It’s been nearly two months since Katana ZERO hit digital stores, and it seems the response from fans has been tremendous. But no game goes through seven years of development without heaps of ideas altered or left unused.

Today, at least a few of those ideas will see the light of day. This is a gallery of the game’s various characters, big or small, in some of their earliest design stages. Fan artists, rejoice!

[WARNING: Contains major plot spoilers for ‘Katana ZERO’]

Comedy & Tragedy

Listen, I don’t like these weirdoes either, but alphabetical order’s a bitch. Compared to their final versions, these earlier designs wear much cruder, simpler masks lacking noses or eyebrows, as well as being shirtless beneath their tattered lab coats. Eugh.

DJ Electrohead

Seems Club Neon’s hottest disc jockey once had a few more symbols to convey his emotions in dialogue, including a waveform synthesizer to accompany his absolutely thumping club mix. Notably absent are the ‘X’ and ‘smiley’ emotes he’s become synonymous with. Not that you’d know, because you didn’t talk to him…riiight?



The Dragon

by Kenju

While our protagonist Zero remained mostly unchanged since the earliest builds, his old ally Fifteen, a.k.a. The Dragon, seemed to have an affinity for the color green earlier on. Besides his obvious olive hairdo, both versions carry their swords in green sheaths, which was changed to red later on.

Also of note is some darker facial scarring on the left side of his face, possibly mirroring Zero’s own ambiguous “wartime injury”?

Fa Yuan

“Umm, sir…? Yes, it’s Zero. I was told my target is the political dissident Fa Yuan, but all that’s in his dossier was a doodle of a bald cartoon pirate.”

At least he won’t be hard to ID in a lineup. I seriously wish more of our targets had up-close mugshots like his.

Additionally, here’s Justin’s in-depth sketch of Zero coming upon Fa Yuan’s grisly cell as SWAT surround him. For those unaware, Askiisoft has a long and proud history of designing levels in the margins of math homework. Of particular note is the crude pinup poster in the top left, which is suspiciously barren in the actual level.



The Headhunter

Oh, boy. Given how the Headhunter’s outfit and equipment were meant to represent the NULL program as a whole, she received the most numerous and wildly different designs by far.



by Kenju

Here were just a few ideas for the game’s final boss, from ‘cyberpunk bounty hunter’ to ‘space gestapo’ and everything in between. It seems “The Mercenary”’s pose here inspired her grenade-firing sprites in-game.

Leon von Alvensleben

by Deceiver

Leon, the illusive genius behind Chronos and the NULL program, seems to have made it into the final product mostly intact, though his missing right arm is more visible here than in his in-game sprites–a detail many fan artists missed (I’ll be honest, I did too before rewatching his death animation). So next time, try shooting a rifle with one arm before you tease the guy about his shoddy aim!

Mr. Kissyface

by Deceiver

Again, mostly unchanged, still as sexy as ever.

The Neighbor

Along with Zero, his young neighbor’s design was finalized early on, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy choice. From a poofy ‘Disney princess’ dress to a more modern, angsty kid without pigtails, it was a quest to trigger players’ protective instincts with a single glance.

Personally, I would have loved to see the rightmost design’s sweater sleeves flop around as she ran.

Snow

by Deceiver

The design of “ninja lady” Snow has changed constantly, both before and after the game’s release. Here, Dmitry’s concept art depicts her wearing a simple kimono with a bamboo pipe as a hair ornament, while my rendition added a patterned shawl, higher collar, and beaded hairpin in place of the pipe. In my defense, I never saw this sketch until long afterwards.

The result has been utter confusion, with fan works and even her in-game portrait taking elements from both versions. Forget the Chronos conspiracy, this is the mystery The Dragon should be working on.



These were some alternate designs for Snow, ranging from simple hairstyle changes to a completely different outfit (possibly even predating Dmitry’s sketch) with a much more high-tech feel, including a glowing red visor and bionic arm. One can only imagine the cool laser trail and screen-filling optic blasts she would’ve added.

Cut & Unused Enemies

Those of you enjoying Katana ZERO’s Hard Mode might recognize a few of these cut designs repurposed into all-new enemies. For the rest, count your blessings.

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Thanks to Justin (@askiisoft) and Finlal (@FinlalDithering) for sharing these concept pieces. Apologies to my Discord peeps, who’ve probably seen this stuff already.

Tune in for next week’s Fan Art Friday, right here!