A big leap forward in quality compared to the first games made by SEEP, and very different from the light-hearted fare they did previously. It's also one of their best, if not the best, despite being so early. I'm under the impression they were inspired quite a bit by Oscar Celestini's [b]Black Jewel[/b], mixed with 1980s samurai games like [b]Kenseiden[/b] and [b]Genpei Touma Den[/b], but the end result is much better than the possible inspiration.
[b]Katana Soul[/b] is styled like a lost Commodore 64 title, complete with 4:3 aspect ratio, no scrolling, and a large status bar taking the bottom of the screen. Heroic samurai Kan handles fine, but he's not exactly a ninja: his movement is fairly slow, he can't crouch, and beside his regular sword slash (whose hitbox is, however and thankfully, larger than it may seem at first glance), the only power-up he can find allows him to throw fireballs but is lost at the first hit received; besides that, it's only some onigiri and a couple extra lives, the second of them right before the final boss.
Consequently, each screen must be tackled carefully, as moving too fast is a surefire way to end up falling into some traps, same with enemies. It's a methodical approach that requires some patience but soon turns quite satisfying.
The game has got great atmosphere, in good part thanks to its sound design: crunchy, scratchy sound effects like digital samples played by old hardware, perfectly complementing the music, which sometimes leaves space to more understated pieces or even silence. There is no air of a heroic quest, Kan's journey is filled with darkness, loss and regret, but armed with his pure heart, he keeps marching towards his objective. There is little text beside the intro and ending screens, and a poignant moment at the end of the first level is delivered without a single word. I only wish the quality of the English text was better (it's clearly a mediocre translation from the developers' native Italian).
The game is short, it can be finished in 30 minutes, but definitely more are required to master it. The standard difficulty is challenging but fair. The only boss I disliked is the second-to-last, which is made up of two enemy sprites bouncing around, which can cause situations where the player has no escape from some damage no matter how good they play; even then, it's not so difficult and even features a respawning fireball power-up.
While I expected SEEP to have improved from their earliest efforts, I've been left surprised by the little gem [b]Katana Soul[/b] is. Even for such a short game, the asking price of a mere 2€ is a steal.
