Katana's Path

When Retro Head Game Studio reached out and introduced me to their new game Katana’s Path, I’ll confess that I expected it to be yet another dual-stick shooter, only this time with swords and shurikens. Boy was I wrong. While this new arena game certainly takes inspiration from the genre greats, this samurai-themed action game offers something unique and different. But does that interesting new take translate to a game you need to buy? That’s what we’re going to find out when I review Katana’s Path.

In the spirit of the old arcade games from the early 1980s, there’s no story or setup for Katana’s Path. Everything we know about the hero comes from the exterior artwork, which hints at a futuristic samurai character with blue shoulder pads and cyberpunk wiring all over his face. The titular hero appears to be the different katana blades, unless the samurai’s name is Katana and he also uses katanas, which would be confusing. Of course, it doesn’t help that neither the hero nor the sword appears to be on much of a path, as the three levels don’t actually lead to anything. This is just an arena-style slasher where you see how long you can survive while battling wave after wave of similar-looking bad guys.

As an action game, Katana’s Path doesn’t play like most games of its type. You might think that the samurai hero swings his sword around instead of the more traditional shooting you might see in Geometry Wars or Smash TV, but that’s only partially true. This is not a hack and slasher in a traditional sense, as we never actually hold onto the blade. Instead, the katana moves independently from our hero, which means you’re going to need to keep track of where both of them are on the screen at all time.

For the most part, the sword will just stay in one place until you command it to either return to the samurai or throw it across the screen. In both cases, the blade will defeat any enemy that is in its path, so a lot of the strategy comes down to moving your hero around to put the bad guys in a path of destruction. Y’know, like a Katana’s Path. When you’re not throwing the sword or ushering it back, it just sits there, stationary, unless you hammer on the left mouse key, then it will slash around and hopefully hit a bad guy or three.

This actually creates a rather unique an interesting dynamic where our hero and his weapon can be on two completely different sides of the level. That’s a compelling mechanic that I haven’t seen in very many games before. It definitely gives this game personality, and I thought it was fun testing out what the sword can do. High skill players will have a good time throwing the sword and then stopping it abruptly, in mid-air, only to hack and slash a bunch of enemies at once, all while our hero lines up a few more kills when he ushers it back. There’s certainly some potential there.

It's worth mentioning that while the samurai never holds the katana, he’s not completely defenseless. He can roll around the screen to get away from bad guys, as well as throw knives and bombs to defeat the enemies that you can’t get with the sword. You’ll also unlock new blades that have special abilities, such as one that slows down time when it’s thrown and another that will shoot at enemies no matter where it’s sitting in the arena. A lot of the longevity of the game will come from unlocking the different swords and gear.

There are also three different stages to fight in. The first is unlocked right from the start, while the other two will require a certain amount of enemy kills to open up. The stages will have you fight on the city streets, in a beautiful garden and in what looks like some sort of cemetery. You’ll find that some of these arenas will have traps that will fight against our hero, such as a spike field and a buzzsaw that slowly goes back and forth. These are easy to avoid on their own, but can be a real pain when you’re being chased and surrounded by bad guys.

Because a lot of the variety comes from the different stages, it’s a shame that there are only three of them to fight through. This is the kind of game that could have benefited from two or three times the amount of stages, each with different traps and obstacles. As it is, there’s a level of repetition that starts to creep in a lot sooner than you would want.

And it’s not just the lack of stages that is to blame, as it doesn’t help that there aren’t any power-ups to collect. Sure, I suppose you could argue that the different swords work as power-up, but what this game needs are little items that appear randomly around the stage. It would be cool to upgrade the sword and its powers mid-level, even if it’s just a temporary boost.

I also found it a bit frustrating that I couldn’t just pick up the katana and swing it around, like, y’know, a sword. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of throwing and ushering back the blade is unique and a lot of fun, it just seems like I should be able to walk over and grab it, allowing me to take on the hordes of bad guys in a more traditional way. If the fear is that this would make Katana’s Path feel like every other hack and slasher on the market, then give us a reason or incentive to drop it every so often. Maybe the handle gets too hot to hold or you make three times more points if you throw it at an enemy. Either way, it feels like a missed opportunity.

Speaking of which, I wish this game gave me more control over how I moved the sword around the screen. You’re limited to throwing and calling it back, which gets the job done most of the time. However, it would have been nice to have more control. Specifically, I wish that I could command the sword to fly to different parts of the level, where the enemies are. This would help with the flow of the action and make things more exciting.

Repetition has always been a problem with this style of game, but it’s especially bad here. You’ll unlock all of the levels and most of the gear in less than an hour, and after a while it will feel like every match is the same. That said, I don’t want to come down too hard on a game that is only $5. Even if you only put a few hours into it, you’ll likely get your money’s worth and I like that the gameplay feels fresh and unique. There are some good ideas in this game and I can’t wait to see what Retro Head Game Studio does next, but Katana’s Path doesn’t fully come together as an action game.