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Slave Zero X is one of those games that, by all metrics, I should be in love with. I’m a huge fan of 2D/2.5D action hack-and-slash games. It reminds me a great deal of several franchises that I love — the armor is reminiscent of Haku-Men in BlazBlue, while the movement and combat are like a blend of Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, in their way. It’s a genuinely interesting game, and a solid successor to the previous Slave Zero, which was released back in 1999.
However, for everything that I love about this game, there are minor aspects, albeit fixable with patches, that baffle me. If you want to challenge yourself in a 2.5D hack-and-slash set in a dystopian future, look no further than Slave Zero X.
Slave Zero X’s story is pure, grimdark satisfaction
In Megacity S1-9, the SovKhan rules supreme, and does so with an iron fist. However, Shou, protagonist of Slave Zero X has had enough, and takes control of a crimson Slave unit - a powerful type of humanoid mecha, in a bid to slay the SovKhan and his disciples. It’s a tragic, violent story, and that’s something I’m really into.
Shou will have to battle the disciples of the SovKhan, a devil clad in red steel, as he moves forward constantly, with the goal of killing a false God. That’s exactly what I like. The visuals inform you of just how rotten and miserable this world is, and the blood-soaked carnage shows that Shou will do anything to save the Megacity. It’s short and to the point.
Slave Zero X’s combat is intense, but also infuriating
The Haku-Men style armor, complete with a massive blade? Oh yeah, I’m a huge fan of that. The story is solid, and the gameplay honestly feels incredible, once you’ve learned how it goes down. However, there’s a pretty serious difficulty curve in Slave Zero X. Simply diving into it with no clue what you’re doing likely won’t see you get past the second stage or so.
The mini-bosses/bosses swiftly become deadly, and have gigantic attacks to parry, dodge, or otherwise get through. As I said, you can parry, and it feels like Street Fighter Third Strike parries. You have to get them perfectly. It feels incredible when you master it, and miserable when you mistime it, and take a bunch of damage.
When I say it feels like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, I mean that, though. The movement is solid, and you can perform some truly remarkable combos. The first mini-boss, I beat by a repeated loop of what were essentially Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Triangle Jumps that fed into a loop of slashes. The positive side was, I finally learned how to play Magneto in MVC2, thanks to Slave Zero X.
This game feels like it could have belonged in an arcade, from its difficulty to the gameplay style, to how often I felt like I was restarting boss fights and levels, to try and figure out the patterns. Each section of Slave Zero X brings something new to the table, and I appreciate the constant threat and challenge - but sometimes, it was just too much.
Later in the game, there’s nothing more frustrating than being stunlocked by a group of enemies, and dying before you have a chance to do anything about it. That is definitely some gamer’s cup of tea though, and I won’t argue that. I will say that though the combat can feel frustrating at times, it’s also satisfying to see combos work out perfectly, and enemies sliced and diced, as blood splatters the screen.
The visuals and soundtrack perfectly fit Slave Zero X
If there’s anything I truly love, it’s the aesthetic and soundtrack of Slave Zero X. It’s perfect. The music is pulse-pounding when it needs to be, and soft and aetherial on the main menu. The combat sounds, the character voices - such as Kyle McCarley, who voiced Uriel — all of that audio content was masterful. However, while I also genuinely appreciate how the game looks, there were some minor gripes.
This mostly came down to the game’s resolution. Instead of a direct resolution, it has a “Resolution Scale”, which was painful on my 32” 4K monitor. It also, for some reason, made it nearly impossible for me to take screenshots. For whatever reason, Steam simply didn’t want to cooperate. That meant I had to record all my footage instead. Even with that aside, the game still looks remarkable. The retro/futuristic look really works for Slave Zero X.
Final Thoughts
Slave Zero X is a game that surprised me with how fun and addictive it was. Sure, it can be incredibly frustrating when it comes to combat. Normally, I’m not keen on that style of “play until you get good”. I don’t want to call it Soulslike, because it isn’t. I will say that it can get incredibly challenging though.
The combat is fun, but the parrying can be hit or miss. That said, I still enjoyed the feeling of diving into combat as a nearly unkillable demon machine of death. Fighting the regular enemies? That’s so much fun. This game also boasts an incredible story that I feel makes it worth experiencing.
Slave Zero X
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
- Platform Reviewed On: PC (Code provided by Ziggurat)
- Release Date: February 21, 2024
- Developer: Poppy Works
- Publisher: Ziggurat
