who go into Chronos withdrawal will spend eternity trapped in their own bodies. Whether or not this is true is debatable, as the scene is a hallucination, but [[AFateWorseThanDeath if it's true, then this trope is in full effect for any Chronos user.]]]]

* BadDreams: The Dragon does not sleep easy. [[spoiler:War crimes, trauma-induced amnesia, and drug-induced hallucinations will do that to a man.]]

* ChildSoldier: Assuming that the age seen in his dossier is correct, [[spoiler:Zero couldn't have been older than ten during the Chromag War]]. Whether this applies to [[spoiler:the rest of the NULLs is uncertain]].

* {{Cyberpunk}}: Absolutely dripping in it. Neon everywhere, futuristic drugs, a corrupt, crime ridden city, high skyscraper buildings, and a middle ground between newer and older technology.

** For example, Josh Rose is typically DrivenToSuicide but can also be killed by the Sword of Masters, or other throwables like the statue and the cleaver that also spawn in the segment. This will change the way his death is described.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Cromag War is very similar to the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar - New Mecca invaded an unnamed Asian land, which is a dense jungle region (not unlike Vietnam), and fought a long and bloody war there that ended in defeat. The way that veterans are treated when they came back was also eerily similar to how real life Vietnam vets were treated in the postwar American society, with them being demonized for their actions. The destruction of civilian villages is also similar to real life actions perpetrated by the U.S Military during the war, and the "child killings" brought up by the veterans in the bar scene is likely a parallel to the infamous "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre My Lai Massacre]]", in which anywhere from 350 to 500 Vietnam civilians were slaughtered by U.S troops.
* DisintegratorRay: How security lasers work - you or your enemies, all is reduced to dust.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even if the player chooses to play Zero as an unfettered, sociopathic serial killer who only cares about his next fix, he will always respond with disgust to [[ImYourBiggestFan V's gushing over his prowess and style.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Possibly.]] V claims that this happens to anyone who goes into [[spoiler:Chronos withdrawal.]] Whether he's right or not is debatable, however, given that at this point [[spoiler:V is either being tortured to death by Fifteen or dead already, and the "V" who Zero has this conversation with is a dismembered corpse who appears in a hallucination.]] It's left up in the air whether this is a way for Zero's suppressed memories to express themselves, something more paranormal, or just a straight-up hallucination.

** During the Prison level, [[spoiler: the security cam footage is blanked out, indicating that someone swiped the tapes. You get these tapes later, and can watch Fifteen's rampage through the prison.]]
** The Dragon's nightmares reveal bits and pieces of his history. While they slowly imply that [[spoiler: he's a Cromag refugee of some kind]], one may notice that the person who shoots the scientist is a [[spoiler: NULL soldier. Later nightmares put The Dragon into the position of that soldier, and it's revealed in the end that it is indeed him, and not the child.]]

*** Furthermore, to the observant player, [[spoiler:what seem like gameplay inconsistencies are actually hints to this effect. When she cleans your house, it's spic and span - but after you go out and get movies, the house returns to the same state of disrepair. Even minor things, like the girl sticking pictures of smiley faces to the walls, are reversed. It's almost like they never actually happened... (The game will swap back and forth here - when he wakes up the next morning? Clean again. ... In other words, when he's paying attention, it all looks clean.)]]
** In the same vein of apparent 'gameplay inconsistencies', during the Slaughterhouse, [[spoiler:skipping the first video (or watching it & then resetting the room and skipping) does not change any dialog from the mastermind - he'll still address you like you tripped all the previous videos. ... Which makes sense, considering they're all recordings.]]
** [[spoiler:Averted, regarding the psychiatrist's daughter. Early in the game, the protagonist can observe a picture of her on his psychiatrist's desk, and he remarks that someday the protagonist might meet her. After killing a female NULL, during an angry rant the psychiatrist remarks that he can't contact his daughter. However, the NULL, known as the Headhunter, is not his daughter.]]
** The Media eventually begins referring to the protagonist's activities as being the work of a serial killer known as 'The Dragon.' [[spoiler: While the game deliberately tries to wrong-foot the player into thinking that this means Zero, if you watch the TV long enough after the first level, you'll hear a report stating that the Police are currently seeking the same serial killer, even though this is presumably one of Zero's first operations. This is an early hint that the Dragon isn't Zero.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: Whoever V and Snow's employer is; in addition to employing the aforementioned two as hired muscle, they are trying to bring back [[spoiler:Chronos.]] They're heavily implied, but never directly stated, to be [[spoiler:Juncture, the MegaCorp whose branding is a common sight throughout the game.]]

** [[spoiler: It is implied that the girl is a hallucination at the end of the game, where the man assumed to be her father claims to have lived alone. She's referred to by Tragedy as the manifestation of the Subject Zero's conscience, and is "kidnapped" when he decides to don the metaphorical silver mask of death.]]

** It's unclear if [[spoiler:Comedy and Tragedy are hallucinations or not, as they are aware of the girl and refer to her as the protagonist's conscience -- abducting her when he chooses to become an embodiment of death. They also abruptly appear and disappear, and demonstrate otherworldly powers of a kind not seen anywhere else in the game when they seem to pause time to speak to the protagonist, and then psychically murder the police squadron that had him surrounded.]]
** [[spoiler: It's possible that the secret final boss fight with the mutated psychiatrist was this. After the fight is over, the psychiatrist is simply on the chair with a sword impaled into his head, not resembling the mutant he looked like in the fight at all.]]

** It eventually becomes apparent that [[spoiler:all your targets within the game are linked to the NULL project and/or Chronos in some manner, and are being systematically wiped out by government assassins like yourself. In their session before the bunker level, Zero can even lampshade that the Psychiatrist is probably going to order his death as well, and that he's lying when he insists that's not the case - proven when Zero finds an assassination dossier on himself after killing the Psychiatrist stating that he's to be disposed of if he learns too much]].

* IAmWho: The protagonist is not given a name at all for most of the game. The closest he comes is a nickname the Media apparently assigns to his killings. [[spoiler: They have him confused for someone else. His real identity is Subject Zero, a Gamma NULL -- a psychically augmented super-soldier with the ability to see into the future with incredible clarity. He's also not the real -- or at least the ''only'' -- Dragon, as another NULL, Subject Fifteen, demonstrates.]]

* IronicEcho: [[spoiler: The protagonist refers to V as a "fucking sub-human" when he asks him to help him in his snuff film. At the end of the game, if you haven't unlocked the TrueFinalBoss, the psychiatrist says this to the protagonist while being beaten to death.]]

* LagCancel: You can cancel a roll into a katana attack...but not vice versa. Careless aggression will make you restart, careful aggression will win the day.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: For a given definition of "[[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness mundane]]." [[spoiler:It's extremely unclear what Tragedy and Comedy are, and whether or not they're hallucinations or something more. Their appearance in Chinatown is the only time they actively interact with people other than Zero, which ends with them killing a massive amount of SWAT members to save Zero's life should he choose to live... but at the same time, it's entirely within Zero's ability to kill them by himself. It should also be noted that while a single SWAT member does acknowledge the duo's initial appearance, choosing to die in the following conversation makes the scene play out like they never showed up. While they kidnap the girl in the game's ending, she's implied to possibly be a hallucination as well, which only complicates matters.]]
* MindScrew: Pretty much the entire game. Katana Zero gives ''Hotline Miami'' a run for its' money in terms of how difficult it is to decipher the plot. Special mention goes to the hallucination sequences, however - [[spoiler:especially Tragedy and Comedy, assuming they're hallucinations at all.]]

* MundaneUtility: The all-powerful precognition of The Dragon can be turned to alternate uses...such as winning money at the gambling table. [[spoiler: This is key to entering the chinatown level without violence.]]
** Also PlayedForLaughs when V picks you up for a Limo ride; V requests Zero's katana.. in order to cut up drugs with it. [[ShmuckBait You can give it to him,]] in which case you have to fight through the first two rooms of the ensuing level without it.
* NoNameGiven: Taken UpToEleven! The only characters in the game who have names are the targets, and of these, [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude Electrohead's is probably a nickname rather than his actual name.]] Not even the protagonist himself is given a name until the ending, which reveals that [[spoiler:he probably doesn't even have one; the closest he gets is a numerical designation, Subject Zero.]]
* NonstandardGameOver: If the player were to [[spoiler:pick the death option during the "Life or Death" choice, the end credits play and the player is booted to the main menu.]]
* NotQuiteFlight: One of the unlockable weapons his this effect. [[spoiler:The Savant Dagger's range is abysmally short, but it has such a rapid attack speed that Zero can stay off the ground almost indefinitely just by rapidly slashing]].

* OneHitPointWonder: Your enemies and you go down in one hit
* OnceMoreWithClarity: The Dragon has nightmares every time he sleeps, and with time the true context of said nightmares become more and more clear.

* ParryingBullets: A casual swipe of your sword is enough to send gunfire [[CatchAndReturn back from whence it came.]] Somewhat downplayed due to the fact there is a brief lull before you can swing your sword again, so it require incredible timing to deflect more than one bullet at once: [[MoreDakka Which is a problem if your foes outnumber you or if they're carrying shotguns.]]

* RocketTagGameplay: You die in one hit, and your enemies die in one hit, with the exception of bosses- and even then they usually block or avoid most of your hits, implying they would die much sooner if [[UntouchableUntilTagged you could get one clean hit on them.]]
* RevealingCoverup: The attempt to [[spoiler: cover-up the NULL project eventually becomes this.]] Also Deconstructed: The coverup wasn't ''supposed'' to be revealing, and The Psychiatrist becomes [[BerserkButton intensely angry]] whenever the situation escalates out of control. He doesn't hesitate for a second to chew out The Dragon for it either, whether it's caused by player choices or not.

** One of the assassination targets, a DJ called Electrohead, is a cross between Music/Deadmau5 and Music/DaftPunk -- wearing a massive helmet with a screen that changes based on his emotions.
** One of the secret weapons, [[spoiler:the Sword of Masters, is a blatant shout-out to the Master Sword from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' -- being a blue-hilted longsword that shoots [[SwordBeam energy projectiles]] at enemies]].

* SnuffFilm: At one point in the story, V invites The Dragon over to his studio to help film a snuff film involving him beating two prostitutes to death. V also sends a VHS to Dragon where he kills his next door neighbors, though the more grislier acts of torture (one of which would have involved pliers) aren't seen before Dragon ejects the tape.

* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:This can happen to you if you choose "life" - to let yourself die for the sake of those that you'd protect.]]
* SuperSoldier: [[spoiler:What NULL soldiers were intended to be, thanks to the power of Chronos. Most of them were purged, with the only known survivors being Zero, Fifteen -- who is the real Dragon, and a woman going by ''Headhunter''.]].

* TitleDrop: Katana ZERO refers to [[spoiler: the player character, who's real "name" is Subject Zero.]]

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The Dragon's withdrawal of Chronos is affecting his mind severely, and hallucinations become frequent later in the game. At one point the Dragon [[spoiler:gets precognition for an assignment he hasn't even been sent on yet, implying that the drug is making his powers go haywire.]]
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: You never throw your Katana, but anything else you can pick up is fair game, and can one-shot your enemies [[RocketTagGameplay like literally everything else in the game.]]
* TykeBomb: [[spoiler: The player character.]]

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Playing the game as cruel and abrasively as possible will piss your [[spoiler:psychiatrist]] off enough that [[spoiler: he takes some form of combat enhancement drugs in an effort kill you.]]
** Piss off [[spoiler: the Receptionist]] and they'll sic the guards on you before you can defend yourself.

--> '''The Dragon''': I want answers, V.
--> '''V''': [[spoiler: {{I never told you my name}}...]]
** Another line not long after -
--> '''V''': You think you're tough shit? The Dragon!? Well I'm the DRAGON SLAYER!
--> [[spoiler:'''Fifteen''': He is not the Dragon. I am.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Chronos users are essentially immortal as long as they have enough of the drug in their system, as the drug grants users omnipotent levels of precognition that allows them to ostensibly rewind time. However, a side effect of withdrawal from the Chronos drug is that time effectively "stops" for its user, trapping them in time. The Dragon regularly experiences time displacement due to this, as he's regularly forced to live out the trauma of decades old memories of killing innocents in the war. Chronos addicts are regularly forced to take the drug just to maintain a casual flow of time, and it's even implied at one point that the drug is able to keep the brain alive in a comatose state well after death, subjecting the user to [[FateWorseThanDeath an eternity of torture]]. NULL subjects not only have to worry about this, but also heavily decelerated aging (The Dragon, despite being in his 50s at minimum, is regularly mistaken for being in his mid-20s).]]
* WholePlotReference: To ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami''. Beware of unmarked spoilers in the following note.[[note]]A [[AmnesiacHero highly-efficient, amnesiac killer]] goes on killing sprees at the direction of a mysterious handler, with explicit orders to LeaveNoWitnesses. The plot is heavily impacted by a relatively-recent war, of which the protagonist is a veteran. There's another character with a skillset very similar to the protagonists's, but who is considerably better-informed about what's going on, and who will probably wind up being the one who really gets to the bottom of what's going on. The handler is revealed to be manipulating the protagonist for their own ends, and both he and the protagonist are pawns of a larger conspiracy. The only differentiating factor is the involvement of Chronos; for all Hotline Miami makes you feel like you're on drugs, there was no FantasticDrug involved with its' story, at least not that we know of.[[/note]]
* TheWorfEffect: After being the only character in the game to survive more than one encounter with Zero, V is [[spoiler:effortlessly disarmed and then abducted by Fifteen, who [[KilledOffScreen tortures him to death offscreen.]] ]]
** This is ''slightly'' downplayed by the fact that [[spoiler:Zero did most of the work, having already left him concussed and bleeding out on the freeway after a high-speed motorcycle chase.]]
* YouHaveFailedMe: The psychiatrist will say this with increasingly threatening undertones if you fail to complete his objectives to the letter. [[spoiler:When Zero refuses to kill Al-Qasim's family in the bunker, the psychiatrist's mysterious employer pulls this on ''him,'' and is strongly implied to have murdered his daughter before coming for him next.]]

** The first time is when [[spoiler:Fifteen corners Fa Yuan in Mutual-Nil prison. Fa Yuan pleads for Fifteen to spare him, but Fifteen drowns him in his own toilet.]]
** The second only appears in the [[spoiler:normal ending, when the Psychiatrist begs for his life and offers Zero all the Chronos he wants. Zero disregards his offer and brutally beats him to death.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: In one of the later levels, you're given a gun right at the start to hold in your off-hand. [[spoiler: It works just like any other one-time throwable item.]]
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: According to V, people who go into Chronos withdrawal will spend eternity trapped in their own bodies. Whether or not this is true is debatable, as the scene is a hallucination, but [[AFateWorseThanDeath if it's true, than this trope is in full effect for any Chronos user.]]]]

* BadDreams: The Dragon does not sleep easy. [[spoiler: War-crimes, trauma-induced amnesia and drug-induced hallucinations will do that to a man.]]
* BodyHorror: The TrueFinalBoss appears to have elements of this, but it's highly implied the ''{{Manga/Akira}}''-esque monstrosity you fight is just the protagonist suffering through Chronos withdrawals, and the actual fight is much more mundane.
* BondVillainStupidity: Zig-zaagged all over the place when the protagonist is captured. [[spoiler:Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time will get you shot in the head immediately, but with a silver tongue and a precognition-enhanced BreakingSpeech, you can make V too upset to kill you himself and allow you an opening to escape.]]

* BreakThemByTalking: [[spoiler: How the protagonist manages to prevent their execution by the hands of V. Via repeatedly using his clairvoyance, he deduces that all V wants is his attention and approval. Constantly interrupting V sends him into a breakdown, causing him to walk out in a huff.]]

* BrickJoke: Early in the game the protagonist can overhear a conversation between two mooks arguing who would win in a fight, the Dragon or Strong Terry. Who's Strong Terry? Is this foreshadowing, and he's the level's boss, perhaps? Nope, he's nowhere to be found there. So you move on, get to the next level, business as usual, you kill the first regular mook that gets in your way, and...

** Sometimes during dialogue segments where the player has multiple choices, the screen will glitch and choose a (usually bad) option for them. For example, [[spoiler: if you finish the prison level without killing anyone then you'll kill the homeless veteran you meet afterwards no matter what. Perhaps you really can't go an entire day without killing.]]

** [[spoiler: Subverted during a hallucination sequence. The protagonist will come across the child frequently seen in his dreams. The only option will be "KILL THE CHILD." The more times this is selected, the more identical options will fill the screen. The protagonist will then snap back to reality and then spare the targets of his mission. Based on a clearer dream sequence, it seems then child from the hallucination was spared as well.]]
** That said, played fully straight [[spoiler: with the "Life or Death" choice. If you choose to die, the game merely sends you back to the menu to continue again. If you want to experience the full game, you ''must'' choose to live, and accept the consequences.]]
* ChildSoldier: Assuming that the age seen in his dossier is correct, [[spoiler: Zero couldn't have been older than ten during the Chromag War.]] Whether this applies to [[spoiler:the rest of the NULLs is uncertain.]]
* CoDragons: The psychotic thug V and the mysterious female ninja Snow are these to their unnamed employer.
* CoolBike: The Dragon and V both get them [[spoiler:[[https://youtu.be/EyboyNKAHVM?t=337 in their final showdown]] ]]

* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: The only way to fight the TrueFinalBoss, [[spoiler:your psychiatrist]], is to be as much of an asshole as possible -- interrupting people left and right and making your employers extremely angry with you.
** Zig-zagged by the war veteran after Mutual-Nil Prison. If [[spoiler:Zero obeyed his directive not to kill anybody during the preceding level, he will always stab the vet to death, regardless of what dialogue options are picked.]] If [[spoiler:he ignores his directives and kills the police investigating the prison, he will spare him unless the player [[KickTheDog selects the "Kill Him" option.]] ]]

** Sometimes during dialogue segments where the player has multiple choices, the screen will glitch and choose a (usually bad) option for them. What exactly triggers these events is unclear, as they don't happen every time. For example, [[spoiler: sometimes during the encounter with the homeless veteran, the protagonist will kill him without being prompted to do so.]]

* StylisticSuck: [[spoiler:The secret boss fight against the Psychiatrist contains a portion where the game's frame rate drops considerably to make it harder to hit your targets.]]

* MindScrew: Pretty much the entire game. Katana Zero gives Hotline Miami a run for its' money in terms of how difficult it is to decipher the plot. Special mention goes to the hallucination sequences, however - [[spoiler:especially Tragedy and Comedy, assuming they're hallucinations at all.]]

* WholePlotReference: To ''[[VideoGame/HotlineMiami Hotline Miami]]''. Beware of unmarked spoilers in the following note.[[note]]A [[AmnesiacHero highly-efficient, amnesiac killer]] goes on killing sprees at the direction of a mysterious handler, with explicit orders to LeaveNoWitnesses. The plot is heavily impacted by a relatively-recent war, of which the protagonist is a veteran. There's another character with a skillset very similar to the protagonists's, but who is considerably better-informed about what's going on, and who will probably wind up being the one who really gets to the bottom of what's going on. The handler is revealed to be manipulating the protagonist for their own ends, and both he and the protagonist are pawns of a larger conspiracy. The only differentiating factor is the involvement of Chronos; for all Hotline Miami makes you feel like you're on drugs, there was no FantasticDrug involved with its' story, at least not that we know of.[[/note]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even if the player chooses to play Zero as an unfettered, sociopathic serial killer who only cares about his next fix, he will always respond with disgust to [[{{ImYourBiggestFan}} V's gushing over his prowess and style.]]

** Also PlayedForLaughs when V picks you up for a Limo ride; V requests Zero's katana.. in order to cut up drugs with it. [[{{ShmuckBait}} You can give it to him,]] in which case you have to fight through the first two rooms of the ensuing level without it.

* TheWorfEffect: After being the only character in the game to survive more than one encounter with Zero, V is [[spoiler:effortlessly disarmed and then abducted by Fifteen, who [[{{KilledOffScreen}} tortures him to death offscreen.]] ]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: Allegedly, those who [[spoiler: experience the full extent of Chronos withdrawal continue to live eternally in a frozen moment in time. This is the fate of The Dragon's neighbors and, presumably, most other NULLs, as they cannot die under most circumstances.]]

* IAmWho: The protagonist -- known for most of the game as "The Dragon" -- is revealed to be [[spoiler:Subject Zero, a Gamma NULL -- essentially a psychically augmented super-soldier with the ability to see into the future with incredible clarity. He's also not the real -- or at least the ''only'' -- Dragon, as another NULL, Subject Fifteen, demonstrates.]]

* LeaveNoSurvivors: Your mandated M.O. Unless you're explicitly supposed to avoid casualties, you can't leave an area unless all hostiles are dead.

* MindScrew: [[spoiler: During hallucination scenes, it can be incredibly difficult to tell what is actually happening. There are also moments where the screen will "glitch" and the player will miss certain segments of dialogue, or even entire events.]]

* NoNameGiven: Most of the characters don't have any names, and when they do it's mainly codenames or nicknames.

** After defeating V the first time, your battle is interrupted by the appearance of Snow, who dismisses your sword style as “a little rusty. [[spoiler: [[AllwaysSomeoneBetter Compared to the true dragon you are no swordsman]]...]]”
*** [[spoiler: Additionally, at the very end of the game when you're revealed to be the soldier in the vision, you kill the scientist...with a gun. Swordcraft wasn't Zero's original method of fighting, which explains why your sword skills are CrapsackByComparsion to Fifteen, who is clearly carrying and would still be using his katana in the war.]]

* IAmWho: The protagonist -- known for most of the game as "The Dragon" -- is revealed to be [[spoiler:Subject Zero, a Gamma NULL -- essentially a psychically augmented super-soldier with the ability to see into the future with incredible clarity. He's also not the real -- or at least the ''only'' -- Dragon, as another even more powerful NULL, Subject Fifteen, demonstrates.]]

* KatanasAreJustBetter: The Dragon's default weapon is a katana he uses to effortlessly slice up even armored opponents and machines.

** After defeating V the first time, your battle is interrupted by the appearance of Snow, who dismisses your sword style as "a little rusty. [[spoiler: [[AllwaysSomeoneBetter Compared to the true dragon you are no swordsman]]...]]

** In the same vein of apparent 'gameplay inconsistencies', during the Slaughterhouse, [[spoiler:skipping the first video (or watching it & then resetting the room and skipping) does not change any dialog from the mastermind - he'll still address you like you tripped all the previous videos. ... Which [[FridgeLogic makes sense]], considering they're all recordings.]]
** [[spoiler:Averted, regarding the psychiatrist's daughter. Early in the game, the protagonist can observe a picture of her on his psychiatrist's desk, and he remarks that someday the protagonist might meet her. After killing a female NULL, during an angry rant the psychiatrist remarks that he can't contact his daughter. However, WordOfGod states that the NULL, known as the Headhunter, is not his daughter.]]

* MundaneUtility: The all-powerful precognition of The Dragon can be turned to alternate uses...such as winning money at the gambling table. [[spoiler: This is key to entering the chinatown level without violence.]]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Chronos users effectively immortal as long as they have enough of the drug in their system, since if they die time effectively resets to before they're killed. However, a side effect of withdrawal from the Chronos drug is that time effectively "stops" for its user, trapping them in time. The Dragon is regularly forced to live out his trauma of killing innocents in the war due to this. Chronos addicts are regularly forced to take the drug just to maintain a casual flow of time, and it's even implied at one point that the drug is able to keep a brain alive in a comatose state well after death, subjecting the user to [[FateWorseThanDeath an eternity of torture]]. NULL subjects not only have to worry about this, but also heavily decelerated aging (The Dragon, despite being in his 50s at minimum, is regularly mistaken for being in his mid-20s).]]

* SuperSoldier: [[spoiler:What NULL soldiers were intended to be, thanks to the power of Chronos. Most of them were purged, with the only known survivors being Zero, Fifteen -- who is the real Dragon, and a young woman implied to be the therapist's daughter]].