Katanaut: This action-packed space-based horror changed my view of metroidvanias

I’m not strictly a ‘fan’ of metroidvanias. I struggle with the constant ‘starting over’ issue because I’m impatient and get frustrated too easily. However, there are some that capture my attention, and Katanaut is by far the one that has sucked me in the most. 

Katanaut, developed by Voidmaw, is a hack-and-slash metroidvania-meets-roguelike that takes place in the farthest, most zombie-infested reaches of space. You’re a futuristic samurai, armed with a katana and a gun, and it’s up to you to battle through the hordes of extraterrestrial undead to find out what happened in the first place to get us here. Thanks to some timey-wimey stuff, you can’t truly die, but you do have to start again every time your heart stops.

If I’m being honest, this article should have taken me half the time it did to write, but the game is open in the background (for fact-checking purposes), and every time I go to double-check something, I get suckered into doing another run just because the opportunity is there. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how unfathomably good Katanaut is, then nothing will. 

Oh, and you can pet the cats as many times as you like, but be warned: Some of them have more bite than others.

Catharsis as gameplay

Playing Katanaut is a surprisingly cathartic experience. You feel extraordinarily powerful as you plough through these space zombies, slicing them up with your katana, like they’re butter and it’s nothing but a hot knife. This was a particularly useful fact while watching the Nintendo Direct on September 12, only to find out there was a new Fire Emblem on the way that would be exclusive to the Switch 2 that I cannot bring myself to purchase. 

Is this relevant to Katanaut in any way? No, but it’s the perfect example of the catharsis I’m trying to explain, so it stays.

That catharsis is challenged, at times, by the elite and boss enemies who are incredibly tough to defeat. At some point between handling the basic enemies and turning to attack the enemy, that hot knife gets plunged into ice, and suddenly the damage you’ve been doing feels like nothing. I can imagine the elites saying “‘tis but a scratch”, you know, if they could speak in anything other than unintelligible grunts. 

Still, the apparent toughness of the elites and bosses does mean that taking them down feels all the more satisfying, although it’s probably a good idea to keep your wits about you. At one point, I found myself in a room with two elite Chargers, and as it was the first time I managed to kill one of them, I celebrated a little too early and got floored by the second, very much alive one.

Upgrades by the bucketload

Every run of Katanaut is wildly different from the last, whether it’s due to the map layout or the various upgrades that drop as loot as you explore that map and reveal its secrets. You could end up with a plasma rifle in one run, then not find it for three runs after that. You can find the perfect secondary attack to slot into your hotbar, and then very quickly lose it when you die, only to never see it again (or at least not for a while). 

The worst of these levels, in terms of challenge, are the horror levels. These are a true bait and switch, sending you into a level that seems perfectly normal, only to switch things up and introduce creepier enemies, including what can only be described as a hellish black hole that follows you around the map as you try to escape its death-inducing grip. I haven’t figured out how to kill that thing yet, but I’m determined to get there. 

On the plus side, there are permanent upgrades that can be purchased from the Specialist or the Weaver back at the base area, where you go after every embarrassing or easily avoided death. Obviously, I piled all of my resources into adding additional health or Healing Syringe slots, but you can also choose to spawn items in the home base that will possibly help you on the next run, unlock new skills, or even new weapons. 

Accessibility options done anew

Okay, so not all of them. Katanaut has all of the fairly basic and expected accessibility options: screen shake reduction, crosshair size, controller vibration, and so on. However, there are a few accessibility options included in the game as a basic thing that bring a smile to my face and are absolutely worth exploring, especially if you want to bring a touch of unexpected humor into this otherwise creepy and action-packed thrill ride. 

The star of the accessibility show is the options provided if you feel like you might get a little squeamish at the blood spatter when you slice and dice these extraterrestrial zombies. You can turn blood spatter off or down, but you can also do something that’s wholly inspired: Turn that blood into something else. So far, there are four options: Flowers, confetti, bears, and seasonal.

There’s something so hilarious to me about blasting through a bunch of enemies and seeing them explode like grotesque party poppers, or creating a pile of pumpkins that litter the floors of the corridors. My favorite effect, though, has to be bears. For every enemy you kill, you create a stuffed bear that just sits on the floor and looks cute, and that really amuses me for some reason. 

There’s also an invincibility mode that I haven’t quite allowed myself to trigger yet, although it’s only a matter of time before I cave and give in to the temptation. I’m trying to do this properly, but I really want to see what’s beyond the third door, and that boss absolutely mullered me in record time. I am getting better with every run, though. I can now survive at least eight minutes without ending up back at the base, and that’s worth celebrating. 

Katanaut was released on PC via Steam on September 10, 2025. It’s an absolutely (inter)stellar example of the metroidvania/roguelite genres, and with so many options and capabilities for upgrades and skill improvements, it’s wholly addictive in the best way possible.